Comparison Review
 
Company and product:
 
Fink Enterprises
11 Glen Cameron Road, Unit 11
Thornhill, Ontario
L3T 4N3
416-764-5648
Telecopier: 416-764-5649
IRIS Antivirus
 
Summary:
 
Vaccine program with scanner.
 
Cost  $199 CDN, site licenses available
 
Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good)
      "Friendliness"
            Installation      3
            Ease of use       3
            Help systems      1
      Compatibility           3
      Company
            Stability         3
            Support           2
      Documentation           2
      Hardware required       3
      Performance             3
      Availability            2
      Local Support           ?
 
General Description:
 
The forerunner of Antivirus-Plus, Antivirus makes no claims of artificial
intelligence.  The program structure is very similar.
 
For simple virus detection, Antivirus is recommended over Antivirus-Plus.
                  Comparison of features and specifications
 
User Friendliness
 
Installation
 
The disk is shipped write protected.  The accompanying documentation is very
terse (less than one loose leaf sheet), but sufficient to install and run the
programs.  (The distributor has stated that he is increasing the documentation,
but is interested in keeping it short so as not to be too intimidating.) 
Further documentation is available on disk.
 
Installation can only be performed from the A: drive.  Installation is,
however, very simple, although the options that are available are not
explained.
 
Ease of use
 
Options for use of the CURE program (scanner/disinfection portion) are
available from the command line, but also from an onscreen menu if invoked with
no parameters.
 
Alerts to the presence of a virus are not clear as to which program or disk is
infected.
 
The problem in Antivirus-Plus of not being able to run certain programs which
amend or delete program files is not present in Antivirus.
 
Any access to a boot sector infected disk will trigger an alert.  The infected
disk is not identified, but attention to which disk is being accessed will make
this clear.  How a boot sector is identified as being infected is not clear,
but the behaviour of the program is indicative of "scanning" type operation. 
Therefore it is unlikely that "new" boot sector viri will be detected. 
However, there is some "change checking" with regard to the boot sector.  How
this is accomplished is not stated, and it did give one false alarm (showing a
changed boot sector on a write protected disk.)
 
Help systems
 
None provided.
 
Compatibility
 
The program will detect and stop most common viri.  The problem in Antivirus-
Plus of not being able to run certain programs which amend or delete program
files is not present in Antivirus.
 
Company Stability
 
IRIS has been a small but consistent presence in the antiviral field.
 
Company Support
 
Little available.
 
Documentation
 
Documentation is brief but clear, although the information given deals almost
exclusively with installation.  Reasons for choosing various options are not
given.
 
Hardware Requirements
 
No special hardware required, but will only install from drive A: (shipped on
5 1/4" media).
 
Performance
 
The program will detect most common viri.  The IMMUNE program will detect and
"eliminate" a virus within a program, but will usually be able to allow the
original program to run unhindered.
 
Boot sector infections are "detected" on each access to the disk.  When the
system is booted from a viral infected disk, the viral program will become
resident in memory.  At the invocation of the IMMUNE program, the alert for an
infected disk will appear.  (Interestingly, the IMMUNE program will state that
"!!No virus detected!!" on completion.)  Memory scanners will still detect the
virus resident in memory, but disks will no longer be infected.  Disk editors
are still able to write to the boot sector.  (Note that this has only been
checked with common boot viri.  Others may not yield the same behaviour.)
 
Local Support
 
None available.
 
Support Requirements
 
The program is simple enough that support should not be needed for most
instances.
 
                                 General Notes
 
The Antivirus program appears, in most respects, to be better behaved than its
Antivirus-Plus successor.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade 1991, PCANTIVR.RVW 910308

======================
DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733
Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0