Author Topic: which anti-virus to use (Read 3838 times)

Kiboe Motegi · « **on:** May 24, 2007, 11:59:26 pm »

okay, right now i have Symantec Pro edition 2006, and i am getting iffy on it, i was todl that AVG free is not that great and thinkgs every thing is a virus, i have looekd an everything elese costs money, i need advice

Ire · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2007, 12:56:08 am »

I highly discourage getting common brands- Mcafee, symantec etc. in my experience they don't work any better than others and tend to be invasive. Eating up system resources, causing other programs to not work.

Instead, I suggest a multi-tiered approach.

AVG worked well for me for anti-virus. Ad Aware is good for spyware (as big a problem as viruses) and spybot S&D as well.
For prevention, I use spyware blaster.

A firewall can help also, my wireless router has one built in and it seems to work.

Other than that, IBCProman lets you terminate unneeded processes (useful for getting rid of some spyware) and Hijackthis also.

*edit*
And make sure you update them regularly... something I forgot to do till this reminded me

'>

Xander · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2007, 01:19:05 am »

The norton pack of security software is pretty stable. It comes with an excellent antivirus with a solid firewall. The spyware and anti-spam things are a little weak though.

Kiboe Motegi · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2007, 08:38:20 am »

Quote (Xander @ May 25 2007, 12:19 am)

The norton pack of security software is pretty stable. It comes with an excellent antivirus with a solid firewall. The spyware and anti-spam things are a little weak though.

yea, it hasn;t dtected ANY viruses lately, and its starting to scare me

Dark Nation · « **Reply #4 on:** May 25, 2007, 12:44:29 pm »

Pest patrol = Superior to all.

NachtwolfES · « **Reply #5 on:** May 26, 2007, 05:52:36 pm »

well fist off i would personally stay with Norton

heres a list of decent antivirus software
Norton
Mcafee (i probably mispelled it)
AVG Free (recommended by Maximum PC)

Okami · « **Reply #6 on:** May 27, 2007, 03:11:43 pm »

As for AVs you have to pay for, I'd recommend:

Eset's NOD32 (powerful but small footprint)

For free AVs, I don't think you can do better than:

AVG Free (generally doesn't top most top-tier paid AVs but hey, it's free! )

Kapersky is kinda iffy. Although it's quite powerful, lately it's been bloating up in terms of footprint size. While still not quite as bad as Norton, it's getting there. ^^;

Against, trojans and spyware, you'll probably have to find another company that specializes in detecting and removing said things. Keep in mind that AVs generally only do well against virii even though they may be able to detect trojans/malware at times.

Other:

SuperAntiSpyware
ewido
Ad-Muncher
Webroot Spy Sweeper (latest versions are going the way of Norton in terms of bloat though)
HiJackThis
SpyBot S&D (not very effective anymore but immunization is still useful)
Ad-Aware (definitely not as effective anymore and somewhat bloated too)

fauxwulf · « **Reply #7 on:** May 27, 2007, 03:56:06 pm »

Most viruses (actually, a lot of the major ones) were written to disable the antivirus software first, then infect your PC after (in the case of Norton Antivirus I've heard lots of accounts of this happening, sometimes technically illiterate people won't notice until their computer finally shuts off on them - and wakes to a black or blue screen of death)... Also (I hate to bring it to you, but...) last time I ran Norton (antivirus and security - it came with my computer) it said that the program size itself (I would believe that it means the program itself, not including all the associated folders and additional databases needed for it to run) was in excess of 100MB. Now my hard disk has bad access time to begin with, so running other programs on top of that bloat - is a big hassle.

I use Avast! (their free home version) on my computer (it scans every process... the only drawback of this free program is that it doesn't have a couple of features ((not a big deal, as you should have *something* protecting your computer))), as well as Ad-Aware (just in case, but I have not really had any use for it lately so I think I'm going to eventually uninstall it)... but I don't have to 'really' worry about the adware part of it - I really admire the Adblock and Filterset G updater addons within Firefox (my internet browser). Avast! is less than half the size of what Norton offers, though I'm not sure how bloat--- *er*, I mean, big the file is with their commercial version.

