What antivirus do you use?

What antivirus do you use?

I'm currently using Symantec Antivirus but thinking of swithcing, maybe to Avast!
What antivirus are you using/recomending?
Are you using more than one? If so check them both on the poll.

I love and use antivir for several 3 years, relatively using small memory and not slowing my computer.

i am using net protector, its great!!!

Avast works fine for me, in the old days I used Norton - but never again.

Trend micro.

Right now AVG Anti-Virus Free (and CCleaner).
Nice user interface.

Norman found a small problem, but couldn't deal with it!

Norton antivirus is not crazy in my.......

Microsoft Security Essential!

Put it in the poll

Hi everybody !

I've been using ZenOK Free Antivirus for a while and I'm quite happy with it..its totally for free and it has a Online Backup....and the ultra-light scan and Boot-up Protection works like a charm for me ...

I see Avast is shown very much in first place with 986 votes out of a total of 921 (107%)!! Guess there are some forum glitches in there somewhere.

Norton internet security! Free upgrades within subscription! http://www.norton.com/nuc

I don`t use any, In either Windows or Linux, I use common sense.

I used to use AVG (Free), And still recommend it to people who ask for advice,
And still install it on machines i repair and clean-up for people.

Just got too much of a pain in the arse having another program chugging away
in the background, Sucking resources. Especially now i have scaled down my
main desktop PC to a screen-less IBM Thinkpad T40 (1.5Ghz P3, 768 MB, 60GB HDD).

The Aunt has the Core2Quad desktop box now, And good riddance to it.

Anti-Virus is for wimps.

Mint

I used to use Norton 2011, but since it hid away a lot of the configuration options (Symantec! Y U NO make Norton easy to configure?!) and was insisting this innocent file I had was a virus I ended up removing it and replacing it with ESET Smart Security. I'm so pleased with it eventually my entire family's gonna switch over to it.

I use Bitdefender

I am using Antivir. In the past I was using Avast, but I got problem with it. It starts to detect .exe file as a virus and remove it. So, almost all the programs on my pc have lost their launching file and non of them were working. So that I have removed it from my pc.

OSX...not a single problem in a decade, no antivirus necessary.

On my PC's, I use AVG Free, but I only use them sparingly, since Windows is horrible.

Originally posted by kr-ash:

OSX...not a single problem in a decade, no antivirus necessary.

Don't be so vain. Macs can also get viruses

Originally posted by shogunu:

What antivirus are you using/recomending?....

Gentoo as my Main Distro... and Ubuntu as my Main Server Soft

Originally posted by shogunu:

What antivirus are you using/recomending?....

Free:
All around: Comodo Internet Security (never used before but heard quite good)
AntiVirus: Microsoft Security Essentials (never used before)
AntiSpyware: Spybot Search and Destroy, LavaSoft AdAware
Firewall: Heard of Zone Alarm but its very annoying.

Paid: Norton Internet Security or Kaspersky Internet Secrity (never used before)

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Originally posted by shogunu:

What antivirus are you using/recomending?....

Free:
All around: Comodo Internet Security (never used before but heard quite good)
AntiVirus: Microsoft Security Essentials (never used before)
AntiSpyware: Spybot Search and Destroy, LavaSoft AdAware
Firewall: Heard of Zone Alarm but its very annoying.

Paid: Norton Internet Security or Kaspersky Internet Secrity (never used before)

How can you recommend things that you've never tried or used before ?.

Mint

Originally posted by LinuxMint7:

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Originally posted by shogunu:

What antivirus are you using/recomending?....

Free:
All around: Comodo Internet Security (never used before but heard quite good)
AntiVirus: Microsoft Security Essentials (never used before)
AntiSpyware: Spybot Search and Destroy, LavaSoft AdAware
Firewall: Heard of Zone Alarm but its very annoying.

Paid: Norton Internet Security or Kaspersky Internet Secrity (never used before)

How can you recommend things that you've never tried or used before ?.

Mint

for the simple reason ... Oops never mind .. That post was from @wikipedian.. Makes complete sense to me now..

Well there is a trust reputation to be considered. Places like Wilders Security Forum establish the reputation of security products. Personally I use ESET Smart Security (paid security suite, also available as just NOD32 Antivirus); however I build and repair PCs, and spend a lot of time discussing software with various people on the internet. On this basis, I'd say that Microsoft Security Essentials is a solid piece of free software. Specialized tools like Malwarebytes Antimalware are useful when rescuing a PC, while advanced program-control schemes like the Comodo Defense+ and Outpost Firewall's extra features only slow down the computer - A LOT - with minimal gain.

Originally posted by LinuxMint7:

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Originally posted by shogunu:

What antivirus are you using/recomending?....

