Need an antivirus software recommendation

[Gregory Bailey]

First off, this is not going to be one of those generic "what's the best
antivirus software" posts, because I realize there is no "best" antivirus
software.

Instead, I'm looking for recommendations for an antivirus software that
would best work with my specific set of circumstances and variables.

I'm using a Dell Dimension computer, 2.4 gHz, 512 mb of RAM, running Windows
XP home, with Service Pack 1 ... yes I know I need to update to Service Pack
2, I have the CD, I just haven't gotten around to doing it but will be doing
it shortly ... with all current critical updates through Wednesday.

My ISP is EarthLink, and I'm still on a dial-up connection at 56k, a true
56k, would like to do DSL or cable at some point but it's not going to be
anywhere in the absolute immediate future.

EarthLink offers a bunch of security bells and whistles on its TotalAccess
browser, like a scam blocker and a spyware blocker. It also has a spam
blocker, which stops emails that are either obvious spam or from folks who
aren't in my address book at the server level and holds them in folders
where I can check them and either delete them permanently or let them pass
through. It also has a virus/worm scanner for emails at the server level.

I'm also using their Accelerator program which uses some kind of proxy ...
I'm not exactly sure about the technology ... to give nearly DSL performance
with a dial-up connection.

I had been running NAV 2005 on my computer for about a year with no problems
whatsoever, it seemed to integrate quite well with my EarthLink stuff and it
was pretty much "load it up and forget about it" as far as its performance.
However, it recently started giving me some problems, it would no longer
download updates. I contacted Symantec and they suggested uninstalling and
reinstalling the program. So I uninstalled the program, then went to get the
CD to reinstall it ... and found that the CD had, somehow, gotten broken and
would not work.

So I went shopping for another program and decided to try McAfee's Virus
Scan 10 instead of Norton's. I've had VS10 on my computer for less than a
week and it's given me nothing but absolute grief. It's slowed my system
down to a crawl and when I check the setting for it to scan email, I can no
longer receive email and it freezes my computer up at 100 percent CPU usage.
It also apparently deletes the cookies from my EarthLink home page to where
I have to log into it every time when I get online, plus it turned off the
spam protection filters that I described.

McAfee's tech support was no help and I've been doing some posting at
McAfee's forum trying to find some answers, but it seems like when I get one
thing taken care of, something else happens. The consensus seems to be that
there's a conflict between VS10 and the security bells and whistles
EarthLink offers, but I'm not inclined to drop an ISP that I've had great
success with since 1998 just to make an antivirus software work. It was also
mentioned there might be inherent conflicts between the speed of my dial-up
connection and VS10's bells and whistles, because it's apparently a pretty
potent piece of software, but as I said, DSL or cable really isn't in the
cards at this moment in time.

Bottom line, I'm about ready to try something else. I've considered going
back to Norton's. I've looked at stuff like Kaspersky, NOD32, BitDefender,
etc., so I'm familiar with what's out there.

Again, what I'm interested in would be some recommendations as to something
that will give me the best virus/worm/trojan protection while integrating
well with all the EarthLink security bells and whistles that I've described,
and basically would be a "load it up and forget about it" program unlike
VS10 which I've been having to nurse and baby and fix for nearly a week now.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[the2av]

maybe you can try kav

since they made a mistake of the virus win32.polipos

seems they has fixed it up.


it real destory many viruses .

 

[Peter Seiler]

Gregory Bailey - 05.05.2006 06:42 :

I had been running NAV 2005 on my computer...

another reason for your problem could be, that more than often NAV is
hardly to be uninstalled completely, leave remnants spread everywhere.
So there could be conflicts with other AV you install because of the NAV
remnants. There should be an uninstaller program on the NAV-site you may
try. And additionally have a look inside the registry for NAV remnants.

After uninstalling NAV *completely* there should normally no probs with
another AV like McAffee and others. My recommendation would be Kaspersky
or BitDefender.

 

[Frankster]

My suggestion is PC-cillon 2006 from Trend Micro.

-Frank

 

[Gregory Bailey]

I uninstalled with "add/delete programs" and also used Symantec's removal
tool. I just checked and there are a couple of items still in the Symantec
folder in the registry. Should I delete the whole folder or just those
items?

 

[Bob]

Asking for recommendations for anything opens the gate. Like, "what kind of
automobile should I buy". It's the one that suites you best, and you are at
the most ease using.
I have tried them all. Had problems with some, didn't like the formats of
the others.

I have settled on using AVAST (free addition). For my situation, its the
best. It has never give me any grief, and does automatic updates. There
may be better AV programs out there, but its personal opinions mostly.

Try what's available, and use what suits you best.

 

[Gregory Bailey]

Yeah, I know it opens the gate. Before I posted here, I looked in the
archives and saw numerous "gate-openings."

Basically, what I was trying to do was spell out a specific set of
circumstances and ask for recommendations from people with more knowledge
than I have as to what might best fit that specific set of circumstances,
instead of just a generic "what's the best" question. Because I'd rather not
try out 15 different softwares if I don't really have to, I was trying to
narrow it down a bit by spelling out those specific circumstances.

I've always been a Norton's user, it's always suited me fine and I've had no
trouble using any version of it. The McAfee I've got on my computer right
now is a completely different story.

Could the problem be my still being on dial-up Internet and not having
gotten around to installing SP2 yet, and vendors are making new,
high-powered software that takes for granted that people are either on DSL
or cable and have SP2 installed? I think I've still got Norton's 2002 around
somewhere, maybe that's the route I ought to take.

 

[louise]

Yeah, I know it opens the gate. Before I posted here, I looked in the
archives and saw numerous "gate-openings."

Basically, what I was trying to do was spell out a specific set of
circumstances and ask for recommendations from people with more knowledge
than I have as to what might best fit that specific set of circumstances,
instead of just a generic "what's the best" question. Because I'd rather not
try out 15 different softwares if I don't really have to, I was trying to
narrow it down a bit by spelling out those specific circumstances.

I've always been a Norton's user, it's always suited me fine and I've had no
trouble using any version of it. The McAfee I've got on my computer right
now is a completely different story.

Could the problem be my still being on dial-up Internet and not having
gotten around to installing SP2 yet, and vendors are making new,
high-powered software that takes for granted that people are either on DSL
or cable and have SP2 installed? I think I've still got Norton's 2002 around
somewhere, maybe that's the route I ought to take.

I wouldn't use Norton - especially not on a machine that has
limited speed to the internet. And, I wouldn't use Norton
anyway because it uses a lot of resources and it isn't worth
it. Also, if you install 2002, it is completely unsupported
by Symantec - even for a fee.

Consider NOD32 - resource usage is low and updates are very
small and very frequent - shouldn't tax your dial up connection.

Louise

 

[Cornelius J Rat]

I've always been a Norton's user, it's always suited me fine and I've had no
trouble using any version of it. The McAfee I've got on my computer right
now is a completely different story.

Trouble is, you can't rely on anything working for ever. I've been an AVG
Free user at home for two years, e-Trust at work, until a month ago. The
AVG's scan engine update stopped my Windows 98SE working on my old Toshiba
laptop after version 7.1.375. AVG remains on the ME and XP home machines,
but I'll be trying out Avast!