Comparison Review
Company and product:
T.C.P. Techmar Computer Products
97 - 77 Queens Blvd.
Rego Park, NY 11374
USA
800-922-0015
718-997-6800
718-997-6666
fax: 718-520-0170
VirAway scanner version 1.46 dated 910128
Summary:
Non resident scanner
Cost $49 US
Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good)
"Friendliness"
Installation 2
Ease of use 3
Help systems 1
Compatibility 2
Company
Stability 3
Support 2
Documentation 1
Hardware required 4
Performance 2
Availability 2
Local Support 1
General Description:
VirAway is identical to the CURE program shipped with AntiVirus Plus from
Techmar. The program is recommended only to "backstop" other systems, and
should not be depended upon as the only means of antivirus protection in its
current form.
Comparison of features and specifications
User Friendliness
Installation
VirAway, as shipped to me, comes completely unprotected. This may not be the
usual form, as the disk documentation contains a READ.ME file which states that
no changes have been made to the documentation, while I received no
documentation with the package.
An installation program is provided, which will only install from drive A: to
the C: drive in a directory called \VIRAWAY. However, as installation consists
solely of copying three files (and one "startup" batch file to the root
directory), it is not difficult for the intermediate user to perform a "custom"
installation.
Ease of use
Although VirAway came with no documentation, it responds to the same command
line switches as does CURE. (Not terribly surprising: not only are the files
identical in size, but CURE, when run, identifies itself as version 1.46 of
VirAway.) Again, if no switches are used, the program will present a menu of
options.
However, command line switches seem to be only able to "add" to the default
options. (For example, one cannot turn off the display of final statistics
from the command line invocation.)
There is an annoying bug in the program when allowed to disinfect: it appears
to count both the infection detected, and the cleaning process, as an
infection. The final statistics will indicate that 1 file virus was found, and
one cleaned, but will show the virus named as having caused two infections.
(If two files are, in fact, infected, the display shows only two infections.)
Help systems
None provided.
Compatibility
As stated in the review of AntiVirus Plus, VirAway will find most common viri,
but will not find the AIDS virus.
VirAway will find viri active in memory, and, in testing, rendered them
inactive. However, sufficient traces remained in memory to set off alarms from
other virus scanners.
Company Stability
Techmar is the distributor of IRIS products (from Israel) in the United States.
Company Support
The evaluation copy of AntiVirus Plus was shipped in good time, although
Techmar had not properly filled in the customs declaration. The copy of
VirAway came unsolicited, which seems to indicate an active marketing group if
nothing else.
Documentation
Not supplied.
Hardware Requirements
MS-DOS 2.0 or higher, 256K memory. The promotional material states that a dual
floppy system is necessary, which conflicts with the installation batch file.
Performance
Detection of viral programs appears to be sufficient for most situations.
Disinfection of memory appears effective, with the proviso noted above about
false alarms from other scanners. (According to memory mapping utilities, the
memory is also still "reserved".) Disinfection of boot sector viri appears to
be effective. Disinfection of program files appears effective as to the virus
removal, but may leave programs damaged.
During testing, the memory was infected with the Jerusalem B virus (which
VirAway reports as "Black Friday #1"). When VirAway was run, the virus was
rendered inactive in memory, but it had already infected the VirAway program
file. VirAway then disinfected itself, but increased in size from 81835 to
81840 bytes on disk. Subsequent runs with the program against test sets of
viri showed some odd behaviour and an inability to identify all previously
identified viri. Also, subsequent runs of VirAway in memory showed a lack of
ability to remove infections from memory.
Local Support
None provided.
Support Requirements
The program, while fairly simple to run, would not necessarily be suitable for
novice users. Disinfection of viral infections is probably best left to
experienced staff (and possibly other programs.)
General Notes
As it stands, the program cannot be highly recommended. The number of viri
detected are low even by the standards of other (admittedly more expensive)
programs. The disinfection ability is somewhat questionable, and therefore
undependable.
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1991 PCVIRAWY.RVW 910612
======================
roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca
Hanlon's razor:
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER)