What is the best anti-virus at the moment

[TONY L]

I know this may have been ask before, but what is the best anti-virus out there at the moment?

I'm looking for something that don't take up a lot of resources.
At the moment I'm using avg7, the free version. But not sure if its doing as good as job as many others out there.

[yoda313]

It's pretty resource intensive from what I understand but I have always used Norton and always will. Just a preference but I've stayed with them this long and see no reason to switch.

[highvolumeJP]

As much as people trash Norton, and while it is a resource hogging application, it has always worked for me - If you have a low system configuration, running windows on 64MB or 128MB, you should look elsewhere.

Norton is said to miss certain viruses, but there again some other software misses things Norton catches. I use both Norton and F-PROT. Kaspersky is also considered good.

[BJ_M]

avira is rated number 1 right now by several sources -- i like it

avaast is also quite good

[gadgetguy]

I've been satisfied with Avast.

[bigmicka]

i like Avast too. the only thing that irks me is getting woken up at 3am if i have left my computer on, when it says "Virus Database has been updated" you know a pop up window would have worked just as good.

mic

[lordsmurf]

AVG is my choice.

[waheed]

I used to be a user of Norton. Now I use AVG.

[offline]

NOD32 seems to always be in the top five in independent tests, and it is light on resources. NOD32 has the best heuristic testing which is very important. However it can get unstable if a lot of ports are being used, and is not a complete 'suite', if that is what you are looking for.

AVG and Avast both stack up well IMO and are also 'light', but I don't feel they are as good as they used to be. Avira is another good one (free PE) but I would not bother with the paid version (yet) even though their firewall is one of the best I've seen.

[gadgetguy]

i like Avast too. the only thing that irks me is getting woken up at 3am if i have left my computer on, when it says "Virus Database has been updated" you know a pop up window would have worked just as good.

mic

You can silence that annoing voice in the Sounds and Audio Devices section of Control Panel. It's the sound labeled "Automatic VPS Updates"

[Faustus]

NOD32 seems to always be in the top five in independent tests

Yes it or Kaspersky though I wouldn't suggest kapersky as it seemed to really drag down our test PC badly.


For my "money" I just use AVG though.

[highvolumeJP]

I wouldn't reocmmend AVG at all - it fails on a lot of tests and misses a lot of malware, trojans and viruses that Norton catches.

After consulting the virus bulletin lab testing, Norton has high scores and very fewer failure rates compared to others, so I'm sticking with Norton. AVG has a lot of fails. I like Norton (latest version) for its ability to not only catch viruses, but worms, trojans, malware, scripts and has a larger database of non viral threats than other programs.

[lordsmurf]

Norton might protect the computer, but it does so at the cost of using up high amounts of RAM and CPU for most people (not all, fishy as that is). McAfee is just as bad, if not outright worse, just a big glutten on CPU/RAM.

I basically suggest anything but those.

I use AVG, because it gets updates every few days for free, and is low-footprint on the system.

Most of the A/V software is the same these days, so you need to take tests with a grain of salt. Some of those tests that say Norton is the best, for example, are odd. In my experience, Norton was missing things that AVG found.

[BJ_M]

this report is very detailed and complete = scroll down a few pages for summery http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/report13.pdf

[Faustus]

[quote="highvolumeJP"]I wouldn't reocmmend AVG at all - it fails on a lot of tests and misses a lot of malware, trojans and viruses that Norton catches.
/quote]

Its about value protection for my processes. Kaspersky is awesome but made my computer into a 386 and also I like my spyware stopped by spyware programs and norton sucks as a spyware program.

[lordsmurf]

this report is very detailed and complete = scroll down a few pages for summery http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/report13.pdf

I wish people would learn to create press-ready PDFs. The images in that PDF you linked to are a real pain in the butt to see.

Are you using the free Avira?

[BJ_M]

they have one on their site (press ready pdf), i just could not find it this time...

i am using the free avira on several systems -- the good: low overhead , the bad: pop up ads to buy the full version now and then ..maybe a way to stop it , i have not looked to hard because it doesnt happen much

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

I was fan #1 of Norton AV and ALWAYS kept the database up to date.

And then one day my PC was flooded with worms....... (Remember the nasty ones that showed the screen "Windows will reboot in 60 seconds")

I switched to McAfee since then and I am still happy.

[zzyzzx]

Norton might protect the computer, but it does so at the cost of using up high amounts of RAM and CPU for most people (not all, fishy as that is). McAfee is just as bad, if not outright worse, just a big glutten on CPU/RAM.

I basically suggest anything but those.

I can vouch for the cost of using McAfee. I plan in getting something else sometime soon.

[Garibaldi]

AVG is my choice.

Same

[JimmyJoeBob]

I have used or tried most all of them at one time or another but the one that has worked best, not a resource hog, easy to use and very reliable is AVG. Installed on all of my home and work PC's.

[MJA]

I know this may have been ask before, but what is the best anti-virus out there at the moment?

I'm looking for something that don't take up a lot of resources.
At the moment I'm using avg7, the free version. But not sure if its doing as good as job as many others out there.

trust me it doesn't do a good job if you get hit with a virus.3 of my friends got hit with viruses AVG couldn't do anything about it ,I used NOD32,and Kaspersky to clean the mess.

If you are a high risk net user. Avoid AVG.if not AVG and Avest are fine for warning ,but not for cleaning

[lordsmurf]

High risk Internet users should be using a Virtual PC 2004 + Windows XP install anyway, if they're that stupid. Then you can simply replace the virtual hdd, and the actual OS and computer remains unaffected.

[Frack300]

I had a really good read on this, very detail,
and very useful information.Thanks.

[Frack300]

I had a really good read on this, very detail,
and very useful information.Thanks.

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning.
/ Moderator BJ_M -- spam bot

[Faustus]

High risk Internet users should be using a Virtual PC 2004 + Windows XP install anyway, if they're that stupid. Then you can simply replace the virtual hdd, and the actual OS and computer remains unaffected.

http://www.sandboxie.com/

[pfh]

AVG is my choice.

Same

Me too.

Kaspersky had some not to long ago problems with a WinXP update but was later fixed via another MS update hotfix (in case anyone missed it) for what it's worth.

[lordsmurf]

High risk Internet users should be using a Virtual PC 2004 + Windows XP install anyway, if they're that stupid. Then you can simply replace the virtual hdd, and the actual OS and computer remains unaffected.

http://www.sandboxie.com/

Very nice, but too hard for the average user who would screw up their machine.

I do the VPC route for my parents and siblings. The only issue is hoping they don't make a mess between visits. Nothing is perfect, but the VPC route does severely limit issues, as does the use of Firefox and outright hiding IE from them and other software.

Eventually I might stick them on an RDP, so I can remotely fix.

[zzyzzx]

Do any of these come with a firewall? I'd love to dump my McAfee and get something better, but I'd lose my firewall if I uninstalled it. AVG doesn't appear to come with a firewall, and neither does NOD32.

[pfh]

There's always WinXP's and a router's security measures if you have one.