Recommended anti-virus software?

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ambientscape · #1 Post by **ambientscape** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:21 am

I'm aware that this topic had been posted many times......but I would once again would like to know the recommendation and suggestions of the retail anti-virus software that is available on the market now. Currently, I'm using the Norton Anitvirus 2006 but finds it be a little performance hogging while start up. I've actually switch from AVG free edition to this retail anti-virus.

Any recommendation & sugestions is welcomed.

Thanks

aceo07 · #2 Post by **aceo07** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:26 am

What's lacking in AVG? I'm using it right now.

ambientscape · #3 Post by **ambientscape** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:32 am

aceo07 wrote:What's lacking in AVG? I'm using it right now.

As for me, some viruses cannot be detected by AVG. When I installed Norton Anti-virus 2006 and scanned by system, I found few unharmful viruses....and that's been bothering me.

AIX · #4 Post by **AIX** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:11 am

I'm using BitDefender 9 Standard; updates everyday.

http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-64-e ... ndard.html

edit:: I tried NAV too, but I think BitDefender it's faster/lighter than NAV.

#5 Post by **carbon_unit** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:15 am

There is no product out there that will detect everything. If you were to run Kaspersky right now you would find things that NAV missed.
AVG is very good in the fact it is easy to run, light on the resources, fairly good at keeping you safe and it is free. Norton has none of these qualities.
I would recommend that you try Kaspersky. They have a 30 day free trial after which you buy a serial number to keep it updating. You must remove NAV before installing Kaspersky.

If you have trouble removing Norton use the SymNRT removal tool here:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_u ... SymNRT.exe

Kaspersky download:
http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/trial-versions.php

icantux · #6 Post by **icantux** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:15 am

Over the years I tend to alternate between Kaspersky and NOD32 - with a sprinkle of TrendMicro online scan every so often.

Haven't used Norton products in a long time. Although it's not useless (it does find viruses), there are reported cases of viruses, worms, etc attacking the Norton engine, thereby rendering it useless and your system completely vulnerable. That's happened to me once, and I never went back to Norton products. Symantec's grown in popularity indeed - not only with the public, but with hackers as well. Anycase, I also find many of their products hog too much resource as well.

been200mph · #7 Post by **been200mph** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:51 pm

I've been pleased with Trend's PC-cillin as well. I dumped the Norton stuff on the new PC I got, as well as on the laptop, and installed it on both. I use Ad-Aware as well.

ambientscape · #8 Post by **ambientscape** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:29 pm

been200mph wrote:I've been pleased with Trend's PC-cillin as well. I dumped the Norton stuff on the new PC I got, as well as on the laptop, and installed it on both. I use Ad-Aware as well.

Hmmm.....it seems that I should dump the Norton eh?

Orevin · #9 Post by **Orevin** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:37 pm

I use Bitdefender (8, Professionell). It is sleak, has a fast, but still efficient anti virus engine and updates are released several times a day.

w0qj · #10 Post by **w0qj** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:19 pm

I use AVAST which has a freeware version.

www.avast.com

It's very reliable; I've used it for 3 yrs now.
It's very light on resources.

More importantly for me, AVAST only gives me a report if the file(s) i've scanned has a virus/worm detected.
ie: can a few files, and you don't get a dialogue box reporting that there's "no" virus and you need to press "OK" to close this dialogue box.

dr_st · #11 Post by **dr_st** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:57 am

Symantec Corporate Antivirus.

DIGITALgimpus · #12 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:47 am

After seeing stuff like this time and time again.... I've been willing to put up with Norton's resource issues. It's pretty consistant with being very protective. Most of the free ones don't have that history.

IMHO it's not worth it.

ambientscape · #13 Post by **ambientscape** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:29 am

DIGITALgimpus wrote:After seeing stuff like this time and time again.... I've been willing to put up with Norton's resource issues. It's pretty consistant with being very protective. Most of the free ones don't have that history.

IMHO it's not worth it.

I'm aware that its protective....but somehow they could better in terms of resources hogging.

BruisedQuasar · #14 Post by **BruisedQuasar** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:19 pm

I agree with the vote for the free AVAST anti-virus. You get regular updates. It is an excellent anti-virus, certainly better than resource hog Norton (symantic) 2005 & 2006.

You can get Kapersky free with System Mechanic 6 Pro., this utilities package is the best out there today.

Here is how you can get System Mechanic 6 Pro for a song price, $20 on a CD which iolo sends within two weeks with registration numbers & key.

Go to the PNY promotion site > [www.iolo.com/pny]. You will be asked for PNY promo data. This info should do it for you > N512S133W, [Configurator Part # N512S133W]. The offer expired over a month ago but a friend recently went to the address and used my info (from a PNY notebook memory module 512MB, PC133). He got System Mechanic 6 Pro on CD for $20 without a hitch. Meanwhile, you can download a full full functioning 30 day free trial copy of System Mech 6 Pro, which includes Kapersky anti-virus, an excellent spyware \malware\adware real-time scanner-remover.

