The Definitive "BEST ANTIVIRUS" thread

[MxxCon]

i'm so sick of these threads poping up every single week. so here's the one and only thread you should need untill the end of your life. moderator can modify poll entries to update.

BEST ANTIVIRUS

[Samoa]

I can't believe this thread exists. There is already an official thread.

[morganpugh84]

Been downloading like crazy for a long time, and yet to have caught a virus, except for the Blaster worm that almost everyone got.

umm hate to burst your bubble but if you had been up to date with your patches you would never have got MSBlast as the patch was available about 4-6 weeks before MSBlast was released "into the wild". :whistle:

Also No AV is just asking for trouble. With the power in todays computers you dont need to worry about running AV software as well because they are so powerful.

You might have been lucky the past few years and you might be lucky for a few more but one day a virus is gonna come along and kick yo ass :p

[Veedems Veteran]

I can't believe this thread exists. There is already an official thread.

Thanks for once again contributing nothign to the thread you post in. :angry:

[Joel]

Merged

[Grand Maester]

:ninja: Norton is great. It can even run on its own and update itself!

[pablotrabucco]

IMO

"Best Anti-Virus Suite" = No Anti-Virus Suite

Keep your computer patched (AKA AutoPatcherXP :D ), don't download files from places you dont trust, keep the Windows Firewall on and you'll be fine. Been downloading like crazy for a long time, and yet to have caught a virus, except for the Blaster worm that almost everyone got. If by some freak chance you do get a prevalent virus, grab Stinger (Stand-Alone) from McAfee and it'll clean you system for free.

You're right. :happy:

[Catalyst]

Nav 2002

[JK1150]

too all those saying no virus protection, you crazy? viruses can get in more ways that just downloading a movie from kazaa or something. i wouldn't exactly download virus.exe from kazaa or anything, but if my friend was sending me a word document from an infected computer, seems harmless enough at first, but i sure as hell wanna know if it is gonna be harmful.

[rogerroger]

I haven't have the exact figure of other AV software . But i have tested PCCllin 2003 and at first the memory usuage seems so low that i can not believe it. At a closer inspection. PC Cillin uses 17 Mb of Ram in Total ( according to WinXP )

That 17 Mb is spread over 4 .exe files.

I am interested in how Macfee and Norton mem usuage. I have Norton 2003 @ home so i will test it later.

I am testing some now. Here are results from my XP box.

Symantec Antivirus 2004 - uses between 17.7MB and 24.9MB of RAM across several listed services.

Trend Internet Security/PCcillan 2004 - Uses less than 17MB of RAM; however, once I turned on email scanning it gobbled up another 30 MB. Can someone else confirm this?

McAfee Internet Security Suite 6 (includes McAfee VirusScan 8.0, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 5., McAfee SpamKiller 5.0, McAfee Privacy Service 6.0) - this sucker is a memory hog. Each test I have done utilizes between 60 and 80MB of RAM.

McAfee VirusScan 8.0 - consistantly uses upper 30'sMB of RAM while running.

McAfee Enterprise Edition 7.1 - Always right around 22MB - 23MB of RAM used up.

Hope this helps! I didnt really notice a slow down with any AV scanner (I have 512MB ram anyways) and I am in the habbit of shutting down AV scanners if I am about to play a large game like Americas Army.

[rogerroger]

I have Ad-Aware right now and I like it but im not sure if it will find any viruses. Im looking for an Antivirus program that's small yet offers frequent side updates with new virus definitions [something like ad-aware].

what should I use, I would really like some suggestions.

Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 6 (free version) or 7 (paid version) or Kaspersky KAV 4.5 or F-Secure Anti-Virus are the popular three which are lite on resources, fast scans, 100% accurate and offer frequest updates. Good luck. Any one of the above will serve you well.

:)

[canadian397]

i'm trying a program called Freedom Antivirus by Zeroknowledge (lol, the name suits the company, j/k). I like it so far, only complaint I have is that it is a hog of system resources even with 512 mb of ram. Best part is that it was included with my internet connection (Telus Velocity ADSL now includes Freedom Antivirus, ad block, e-care and lots more) :whistle:

[actz]

Norton and McaFee just seem to be loaded with so many extras that i dont want. Norton 2004 kills my system preformance so i decided to try out AVG which was pretty good. For a free Antivirus software its great with low system resource. Due to a few issues i finaly decided to try Panda and it was suprised me to find it better then any other. Autoupdates itself with definitions scans are fast and system resources are probably the lowest ive seen other then AVG.

