Best 2010 Antivirus Software

[Jeremiah58]

The least resource hungry pay for internet security packages around at the moment (in my experience) are the Norton 2010 suites.

I've removed it from my system, as I've said, so I do not remember the details, but I doubt that.
I do remember a large number of processes running using a considerable amount of RAM.

Yes, there is a toolbar but then most security packages (free and pay for) want to install a toolbar and at least you can reduce the Norton one and have it sharing the same row as the Google toolbar...

Sir, I've got a name for a program that wants to install anything without my consent - a spyware.
And that toolbar was not the only thing which annoyed me. I was under impression that darn thing took over my entire machine. As I've said, NIS 2009 performed well and silent, but NIS 2010 is one of the most annoying programs that I've seen in my life.

To the OP, if you find Norton is really slowing down your system, learn about cleaning/tweaking your system and removing those unnecessary background processes...

Yep, make "room" for the NIS 2010 - it would perform even "better".

[creamyhorror]

I use www.virustotal.com . It doesn't slow down my computer at all. .

Me too. I love it, it detects almost anything known and also allows you to figure out if it's a false positive. Of all the packages used, I usually trust ESET and Kaspersky the most.

Over on download.cnet.com
Avira "the 2010 edition isn't quite as good as it could be. Both longtime and new users alike will note the pop-up ad that appears whenever a program update is downloading etc."

Hmm, but it has the second highest detection rate (99.3%) in the industry at present:



Avast, on the other hand, has a fair detection rate of 97.3%, and AVG, a horrible 94.2%. Norton isn't bad at 98.6%. Of course, we're just talking detection rates here, but that's probably the most important metric of antivirus performance.

Data from Fed 2010 report at

http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests

[netmask56]

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32 and 64 bit boxes. I use the Windows firewall, AVG Free Edition, and Spybot Search and Destroy. I'm behind a router and sometimes I run PeerGuard if I'm feeling a bit paranoid. But basically I don't click things that suddenly pop up or respond to any emails that are not from my list of friends and rels. I had Nortons years ago but as my computers are also DAW's music composition and audio processing are not a good mix with Norton's as it slows everything down and plays havoc with your latency with MIDI.

[Constant Gardener]

I have MS Security Essentials running on Win 7 Pro and Ultimate, and scan with Superantispyware and Malwarebytes. Seems to work, however I usually avoid doubtful sites, and I don't see annoying pop-ups thanks to Adblock Plus. I haven't noticed any performance hits.

[computeguy]

Been with NOD32 for atleast 4yrs.. Never had an issue... Its light weight, doesn't slow down your system
and catches most issues.

[MJA]

I run PeerGuard if I'm feeling a bit paranoid. .

try PeerBlock(r320) not bad at all

[lordsmurf]

AVG would delete software without my permission, due to false results.
Norton slowed the system up, and would cause problems working with audio or video.

Those are just bad products.

[TBoneit]

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32 and 64 bit boxes. I use the Windows firewall, AVG Free Edition, and Spybot Search and Destroy. I'm behind a router and sometimes I run PeerGuard if I'm feeling a bit paranoid. But basically I don't click things that suddenly pop up or respond to any emails that are not from my list of friends and rels. I had Nortons years ago but as my computers are also DAW's music composition and audio processing are not a good mix with Norton's as it slows everything down and plays havoc with your latency with MIDI.

I hope you realize that if a friends or relatives computer gets one of the viruses that spreads through email it will send itself to you as coming from them.

You are trusting someone else to stay virus free whenever you open their email no matter who it is from.

From here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic306051.html
"According to the MAAWG report, a full half of all North American and Western European users admitted to having opened spam, with nearly half of those people (46 percent) doing so intentionally"

Read more. http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/idiot-users-still-intentionally-opening-c...ng-on-spam.ars
"Internet users are still opening their spam e-mail with abandon and clicking the links and/or opening the attachments within. These are the latest findings from the Ipsos Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)"


The new Norton is lighter on the system installs much faster etc.