You can get a two-year subscription service version of Webroot Spy Sweeper for price of one year (and Spy Sweeper) by getting it through the Kim Komando site at: [komando.com]

--Bruised

dr_st · #15 Post by **dr_st** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:56 am

ambientscape wrote:I'm aware that its protective....but somehow they could better in terms of resources hogging.

Hence, Symantec Corporate Antivirus - same as Norton, minus the resource hogging.

PutnamJct · #16 Post by **PutnamJct** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:59 am

I've had good luck with F-Secure AV/Firewall package. Always runs/updates itself very little interaction needed.

www.F-Secure.com

w0qj · #17 Post by **w0qj** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:02 pm

AVAST antivirus just won a prestigious award from SC Magazine

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_wins_sc_award.html

avast! Wins SC Award
SC Awards 2006 Winner

Prague – 15th February 2006: For immediate release: ALWIL Software is proud to announce that it has won the prestigious SC Readers Choice Awards for best Antivirus (avast!) for the USA section of the award event.

ALWIL Software’s avast! product was up against nominated industry leaders in the category, including: McAfee Inc. - McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i; Symantec Corporation - Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.0 and Aladdin Knowledge Systems - Aladdin eSafe.

The annual awards, initially voted for by SC Magazine readers, are one of the most important awards run each year, with over 300 companies competing with over 1300 products and services.

The US awards were announced at a gala event at the Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, CA.

...

sponch · #18 Post by **sponch** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:42 am

This might help:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

sponch

donking! · #19 Post by **donking!** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:21 pm

sponch wrote:This might help:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

sponch

Hmm, that makes it look like AntiVirusKit is the most effective (though it says in it's own literature that it's heavy on system resources). Norton also does well.

I've been happy with Avast also. Definitely light on resources. When I researched this a while ago it seemed like it caught more viruses than AVG. I think it also caught certain kinds of scripts that AVG doesn't detect (I don't remember exactly--but I do remember concluding Avast had more functionality.)

When I researched anti-virus software a while ago, I also came to the conclusion that Sophos seems to be by far the best solution out there. They had a much larger database of viruses than anyone. And generally seemed to top out the comparative studies. But they seem to be only a business oriented solution. I don't see that you can even buy their software from a regular retailer or online.

DIGITALgimpus · #20 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:01 pm

ambientscape wrote: I'm aware that its protective....but somehow they could better in terms of resources hogging.

I won't argue that.

IMHO it's a decision: protection vs. resources.

IMHO protection is #1. Many/most disagree. That's just my opinion.

carlnunes · #21 Post by **carlnunes** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:55 am

I am a self employeed computer services geek. I have encountered many a stubborn virus and spyware. I have seen Nortons and Macafee antivirus appear to be working and still have found viruses creeping. My two secret weapons are AVG and Microsoft AntiSpyware beta. Given some evil apps require more hacking to remove them, AVG hasn't failed me yet.

I hope this helps someone.

Delmarco · #22 Post by **Delmarco** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:07 pm

BitDefender 9.0 ownz all!
updates daily. barely noticable in the background. light and fast.

And only $15.99 for the whole year and $9.99 for subscription renewals.

My gfriends Dell Desktop has Trend PC-Illin...which is not bad, but Bit defender 9.0 seems better and more internet savvy than Trend.

Norton was on my old Toshiba. It was expensive and a total waste of time.

Now I got BitDefender 9.0 with SpyBot, Ad-AwareSE and HiJackThis. And my computer is well protected.

Spyware Webroot is also good I heard.

aabram · #23 Post by **aabram** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:46 pm

YAV (yet another vote) for Avast. I've been using it for 2+ years now on my personal boxes. Nothing convinces more than personal experience and I've seen Avast catching the culprits where AVG didn't. At work we use NOD32 (commercial, not free) and it has also held up surprisingly well and unobtrusively. I'd recommend it when you're looking for commercial solution. We have some 20+ machines with Kaspersky too and while it works, it somehow seems a bit too overpatronising at times ('hey, do a full-hdd scan right now, mister!' - 'you stupid computer, don't tell ME what to do, I'm the brain here'). I've given up on F-Secure when they started bundling their AV with firewall and other crap, resulting in bloated monstrosity. Norton has definitely gained some good weight and should be competing in "I have resources to spill right and left" category, which I personally don't want to take part in.

I've cleaned numerous friends machines and I've succeeded in keeping my gf's laptop clean (that's the toughest test for any AV, you can't imagine what stuff non IT-knowledgeable women send and receive around) for two years with Avast so five stars for Avast from me.

ambientscape · #24 Post by **ambientscape** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:00 pm

aabram wrote:YAV (yet another vote) for Avast. I've been using it for 2+ years now on my personal boxes. Nothing convinces more than personal experience and I've seen Avast catching the culprits where AVG didn't. At work we use NOD32 (commercial, not free) and it has also held up surprisingly well and unobtrusively. I'd recommend it when you're looking for commercial solution. We have some 20+ machines with Kaspersky too and while it works, it somehow seems a bit too overpatronising at times ('hey, do a full-hdd scan right now, mister!' - 'you stupid computer, don't tell ME what to do, I'm the brain here'). I've given up on F-Secure when they started bundling their AV with firewall and other crap, resulting in bloated monstrosity. Norton has definitely gained some good weight and should be competing in "I have resources to spill right and left" category, which I personally don't want to take part in.

