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What Anti-Virus do you Use/Recommend?


What Anti-Virus do you Use/Recommend?  

1,070 members have voted

  1. 1. What Anti-Virus do you Use/Recommend?

    • AntiVir
      53
    • Avast
      96
    • AVG
      97
    • BitDefender
      26
    • ClamAV
      15
    • eTrust
      12
    • F-Prot
      11
    • Kaspersky
      155
    • McAfee
      30
    • NOD32
      273
    • Norton
      28
    • Symantec
      60
    • Trend Micro
      20
    • Other - ?
      51
    • None!
      45


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Gouki said:
Software today is betting allot on graphics. People prefer to have a cute program that does not do what it is supposed to then a ugly YET functional application that "just works".

There are a lot of programs that have a very nice GUI and do work very effectively. JV16 PowerTools, CCleaner, nLite, Opera, etc, and none of these are open-source. Saying "software" today" isn't very accurate, more of a slightly inappropriate generalization, also taking into account that you stated you haven't used anti-virus in 7 years.

Off course there is good software, but big part of it is not as good as it should be. You gave me examples of good software as I could give you allot of examples of software that isn't good. I never said ALL software was poor, I said ALLOT of software is poor, wich is something I still believe!

also taking into account that you stated you haven't used anti-virus in 7 years.
Will you ever understand that I never talked about AV software in this thread?!
Gouki said:
Like gunsmokingman said, NOT what AV is the best, but what do you use and recommend.

I'd rather people have a proper and unbiased analysis on the truly superior anti-virus programs out there instead of having more people post, exciting the enthusiasts, just to see some n00b say "Norton rules!". That's a waste of time to say that, a waste of space on the forum, and when in reality Norton is the most problematic and memory hogging anti-virus in existence.

If some 'n00b' comes here and say's "Norton rules!", they are doing the right thing. They use Norton and recommend it. Yes, it may not be the most accurate statement, however, it is what this thread is for. To know what AV software the members use.

If you want to talk about wich AV software is the best, do it. But here is not the place.

This discussion is over!

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No, I do feel my statement is justified because you guys defend a product like AVG while praising performance over GUI, when AVG's performance and feature-set compared to that of Kaspersky is not something to write home about. As I said, that's where I come in to show which anti-virus can be properly praised about. You can be used to it all you like, but even if the GUI sucks, if the feature-set and performance are superior to many others of it's kind, it's getting a medal.
Here we go again with you making assumtion, now before you go placing words in my mouth or any one else on this board lets review some of your remarks.
No, I do feel my statement is justified because you guys defend a product like AVG while praising
Now forgive me when did I praise this product, please I must of missed that and for that matter when did Gouki say it was what you stated. Please be specific, here I will help you if this the statement you claim is full of praise, here a hint it is not. Here is what I assume he ment, I will make it simple for you to under stand.
I can't talk about AV, since the last one I used was probably 7 years ago. When I said "performance over eye candy" I was not specifically talking about AV applications, since I barely know wich ones are out there.

Gouki makes it clear that he does not know much about AV, but he understand that the more flash a program has the more resources it will use, that a simple thing to comprehend. Nothing in hear about Kaspersky, or any praise about AVG.

It like loading up your car the more weight it carries the less gas mileage it will get. That a fact the same applies to programs also.

On to my origanl statement, can you pleas explain to me where I said and quote

because you guys defend a product like AVG while praising performance over GUI, when AVG's performance and feature-set compared to that of Kaspersky is not something to write home about.

I use AVG free I like it, it automatic update works well, I have not caught any viruses with this.

Please post any thing that even justifies the red text statement, all I said and this is simple again

I use AVG free, automatic updates work well, I have not caught any virus.

As to the GUI stuff I made a statement that supports Gouki and I offer a explanation, no where did Gouki or I mention any names. Please prove this statement wrong now remeber stop making assumtion.

How can you wreck a simple thread? I mean if I like Chocolate ice cream and you like Vanilla we are both right. How simple is that now I will restate this one more time to help you out, I have not said one bad thing about any AV, I have not praised AVG other then I like and I have been happy with it. That a truth full statement nothing more.

I will quote Gouki using his example

If some 'n00b' comes here and say's "Norton rules!", they are doing the right thing. They use Norton and recommend it. Yes, it may not be the most accurate statement, however, it is what this thread is for. To know what AV software the members use.
I agree with this statement and I hope most members agree with it because it 100 percent correct.

