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Over the years I have had nothing but problems with Norton and Symantec products. Anyone who tells you differently is either misinformed or has a vested interest. One of Symantec's business tactics which I find questionable is the way they automatically renew your anti virus subscription and charge your credit card. I guess there is a reason they are the number 1 anti virus solution (and by this I do not mean the best) that and all the crapware they seem to get bundled with on new computers.

Take my advice as someone who has been using computers for more than two decades and has seen it all:

If you want to pay for anti virus software then go with Eset NOD32 Antivirus or Eset Smart Security. Consistently been a good performer and requires few system resources.

If you want something that is free I would suggest Microsoft Security Essentials. Seems to be simple, effective and I believe fairly well regarded in security circles.

MSE, hands down.

Symantec was a bad product for far to long for me to trust it. Also in talking to our Security and AV engineer he said of all the free stuff he was tested MSE catches a lot of stuff and MS gets thier updates out faster than anyone else.

I've switched a lot of users over to it and I like it.

MSE if its for me.

Nod32 if I were willing to pay for it.

MSE for some reason was very slow for me (a full system scan took at least 3-4 hours) so I switched to Avast which has the reputation for having one of the fastest scanner (finishes in less than an hour now).

According to AVcomparatives, the latest test showed that G-Data had the best overall but it's in German.
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/s ... ug2010.pdf

linux.

MJZ82 wrote:

linux.

If the user's needs are well-served by Linux-based applications, then yes I agree. Unfortunately the computing world is rather Windows-centric, and Linux is not always a viable option.

Simple answer to the OP is that there is no single program that absolutely covers all the bases. There are many that try, and do a reasonable job of covering all the bases - I'm personally a fan of ESET NOD32 and Microsoft Security Essentials, but I would never think they'll cover every eventuality. The best defense against infection by malware/virii/whatever is simply to be careful about what you install, where you browse and keeping your PC upto date and behind a NAT device of some sort.

I've switched from NOD32 to MSE because it has improved enough to the point of it being one of the best free AV programs. I've tried other free AV programs and they all sucked.

The irony here is that this thread was necroed this morning by a spambot.

for now, i agree that MSE is the best.
i miss the norton 2009 gaming edition. why did they not continue it? norton 2010 is very slow just like before.

I use Avast for myself and customers I visit who want a recommendation.

I've seen MSE hog a fair bit of memory on older machines.

I used to recommend AVG but since v8 it has become a lot more resource-hogging than Avast. I've also seen AVG malfunction and take out the machine's Internet connectivity a few times.

I've seen Avast malfunction too, but not very often. I've seen two false positives in all the instances I've rolled it out, and no customers have mentioned it doing that FWIW.

From what I've seen, customers are getting hit left, right and centre with scam security products, though I think most of them have been duped into downloading and installing something.

Kaspersky 2011 user - picked up 2011 3 user license for $20 on flEbay. I've been using it for2 years now ever since I got a free 3 user license at a Win 7 rollout event. Its had some issues, but almost all programs flag items that aren't malware. In Kasprsky's case, a Thunderbird update from version 2.x to 3 triggered Kaspersky. A fix was available 2 days later, but other than that its been doing a very good job.

The way I look at it is you need multiple levels of defense.

First level: YOUR BRAINS

Second: Nat router with open dns and properly configured

Third: Link scanner Mcafee's site adviser etc.

Forth: System config watcher - winpatrol etc.

fifth: simply don't use IE and keep .net turned off in Firefox or whatever alternative browser you use.
(Running your browser in a sandbox such as sandboxie is a good idea as well.)

And last of all your anti-virus/antispware

Microsoft Security Essentials has been acting weird for me lately. Any time I go to install something, one core usage jumps up to 100% and the whole machine stalls until it finishes doing whatever it's doing. This was most notable when I upgraded from Sonar 8.5 to Sonar X1 - the files from Cakewalk are all multi-GB single self-extracting archives. Every time I launched one I got to wait about 20 minutes while MSE went bonkers. Then I'd get to wait through it again when I started the installer, which would have the same behavior. After the 2nd or 3rd one I figured out that I could kill the process and the self-extractor would start instantly.

