Best antivirus

[Tass]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring. I am looking for
something a little lighter on the system. Also any anti malware. Any
suggestions would be helpful because every website seems to say something
different. Thanks in advance.

 

[FredW]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring. I am looking for
something a little lighter on the system. Also any anti malware. Any
suggestions would be helpful because every website seems to say something
different. Thanks in advance.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/
- AV-Comparatives 2008 Summary Report
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/summary2008.pdf
or
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/overview.html

Look for Eset NOD32 and Avira Antivir.

 

[1PW]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring. I am looking for
something a little lighter on the system. Also any anti malware. Any
suggestions would be helpful because every website seems to say something
different. Thanks in advance.

<http://mtc.sri.com/live_data/av_rankings/>

Pete

 

[Rick]

<http://mtc.sri.com/live_data/av_rankings/>

Personally, I'd feel better about the accuracy of their testing regimen if
I knew which versions of the AV programs they were testing. The fact that
they are testing v2 of NOD32 is pretty disheartening since v3 has been out
and in use for over a year now. It throws their results into question as
far as I'm concerned.

 

[M.Balarama]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring. I am looking for
something a little lighter on the system. Also any anti malware. Any
suggestions would be helpful because every website seems to say something
different. Thanks in advance.

use the avast anti virus for free-but I have DSL and a router
used to have escan but tried this and it works great and is free-have it on
2 compters and it updates itself.
http://www.avast.com/
I find it is more important fo rme to have a good spyware things and have
counterspy on one computer and webroot on the other...they block a lot of
shit.
Michael

 

[Rube Bumpkin]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring. I am looking for
something a little lighter on the system. Also any anti malware. Any
suggestions would be helpful because every website seems to say something
different. Thanks in advance.

Based on reading a lot of posts here, I switched my family (and all of
the friends I also support) over to Avira Free over the last 6 months.
In total, this is some 15 systems. I've had no infections at home, or
nasty phone calls from friends. The biggest problem is the nag screen,
but that's relatively easy to get rid of, just about two minutes in Safe
Mode.

Note that I also use and recommend SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytes
AntiMalware, Spbybot S&D, and Ad-Aware.

Good luck,
RB

 

[Buffalo]

Based on reading a lot of posts here, I switched my family (and all of
the friends I also support) over to Avira Free over the last 6 months.
In total, this is some 15 systems. I've had no infections at home, or
nasty phone calls from friends. The biggest problem is the nag screen,
but that's relatively easy to get rid of, just about two minutes in
Safe Mode.

Why bother? The nag screen does remind you of the great and FREE
antivirus program you are using. It is only on for moments and I leave it on
as a tribute to the authors.
I also read somewhere that stopping the nagscreen could cause some problems,
but I can't remember where or what but it seemed to have something to do
with an engine or version update.
PS: I also think free Avira is a great program. I run Win2000Pro.

Note that I also use and recommend SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytes
AntiMalware, Spbybot S&D, and Ad-Aware.

Perhaps you should also add the free SpywareBlaster to you list. It prevents
a lot of crapware from ever getting on your computer and uses almost no
resources.

 

[VanguardLH]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring. I am looking for
something a little lighter on the system. Also any anti malware. Any
suggestions would be helpful because every website seems to say something
different. Thanks in advance.

Well, are you considering payware or only freeware? That can make the
difference in choosing which security product to use as some freeware
products lose some features from their payware version.

For example:

- I'd pick Avira Antivir payware version over Avast (free or paid).

- However, I'd pick Avast freeware version of Avira's freeware version
(which drops malware and web shield that Avast keeps in their freeware
version).

So from these choices, the criteria of payware or freeware changes which
one gets selected. I payware is allowed, Avira would be chosen. If
freeware were required, Avast would be chosen.

You mention Norton which is typically a payware product except many
pre-built hosts come with trialware versions of it pre-installed and
maybe that's why it is close to expiring. You never stated what were
your criteria for choosing a software replacement.

 

[VanguardLH]

Personally, I'd feel better about the accuracy of their testing regimen if
I knew which versions of the AV programs they were testing. The fact that
they are testing v2 of NOD32 is pretty disheartening since v3 has been out
and in use for over a year now. It throws their results into question as
far as I'm concerned.

"All antivirus binary analysis results are provided via
www.virustotal.com".

So complain to virustotal.com for not using the latest and greatest
version, or ask them why they choose to remain back on v2.

 

[1PW]

Personally, I'd feel better about the accuracy of their testing regimen if
I knew which versions of the AV programs they were testing. The fact that
they are testing v2 of NOD32 is pretty disheartening since v3 has been out
and in use for over a year now. It throws their results into question as
far as I'm concerned.

Hello Rick:

I agree with you.

Actually NOD32 AntiVirus 4.0.226 RC1 came out in the last couple of
weeks I think.

If ESET is following industry accepted version numbering, then the above
release should be a major one.