If any thing it you who is bad mouthing AVG , you like what you use and I am fine with that. Now for the last time so you can understand this

Gouki and I and have not stated we love AVG in fact he says he does not use any AV and admits to not knowing much about it, I have not stated it the best. I said I was happy with it nothing more. We have not said any derogatory remakes about any thing and or any product.
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my best AV solucion is still running linux in non-privileged mode,

but as id say, a few moths a go i say this comparison test on a mayer dutch techsite witch still state - kasparske nod32 (and 1 or 2 other) as quickest respondends on nieuw virus threads,

and in my opinion that IS the most important thing, (not how many bugs are in software) but how quickly it is resolved after discovery ...

some techguy at microsoft once state that per 1.000 lines of code you get 10 coding-mistakes in normal software,

5 on critical software (like firewalls and antivirus, and mision critical corporate software,

and aprox 3 in an Operating system..

this doesn't mean all are exploitable but are faults non the less...

so lets not only talk about

how good it looks, or howmany features it has, or how few resources it needs, but also about how quick it responds to new threats, (with updates).

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I used to use Norton 2005, with all the extras but found that it slowed down my system. I then changed to Mcafee 9. However, the Alcan worm infected my system in beteween updates! i.e Once the worm was detected by Mcafee, it said that it could not be removed until it recieves an update. Amazingly, it was set to auto update and, i'm on the net everyday. So, after all that i use NOD32, with Outpost firewall. Everything seems fine, for now! :P

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my best AV solucion is still running linux in non-privileged mode...
so lets not only talk about

how good it looks, or howmany features it has, or how few resources it needs, but also about how quick it responds to new threats, (with updates).

I'm glad to hear you have your own personal anti-malicious system on Linux running, but I'm concerned about the hundreds of millions of n00bs out there who barely know how to turn on a computer, let alone use an anti-virus program, I want to be able to compare all products and tell others what programs really are best overall.

As for GUI, features and memory usage, these seem to be more important to most users than how fast a definition file is released for a 0-day critical Windows exploit, for example. However, you have a very good point. Thankfully, McAfee has always done a great job of coming to the rescue when Microsoft likes to take a week before addressing a serious issue. McAfee sends out a fix and informs other companies, Kaspersky for example. Also, programs like Kaspersky, NOD32, and others update daily, so I think it's all good.

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OK, let's calm down, everybody.

But, what I mean is, you'll never take the time and effort to compare different anti-virus programs to see which one actually has the better feature-set and how well it performs those features.
I took the time. I'm an elementary school computer instructor. Families bring their machines to me all the time to repair on the cheap, and I occassionally get calls from colleagues who "clicked that thingy" and now their machine is hosed.

We pay for SAV10 here at school. It is a nightmare. All of the machines take a massive performance hit (PIIs @400MHz/512MB RAM) given that they are marginal WinXP machines in the first place, and all are easily wracked by viruses. Attachments get opened and Symantec sleeps while the virus runs wild. Again and again, that has been the story. True. I no longer help out when virus issues arise...I let them deal with it...all day...or all week. The systems in my Lab are protected.

Families bring their "Norton protected" systems to me (Dell ought to be ashamed, because none of these people subscribe after their trial period ends, they simply don't know any better: "But I have Norton!" Yeah, but the definitions are two years out of date, so....). Teens using P2P, clicking IM links, surfing porn, playing games...and with no more sense than God gave a billy goat. The result is predictable. You and I don't need system-sucking virus protection, but these people do.

I formerly used SAV10 to attempt to repair. No longer. I use AVG Free, and load it on all my installs. Take a typical, hosed machine: three minutes to boot to the desktop. Pop-up adverts all over the place, processes running from here to China, etc. Now load SAV10 and update. Now boot to Safe Mode and scan. 1 item detected. Joke. Now load AVG Free and update. Now boot to Safe Mode and scan. 106 items detected. Reboot and find the system cleaned. Completely. No joke.

And I have seen AVG Free auto-update as many as three times in one day. Nice to know the boys and girls at AVG are working for you. I have yet to see a virus issue arise from an AVG-protected system (knock wood), and that's saying a lot in my environment.

AVG made a believer out of me. In my experience, Symantec is simply a waste of money, system resources, and time. Oh, yeah, Trend micro's free version lacks real-time protection, so what use is it to a typical user surfing the Web? And as for Windows Live OneCare, I ain't payin'

Edited by blinkdt
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@Blinkdt, everyone here is calm as far as I know. :hello:

I know exactly what you're talking about. We're on the same page there. I didn't say AVG was crap, perhaps some may have interpreted my posts as saying such, but maybe my emphasis on different feature-sets came out the wrong way. As I've said several times, we had AVG installed for over a year at the tech shop, then tried Kaspersky, 6 viruses found. But, Symantec is really that bad for you? I need to do some comparisons soon. Thanks for your input.