Still, I'm sticking with it because as long as I'm not installing stuff, it works fine.

I also wanted to point out that a good anti-virus should ranked not just on how well it defends but how much trouble it causes you.

Hurting system performance is only one part of this and with computers getting to be as fast as they are this really is not so much of an issue any more.

What is really important is:
Does your anti-virus block access files (program or system) without letting you know it is doing so?
Does your anti-virus make the machine unstable?
Does it make it hard to use links embedded in your email even though you know they are fine.

I have found that Kaspersky, Norton, McAfee, Spycatcher, PCTools, are all guilty of doing at least one of the above.

AVG Free and MSE may not be the best as far as causing the machine to slow down BUT they are not guilty of any of the above and this why I recommend AVG or MSE along with the other tools mentioned previously.

Another vote for MSE. Switched from Kaspersky 2 years ago and never looked back. Kaspersky is great but over the versions the program just felt bloated and UI is not very intuitive. MSE is simple, install it and forget it. Love it.

mattbak73 wrote:

I'm looking for a all in one anti virus. Need it to block and scan for virus' malware spyware Trojans ALL of it. I have over five programs and each one is free and covers their own corner of these things. I'm tired of running one scan at a time and updating over five programs every other day and the memory they take up. I want one solid program that will hold it all down. I need to be able to install one copy on multiple computers, not have to buy a yearly licenses, do real time scans and not slow the computer down and get free updates....what do you got?

The best anti-virus? NONE. i don't run anything on my desktops and haven't for years. It's almost 100% browsing habits with help from my firewall(Astaro).

hescominsoon wrote:

The best anti-virus? NONE. i don't run anything on my desktops and haven't for years. It's almost 100% browsing habits with help from my firewall(Astaro).

Surely you have an on-demand antivirus or antimalware? Otherwise you might have a trojan or keylogger without knowing.

Zenphic wrote:

hescominsoon wrote:

The best anti-virus? NONE. i don't run anything on my desktops and haven't for years. It's almost 100% browsing habits with help from my firewall(Astaro).

Surely you have an on-demand antivirus or antimalware? Otherwise you might have a trojan or keylogger without knowing.

You might have one anyway. Anyone in my line of work will have seen enough machines that gave no obvious outward symptoms of malware, that's the whole point of a rootkit, for example. One might argue that automated security software gives the illusion of security.

I ran my home PC without anti-virus for years, with a permanent Internet connection too. What changed my mind about it was that these days I handle customer data, and also I plug my memory stick into my PC, transfer files, and plug it into countless customers' computers. I would look like a first-class idiot if I infected a tonne of customers' machines because I feel secure enough not to have security software actively monitoring my computer

The most common type of malware I'm removing from customers' machines in the last year or few are scam security products. Most security products I've seen let them walk right past, even blocking the front-end of the security product with only user-level privs.

I'm not necessarily arguing that no anti-virus is a good idea btw. Every little helps IMO.

mikeymike wrote:

Zenphic wrote:

hescominsoon wrote:

The best anti-virus? NONE. i don't run anything on my desktops and haven't for years. It's almost 100% browsing habits with help from my firewall(Astaro).

Surely you have an on-demand antivirus or antimalware? Otherwise you might have a trojan or keylogger without knowing.

You might have one anyway. Anyone in my line of work will have seen enough machines that gave no obvious outward symptoms of malware, that's the whole point of a rootkit, for example. One might argue that automated security software gives the illusion of security.

I ran my home PC without anti-virus for years, with a permanent Internet connection too. What changed my mind about it was that these days I handle customer data, and also I plug my memory stick into my PC, transfer files, and plug it into countless customers' computers. I would look like a first-class idiot if I infected a tonne of customers' machines because I feel secure enough not to have security software actively monitoring my computer

The most common type of malware I'm removing from customers' machines in the last year or few are scam security products. Most security products I've seen let them walk right past, even blocking the front-end of the security product with only user-level privs.

