Best Anti-Virus...

[RDS1955]

Been using Norton Systemworks for the last 3 years... about time to either chuck it or renew it..Anyone care to throw in their two cents concerning Anti-Virus software..CNET.com gives high ratings to Mcafee, but I don't know..had a bad experiance with Mcafee some years back....Any comments or suggestions r welcome..TIA

PARANOID?!?! WHO'S PARANOID?!?!

[ROF]

I had bad experiences with McAfee in the past too. I currently use McAfee now after many years of using Norton. Why did I switch? Because my service provider gives McAfee for free and no other reason. I'd normally have to purchase AV software each year as my subscription ran out but instead I can just continue year after year without subscription expiration under my internet service providers plan.

I've found both Norton and McAfee to both be reliable AV protection so whichever is cheaper for you is the one you should pick.

[Baatfam]

I've been a loyal Norton user for the last 7 or so years until this spring.
The cost of renewal for updates was getting out of hand and I thought it was starting to slow my system.

I switched over to Avast after reading positive reviews here at videohelp.
It seems to work well....and...it's FREE! 8)

Later,
Bob T.

[ROF]

The only problem with Avast is it's virus cleaner is quite inadequate for new virus and the latest breed of windows worms. In some cases it even fails to detect these nasties.

[bgclarke]

I used to use McAfee for years, but found it to be a resource pig at the time.

A few years ago I switched to eTrust Anti-virus. It is easy on the system resources and has caught every virus and browser hijack attempt that has ever entered my home network.

[Baatfam]

The only problem with Avast is it's virus cleaner is quite inadequate for new virus and the latest breed of windows worms. In some cases it even fails to detect these nasties.

Really? I had understood it to be a fairly good option.
'Course....I've been wrong before

Later,
Bob T.

[RDS1955]

Thanks for all the replies..Anyone have any experiance with the following:

Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus
Eset's NOD32 Antivirus
Kaspersky Antivirus
Sophos Antivirus
FRISK F-Prot Antivirus

I've heard that Kaspersky's & F-Prot have high ratings..Even that Kaspersky's
has a history of catching stuff that Mcafee and Norton don't seem to see...

[Faustus]

AVG is great, and free for end users. Of course its not the BEST but you can't beat the price.

Kaspersky is said by many to be THE BEST. My one experiance with it had it eating a TON of my resources, I could really tell it was there.

Your gonna get alot of varied answers, and this is a topic that has come up a few times in the past so you might search and see what other info you can dig up.

personally I don't like "norton" but find the Symantic Antivirus that runs on my work machine is GREAT. Wish THAT was what was sold as norton, but instead is corporate software.

[b1tchm4gn3t]

All 3 of my computers have AVG installed, and Ive yet to have a problem. If it weren't free..I dont know what I would use.

[lordsmurf]

I had to chunk both Norton AV and Firewall on one system because it ate all my resources and always did this automated BS in the middle of trying to encode video or capture. Just recently I also removerd Norton Firewall from my main system and put Kerio in its place. Works a lot better now. Norton (Symantec) TSR stuff was crashing my system for no apparent reason.

I would not use McAfee, they're just as bad, if not worse, than Norton is lately. Resource pigs with all the auto crap that won't turn off even when you tell it to.

My Norton expired 2-3 months ago, so while AVG may not be "the best" I may switch to it anyway. Something current is still better than something outdated. Or so I would think.

[Jester700]

I use Avast, as I've had issues with a couple of clients' Win98 machines and AVG, but other than that I think they're generally comparable.

They're both generally considered a notch down from the heavy hitters, and Kaspersky is often considered the best in the tests I've read, but it's still a crapshoot. I've never had Avast miss one that Norton caught, but I've had Norton miss a couple that Avast caught.

One that's really good is the freeware AV Personal - catches lots of trojans, but it's only a scanner - no realtime protection.

You pays yer money (or not) and takes your choice.

[redwudz]

Sorry. Must have double posted.

[redwudz]

I've been impressed with Trend Micro, at least their free scans that have found things AVG didn't. I'm going to try their pay version.

But AVG is fairly good, fast and free. I gave up on Norton when I had to upgrade the whole program just to protect my computer. The updates within the versions didn't cut it. Macafee messed up my computer a couple of years ago and seemed to want to rescan everything endlessly. Slowed everything to a crawl. Avast was OK, but seemed to do a lot of unnecessary scanning, also.

EDIT: I should add; I also use Spybot, Spyware Blaster, XoftSpy and a hardware firewall/router, along with Windows firewall.

[mastersmurfie]

I've used AVG for a couple of years now...no problems at all..

[vitualis]

I give AVG the thumbs up and use it on my computers.

Regards.

[RDS1955]

Wow!! Thanks for all the replies!!! So much info to research and go through.. Think I'm probably gonna go with Kaspersky and Zone Alarm Firewall...But I've got a whole month yet before my anti-virus subscription runs out, so I'm gonna tackle some sturdy and research before making the final decision..

Thanks again to everybody for their input and replies..

[guns1inger]

In my experience, the free version of Avast! finds things AVG misses, and has a broader scope. I use Norton's at home, and have never had a problem with resource usage or crashing, although I have known people who have had these issues. From my experience I have always been happy with it. I use the firewall mainly for it's URL filtering on my kids accounts. I use Sygate Personal Firewall Pro as well, and between the two, nothing gets in or out without me knowing about it.

A major client of mine uses eTrust, which I have been very disappointed with.

[Vchat20]

proud AVG user here. i give it 2 thumbs up.

[burnman99]

You could try Clamwin32 which is an open source antivirus program


Later

Rog

[jimmalenko]

AVG has worked well for me over the last couple of years. A number of people here swear by Avast, and we're using Trend Micro at work with no complaints.

[wtfchuck]

After trying all of the above in the past, I am now using NOD32 and it has become my favorite, very small footprint.

http://www.eset.com/download/download.htm

[Faustus]

Hrm... Kaspersky is still a huge resource drain BUT...

I had a friend who had something odd happening with his system. He scanned with everything he could and it found nothing AVG, His Norton, various online scanners. So I suggested he get the Kaspersky free trial.

The scan took FOREVER, but I'll be darned if it didn't find it and it appears to be clean now. Some java crap.

So for the record Kaspersky DOES kickass, but even he said his system felt slow with it installed.

[lordsmurf]

I dumped Norton on both systems. I now have Kerio and AVG and they work well. In fact, maybe even a bit better than Norton.

[Captain315]

I just dropped Norton System Works and am now using McAfee because it is supplied free of charge by my ISP. Norton was definitely bogging down my machine. Things run alot faster now that it's gone.