You may be safe if you never mistype a URL. I've done it I wanted www.soundblaster.com and mistyped it as www. soundbaster .com (Spaces added) and had to pull the cable modem power to stop the Porn storm. Or the time I typed .com from habit for the whitehouse website and hit a porn site instead. One moments inattention.

Anyway
Cheers

[hardy]

I'd like to see a poll for Anti-Virus software. Someone should make one

[fritzi93]

None..........don't need any.

any problems and I just restore my system from externally stored images.

Yeah, same here except for my wife's surfing/email computer. She gets loads of those stupid forwarded emails, so...

As to the other computers, they're behind routers, and using Windows firewall. I do install SpywareBlaster and occasionally run MBAM and SAS, and an online antivirus scan. Almost never find anything.

[EDIT] Been doing it this way for at least two years.

[creamyhorror]

I hope you realize that if a friends or relatives computer gets one of the viruses that spreads through email it will send itself to you as coming from them.

You are trusting someone else to stay virus free whenever you open their email no matter who it is from.

I've heard of emails that exploit security holes in mail programs such that they infect the moment the mail is viewed, but I believe such cases are rare. It's largely not a big deal to open (view) mails from friends and family.

Executables or unfamiliar extensions, should of course never be opened at all regardless of who sent them (in normal situations anyway), so that's no danger either. I never get anything more advanced than a PPT or DOC in my email myself.

[lowellriggsiam]

Anyone catch this http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36694120/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/ about McAffe going berzerk?

[MOVIEGEEK]

I've heard of emails that exploit security holes in mail programs such that they infect the moment the mail is viewed, but I believe such cases are rare. It's largely not a big deal to open (view) mails from friends and family.

Executables or unfamiliar extensions, should of course never be opened at all regardless of who sent them (in normal situations anyway), so that's no danger either. I never get anything more advanced than a PPT or DOC in my email myself.

Email is the number one threat to PC's, the first malware in the late 80's was a joke between friends but now it steals personal info.
The average user doesn't have "show file extensions" enabled and click on attachments, they also use Outlook Express which is the most dangerous email program to use. Most AV programs will not work on Outlook Express but work on Outlook(Office).

The latest threats are from ZIP and PDF files which most people think are safe, the problem is AV software can't scan them while they are attachments.

[hardy]

The av-comparatives.org website is pretty helpful.

[John]

AVG, but i only installed that to fix my mates computer which had norton installed but was riddled with viruses. I was impressed that I didnt have any after years without anything on my system. AVG still running but wouldnt know it was there.

[creamyhorror]

The average user doesn't have "show file extensions" enabled and click on attachments

Then it's a problem of education, I guess. I see a lot of warnings not to click on attachments from untrusted sources, but people would be better served by not clicking on anything besides a pure data file at all.

The latest threats are from ZIP and PDF files which most people think are safe, the problem is AV software can't scan them while they are attachments.

ZIP archives have problems now? I know there are various security holes in PDFs from time to time. All I've done on that front is keep updated.

BTW, doesn't Gmail's scanning catch many viruses? People using that ought to have less trouble with such malware, no?

[Poppa_Meth]

McAfee isn't just going berserk. It's just not very good at what it does. I've worked on two machine recently with McAfee's Security Suite on them. Both had numerous virus/spyware infections, even though McAfee was up to date and all services were running as they should be. MBAM, SAS, and Kasperky Rescue CD took care of what McAfee never even saw. I've had similar experiences recently with the latest Norton products (which by the way slowed every XP machine there were on to a crawl, regardless of system specs). I'm working on one now that has what appears to be a major rootkit infections. Even GMER isn't much help on this one. A full reformat/restore with Avast, MBAM, SAS, and a few other free utilities seems to be the ticket.

[usually_quiet]

Nobody in my family is a big fan of McAfee's security software either, though for some reason it gets a fair number of good reviews.

I live 300 miles away, but my sister became so frustrated with it that she brought her XP netbook on one visit and then the family XP desktop on the next visit so I could get rid of it and remove the malware it let through. She seems happy enough using Comodo, Malwarebytes and Avast. The acid test will be letting her son use the family computer again. Apparently, he isn't very careful online.