Product: iAntiVirus Paid Version
Company: PC Tools
Contact: Default Contact
Price: $29.95
Pros: Easy to set up and fast at scanning.
Cons: No way to prevent passing on PC viruses to those you love – or just work with. Tech support could not be accessed (see details below).
Product Rating:
Lack Luster
by Nancy Perry, AAUG Member
Disclaimer: In exchange for reviewing this software, I have received a free copy of the Paid Version of iAV which is designed for Mac OS 10.5 and above. The minimum system requirements are: Free Hard Disk Space of 20MB and File Size of 4400KB. By way of further disclaimer I should say that I am not a geek and have not reviewed software for other people before. I hope you find this useful.
Things didn’t get off to a great start – downloading the program was quite frustrating. As a reviewer I was given a license code to use so I could access the paid version that usually costs $29.95 but it was not at all clear to me how to accomplish this. So I tried two things – I started the Buying process to see if there would be a place for my code as I went along and I tried contacting tech support by email – neither plan worked and the only replies I got from the company were the auto-reply that they had received my email to tech support, and 2 messages asking why I had not followed through on my purchase. A fellow club member figured it out for me (when you install the free version there is an “Upgrade Now” option and I was finally able to input my code).
With all of that behind me – things have been smooth sailing. It was simple to set my preferences and the initial scan of my hard drive (a ‘Normal’ scan) was significantly faster than scans done by Norton 11.1.1 for Mac which I have used up ’til now. One of the primary selling points for iAV is that it only looks for Mac OSX viruses and spyware thereby providing faster protection with a smaller footprint. I have used it for a month now and it has not alerted me to any threats or quarantined anything. I am hopeful that this means there are few threats to my system out there but, of course, you never really know when an antivirus program is working – you only know for sure when it fails.
There seems to be considerable debate about whether Mac users are morally obliged to use software that will detect and prevent the spread of PC viruses as well as Mac viruses. Personally – my mother uses a PC and I’d never hear the end of it if she caught a bug from me so I’m afraid I’ll stick with the slower, less user-friendly programs that will pick up the PC viruses, too. As with other issues of “protection” this is a personal decision.
Having written the basics of my review (above) I decided that since I was using the paid version with 24/7 tech support I should try to reach them. Frankly after spending more than 30 minutes in frustration with no success in reaching the company I am quite frustrated. On the PC Tools website there are three options for tech support listed for owners of the paid version: telephone, live chat, and email. I chose the telephone option, submitted my license code and got a message stating that telephone and live chat are not available to folks with complimentary license codes – not good PR but alright. So I tried the email option and got a message that my code was not valid. I thought I must have made a typo so I tried copying & pasting it out of the original documentation, retyping it with numbers and dashes, retyping it without dashes. Nothing worked. Still thinking I must be doing something wrong I tried locating the code within the program. I followed the website’s instructions – go to Help and click on About and you’ll find the code. Nope. Within Help you get a search option – into which I put ‘license code’, ‘license’ and ‘code’ and got nothing. In the iAntiVirus menu you’ll find About which will give you the version of the program, copyright dates and logo, I even clicked on all of these and no code. After all this I have no support. Good thing I’m not having trouble!
So in the end, I’d say try the free version if you are OK with the issues relating to PC viruses but save your $29.95 ’cause they are way too hard to reach.
