Best Anti-Virus software???

[kaine]

Have been using trend micro for ativirus but it is not picking up some of the latest ones.

What is the best one?

[Acheron]

Everyone will probably give you a different answer on this one so always a moot point to use the term "best." ;) Anyway, I prefer and have been quite happy with AVG (http://www.grisoft.com).

[Mr Snatcher]

If you free then AVG. The best according to some reveiws is F-Secure. Symantec Anti-virus and MCafee work good also.

[suzy]

I have used Norton 2004 & Mcafee version 8, and I much prefer Mcafee. They both do the job, but I find McAfee much easier to use and I find it less intrusive. ps2wiz gave me a link to a great prog called spywareblaster which runs silently in the background and blocks spyware/adware from getting in. Up date often. Adaware 6 & spybot search and destroy are great tools for clearing any spyware that you may have. I am sorry I do not have a link for these, but the good news is that these are available free.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Good luck
Suzy

[nimbles]

F-Secure, NOD32 and Symantec Coporate Antivirus edit (coporate version of NAV) are supposedly the best but they are really "corporate" antivirus suites i think with a "corporate" price tag to go with it!

[suzy]

for hijackthis go here, http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html
for spybot go here http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download
These werekindly given here by pepsik when helping me on a similar thread

[GooseTickler]

is symmantic antivirus the same thing as norton antivirus?

[Memphis]

is symmantic antivirus the same thing as norton antivirus?
Yeah.

[kaine]

Thanks for all the help guys will give AVG a go and see what its like otherwise will fork out for Symantec.

[CrackDaddyPimp]

I just recently installed AVG and it's perfect. I don't know why I waited so long.

[Virgin San]

A couple of other free options - I've read talk of avast (http://www.avast.com/) and Antivir (http://www.free-av.com/) being preferred by some folks.

[merlin_the_magician]

Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky.... they all are closely related. It's mostly a matter of personal taste i guess. I have been using Norton Antivirus for some 6 years now to my great satisfaction.

If you are not willing to spend much money on it, you might want to have a look at www.antivir.com (http://www.antivir.com) for a remarkable little piece of software.
Antivir provides very good antivirus software completely for free, fully unrestricted. It has a liveupdate function, and updates are realeased at least once a week. In my humble opinion, a very good alternative.

[Lazza]

A couple of other free options - I've read talk of avast (http://www.avast.com/) and Antivir (http://www.free-av.com/) being preferred by some folks.Yep avast! yet again stormed the recent tests at Virus Bulletin with yet another (yawn) 100% protection award http://www.virusbtn.com/ proving it to be easily the best FREE solution out there and better than the majority of paid for solutions too.

PC-PRO mag just rated F-Secure Workstation 5.42 as the best A/V software (yet again) but as pointed out elswhere in this thread this is corporate software and carries corporate prices, I've still yet to get hit by a virus in almost 3 years of using it now on my main internet system.

So for the end consumer the question is do you need to pay for a great A/V solution? As long as avast! is around the answer is clearly no! Running this on 3 other systems and with it's low resource usage, 100% protection, daily auto or manual updates set it and forget it options etc, etc, etc I'd say it's easily the best option out there for the home user.

[Acheron]

Not to shoot down any Norton fans, but if you install AVG or other good AV product, you'll notice that the one thing Norton doesn't seem to catch is dialers. You'll also notice that if Norton AV ever becomes corrupted, the app itself can cause you more grief than it was ever worth. Those are my only 2 real complaints about it. I used it for many years but frustration over the bugs led me to AVG. ;)

[PhilEnfield]

Lazza .... my experience is very similar to yours, but I have been using AVG.

I have heard lots of good things about Avast and was thinking of giving it a try.
Can you tell me if it has a plug-in for Outlook Express and whether you can set it up for automatic updates & scanning, like AVG. Also are updates as regular and more reliable.

Cheers

Phil

[Lazza]

Lazza .... my experience is very similar to yours, but I have been using AVG.

I have heard lots of good things about Avast and was thinking of giving it a try.
Can you tell me if it has a plug-in for Outlook Express and whether you can set it up for automatic updates & scanning, like AVG. Also are updates as regular and more reliable.

Cheers

Phil
@ Phil

1) Auto scans ALL popular email clients inc OE, you also have the options to set the smtp, pop 3 options up manually too should you wish and it can auto add any new email a/c you add too.

2) Yes to auto updates, you can have it update virus definitions and/or prog updates.

3) Updates are pretty much daily and as the results of the VB Labs tests prove they are very much on the ball. I know several people who have changed from AVG and then done a scan and avast! has picked up several viri it missed.

Yes to the auto scan/schedule too.

You can pay for the Pro version but tbh the FREE version covers almost everything any advanced user could wish for anyway I cannot see much point in it.

HTH :)

[PhilEnfield]

@ Lazza

Many thanks for that ..... I will give it a try

Phil

[PhilEnfield]

OK it's installed and up & running ..... I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Phil

P.S. Haven't found the auto scan/schedule yet ;)

[PhilEnfield]

@ Lazza

OK .... I think I've mastered it now and must say it seems very stable/reliable.
I dont know if it's my imagination, but the PC seems to be more responsive/faster.

I haven't figured out how to schedule the time for performing a scan yet .... any advice would be useful. I know there must be a setting somewhere, but for the life of me, I cant find the bloody thing. It seems to perform the scan at bootup.

Cheers

Phil

[Neo]

F-Secure has been proving to be the best. Look at some test results. Picked the most viruses.

[PhilEnfield]

F-Secure has been proving to be the best. Look at some test results. Picked the most viruses.YEAH ... I know but I'm a tight old $od and cant afford £45 :D

[Lazza]

Oh it's way more than £45 Phil :D

That's for the home user product, for the Workstation product that always tops the A/V tests expect to put a "0" on the end of that. :D

Sorry can't remember how to set up scanning on avast! as I always do things manually. Check out the help file for more on that I'd say.

[PhilEnfield]

OK m8 thanks for your help Lazza ......... I am almost convinced now that this Rig is faster ...... I reckon AVG was slowing it down.
Funny enough, I did try the Pro version of AVG and took it off the same day, because it really slowed things down.

I guess both versions use more resources than avast

Thanks for the recommendation

Phil

[geobon]

@ Lazza

OK .... I think I've mastered it now and must say it seems very stable/reliable.
I dont know if it's my imagination, but the PC seems to be more responsive/faster.

I haven't figured out how to schedule the time for performing a scan yet .... any advice would be useful. I know there must be a setting somewhere, but for the life of me, I cant find the bloody thing. It seems to perform the scan at bootup.

Cheers

Phil
Open Avast by right clicking on the sys tray icon and choose Start Avast! Antivirus, after it does the memory check the main window will open, Hit the tab on the top left hand corner (looks like little eject button) and a dropdown menu will apear then just select schedule boot-time scan, you'll probly be prompted to do a re-start, then you just set what and when you want the schedule to run. PS. just to add i've been using Avast! for about 3 months now after changing over from AVG after numerous problems with updates etc, and i have to say i don't think AVG has a look in compared to Avast! and like you say it dosen't hog the system either.

[Lazza]

@ Phil

Funily enough I am running it on one system with the same mobo as you and almost every A/V seemed to slow the system to a crawl until I swaped for avast! Weird.

[PhilEnfield]

@ geobon

Thanks for that m8 .... I'll give it a try

@ Lazza

That is weird ..... my son has a newer system than mine Athlon 2600+ and an ASRock mobo and he had the same probs with AVG Pro. It wasn't just sluggish .... it behaved like a tortoise. :D
I guess it's prob down to the way the proggy is written.