Computer savy folks, whats a solid Anti-virus program?

wytstang · 07-08-07, 08:45

All right my Trendmico has expired and all though I feel it did a good job I want to know what is better. I did some reaseach last night and it seems that Kaspersky 6.0 seems to be the best (currently) from the site I visited (pc world, consumer search). Does anybody run Kasperky 6.0? Looking at the stats on Kasperky's web site and they have a lot more to offer compared to Trendmico, NOD32, McAfee, and Symantec. Before anyone says stop going to porn site well NO lol. I visit a mustang site with very little rules and we are free to post links. Well when the link is titles "this chick is hot" you may or may not be heading to a porn site. That and I would like to learn how to download from torrent sites so I want that extra protection. Another reason I want to switch is Trendmico does not offer discounts for renewing , you pay full price every time. Other paid AV give you atleast $10 or more if you renew. Check out what Kaspersky has compared to others
Antivirus. Antivirus Software with Antispyware for Home Computer Security
Any feedback is welcome

My93Civic · 07-08-07, 12:14

Free: AVG Free, NOD32

Pay: Zone Alarm is the best

Spyware: Spybot Search and Destroy + Cleandisk + Counterspy

I dont like Kaspersky...didnt find some viruses that ZoneAlarm did find.

Changeling · 07-08-07, 12:39

I have had every major virus software there practically is!!

Hands down, AVG commercial version is the very best there is in my (and lots of others) opinion. It does what it does so gracefully it is astounding ! You don't have to interfere with it at all, it just does it's thing "FANTASTICALLY",downloads and updates itself automatically, fairly cheap, one of the best of the best!
I have had my computer come under severe attack about 3 times (not talking about the occasional bomb) and the only thing I had to do was click on a button that said fix it!!
I don't sell it are have any affiliation with the company, except to renew my subscription every 2 years or so.
I had trouble with every other major brand of virus software!
Changeling

BlackElantraGT · 07-08-07, 12:58

If you cannot afford to pay for anything, here are some simple, excellent programs that will protect your system and best of all, they're FREE!

Anti-Virus: AVG Free
Spyware: Spybot Search & Destroy, SpywareBlaster, AdAware 2007

I should but do not use a software firewall. ZoneAlarm was a good one. If it was just me using it, I would install it, but with other novice users using the same computer, for me it was just a hassle trying to set up the right permissions for it to work without it being too Big Brother-ish and the user coming to me because they were too afraid they did something wrong.

If you're planning on downloading torrents, I would suggest to never download and use programs that are information senstive (such as Money, Quicken) and never download pirated virus/adware/spybot program. You're better off using free software because you never know what kind of infection was planted inside of these programs.

Happy porn-downloading! :P

wytstang · 07-08-07, 05:08

LOL I'm not downloading porn lol just music and maybe a old movie here and there. For a firewall I use Kerio by Sunbelt it scored a lot better then Zone labs Free did on a leak test. I can afford to pay but on another forum it seems the free ones are doing just as good a job for the average user like myself according to the members. Changeling I did a google search on the top 10 virus programs and AVG Pro seems to come in at about 8th place.

pgp · 07-08-07, 05:18

I use Norton Int. Security for now. I have heard good things about AVG and Avast. Look at pcworld.com and majorgeeks.com for ideas.

kpounds · 07-08-07, 05:20

There's lots of good security discussions at Wilders Security Forums. Those guys are like Autopians when it comes to security matters.

There's a few sites that run independent tests of A/V products. A/V Comparatives & Virus Bulletin 100%. From what I've read the best paid A/V is NOD32. They have a free 30 day trial to try it out. I hear it scans very fast, light on PC resources and always has high detection rates.

For free, there's Avast, AVG and AntiVir. The scoop on these per testing is Avast and Anti-Vir have the top detection rates, many times they're rated higher than paid programs. AVG is also good but doesnt score quite as high in detection rates. Both Avast & AVG offer email scanning while Anti-Vir free doesnt. Anti-Vir is supposedly the lightest on a PC's resources of the freebies (won't bog it down). I use all web-mail that has their own scanners so I use Anti-Vir.

Another excellent idea is to learn how to run your PC as a Limited account, instead of administrator. When logged in as admin, that account can do anything/make changes to the computer. With a Limited user acct, the permissions are limited and many infections just can't happen as they are not allowed to. I have a posting of the best way to implement this from a malware researcher who said "IMO, running in limited user mode is actually more effective than running any...I say ANY...antivirus product (free or commercial)." The Windows XP help file also mentions this. Anyone interested, just PM me and I'll send you his posting.

mikebai1990 · 07-08-07, 09:47

I'd also like to second NOD32. You can get a trial, and if you really want to, you could get a crack or something for it. It seems to have very high ratings in terms of performance, ram use (quite low compared to bloatware like norton), etc..

Of course, I don't use any antivirus software because I'm using linux

tod071 · 07-09-07, 02:33

I've done the research and testing in the past and found Panda and Kaspersky rated #1 & #2 depending on which reviews you read. Because I deal with computers and software/hardware, I purchase the programs and run them on multiple machines, including my own. I've found that Kaspersky is a very good all-in-one, Internet Security Suite. Panda is an excellent AV, but lacks in firewall protection and a little harder to use/configure than Kaspersky.

For ease of use, Zonelabs Zone Alarm is pretty easy to configure and understand. But because of the fact that it is not yet Vista compliant, I don't recommend it. If you have Windows XP, this will be a good program.

JohnLINY · 07-09-07, 05:50

+1 for Avast! I have used pay AV from Norton, CA, etc. Avast is free and does a better job then the others I have tried.

Yal · 07-09-07, 08:08

I use COMODO.

http://www.comodo.com

There really is no reason to pay anymore. These companies mentioned on this thread are all offering pretty good free software. I have Comodos firewall and antivirus running and it makes my old Mcafee look like a scam

wytstang · 07-09-07, 09:47

I'm going to try Avast for a bit and see how it performs.