Free:
All around: Comodo Internet Security (never used before but heard quite good)
AntiVirus: Microsoft Security Essentials (never used before)
AntiSpyware: Spybot Search and Destroy, LavaSoft AdAware
Firewall: Heard of Zone Alarm but its very annoying.

Paid: Norton Internet Security or Kaspersky Internet Secrity (never used before)

How can you recommend things that you've never tried or used before ?.

Mint

Based on reputation

Microsoft Security Essentials and Comodo have been generally apprased by everyone. The same goes for Kaspersky.

I've used AVG but it has nowadays received negative reviews. Also used Avira but it popups up add at every update so don't like it.

Comodo/CIS is certainly good for a free solution, but it's virus scanner is mediocre, it's one of the best free Firewalls (available by itself or as a part of CIS), and combine that with it's HIPS/Defense+, and application sandboxing the combination works really well, and make up for what it lacks in scanning (from a "product features" standpoint, and largely from a security one since if properly configured, the scanner should be redundant anyways, <i>theoretically</i>)... also my current answer to the thread question, mainly because of the firewall, and because each part of it (Scanner, Firewall, Defense+, Sandbox), or the entire "suite" can be turned off without it bitching... ie: it doesn't try and take-over the PC (like say, Kaspersky, or F-Secure do)

MSE is decent enough, but doesn't have enough options.

I still love ZAP, mainly the interface, especially the older one, pre 2006 or so... compact, lightweight... not these bloated monstrosities you get now using 30 different libraries, the GUI alone is like 70% of the resources, unnecessary. But then again, last version I tried was 2009, could be a whale now. It was never "the best" solution, but assuming your not overly paranoid, still a worthwhile one.

Kaspersky failed for version 8.0, to 10, mainly the interface bloat, especially v9 and 10 (pretty much stopped using it when 9.0 came out)... but v11 so far is decent, much lighter on resources altogether, new lighter GUI, more options... good firewall, same mediocre scanner... not the best choice, but far from the worst. (currently using it for my Vista box, $90 for 2 years... not expensive, far more than free)

F-Secure, is probably the "best" paid-for, all-in-one solution at the moment...

but really with stuff like CIS, MSE, AntiVir, ZoneAlarm, Outpost, Panda, Avast, etc, etc, etc... there isn't much point in buying security software for home use, and the only reason to buy it for work use is for whatever insurance it may come with for data loss, etc... many of them come with online storage too, but that's also not worth "buying" outside of work situations.

There's never really a right answer, and it fluctuates rather wildly... what might be good now, could entirely fail in the next update, or be surpassed but other product X.

Most of the reason I even bother with security software, is not to really defend my PC from the wild or whatever, but rather to stop legitimate software I want to use from broadcasting, or installing services, drivers, etc that neither the software or my computer need, because the developers made the wrong choice when selecting distributors, or assume that I only want to use my computer for that single application.

/end babble

How is it that you can list so many virus scanners but miss the most important one?
None, I simply don't download viruses.

I mean, seriously now... after you disable all of the "alerts" you realize that virus scanners really aren't doing anything.
They'll claim that every cookie you get is some form of spyware. Popup the words "Insecure Connection" or "Malicious Attempt"... and convince you that there is a point to keep their "Virus" on your system.


The best virus protection? Just run a backup of important files and an Image of your primary system drive. Takes less than 1 min to go from "omg a virus" to... w/e you were doing that got you a virus in the first place. (And truthfully, I restore that image mostly to clear installation clutter more than remove a "virus"... haven't had one since msblaster and a light firewall fixed that hole).

Hoo.....well if you don't use either Internet Explorer or Firefox, you've got a decent antivirus and you don't have any plugins or extensions, it is almost impossible for your computer to be infected.

For those of us that do not have such a luxurious environment, security software is the defense against a day-long system restoration.

When you finally catch another virus (possibly on your credit card statement), come back and we'll try to help.

@Hellspock you are forgetting download viruses that can affect any browsers...

AVG
Malware Bytes
Hijack This
Spybot
ATF Cleaner

All good products and they are free to use.

Do i mention somewhere, i switched back to avast 6 since last month to give a try, and its really awesome unlike v5, no hang now

Norton Internet Security

At present, I use Microsoft Security Essentials. It's lightweight, free, and it also doesn't hamper my performance. When using AVG my computer was always slower to load my desktop for some reason. I'm not sure why, but I no longer have to concern myself with that having made the switch a few weeks ago. I recommend the same switch to everyone. MSE is lightweight and also very easy to use.