[Dwarden]

Why everyone missing in polls Avast? www.avast.com , it's very qualite AV

[Fourfingers]

I don't think the graph means much.

Norton's the most bundled Av prog

on the market - a magnificent marketing

coup started years ago. Anyone buying

a computer has a 50% chance of a NAV

installation - & ordinary folk are unlikely

to replace it. Nor update the data-base

(unless it's on auto) :laugh:

However, it is effective.

But, very resource hungry. It also

embeds itself so deeply in WN's reg you

need a restore point (or third-party equiv)

to take it out. In fact, I've read comments

by IT experts claiming they'd never install

any Symantec prog for this reason,

i.e. consequential complications.

I use Virus Bulletin (not woofy Checkmark)

as my 'yard-stick' & wouldn't go past Eset

NOD32. 'Ultra light', easy to uninstall, and

hugely effective at detection.

Awards? Again and again and again :D

Edited January 31, 2004 by Fourfingers

[Jediweasel]

AVG. It was able to kill a My.Doom attack on a system that had the most up to date Nortons already installed that didn't even see the infection. All that from a FREE product.

[+virtorio MVC]

kaspersky, of course.

[TheDreamX]

Symantec Anti-virus because...

1) It came free with a software bundle I got for my last desktop.

2) I get it free (with updates) for as long as I am enrolled at RPI.

3) It has fixed every virus I ever had (3 times since the days of Windows 95, I beleive).

[canadian397]

i'm trying a program called Freedom Antivirus by Zeroknowledge (lol, the name suits the company, j/k). I like it so far, only complaint I have is that it is a hog of system resources even with 512 mb of ram. Best part is that it was included with my internet connection (Telus Velocity ADSL now includes Freedom Antivirus, ad block, e-care and lots more) :whistle:

well, that didn't last 5 days, LOL! Uses WAY to many system resorces so back to AVG. GO AVG!

[obscure_detour]

Symantec AntiVirus Corprate Edition v8.00

Best protection available. And comes with optional antivirus filters for Lotus/Outlook. I've been running it on my machines and haven't had a virus in ages. LiveUpdate, updates virus protections automattically and quickly. Also has Server-Client support. It runs two processes, Rtvscan for FileSystem Realtime protection and Defwatch. Most of the time rtvscan runs about 8Mb and Defwatch a little over 1Mb. Uses little resources and still offers great protection.

For some reason I could never could get Norton to work as well as their Corprate line of software, even though their both made by Symantec.

I used to use Kaspersky but after 4.0 I thought that it kind of went down hill. Used too many resources for me. They might have improved it though, because Kaspersky is a nice program also. But like I said, I haven't tried it in awhile though.

My 2 cents.

obscure detour

[QuarterSwede]

NAV has always run perfectly for me. It even catches viruses on the network that aren't on my computer. Also, I haven't had any problems with it being resource hungry.

Edited January 31, 2004 by Jstphish

[IanD]

Norton/Symantec *BUT* ONLY the Corp edition.. Less memory :D

[Zatoichi]

I switched to McAfee ViruScan Enterprise 7.1 after running NAV exclusively for over 7 years...I was tired of it acting like a virus itself, missing every trojan that came it's way, soaking up massive resources at will & trying to "phone home".

Besides, the McAfee updates don't end after a year & I can un-install it without doing a complete re-format. :woot:

Before I settled on McAfee, I tried AVG Pro, Kapersky, Bit-Defender, Panda Titatium and they all seemed a little weak and a few were buggy and acted strangely...IMHO.

I can't believe people (aka sheeple) still use Norton's bloat-ware...and don't believe the screenshot above, it's obviously a doctored pic sent in by Symantec's PR people! LMAO

BTW: McAfee found 3 trojans in a temp directory that Symantec Corp. & AVG Pro totally missed! :yes:

[colordeficiency]

Could a Mod seperate NAV from SAV? And reset the polls?

[higarra]

eTrust EZ Antivirus :rolleyes:

[leoli]

norton :D

i think its the best