Anti virus software

Prometheus · Post by **Prometheus** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:30 pm

My Nortons subscription has run out - is it time to renew or try some thing else ?

Avast seems popular - any comments ?

And from my 1st PC I purchased in 1988, I have never ever had a virus of any sorts, so I'm not prepared to start now

KSR Aaza · Post by **KSR Aaza** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:44 pm

McAfee.

Sulley · Post by **Sulley** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:08 pm

I find Avast very good, AVG is another good freebie

Liquid · Post by **Liquid** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:16 pm

Nod32 is far the best i have used.

One of the lowest resources users (norton is a system hog)
One of the best Scan rates (detection and speed)
One of the best for Def files , can update a few times a day if needed

Nod32 is about 60 to buy and about 30 to renew each year
Second choice would be Kasperky

.

Noon416 · Post by **Noon416** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:22 pm

AVG ftw.

Great free AV software.

Metla · Post by **Metla** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:38 pm

Speaking from a position where I am up to my elbows in virus infected computers for upwards of 10 hours a day, I'm going to be harsh.

Avast, AVG, and Nortons, especially Nortons are complete and utter rubbish, Not worthy of even being called an Anti-Virus app.

Every single day Im removing viruses off machines running these 3 apps, they are either onblivious to the malicios code or can redflag it but are unable to remove it.

Nortons is the single worst app ever mass marketed to teh great unwashed, I refuse to stock it , sell it and will argue about even installing it if a customer has it already. The pos not only robs your comp of a third of its power but when it breaks the shit hits the fan. A faulty Nortons can easily and rapidly take down a comp, faster and with more damage then any virus I have yet come across.

And its other cunning trick is to appear to be working, but have just about everything under the hood broken, so its taking up resources, giving the owner the false impression that its all covered, and in reality its doing less work then a council worker.

So, whats to be rcomended?

Tough call, The heavist hitter I have in my bag of tricks is NOD32, Though nothing covers everything, Different types of infections take different types of cures so its a matter of hitting the shiznit with the right app, or finding a tool for that specific attack, or resorting to manually remove the files, Thats always good for a laugh.

Anyway, I ramble on, NOD32 is your best bet by a country mile, Finds damn near everything, Awesome ability to shutdown and remove viruses even if its not in the database, will stop the user from accidenty infecting the machine from places like crack sites, Barly has a hit on system performance.

Post by **Jetboy** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:30 pm

AVG, never had a virus (though do exercise some common sense with email) though has picked up a few trying to sneak in on friends USB Drives, CDROM's etc

and free is all good

MadMarty13 · Post by **MadMarty13** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:17 am

AVAST for sure
had Nortons will never get it again had avg for some time was good but 2 years ago there was a virus that shut it down
ever since have had avast not one problem diabled windows firewall use zone alarm also spybot, adaware, mirosoft antispyware,spyware doctor,a2 squared never have I had one problem avast has updates nearly every day

Prometheus · Post by **Prometheus** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:34 am

Hmm, some interesting replies here.

Been thinking about Avast.

McAfee I used to have many moons ago, but got bitten badly back in the mid 90's with subscription nonsence with them. By memory, McAfee were the very 1st AV software I used.

Oh I miss the giddy days of playing around with Windows 286. Oh the happyness when I upgraded to w3 ! Not to mention up from dos 3.3 to dos 5.

Nortons - well, I just don't understand how munters get a virus

As I said, it has served me well for quite a few years.

Thanks to all for their replies.

Typhoon · Post by **Typhoon** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:51 am

I agree with Metla.

People say: "My AV software has served me well", we hear that all the time, then we install something McAfee or Fsecure, and bingo, lots of viruses they never knew they had.

Nortons - bloated software, and can be very resource hungry.
AVG - We've seen it take down networks when it couldn't handle a virus. Had to uninstall to re-establish connectivity.

If your want top AV software E-trust by Computer Associates or McAfee. They are the 2 most commonly used Comerical brands. If they are the leaders in the commerical industry, you can feel safe knowing they are protecting your home PC.

Prometheus · Post by **Prometheus** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:33 am

Is the E Trust this one ? Ascent have the suite version for $95. Is it any good, or better to just stick with the AV side of it.

I see the McAfee Suite goes for @$120 at Ascent too (or $60 on TM - weird).

I guess the trick now is how easy and well does NAV uninstall ? Will I need to do some registry digging or can it cleanly remove itself.

Liquid · Post by **Liquid** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:37 am

Download Nod32 for 30 days trial. its only 8mb

Riven · Post by **Riven** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:47 am

Metla wrote:*snip* Nortons *snip* in reality its doing less work then a council worker.

That'll be why Massey Uni has a volume license for Nortons then

I'd agree with NOD32. Etrust I find is less resource intensive than Nortons, but is still more so than NOD32.

However being the cheap bastard I am, I'm personally running Avast.

BAZZIL · Post by **BAZZIL** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:48 am

AVG for free antivirus.

FSecure if you don't mind spending a little (but even then it's not too much)

MadMarty13 · Post by **MadMarty13** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:58 am

Yes prom a lot of registry digging to uninstall nav proerly its a right pain in the but works the same for upgrading it to

Riven · Post by **Riven** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:32 pm

BAZZIL wrote:AVG for free antivirus.

FSecure if you don't mind spending a little (but even then it's not too much)

Personally I'd take Avast over AVG for the freebies

Prometheus · Post by **Prometheus** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:36 pm

Heads it's McAfee, tails it NOD, heads it's Avast, tails it's AVG, heads it's FSecure.

No wonder the www is spreading virus's around so often when there are so many options for AV, each sworn by their users.

Prometheus · Post by **Prometheus** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:15 pm

OK, NOD32 won at the end of the day (my pet hate saying and I usually walk out of a meeting if anyone says that cliche line).

Removed NAV, installed NOD32 and did a complete system scan:
files: 398609
threats found : 0
time of completion: 44'18"

Added Zone Alarm seeing my firewall was uninstalled and everything seems ok so far.

But having rebooted, there's a ton of hdd activity going on now with no system degregation, but it seems nod32 is furiously whizzing away on my system

Prometheus · Post by **Prometheus** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:04 am

OK, another day and things seem to have settled down.

Yes I'd agree the system does seem faster without NAV, esp on bootup - I see the "loading your settings" for a second, then up pops the desktop with all icons, etc.

It's on automatic update - how often does it update the virus file ??

But thanks to all for the suggestions.

Riven · Post by **Riven** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:17 pm

Prometheus wrote:OK, another day and things seem to have settled down.

Yes I'd agree the system does seem faster without NAV, esp on bootup - I see the "loading your settings" for a second, then up pops the desktop with all icons, etc.

It's on automatic update - how often does it update the virus file ??

But thanks to all for the suggestions.

If you have auto-update on, either turn it off when racing, or have it scheduled for any day or the week except Wednesday

Same goes for zonealarm (it also updates) and winblows updates.