Favorite Anti-Virus

[Dalo Harkin]

Avast is the best free version in my mind.

Norton as listed in another post I would rather chop my own arm off than use it :eek:

Sygate is not mentioned here - I know that they are mainly reknowned for the firewalls but the AV is good too and yes I know before someone jumps in that Norton own them - but they are so different :D

[Guest CrazyComputerMan]

I wonder what's Wolfey use it as Anti-virus protection, im curious :D

[Seth]

Norton as listed in another post I would rather chop my own arm off than use it :eek:

 

Why so?

[Dalo Harkin]

Why so?

Long topic - uses too much system power, takes over your whole system, and is basically *****E compared to the likes of NOD, its like the Microsoft of the AV and firewall market, people use it because its 'big' people in the know use other programs.

All I use on 'occasion' is the Ghost program, but am slowly moving to the Acronis route ;)

[Seth]

Long topic - uses too much system power, takes over your whole system, and is basically *****E compared to the likes of NOD ;)

 

Agreed.

[xenophobic]

Which Anti-virus would you choose :

 

Bitdefender

Kaspersky

ESET NOD32

Norton Anti-Virus

Avast Professional

McAfee Anti-virus

BullGuard Anti-virus

F-Secure

AVG Anti-Virus

Panda Anti-Virus

 

Edit.

 

Now added

Antivir

 

ZoneAlarm for sure

[maynardvdm]

ZoneAlarm is only a firewall as far as i know ;)

[Dalo Harkin]

Zonealarm has also been having some 'issues' as of late if you search the web ;)

[Match]

You missed one so I can't vote :( after an infection in January I scraped AVG 8 as useless, I mean what's the point of telling me that my PC has been infected, surely the idea of AV is to prevent it?

 

so I was recommended what I think is a neat little package by PC TOOLS,and after a quick excursion to a torrent site for a test thought sold, and have been praising it since (PC Tools that is, not torrent sites there only use is to test your av)

[BeeCeeBee]

The post by Match definitely qualifies as "don't try this at home." Match knows what he is doing and would not run a known malicious program without having a ready fix if things go wrong.

[Match]

Yes good point their Beeceebee, should have mentioned that it was done on a fresh install, and if all else had failed Format C: would not have been a great loss other than having to sit and watch windows install again

 

If you even consider going looking for a virus then be sure you are prepared to take the consequences!!

[DirtyPolo]

Ha indeed.

 

I currently use Avira on all my machines as it's a decent free AV, but if I was going to go the extra to pay, I'm a big fan of ESET's Nod32 so that would be my choice :)

[maynardvdm]

I am using Bitdefender. Been using it for 3 years now and i'm very happy with it. Not free though. If i had to choose a free one it would be Avira.

[Dalo Harkin]

Bitdefender is good but I find it cumbersome like Norton.

[bella]

:eek:I use norton as it is the one i was advised to get although i have no problems it does slow my system down and it is always hard to know with freebies if you are going to end with unwanted virus etc.

[Tootech]

I may get shot for saying this :D

 

....the 2009 version of Norton seems to run much more quickly and doesn't affect the computer speed so much.

 

When its up for renewal, its worth having a go with a 2009 Norton trial.

[maynardvdm]

Well maybe they learnt their lesson, and actually done something about it. I am sure they saw their sales drop ;)

[wellies]

The 2009 version of Norton actually is pretty light and doesn't slow the computer down at all. Memory usage sometimes peaks briefly at around 16MB and will then settle down to around 5MB. I think this might be to do with when 'pulse' updates are taking place. Memory usage when just monitoring the system is around 8MB.

 

Although not free, it can be obtained inexpensively. I recently bought Norton Internet Security 2009 with licences for 3 computers. The cost was £34-45, which I thought was quite reasonable for a 3 licence security suite.

 

The reason I changed from using the very excellent Comodo and avast! combination was because I finally got fed up with being asked if I wanted to give something or other permission to run. What I really wanted was a program that would decide for me whether computer activity was OK or not and sit there quietly doing its job. NIS 2009 filled the requirement. It is wonderfully quiet! Since NIS 2009 included an AV side, avast! had to go as well. I now hope that NIS 2009 is as good at it seems to be. It's hard to get used to this program when you've been used to Comodo throwing up an alert or two every now and then.

 

Anyhow, I still use Sandboxie, so the AV monitoring side of NIS 2009 will only be called on to do its job if that fails, which I think is unlikely. I use NIS 2009 and MalwareBytes' Anti-malware to scan e-mail file attachments and downloads saved to the Desktop ...just before opening them sandboxed. Safe or what! :)

[Jelly Bean]

AVG as I have not had an infection using this software.

 

I have used it for nearly three years.

 

Although I am also a very carefull internet surfer.

[muppet rebecca]

Well I would have to say ESET because I can't choose both ESET and kapersky at the same time. If I was to buy an anti-virus that would be the one. I used trial a couple of months back and I found it a very effective anti-virus software with real time protection(always needed in my eyes). The other thing is it didn't slow my computer down like a lot of other anti-virus software has the ability to.

Norton has changed it's spots....hmmmm...I very doubt that and I'm afraid...tootech is it?...you'll never convince me seeing as when I used nroton it was the time in my computers life that it got the most infected. Let's jsut say I don't want to go down the 8 re-formats route again any time soon.

[Tootech]

I very doubt that and I'm afraid...tootech is it

 

Yip, its Tootech, and I would simply suggest that between your 9th and 10th reformat you give the 2010 Internet Security trial a go - you might be surprised ;)

 

I'd go along with you regarding Eset - its very good, Kaspersky I think has the edge on picking up spyware IMHO.

 

The other reason I like Eset is that it can be installed from a remote access connection without hassle. Normally when installing security software over a remote connection as soon as the new firewall is installed the connection is lost. For some reason Eset doesn't do that - very slick.

 

Perhaps a little known bit of trivia but useful to someone maybe :)

[muppet rebecca]

I was hoping I wouldn't reach a 9th re-format let alone a 10th but maybe sometime in the future on someone else's computer I'll try norton out again. As for my own computer I've practically customized all the software on to it to my explicit taste.

[Dalo Harkin]

If I was limited to using just on Suite then it would be ESET over NORTON any day of the week.

I have used windows live onecare for a few years now and again it came with 3 licence keys and cost me around £20

I use windows FW (but I know what I am doing ;))

and have MB installed if I ever need it.

 

In the time I have had OneCare I have not had 1 Virus.

 

I installed Norton on a PC the other day at the users request and within 2 days I was asked to remove it..........

[Seamus]

I think AVG Anti-Virus Free isn't too bad...would anyone agree?

[Tootech]

I think AVG Anti-Virus Free isn't too bad

 

I don't like AVG, I find it clunky and slow. Others like it I know.

 

From a 'freebies' point of view, Avast, Avira, or even Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

Paid for products - I'd go with Eset or Kaspersky :)