I've cleaned numerous friends machines and I've succeeded in keeping my gf's laptop clean (that's the toughest test for any AV, you can't imagine what stuff non IT-knowledgeable women send and receive around) for two years with Avast so five stars for Avast from me.

Hmm....thanks for the humble suggestions!. However, after numerous research through my IT friends and of course thinkpad forums, I've decided to use SYMANTEC CORPORATE EDITION v10 for my thinkpad. It works like a champ so far.....
I'm going to try our AVAST for my desktop.....and will let you guys know about the feedback later. Well, aabram, I would like to know if the AVAST free edition works well as the license ones?

Regards,

Alvin

BruisedQuasar · #25 Post by **BruisedQuasar** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:45 am

carlnunes wrote:I am a self employeed computer services geek. My two secret weapons are AVG and Microsoft AntiSpyware beta. Given some evil apps require more hacking to remove them, AVG hasn't failed me yet.

Here, here. I learned about AVG (Avast) free anti-virus from University Computer Sci geeks and from the best library IT manager I know. National radio computing geru Kim Komando also highly recommends it. It has never failed me yet and I have a system for my grandson to do the Disney site. Every cut and paste knuckle head around loads Disney with viruses and worms. I hear the Avast alarm sound off about every ten minutes. I taught my 7 year old grandson how to respond, Avast is that easy that a little kid can click the right command in the warning-action box.

I am searching for the easiest Linux version (for a little boy to operate) to install on his system so viruses and worm threats become rare even on Disney. Meanwhile, Avast, ZoneAlarm & Spybot do a great job. By the way, I deleted Norton and McAfee from other person's PCs and installed Avast, as I tired of going over and reformating & reinstalling XP weekly on their drives due to Win moving very slow and doing odd things from malware, spyware, viruses & worms Norton and McAfee products missed. Their children love the Disney site.

If you want to test your defense system, spend some time on the Disney children's activity site.

aabram · #26 Post by **aabram** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:36 am

ambientscape wrote:Well, aabram, I would like to know if the AVAST free edition works well as the license ones?

Strictly speaking the free version is also licenced, just that it's for personal use and free. It expires, I think, after a year and then you have to register again to get new key but no costs involved there. I can't compare it to paid version since I don't use it. At work and my work laptop we use NOD32 which works nice and on casual glance takes up less memory than Avast but I can't use it on my personal laptop and at home. I wouldn't mind paying for commercial product, but the free version hasn't let me down yet so I'm happy with it.

But of course, personal tastes are different and you may not find Avast comfortable for you, you may find it's interface not fitting your usage pattern or something else that nags you. Just a note - you can merge VRDB generator icon with the main icon to save tray space and you can turn off animation, if that bothers you.

#27 Post by **carbon_unit** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:48 am

BruisedQuasar wrote:Here, here. I learned about AVG (Avast) free anti-virus

AVG and Avast! are not the same thing.
AVG is here: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
and Avast! is here: http://www.avast.com/

turbolium · #28 Post by **turbolium** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:32 am

KAV all the way

PSUser · #29 Post by **PSUser** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:37 pm

I'm impressed with the Avast! 4 Home Edition program. It does it's job w/o gobbling resources or invading windows core programs. You can allow it to self-update or manually update definitions as often as you'd like. Also, you can use the same registration code over and over for multiple systems.

Delmarco · #30 Post by **Delmarco** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:05 pm

Delmarco wrote:BitDefender 9.0 ownz all!
updates daily. barely noticable in the background. light and fast.

And only $15.99 for the whole year and $9.99 for subscription renewals.

My gfriends Dell Desktop has Trend PC-Illin...which is not bad, but Bit defender 9.0 seems better and more internet savvy than Trend.

Norton was on my old Toshiba. It was expensive and a total waste of time.

Now I got BitDefender 9.0 with SpyBot, Ad-AwareSE and HiJackThis. And my computer is well protected.

Spyware Webroot is also good I heard.

Wow a year later and I return with a similar thread looking for advice.
BitDefender 9 was really the best software. But then I upgraded to Bitdefender 10 when Norton expired on my IBM T41 and Bitdefender 10 was just as protective but horrible for resource hacking, even preventing me from going online and disabling my wireless card almost everyday.

I now have PC Illlin Trend Micro 2007 edition which is light and okay, even scanned 2 extra Java viruses that BitDefender 10 and Norton missed. But I'm finding that Trend is starting to resource hog my CPU as well.

Seriously, I'm beginning to think the best AV will be the one that was factory installed on your laptop, regardless of what brand it is. Somehow the factory AV never gave problems like the post-factory AV you install in terms of resource hogging. Norton was fine on my computer, but when the factory install subscription expired everything I installed after (Bitdefender 9, 10, Trend, McCaffee, even Norton on an original-Trend PC slowed it down and ran amok on the CPU resource)

Bitdefender 9 was the best and Trend Micro PC-Illin 2007 seems to be okay right now.

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