All I know is that when people bring in their HP computers with 10 pop-ups at boot, 45 processes, 45 start-up entries (35 of which are spyware/viruses), 220 spyware and 55 trojans... I run the following programs with updated definitions:

Ad-Aware SE Pro 1.06

SpyBot 1.4

Microsoft AntiSpyware

CWShredder (Trend Micro)

HijackThis

Kaspersky

After this, the system is totally cleaned, even of CoolWWWSearch. :thumbup

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Gouki, okay, you never talked about AV.

Truthfully the GUI does not matter, I would rather have some thing that works well and look crappy, then some thing that looks great and runs crappy.

Well, gunsmokingman, you use AVG then Gouki said Amen to your statement regarding performance over GUI. I fully agree, but I just want to know for a fact which anti-virus does have the best performance (definitions and features), so we aren't putting faith blindly into an anti-virus because it auto-updates and we just never happen to get a virus. An AV shouldn't be praised solely based on whether or not you never become infected while you're using that particular AV, but its ability to disinfect/delete/quarantine infections.

I did make assumptions previously and I apologize.

If some 'n00b' comes here and say's "Norton rules!", they are doing the right thing. They use Norton and recommend it. Yes, it may not be the most accurate statement, however, it is what this thread is for. To know what AV software the members use.

If you want to talk about wich AV software is the best, do it. But here is not the place.

This discussion is over!

They are doing the right thing as far as the purpose of this thread technically stands, but they aren't doing a wise thing by recommending Norton due to how poorly it performs.

As for ending the discussion / game over, I'm not losing my temper or anything. I already apologized for making assumptions earlier in the thread, but I feel strongly motivated towards comparing anti-virus programs, just as I did for the registry cleaners. I admit I do care which anti-virus people use. I'm not going to flame you for using Norton, but I will strongly oppose that decision for obvious reasons. My mother had Avast on her laptop, I switched her to Kaspersky and it found Adware and Trojans, whereas Avast didn't. Keep in mind that different AV's have different definitions, but I think Kaspersky has more than Avast. Hell, AVG has more than Avast.

Edited by Jeremy
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@Jeremy why not create a new topic where you critically compare leading anti-virus software using a set of general criteria. btw I am still confused about what this 'feature-set' is that you keep refering too.

I personally don't use anti-virus software, so I don't have much to say about them. I know which ones are poor and which ones are good, but I am not convinced there is an absolute best. If you wan't to "prove" that Kaspersky is the best AV, please start a new topic which tries to do so. And then you may link to it here or post your conclusions. If you want to go ahead and do that, that would be great ;)

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I didn't say Kaspersky was the best, but it sure is one of the best. Also, I will create my own thread, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow... but someday... lol

Edit - Hmm, I guess I don't have to...

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2006_02.php

Top 3:

- Norton :'(

- Kaspersky

- NOD32

Edited by Jeremy
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But, Symantec is really that bad for you?
Yup. We had it loaded on my server and, at the insistence of our tech contractor removed Microsoft AntiSpyware because "SAV10 does that." Oh, really?

So one evening we were looking at Web sites, comparing their merits and such as we contemplated our own design, and called it a day. The next day I went back to the machine and found the browser had been hijacked! Heck, we were only looking at established high school Web sites. That was it for me, the last straw. Dumped SAV10 and loaded MSantispy/AVG and called it a day. No problems since then.

And our front office gets more darned viruses ("I just clicked that thingy, was that wrong?") on their SAV10-protected systems than I can count during the course of a year. Then they call the contractor, the guy who adamantly recommends SAV10, and he sits with the machines for a few hours...or days.... Hmmm.... Can you say "Ka-ching!"

FYI, I loaded up Avast last night. Not a big fan of the splash screen that appears when I open Outlook, or the registration nag, or the error messages I am receiving on system startup. Nice interface, though, but I am already late in uninstalling that one. :)

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if I am not mistaken, an Internet Hijacker is spyware and technically not a virus, therefor it makes sense why SAV10 didn't do anything about it. Microsoft AntiSpyware was the one that wiped it out, I'm sure.

Anyway, I'm actually not going to bother doing my own comparison because of that website I found. I don't feel like reinventing the wheel anytime soon. I'm just confident that if you use:

- Kaspersky

- NOD32

- AVG

- McAfee

- Symantec

that you're doing pretty good. Also, common sense is the best defense of all. :thumbup

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