Good antivirus

Accelerator X, I've been looking for info on Sophos and wondering why I've heard decent things about it in the past but can't find a recent review of it. Thanks for those timely posts.

I've stuck with AVG Free + Ad-Aware + Spybot for a while, b/c 1) they're all free, 2) AVG scans quickly and is resource-light, and 3) AAW & Spybot detect some tracking cookies every time, so it seems like they're doing their job. But a recent problem with svchost rendering a system unresponsive (turned out to be a problem with Window's Auto Updater) ratcheted up my paranoia levels, so I started to look for paid A/V + A/S. Staples had Webroot's Spy Sweeper + A/V for 3 PCs package for free after rebate, so I picked it up with the intention of installing it in a few home PCs. Before I opened it, though, I installed their demo.

How the f-ing h can this program take four and a half hours to scan a 16GB root drive. Seriously, FOUR POINT FIVE HOURS. Sure, it's not slowing my system down much while it scans (even though the slider is set to maximize speed and CPU/RAM usage), but AVG took all of 40 minutes to scan my whole HD, 145GB. Heck, even throw in separate scans with AAW and Spybot and I'm probably still close to an hour total for three separate trawls through my HD.

I guess I should try Webroot without the A/V part to see how it fares, and revert to AVG. I tried Avast's freeware A/V, but it seemed much slower and less intuitive than AVG. I'll give NOD32 a try (well-reviewed and relatively cheap [$40] two-year renewals, though I see from chav's experience that perfection remains elusive). I think I've tried it before--I've definitely tried Kaspersky--but I don't remember my impression of it. Probably since they found no virii and hadn't incorporated spyware scanning back then, I reverted to AVG rather than paying to find nothing (great logic ). I also bought PC-cillin a year or two ago--it was decently fast with an unintuitive interface--but I never renewed. I used McAfee and mostly Norton in the Win9x days, but it's been a while, and I've stayed away with the bad reviews of a few years ago.

Or I could relax and stick with my current setup, which is quite close to Frank's (I've got a NAT router, too, and stick with Firefox for the most part) and hasn't netted me an infection yet (according to AVG and the various free online scans [Kaspersky, Housecall, Sophos, etc.] I do occasionally, knock on wood).

I used to have Windows Defender, too, b/c I figured it couldn't hurt, but it never caught anything, slowed me down with its occasional scans, and doesn't seem to be well-reviewed, so I ditched it.

 

Are the people using nod32 still happy with it? Im looking at getting it, but wanted some recent views on it first. (currently trying their free trial).

 

I used to use AVG, but lost a whole Windows install thanks to a virus. What use is a antivirus if it doesn't work?

I switched to NOD32 years ago and haven't looked back. No issues at all, with the virus DB updating very frequently. Highly recommended. I've had no issues with viruses since my last headache, with NOD32 picking them up before executing any app (including .jar at naughty websites from within the browser, thankfully!) Oh and before I forget, there's also seamless (optionally silent) integration with Office and most notably Outlook.

 

I am still happily using AntiVir Personal. Great virus scanner for zero bucks you can't beat that.

 

I like NOD32 best: you never notice it, and it's good. AVG gets second place, but is free.

 

AVG is good, but I use BitDefender, some very slick features....

 

NOD32 multi-year family pack here. I finally just got sick and tired of what a massive PITA NAV made itself in the name of anti-piracy. And then when I put NOD32, it found several virii-infected files that NAV had never mentioned.

 

I rate Norton/Symantec worst, it's a terrible product. It doesn't do what it is supposed to do, fucks up things it shouldn't, and makes your computer crawl. And it's often hard to remove completely.

 

I've used Trend Micro the last couple of years. All-in-one anti-virus/firewall and does a decent enough job, and a good price at $49/year for 3 computers.

 

I use F-Secure Internet Security (all-in-one solution) these days. It's free because I'm still a student at the university, and I think it works great.

There are fairly frequent updates, and yeah, I find it much better than Norton. As an anecdote, it detected a virus of sorts on a USB key my brother had, but Norton didn't. It's expensive though (based on the prices at their website).

edit: actually I'm not sure what it is. The university website says it's the anti-virus, but it also comes with a firewall software. At any rate, everything on their website seems expensive.

 

Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 7, really good with lots of features, easy for the newbies and more than satisfying for the pros. One of the few to that provide complete protection of the programs files and services (no set to inactive in serivces!).

Etc etc etc spanking the competition....

 

If anyone in the u.k wants avg pro
then its on this months personal computer world cover dvd

 

Or on the Internet in the same trail form this one is likely to be.

 

no full version 1 year subsciption
ps: januarys' computer shopper magazine has kaspersy's antivirus 7 for free but only 6 months subsciption (trial version on kaspersky's web page is only 30 days)

 

My 2c...

On my home PCs I use AVG free+adaware+hardware firewall. Used to use Trend Micro. Have had good luck with both.

What I have had huge trouble with is windows update.

ERK

 

If you use all that and Firefox or Opera, turn Windows update off and all is well.

 

AVG to me is the best choice for an AntiVirus.