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out, out, damned panda
Apr. 13th, 2004 09:34 pmThis laptop ran with no virus protection but dumb luck, for nearly a year. Every so often I would think "this is probably not a good idea." Then I'd make a vague, desultory sort of search for virus protection and/or firewalls, and choke on the thought of giving that kind of money to McAfee (believing that they used to be a respectable company, but had sold out to the Forces of Evil (Antiprivacy Division) in recent years.) Besides, dumb luck seemed to be working ok, maybe with a little help from AdSubtract, and my deep personal reluctance to open anything that looks like it might involve graphics or video.
2 weeks ago, I went into Staples to buy fine point felt-tip pens. And cellophane tape. And then the impulse purchases started. *sigh* (Doesn't every household need a small box of washable crayons? Just to have on hand in case of unexpected guests? They're going with the stickers and the little box of legos.) Anyhow, Staples was selling Panda Antivirus Titanium Software. The premise is that you pay Staples for a CD (about half what McAfee charges), install it on a computer with a net connection, and the program will run quietly in the background when the computer is connected to the internet. It will update the software when it needs it, block viruses as during downloads, and scan the computer at regular intervals.
Hah. I tell you - Hah! In theory, this Panda thing used a negligible amount of memory. Even my laptop (which is not overendowed with power or memory) should be able to run Panda, Notepad, AIM, and Explorer at the same time. But it couldn't. So, the first thing I did every time I started up the computer was to shut down Panda. Apparently, 'running quietly in the background' means asking permission before every update. And there are updates at least every 15 minutes. (I'm aware of this, because just having Panda installed on my computer, not actually using it for anything, made my system so unstable that I was restarting several times an hour in the hope of securing the DSL connection.) For a while, I tried to keep the Panda in reserve, thinking I would wake it up once a week or so and ask it to scan my computer for viruses, and it would leave me alone the rest of the time. But it was more like a real pet, getting into everything, demanding attention all the time, peeing on the virtual wires when I told it to go away. Unlike most commercial software of my (admittedly limited) experience, it didn't come with an "uninstall" command.
Fortunately, I thought to call Panda customer support, where a nice person walked me through a long diagnostic and uninstall procedure. I haven't seen the Panda window pop up since Sunday. My system does seem more stable, but it still isn't great. I tried to be online for a couple of hours last night, and had 2 DSL breaks and 1 Windows crash. That's a lot better than my Panda-infested system was doing, but it still isn't what I'd consider good.
2 weeks ago, I went into Staples to buy fine point felt-tip pens. And cellophane tape. And then the impulse purchases started. *sigh* (Doesn't every household need a small box of washable crayons? Just to have on hand in case of unexpected guests? They're going with the stickers and the little box of legos.) Anyhow, Staples was selling Panda Antivirus Titanium Software. The premise is that you pay Staples for a CD (about half what McAfee charges), install it on a computer with a net connection, and the program will run quietly in the background when the computer is connected to the internet. It will update the software when it needs it, block viruses as during downloads, and scan the computer at regular intervals.
Hah. I tell you - Hah! In theory, this Panda thing used a negligible amount of memory. Even my laptop (which is not overendowed with power or memory) should be able to run Panda, Notepad, AIM, and Explorer at the same time. But it couldn't. So, the first thing I did every time I started up the computer was to shut down Panda. Apparently, 'running quietly in the background' means asking permission before every update. And there are updates at least every 15 minutes. (I'm aware of this, because just having Panda installed on my computer, not actually using it for anything, made my system so unstable that I was restarting several times an hour in the hope of securing the DSL connection.) For a while, I tried to keep the Panda in reserve, thinking I would wake it up once a week or so and ask it to scan my computer for viruses, and it would leave me alone the rest of the time. But it was more like a real pet, getting into everything, demanding attention all the time, peeing on the virtual wires when I told it to go away. Unlike most commercial software of my (admittedly limited) experience, it didn't come with an "uninstall" command.
Fortunately, I thought to call Panda customer support, where a nice person walked me through a long diagnostic and uninstall procedure. I haven't seen the Panda window pop up since Sunday. My system does seem more stable, but it still isn't great. I tried to be online for a couple of hours last night, and had 2 DSL breaks and 1 Windows crash. That's a lot better than my Panda-infested system was doing, but it still isn't what I'd consider good.
