PCCTRLRM.RVW 910910
Comparison Review
Company and product:
Ashton-Tate
20101 Hamilton Ave.
Torrance, CA 90509-9972
USA
213-329-9989
BBS: 213-324-2188
or
Department CR-10
52 Oakland Avenue
East Hartford CT 06108
Control Room system management package with antiviral utility
Summary:
Control Room is intended to assist in managing system
specifications. Viral detection is a limited and minor part of
the package.
Cost
Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good)
"Friendliness"
Installation 4
Ease of use 4
Help systems 4
Compatibility 4
Company
Stability 3
Support 3
Documentation 2
Hardware required 4
Performance 2
Availability 3
Local Support 3
General Description:
Control Room provides extensive management of a wide variety of
system parameters, with thorough explanation of all aspects so as
to be suitable for even the most naive users. Although such
systems are available to provide system information for
experienced users, Control Room is unique in the amount of
assistance given to the average user.
Virus checking is intended to be automated at run time, and is
restricted to file image checking.
Comparison of features and specifications
User Friendliness
Installation
The product is shipped on unprotected diskettes. The
distribution files appear to be self-extracting archives. The
security risks involved in this practice have been discussed
extensively on VIRUS-L.
The installation process is quick, clear and well thought out.
The program is well prompted, and will install "from" anywhere
"to" anywhere. The only change made to system files is the
addition of one line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT. This change is
optional, and can be made automatically at a later date. The
implications of not allowing the program to make the change are
clearly stated.
Changes made to the system often wait for the next "reboot" to
become effective.
Additions of files to be added to the virus checking list
requires that the user know the names of program or susceptible
files on the system. Addition of files after installation is
easy enough with a text editor, but must be done manually.
Ease of use
The program is extremely easy to use, with menus, mouse support
and context sensitive help.
Virus protection is a bit hard to find, being "buried" under the
"general" menu. For those used to more "active" antiviral
systems, it will appear quite passive.
Help systems
Help is available for all menus, screens and fields, as well as a
"searchable" index.
Compatibility
As is appropriate for a "system information" package, the program
does not appear to conflict with any hardware tested.
In terms of virus protection, the program appears only to check
for file infecting viri at boot time. Boot sectors and memory
are not checked.
Company Stability
Ashton-Tate is well established.
Company Support
Support is provided for a number of products, and a standard
"Support and Services Guide" is included with all Ashton-Tate
products. Unfortunately, support for Control Room itself seems
quite limited.
Documentation
The documentation is very brief, and not particularly clear in
regard to the operation of the program.
Hardware Requirements
384K minimum, DOS 3.x or higher and at least two drives.
Performance
Virus detection is limited to file "image" checking at boot time.
This would appear to limit detection to file infectors. Since
the check is run at boot time, it may catch "stealth" infectors
which have not yet been invoked. However, the check is run at
the beginning (by default) of the AUTOEXEC.BAT, and so may be
affected by programs run in the CONFIG.SYS, or by an infection of
COMMAND.COM. Boot sector infectors are not detected.
The fact that the check is run at boot time makes its operation
automatic, but the lack of opportunity to run at other times
limits the possibility of checking "suspect" programs, or of
catching an infection before it has spread too far.
Since the detection is limited to file image changes, it will
"trigger" on programs which make changes to themselves, such as
WordPerfect, Muse or SETVER.
The alert that is given, when a change is found, is quite mild,
and offers to option to "recertify" the file. It is very similar
to the notice that a new file has been added to the list.
Local Support
Ashton-Tate maintains offices in most major centres.
Support Requirements
Since the virus protection is only detection, removal of the
virus will require expert intervention. (It should be noted that
the program does have a "Wipe Out" file overwrite deletion
capability.)
General Notes
Control Room is not intended primarily as an antiviral package,
and is reviewed for completeness sake because of its virus
protection claims. Personally, as one involved in technical
support, I wish all my clients had it, so as to be able to answer
my questions about the state of their machinery!
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1991 PCCTRLRM.RVW 910910
======================
roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca
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Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER)