Antivirus software?

[evboat]

What's the best antivirus software? I've heard a resounding no to Norton and McAfee. I've heard AVG is good.

[Puggle_kicker]

Ill echo the resounding no to Norton and McAfee.

I personally use nothing. I reload my operating system if I get a virus. Like a man.

[boosterp]

Webroot (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2333287,00.asp)

Norton (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330018,00.asp)

[KnoxHarrington]

Avast is the best free AV program, but Nod32 is, overall, the best. A year license for it costs $39.95, so it's pretty cheap too.

Don't buy one of those shitty "Internet security suites" Norton sells. They suck ass. Just put a good AV program on, turn on the firewall that Windows itself has, and run your connection through a hardware firewall in a router.

[biggestmexi]

i liked trend micro's pc-cillin when i had it.

[MisterSmith]

Avast is the best free AV program, but Nod32 is, overall, the best. A year license for it costs $39.95, so it's pretty cheap too.

Don't buy one of those shitty "Internet security suites" Norton sells. They suck ass. Just put a good AV program on, turn on the firewall that Windows itself has, and run your connection through a hardware firewall in a router.

I am with Knox on this one - Avast is the best free AV (and my personal choice) and Nod32 is regularly touted as the best out there.

AVG is also good, but the move to version 8.0 has had a few glitches. AVG 7.0 was a dream, but since the upgrade they have been working out a few bugs in AVG 8.0. I am sure it will eventually get there, but right now I say Avast over AVG.

Norton and McAfee are not bad at what they do, they just use way more system resources than they should, are overblown, infiltrate almost every aspect of your system, and can casue big problems when they go wrong (not if they go wrong, but when).

[Death Metal Moe]

I was using AVG Free up until this month. It kept returning errors on my XP run systems and people's systems I mantain so I just fucking dumped it on just about all my machines in favor of Avast! Both are good, free choices in my opinion.

I've had viruses with pay and free programs so I'm just sticking with free for now.

[boosterp]

I am with Knox on this one - Avast is the best free AV (and my personal choice) and Nod32 is regularly touted as the best out there.

AVG is also good, but the move to version 8.0 has had a few glitches. AVG 7.0 was a dream, but since the upgrade they have been working out a few bugs in AVG 8.0. I am sure it will eventually get there, but right now I say Avast over AVG.

Norton and McAfee are not bad at what they do, they just use way more system resources than they should, are overblown, infiltrate almost every aspect of your system, and can casue big problems when they go wrong (not if they go wrong, but when).

PC World ratings (http://www.pcworld.com/article/140127/top_allinone_security_suites.html)

PCMag (http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,4796,00.asp)

CNet (http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-3667_7-0-1.html)

NOD is not on the list but Avast is the best freeware and Norton is constantly near the top. This year Norton revamped it's software not to be such a hog.

I was using AVG Free up until this month. It kept returning errors on my XP run systems and people's systems I mantain so I just fucking dumped it on just about all my machines in favor of Avast! Both are good, free choices in my opinion.

I've had viruses with pay and free programs so I'm just sticking with free for now.

I love Avast.

[STC-Dub]

I use Norton and it works well for me. I don't even have to disable it to play games like I had to do a few years ago.

[made cummsies]

I use AVG in the background and have never had an issue with a virus running amock.....I download a shit load of videos and other torrents and yes have picked up a virus but AVG has always caught and disinfected the problem file

good on whoever has had success with Norton but I'd sooner give my PC, bank/visa/amex card and password to a nigerian 419 scammer then install that shit....IMO doesn't offer decent protection and is a resource pig

[Fallon]

I just got rid of trend micro pc-cillin that came with my PC a few years ago last night and went with AVG. I like it and it doesn't use much memory.

[LordJezo]

Once you get to the top tier anti virus stuff they are all pretty much the same, just pick the one you like best.

AVG Free: http://free.avg.com/

Avast: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Unless you want a whole lot of extra security suite style programs a free anti virus is all you need for basic protection.

