Best Anti-virus Software?

[Assassin X]

Well everyone says Norton and McAffee aren't the best anymore. What is the best?

 

Heres what I have and I know I probably shouldn't have so many or all together either. But they all seem to catch things the others can't. BTW Norton seems to be the only one that can scan emails since I use Pegasus for my email.

 

Norton Anti-Virus

Spybot S&D

Counter-Spy

Spy Sweeper

PC Tools Spyware Doctor

Ewido Anti-Spyware

 

So what would you guys recommend instead? And does any of it stop this "Virtumonde" before it installs not after the fact?

[suchuwato]

I use AntiVir, which is free and generally comes out on top of all the free ones in tests.

[damian]

Honestly I hardly ever have my Anti-virus on. (which is avast btw its pretty good, and free) AVG is another good contender.

Anyways as long as you have common sense and FF3 you will be safe

[paulktreg]

Have a look at Kaspersky. It's the best I've used so far and I've tried Nortons and McAffee.

 

The occasional sweep with Spybot and Ad-Aware and everything stays clean.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Edited December 8, 2008 by paulktreg

[Turophiliac]

I use AntiVir, which is free and generally comes out on top of all the free ones in tests.

+1 for antivir, it's what i use.

[kendellrt]

Starting with the 2008 versions, Norton rebuilt their product from the ground up. I have very impressed with them since boycotting them a few years ago. I agree with Paul about Kaspersky. They provide an excellent amount of coverage and options. Kaspersky asks for a bit more user interaction than I would like for the average consumer, but I think people like us appreciate having the extra options to choose what to do ourselves as well as the additional info that it provides. As far as ease of use and excellent protection, I am a huge fan of Webroot Spysweeper with Antivirus. They are the industry leader in spyware, adware, etc. protection, and the antivirus is provided by Sophos, which is a decent company. More and more I find that spyware is a MUCH bigger threat than actual viruses, though most people don't know the difference. I would go with the Webroot product for ease of use or for the everyday consumer. I am currently using Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, but only because my Webroot SS w/AV expired and Kaspersky gave me and my employees a complimentary copy of their software with a one year subscription so that we would try them out in hopes that we will recommend them to clients. I could see that going very well or very bad for them, but I have been impressed so far.

[paulktreg]

Starting with the 2008 versions, Norton rebuilt their product from the ground up. I have very impressed with them since boycotting them a few years ago. I agree with Paul about Kaspersky. They provide an excellent amount of coverage and options. Kaspersky asks for a bit more user interaction than I would like for the average consumer, but I think people like us appreciate having the extra options to choose what to do ourselves as well as the additional info that it provides. As far as ease of use and excellent protection, I am a huge fan of Webroot Spysweeper with Antivirus. They are the industry leader in spyware, adware, etc. protection, and the antivirus is provided by Sophos, which is a decent company. More and more I find that spyware is a MUCH bigger threat than actual viruses, though most people don't know the difference. I would go with the Webroot product for ease of use or for the everyday consumer. I am currently using Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, but only because my Webroot SS w/AV expired and Kaspersky gave me and my employees a complimentary copy of their software with a one year subscription so that we would try them out in hopes that we will recommend them to clients. I could see that going very well or very bad for them, but I have been impressed so far.

 

I agree that Kaspersky does ask for too much user interaction at times. I have recently updated to Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and the pop-ups it gave were really annoying at first but once it gets into the swing of things and "recognises" what you do and use the most things settle down and the pop-ups are now seldom seen.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[smduff]

I have eset ss and have never had an issue.

[ekiM]

AVG Free and Comodo firewall

[paulktreg]

I have eset ss and have never had an issue.

 

Please explain.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[gebraset]

I also use ESET Smart Security, along with smduff. It pretty much is NOD32, except with a firewall for those who haven't heard of it.

 

The program itself uses a very small amount of my RAM, anywhere from 8MB to 15MB while idle. It updates itself in the background, which I like, and also comes with a good amount of customization. It's kind of aimed towards the advanced user, though it does have a simple mode. It's pretty much perfect for me because of the gaming that I do, along with it protecting my computer fairly well. The price isn't too bad either, though I can't seem to find it on Newegg anymore. I just see NOD32, both Retail and OEM.

[silkster]

BitDefender v10 Free Edition