Would be nice if someone at SRI could enlighten us.

Pete

 

[Tass]

Well, are you considering payware or only freeware? That can make the
difference in choosing which security product to use as some freeware
products lose some features from their payware version.

For example:

- I'd pick Avira Antivir payware version over Avast (free or paid).

- However, I'd pick Avast freeware version of Avira's freeware version
(which drops malware and web shield that Avast keeps in their freeware
version).

So from these choices, the criteria of payware or freeware changes which
one gets selected. I payware is allowed, Avira would be chosen. If
freeware were required, Avast would be chosen.

You mention Norton which is typically a payware product except many
pre-built hosts come with trialware versions of it pre-installed and
maybe that's why it is close to expiring. You never stated what were
your criteria for choosing a software replacement.

Thanks for all the feedback. I will go with the best program regardless of
free or $$$. Plus with auto updates.

One of the replies brought up other programs for spam etc.
SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytesAntimalware, Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware. Do you
run these programs 24/7 or just update and scan with them? Maybe I should
have started another post but I hope I get replies. Thanks again.

 

[VanguardLH]

Thanks for all the feedback. I will go with the best program regardless of
free or $$$. Plus with auto updates.

One of the replies brought up other programs for spam etc.
SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytesAntimalware, Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware. Do you
run these programs 24/7 or just update and scan with them? Maybe I should
have started another post but I hope I get replies. Thanks again.

The more security software is running the more it gets in the way of you
using your computer and less responsive becomes your host. If you want
multiple different-product scanners on your host, don't run them
concurrently but just as occasional or scheduled on-demand scanners
(that is, don't load their on-access or real-time scanners). However,
several of these products will still load a program on Windows startup
or login whether their on-access scanner is running or not. So watch
the process list to see what new ones show up after install a new
security program even after disabling its real-time protection. So even
when intending on using them as only on-demand scanners, they could
still conflict with each other because of these ancilliary processes
that they still load on startup.

 

[Buffalo]

Thanks for all the feedback. I will go with the best program
regardless of free or $$$. Plus with auto updates.

One of the replies brought up other programs for spam etc.
SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytesAntimalware, Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware.
Do you run these programs 24/7 or just update and scan with them?
Maybe I should have started another post but I hope I get replies.
Thanks again.

Well, on my Win2000Pro system, I run the paid version of SAS in real time,
free MBAM for on-demand only and also the free SpywareBlaster.
I am extremely satisfied with all three.
PS: I also use Avira's free AntiVir as my main anti-virus program.
Actually none have found any 'real' intrusions in my system, so I guess that
I really don't know how effective they really are.

 

[kurt wismer]

"All antivirus binary analysis results are provided via
www.virustotal.com".

So complain to virustotal.com for not using the latest and greatest
version, or ask them why they choose to remain back on v2.

no, complain about sri.com not being able to design an anti-malware test
that comes anywhere near being reasonable...

virustotal is for testing malware, not anti-malware... even the people
who provide the service say anti-malware tests designed this way are
bogus...

 

[Rube Bumpkin]

Tass wrote:

One of the replies brought up other programs for spam etc.
SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytesAntimalware, Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware. Do you
run these programs 24/7 or just update and scan with them? Maybe I should
have started another post but I hope I get replies. Thanks again.

I run Avira full-time. SAS has a small low-intrusion process running.
The others are on-demand only. I run them once a week, one at a time, or
whenever anything 'funny' happens. My wife and kids are trained to run
them as needed if there is any question about their systems' behavior.

RB

 

[Bill]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring.

The best anti-virus is your own common sense. Get some. It's free.

 

[civilian]

The best anti-virus is your own common sense. Get some. It's free.

That explains why so many people are completely unprotected.

 

[VanguardLH]

no, complain about sri.com not being able to design an anti-malware test
that comes anywhere near being reasonable...

virustotal is for testing malware, not anti-malware... even the people
who provide the service say anti-malware tests designed this way are
bogus...

They are upfront with the first statement declaring that their results
are from virustotal.com. They show ranking based on THOSE results. Use
their list for what you want. It's not like their hiding how they came
up with those results.

 

[Virus Guy]

My Norton Antivirus is getting close to expiring.

When my Norton Antivirus 2002 expires, I uninstall the product, delete
several Symantec directories, then reinstall the product. As long as
the file "catalog.livesubscribe" has been deleted, NAV 2002 will happily
reinstall itself and renew it's functionality for another year.

Then I go and download the latest intelligent updater package, which
brings NAV 2002 right up to date with the current virus definitions and
scan engine.

It's my impression that NAV 2003 and newer are much more difficult to
re-install and re-obtain another year's worth of free functionality.

I am looking for something a little lighter on the system.

Can't beat the 2002 version for being easy on system resources.

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Can't beat the 2002 version for being easy on system resources.

Are you comfortable using a seven-year-old scanning engine?