As for additional security I would download the software from my ISP but their links on their website are dead (I would have been running ZoneAlarm Security Suite - fully registered - for free) and last time I tried to run the suite I had another computer - it wasn't pretty - as it somehow had a virus attached to it before I even started to use it (it crashed my computer and I didn't know what was wrong at the time)... another program (I think it was AVG Free at the time, booting in Safe Mode of course) detected that the program indeed had a virus worked into the code (I had uninstalled AVG prior to trying to install ZoneAlarm). So I had to uninstall and delete ZoneAlarm then, unfortunately. I had stuck with AVG at the time.

I would take a commercial version any day (for the advanced features); I really have no excuse to not take their "pro/advanced" version since it would do me some good, but I have enough protection as it is - and my ISP does offer email scanning (I believe Yahoo has their own scanning system in place - Hotmail may or may not - a lot of what it thinks might be malicious have been based on phishing/adware based emails).

A lot of viruses do infect (mostly) computers running Windows, but other operating systems are not as hard-affected by them (such as Ubuntu, or OSX, for example)... but it's not like running another OS will get you out of the way 100% with this sort of stuff (after all, Linux is becoming more popular to use). When you're working with open source software though - the advantage is that the code changes every so often (most companies prefer a 6 month release cycle) so it is harder to program a virus for (but not impossible).

Sorry for such a long post... but yeah, I'm agreeing with the guys posting above me - "... what they said..."

Far_Raptor · « **Reply #8 on:** May 27, 2007, 05:52:51 pm »

I also use Avast! Antivirus. Very good program, from what I understand (my computer geek friends highly recommended it). It's caught a few nasties that tried to make their way onto my computer from the internet.

Also, the home edition is entirely free.

~FaR~

Sonho · « **Reply #9 on:** July 05, 2007, 02:24:46 pm »

Quote (Far_Raptor @ May 27 2007, 5:52 pm)

I also use Avast! Antivirus. Very good program, from what I understand (my computer geek friends highly recommended it). It's caught a few nasties that tried to make their way onto my computer from the internet.

Also, the home edition is entirely free.

~FaR~

As FaR said. Avast! is a great antivirus program and its easy to understand and use. Even my mother were able to use it and she cant find the star button on her computer.
I have been using Avast! for ages now but i switched to Nod32 because of my Avast! expaired (cant spell it sorry).

Nod32 is also a GREAT and easy antivirus system that has many different propertys. It scanns all homepages,mails etc etc before you cheack them. That only takes a milisec.

So i recommend Nod32 and Avast!

I cant recommend Norton becuase i had problems with it because of a virus who messed it up and it only found viruses that it cant do anything about..

kirbs · « **Reply #10 on:** July 20, 2007, 06:25:02 am »

Bit defender has saved my computer from certain death on countless occasions

'> it's only drawback is a resemblance to a certain mac-vs-pc ad

Quote

Mac is trying to contact you. block? or allow?

allow...

weese · « **Reply #11 on:** November 01, 2007, 02:54:32 am »

I use AVG free, it has saved my computer a couple times so far.

sniffswind · « **Reply #12 on:** November 01, 2007, 11:32:06 am »

I have nearly every every antivirus and spyware prog listed here. I'd reccomend AVG, personally. stay away from Antivir

a little reminder to every one of you is manually update your definitions!! I had to fix someone's norton 360...it was so out of date in its definitions files it was rediculus. when I updated it, it caught a couple viruses and a major peice of spyware.

keep more than one spyware program handy, and run them alternatly. they tend to pick up each other's misses.

keep an eye on your frequently visited sites. a lot of places that HAVE to have ads to pay their way tend to have spyware tacked into them. also, make sure your firewalls, poupblockers, etc are ALWAYS on.

Lascivus_Lutra · « **Reply #13 on:** November 01, 2007, 01:25:08 pm »

I use Clamwin, its free and has worked well for me. Currently it is not an "on-access" real time scanner but they are currently working on it. It does have a scheduler so you can set it up to update and scan on a regular basis. I prefer using the less popular programs because virus makers tend to go after the most used programs.

The most important thing is to stay away from activities where you expose yourself to threats. For example:

Sharing files with people you do not know

Opening suspicious attachments to e-mails

Visiting websites that you shouldn't be visiting

'>

Holley · « **Reply #14 on:** November 01, 2007, 06:10:22 pm »

Vintage thread alert!

I've seen a lot of different AV programs at work, AVG Free works as well as anything, its free and non-invasive. Combined with a hardware firewall, Spybot and a little common sense and there's no problems.