Topic: List of Anti Virus Programs

[Quamper]

Avast Home Edition - Price Free (1 year license that needs to be renewed but thats free as well)
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
-Automatics Virus updates/program updates
-Realtime Scanning
-Scheduled
-Various P2P/IM/E-mail extra scanners (whether they do anything extra or not I've not noticed)
-It does integrate with the Windows Security Center

Loadwise very minimal during normal usage. It can get kinda high during updating at times. Scheduled scans don't seem to take more than 20-30% processor which is fairly unnoticeable

*Tip turn off audio notification (it's really annoying)

[whdjr]

Don't forget Kaspersky

[deegeecees]

Norton 360 here. It's the easiest all inclusive protection I've used. It runs comprehensive as well as minimal scans (all in he background), and pretty much does everything I need it to do. Here's some of the functions:

Autoprotect
Firewall Management
Live Update
Virus and Spyware Scan
Email Scan
Windows Update
Intrusion Prevention
Weak PW Check
Browser Vulnerability
Network Address Check
Phishing Protection
Automated Backup


And here's a CNET review.

The good: Norton 360 is mercifully light on system resources; it's intuitive, covers most of the bases that a comprehensive security-and-performance tool should, and includes free online storage.

The bad: Norton 360 doesn't support Firefox or Opera browsers; doesn't include wireless security tools, doesn't provide an ID vault for passwords or credit card info.

The bottom line: For home and student use, we think Norton 360 represents the best value for ease of use, tools offered, and overall system performance. We recommend it over McAfee Total Protection and Microsoft Windows Live OneCare.

[Quamper]

Slightly off-topic but I think it's funny how on the CNet review for Norton 360 they gave it a "8 out of 10" yet the average user rating is 4.1 then you look at reviews for other Anti-Virus software and they give most of it roughly a "6 out of 10" but the users give all of those an 8-9 rating.

Of course there are a lot more user reviews of the Norton one, but it still doesn't look like it adds up just based on their review.

I've never used Norton 360 so I'm not criticizing it at all as I don't know what it's like.. I just find that to be interesting.

[ronjonp]

Every time that I've used Norton, it worked very well...but was a major resource hog.

[MP]

Every time that I've used Norton, it worked very didn't work well ... but and was a major resource hog.

[deegeecees]

Every time that I've used Norton, it worked very didn't work well ... but and was a major resource hog.

Not one problem in 9 months of use, and I've never had a noticeable bogdown while Norton was crunching in the BG. But I have quite a beefy computer, and I 'm so burned out on technology I just settled with it.

[Tuoni]

I, personally, use AVG free.

- Email Scanning
- Shell extension (scan a specific folder)
- Resident Shield (scans any open folder and refuses access to anything it perceives as a threat)
- Scheduler
- Definitions updated at least once a day

Very low use of system resources (see XP Task Manager screenshot below)

I've used it to find viruses that Norton and PC-Cillin have sworn weren't there in the past.

I personally subscribe to the "Unix" idea that everything should do one thing and do it well, therefore I run an antivirus for viruses, a firewall for my firewall, anti ad/spyware program to tackle ad/spyware... you get the idea.  Whether it does it well or not I'm not sure but I know its never let a virus slip through the net onto here, and that Grisoft have also won awards for their security software.

[Keith™]

I don't use any AV software at home, and I no longer use any at work. I have decided to surf naked and take my chances ...

Lets look at the main methods how a computer can be infected with a virus

• Infected email attachment
• visiting a nefarious website
• downloading software from the internet
• using copied CDs and or floppys created/accessed on an infected computer
• nefarious web users hack into your computer and manually infect your system

Now lets look at the ways to protect yourself

• Never open email from unknown sources
• Never open email attachments
• Stay away from web sites likely to present a virii risk (if you can't easily identify these, then perhaps you don't need to be on the internet)
• Do not download software from any untrusted source
• Do not share copied CDs and floppies from untrusted sources
• Use a minimum 2 tiered hardware firewall to protect from most hackers, one on the modem and one on a router

Following these tips will prevent 99.99% of all virii ...

You know, this reminds me of a company I used to work for many years ago ... CDRs were yet to be mainstream and floppys were the only source of user storage available. McAfee and Symantec were in full swing, protecting users from virii. The vast majority of virii infections were from downloads on the internet and a few were from shared floppys. Well, we were instructed to install a virus scanner on all of our computers ... severly crippling the performance of the computers. Our computers had no floppy drives, no CD drives, no internet access, we had 1 system with a tape drive and direct dial upload access only to our corporate office, yet we had to have virii protection because of FUD.

Personally I loathe virus scanning software, the short time I used Symantec at home, it deleted several of my files I had archived, because they were incorrectly identified as "infected".

FYI: Please note that I maintain several floppy disks with archived wild state virii as part of my fascination with the mechanisms behind how they operate, although I have not actually put one of these onto my system in perhaps 5 years ... Now for the disclaimer - Do Not Try This At Home (or at work for that matter)

[Notsober]

ha I use Avira too! Been using it for nearly 5 years! Never had any problems out of it...

Gott sei Dank für das Programm!!

[Quamper]

This site is fairly neat..
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

[James]

Kaspersky is good, but can be a pain with registry control when installing programs

[Antisthenes]

AVGfree,  now that v8 came out with no free version it might be worth looking at other options


i like  Nod32 portable

i can get avast for free from work

i used to be a fan of Clamwin because it was open source and free but it has no real time protection

lots of choices just i would never choose mcafee or norton

[Tuoni]

(sorry to resurrect an old topic but...)

AVGfree,  now that v8 came out with no free version it might be worth looking at other options

AVG 8 does have a free version, I'm currently running it... but not for much longer.

AVG 8's resident scanner currently takes ±70mb of RAM in my machine - not happy with that.  I also have a sneaking suspicion (from what I've read) that it might well be causing the lock-ups my friend is experiencing with his new computer.

I'm going with Avast! due to the stuff I have read out there.

[Keith™]

I took the advice of so many folks and used AVG (paid version) on the office computers, (the ones without Norton) and now I find myself having to fix a serious infection across all the systems with AVG. It would seem that AVG cannot handle spyware like Norton does, and I now have several systems infected with the same spyware rootkit. AVG scans and says nothing is there, however, a cursory scan from trend-micro housecall and symantec online scanning shows an infection.