Kaspersky Internet Security. It doesn't detect game fixes as virus, which AVG did. I don't know whether it's good news or not since they're obviously false negative, but never had any problems ever since I use version 7 up until now

And skinnable too. I love that part as a casual user and Photoshop owner

Avast Home. I use it on my old machine(p2, 266mhz, 160mb ram, xp). I can't even feel it's installed(not because viruses are entering my machine but because it's fast) except when it's doing an autoupdate.

Using Comodo Internet Security (HIPS based firewall with sandbox with AV). It does the trick for me.

They were making a joke about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem">Y2K38</a>... not that it reports it's valid till that date.

Just my usual Eset IS and Malwarebytes Anti-malware, they work so good together.

AVG free edition.
And
CCleaner.

I have been using Avast for three months, but to be on the safe side I have tried various other malware detectors alongside it such as Outpost, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Super Anti-Spyware. All three of these have detected problems that Avast didn't pick up.

Recently an ex-GF threw some digital mud over the web at me; apparently she didn't like it when I dumped her. Over a period of a week I re-installed Windows twice. I was using Avast both times, alongside Spybot. I decided on a change in software and added the Outpost Firewall with it's free security suite.

Just the other day SAS detected a TROJAN that went ZIP RIGHT OVER Avast's head.

I finally have a somewhat-secure system now. I'm using SAS alongside Outpost and Avast and if the ex is still trying to hack me I am not seeing it anymore.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

On my Symbian 5230 360safe that unfortunately is not in English language and I don't understand Chinese nevertheless squares that show on my British software Nokia, but is clearly one of the smartest and free.
If someone has an English translated link please let me know.
Thank you
Gianpiero

Norton Internet Security Suite 2012.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Using MSE... Security essentials is decent atleast......
Besides, is Mcafee better..?? (Dont compare with other AV, compare only with MSE, if replying to my post)

Microsoft Security Essentials

Avast, and another 3 scanner somewhere once a week.
SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition, Malwarebytes Anti-Malvar, IObit Malware Fighter. It seems quite a month already Avast did not miss anything! Record! I read a lot about the software. Viruses a lot

Originally posted by hellspork:

Hoo.....well if you don't use either Internet Explorer or Firefox, you've got a decent antivirus and you don't have any plugins or extensions, it is almost impossible for your computer to be infected.

For those of us that do not have such a luxurious environment, security software is the defense against a day-long system restoration.

When you finally catch another virus (possibly on your credit card statement), come back and we'll try to help.

REALLY, It only takes 1 hour to completely "reinstall" windows from CD/DVD. A few more if you lost the drivers and have to re-download them. And 1 minute to load a ghost image and instantly be back in business.

You're mixing browser hijacks with viruses.
First off, a browser hijack can NEVER get your credit card unless it's the age old "Quick, we have detected someone stealing money from your bank, give us your social security number to stop the thief" or variations. It actually appears to be a serious problem as Opera added in all kinds of junk to remind people to "not be stupid."

Now YES, Firesheep did show a vulnerability... but if you do not send personal information over unencrypted protocols (HTTPS) you should be fine. (Again, not a browser hijack, nor unique to firefox... it was a middle man hijack.)



Opera is actually more likely to be infected than IE6, but the people using IE6 are less likely to know this. You had far greater control over scripting elements and permissions with IE6 than Opera appears to have; you didn't really need "browser updates" to remove many of the security holes that WEBSITES SPECIFICALLY INFORMED YOU TO CREATE. Seriously, the whole "download our activex" Disable security. Don't use trusted zone, just turn it off... that is what got people into trouble.

There are a few other holes that you'd have to disable certain browser extensions to patch, but the major issue was that people would disable security features... and that everyone was recommending it.

I don't get virus scanners. Macs don't run them. Linux doesn't run them. Solaris doesn't run them. Why should windows?
Download one, anyone, once a year just for "self-reassurance" and watch as you fail to pick up any viruses (you may have picked up "hacking tools", "unsupported webbrowser", "Unknown program", "potentially dangerous software" or other nonsense). Repeat yearly until you realize that they are worthless.

Don't ask people for a good AV, look for solid info about them. The site AV-Comparatives do a test with a lot of Antivirus and they show the results.
They don't make those lame reviews telling what they liked or not. They show numbers and show the AV's that got the best results. Like detection rate, time for a full PC scan, amount of resources used, etc.
That's the best place to find the best AV, all you have to find is the one that fits better for you. I choose one that is fast but have a very good detection rate, with few false positives.

They also provide a screen of the panel, if you like to choose a beautiful AV.

Right now I'm using McAfee, it's a little slow when doing a PC Scan, but the RealTime scan is quite fast and accurate. I got a 3 year license almost free when I bought my Notebook