I'm not necessarily arguing that no anti-virus is a good idea btw. Every little helps IMO.

+100

Prevention is key.

microsoft hit a home run with MSE, exactly what people were looking for.

I have bad experience with NOD32, but also recommend Microsoft Security Essentials for yourself and your family members, perhaps. Easy to handle.

Comodo Internet Security is what I use myself, it has a powerful firewall, decent antivirus, and techniques like keylogger detection and process sandboxing. Not recommended for "family member" types though, because you can tinker with it more, but good for the average Tech Report commentator and should satisfy the die-hards too. Best of all? It's also freeware just like MSE and the others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comodo_Internet_Security

Wikipedia wrote:

Comodo Internet Security is currently ranked number 1 in Matousec's Proactive Security Challenge, and passing 100% of the 148 software firewall tests, and is the only firewall and host intrusion prevention system to consistently score number 1 or tie for number one (usually with Online Armor) in all independent tests; it has never left first place since version 3.14.13009 released in June 2008 [...]

(Yes, I'm aware the quote mentions the firewall portion, but it also features an optional antivirus component that's just as good. Besides, security should start with a decent firewall anyway.)

MSE is a joke; it puts pointless and false alerts over programs that work just fine. I uninstalled it shortly and stuck with having only Avast. Avast also seems to work well in conjunction with Threatfire and ZoneAlarm firewall and all three are free.

C-A_99 wrote:

MSE is a joke; it puts pointless and false alerts over programs that work just fine. I uninstalled it shortly and stuck with having only Avast. Avast also seems to work well in conjunction with Threatfire and ZoneAlarm firewall and all three are free.

Could you provide an example of this? I haven't seen a single alert.

C-A_99 wrote:

MSE is a joke; it puts pointless and false alerts over programs that work just fine. I uninstalled it shortly and stuck with having only Avast. Avast also seems to work well in conjunction with Threatfire and ZoneAlarm firewall and all three are free.

Not according AV Comparatives. Avast is much worse.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/s ... eb2011.pdf

BTW, my experience with Avast a few years ago wasn't a positive one. It was a bit of a resource hog and the yearly license key for the free version is stupid.

C-A_99 wrote:

MSE is a joke; it puts pointless and false alerts over programs that work just fine. I uninstalled it shortly and stuck with having only Avast. Avast also seems to work well in conjunction with Threatfire and ZoneAlarm firewall and all three are free.

I've actually had the most false-positives with McAfee... followed by AVG. Avast seems to get the job done, but is a pretty major resource pig (though not as bad as McAfee).

The people who've said that Avast is a resource pig, what/how were you running it?

Admittedly I'm not running a 'normal' configuration of it, but I just use the free version with only the file shield, and its memory usage is the lowest of any modern resident security program I've seen. Having said that I've seen a fair few false-positives with it (I haven't had any customers complain though). I had a false positive from AVG 2011 on-site yesterday, it didn't like the driver for filemon.

I had a really bizarre problem with AVG 2011 (the trial version) on a customer's laptop yesterday - the touchpad was acting really inconsistently (over a number of sessions over a few days), and (based on not properly checking things first) I removed AVG. Problem solved. WTF?

C-A_99 wrote:

MSE is a joke; it puts pointless and false alerts over programs that work just fine. I uninstalled it shortly and stuck with having only Avast. Avast also seems to work well in conjunction with Threatfire and ZoneAlarm firewall and all three are free.

I actually had false alerts with Avast and Folding files at one point, and I pretty much ha d to exclude that folder in order to let WUs not crap out with EUEs.

I switched to MSE about 3 months ago and I'm very pleased with it. I had AVG before on everything and it while it ran ok on my desktop, it slowed my laptop to a crawl every time i opened it because it was always trying to update. Not to mention the obnoxious pop ups always telling me to buy the full version, and the false positives I would randomly get. But MSE works great for me, I use it on everything now. It always seems to be updated, and yet I never even see it updating. Yeah, the scans take a while, but if im running a full comp scan I dont mind stepping away for a little while and doing something else