How-To Geek Forums » Windows Vista
"Paid for" antivirus and antispyware applications.
(11 posts)
semiretired, without seeming obnoxious, these kind of questions never really produce a definite answer!! Everyone has their favourite antivirus/internet security suite and swear by it. While one will say Norton is rubbish and hogs systems resources another will say it´s the best thing out there. You yourself say you´ve had problems with Norton whlist I say it was always great when I used it!! I use Kaspersky nowadays, just because I felt like a change a year or so ago but I wouldn´t say it´s better or worse. Even if you have a read through magazines and look for tests, one will say A is better than B, another that B is better than A!! If you were happy with Norton 360 then stick to it. Matt
The reason for the question is: Around these parts, Comcast gives out free McAfee and many people were invaded by bad guys and switched antivrus protection. I am looking for stories of failed protection to figure out which to avoid. This is a question that could be asked every 12 - 18 months, because a new leader emerges every so often. I am personally scared off from McAfee and I'm sure someone loves it.
Without talking about such matters, many problems and fixes go unnoticed. I thought that was one of the reasons we were here.
Like I said I didn´t want to sound obnoxious :) If you would like to hear what I like then it´s either Kaspersky 2010, Norton Internet Security 2010 or GData which I use on the server side of things at college, although GData can be a real pain in the backside sometimes and needs a lot of configuring!!
I agree with Matt. On that kind of question you find as many opinions as you get answers. I use Norton IS and Kaspersky IS on different systems and they seem to work well. But maybe I was only lucky because my webbrowsing habits are extremely "conservative". In addition I have the firewall of the Netgear router.
But back to the subject. I think it is worthwhile to follow the Microsoft Security Essentials. First reports are encouraging and after all it is free. I use that on my Win7 test system right now.
I'll echo Matt and whs, and say what I always say when someone asks what's "the best".
There is no such thing as the best for everyone . . . there may be a best for the individual and their machine, but that doesn't apply to every machine.
That's because machines are like snowflakes and fingerprints . . . no two are the same. Machines have different OS's, different apps, and different configs.
I will never say what's best for me is best for someone else.
It's just a matter of 1) What you're comfortable with, and 2) What "plays and works well" with the other stuff on your system. Nevertheless, all of them may exhibit some problems, INCLUDING A FAILURE TO DETECT CERTAIN MALWARE . . . a lot depends on the sensitivity of your settings . . . the more sensitive, the greater the protection BUT also it will have a lot of False Positives. Antivirus programs in particular are notoriously cranky.
And if you visit Manufacturer forums, just keep in mind that most people come to those forums to complain about problems they've had, so your information from them is going to be skewed. Very few people visit a forum just to say "Atta' boy".
All that said, I myself don't use a retail antivirus (used to use McAfee) but use Avast. Will it run good on your machine and achieve the detection rate you want? I have no idea. Is it the "best" for you? I have no idea.
It's like asking someone what the best wine is (and I think whs used that analogy once). It's just a matter of individual taste. There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer.
The most common bash on McAfee and Norton are that they are resource hogs. (But whs has found Norton suits his needs . . . and I found that Avast used resources better than McAfee).
AVG, Avast, and Avira's Antivir are three that have gained a reputation for not taking up much resources, and they all have good detection capabilities.
As far as virus detection itself, they are all pretty good . . . retail or free, and the ratings that the trade magazines give them are all within a few percentage points, so I don't think any one is a whole lot better than the other (of course, there are a few slackers out there, but if you stay with the brand names and exercise good security best practices, you'll be pretty safe).
Bottom line: As I said, it's mostly a matter of personal preference and what you AND YOUR SYSTEM (Norton is notorious for not playing well with systems) are most comfortable with. No doubt, though, you'll find plenty of people that will bash individual products. (And I think I just bashed Norton there! Sorry, whs.)
And what ever you decide to pick, it's a good idea to run an on line scan now and then, because what your local protection misses (and they ALL miss some things), an on line scan may detect.
1. Panda ActiveScan 2.0 - http://www.pandasecurity.com/h.....ctivescan/
2. Kaspersky - http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
3. Symantec Security check - http://security.symantec.com/s.....;venid=sym
4. Trend Micro Housecall - http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
5. McAfee - http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp
6. BitDefender - http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
7. F-Secure - http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml
8. NOD32 - http://www.eset.eu/online-scanner
9. VirScan - http://www.virscan.org/ NOTE: This is just for selected files, NOT the whole machine.
10. Virustotal - http://www.virustotal.com/ NOTE: This is just for selected files, NOT the whole machine.
So be careful in your surfing. Try suggestions, but if it doesn't work for you, experiment with something else 'till you find what YOUR best is. If you rely on other people's "best", you may end up with something that works good on THEIR machine, but works crappy on YOUR machine.
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