But nothing beats common sense, don't be a fool when you download and run programs from untrusted sources. Keep yourself behind a router and make sure Windows stays up to date.

[styckx]

I finally switched from AVG to Avast. Sooooooooooo much more better. AVG's bloat just became intolerable.

[extracheese]

When some of you mention "AVG" you should mention the version. I have 7.5 installed and its simply pefect. Low resource usage and smooth operation. Now that 7.5 is ending - the reviews for 8.0 or 8.5 are abysmal. I have AVAST installed on my second PC and find it uses lots of system resources (it shows some 12 processes running at a time)

So between the choice of AVG 8.5 which people hate, or AVAST system resource hog, its a tough choice. Someone mentioned AVIRA but i never heard of them.

[KingGeno]

When some of you mention "AVG" you should mention the version. I have 7.5 installed and its simply pefect. Low resource usage and smooth operation. Now that 7.5 is ending - the reviews for 8.0 or 8.5 are abysmal. I have AVAST installed on my second PC and find it uses lots of system resources (it shows some 12 processes running at a time)

So between the choice of AVG 8.5 which people hate, or AVAST system resource hog, its a tough choice. Someone mentioned AVIRA but i never heard of them.


This is a very good post full of very good information.

[Death Metal Moe]

You wanna talk resource hogging, just go back to Norton. Holy fucking shit, I've seen their Go Back options and other Systemworks bullshit slow computers to an actual crawl.

[extracheese]

Norton is well known for its system hogging. Yet corporations seem to love it. Every job i ever had it loaded on its PCs.

according to this poll:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21915664~viewpoll=1

people overwhelmengly seem to prefer Avast. So if you believe that people tend chose
the best product through word of mouth, than Avast 4.8 seems to be the choice.

[LZMan1]

on my kid's PC i use the freebie AVG(i think v. 7)

for my own shit i use trend micro

[paulisded]

I was infected a couple of nights ago, and the combination of spy sweeper, McAfee, and Avast seems to have rid my computer of most of this garbage. Yet I still have one problem. Anything I do is proceeded by this error message:

http://scotthudson.20m.com/Music/lamufute.jpg

All programs seem to work, but it's a pain in the ass, especially when I boot up the computer and I get one of these for each process that loads. I've looked for the file, but it's not to be found. What can I do?

[deliciousV]

I aid and assist some of the dumber people in my family in keeping up with their computers. I have put avast on all their systems and when they do something stupid and cause crazy shit to pop up I run a free version of Super Anti Spyware, that usually clears things up nicely.

[SP1!]

I was infected a couple of nights ago, and the combination of spy sweeper, McAfee, and Avast seems to have rid my computer of most of this garbage. Yet I still have one problem. Anything I do is proceeded by this error message:

http://scotthudson.20m.com/Music/lamufute.jpg

All programs seem to work, but it's a pain in the ass, especially when I boot up the computer and I get one of these for each process that loads. I've looked for the file, but it's not to be found. What can I do?

I used these two sites to get rid of most problems:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

Good site to bookmark, MS bought them because they are good at security.
Also:

http://www.pctools.com/

Free trial for that through:http://www.westpac.com.au/internet/publish.nsf/Content/WISE+PCtools+Security+Software#

[Fez4PrezN2008]

When some of you mention "AVG" you should mention the version. I have 7.5 installed and its simply pefect. Low resource usage and smooth operation. Now that 7.5 is ending - the reviews for 8.0 or 8.5 are abysmal. I have AVAST installed on my second PC and find it uses lots of system resources (it shows some 12 processes running at a time)

So between the choice of AVG 8.5 which people hate, or AVAST system resource hog, its a tough choice. Someone mentioned AVIRA but i never heard of them.
I've got AVG 8.0 on my Vista machine and no probs at all, barely notice a hit when the scans kick in at midnight. I run Avast on my other XP machine though. No problems for either set up so far.