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

[CatsHighfiveMe]

I think

Avast ( http://www.avast.com/ ) and

AntiVir ( http://www.hbedv.com/ )

are free for personal use...

k0zy

[ramian]

F-Secure is pretty good. My university's got a subscription for the workstation version and its pretty good. Alhough I do have 10 more processes running than usual, but I've yet to be infected. I decided to give Nod32 a go a while back. Its interface was simple and it was light on my system resources (even with the advanced heuristics extension) but it screwed around with my Bittorrent downloads. Also, the trial version wouldn't autoupdate (for me at least) and I had to manually update it every day. F-Secure tells me when I turn on my PC if it needs an update and all it needs is 1 click. And because it's trojan scanning is also pretty good, I don't need an anti-trojan software running in the background. I'm hoping the normal version of secure has similar capabilities as that's probably what I'll be going for once I graduate.

cheers!

[mtrftw]

i cant beleive mcafee is beating nod32 :no:

[LOC Veteran]

That's because most people won't stray from what they know, or trust. Even if it's misguided. Heh.

[scoult01]

Kaspersky for me, its lightweight, un-intrusive like McAfee or Norton (i've had problems with both). It is also the first Av that i've found that I can get to ignore certain files (i'm sure the others can, but this was simple to find) that it picks up as virus's but arent. Give it a try :)

[Edi]

Norton Antivirus is the best ? Have you EVER tried using Bitdefender? ( www.bitdefender.com ) ???

[Rapier]

Is dere sumthin better den Symantec Av Corp 9 ??

[moeburn]

Symantec Norton Antivirus is the worst. I installed 3 different trojans (on a computer i was about to format anyway), bloodhound found nothing. A full system scan found nothing. I then downloaded and ran a compressed version of HDKP (hard drive killer pro), which was an easier way to format the harddrive, and norton still just fell asleep at the switch.

[mr_daemon]

yup, very true, if linux had the amount of windows users, linux would be full wit virus's

Nope ^_^

Not running as root means you don't do jack squat, system wise.

In any case, I like AVG and Trend Micro's Housecall.

On my fileserver, I run Bitdefender... anyone got a free server anti virus?

Oh and on Linux (!) I just compiled ClamAV. Let's see how it goes.

... why? Well, I don't like viruses filling my SMB network mounts, that's all.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

AVAST AVAST AVAST!

[lsdn]

NAV2004PRO :yes: :yes:

[S.MULLA]

i moved from avg to norton2004 pro. and the great thing about this change was norton detected 3 viruses that avg pro didnt detect..!! :D

[nonick]

the best antivirus is a good firewall & experienced user, i've NEVER had a virus in the last 3-4 years. not even a single one, and i do check using online scan each couple of months.

[dogmatix]

The best ever was IBM AV - but they discontinued it. (Why does IBM produce great software and then dump it?)

I now use McAfee AV + Firewall. No problems for a very long time, unlike Norton which regularly fell asleep on the job.

Well worth the modest outlay at the software supermarket :rolleyes:

[babazar]

Im using Symantec Coporate Edition. HAd no probs with it. and using Blackice Server for firewall.

[Neoranga]

Symantec Norton Antivirus is the worst. I installed 3 different trojans (on a computer i was about to format anyway), bloodhound found nothing. A full system scan found nothing. I then downloaded and ran a compressed version of HDKP (hard drive killer pro), which was an easier way to format the harddrive, and norton still just fell asleep at the switch.

its an anti-VIRUS not an anti-TROJAN s im not suprised it missed them. My Norton 2k3 has caught several web based threats as well as a fwe files i carelessly d/led. In my experience, Norton has outperformed McAfee and AVG. I tried Panda Platinum for a while, whoa was that ever a mistake!

[CatsHighfiveMe]

I used to use F-Prot which is a pretty simple but yet effective AV.

After reading a test (btw I think F-Prot has never been in any Tests :-/) in a german computer magazine (www.chip.de)

I gave F-Secure Internet Security a try because it won... hehe.

Anyways here are the rankings from Chip.de:

1. F-Secure Internet Security 2004

2. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal Pro 4.5

3. McAfee Virusscan 8.0

4. GData AntiVirenKit 2004

5. Bitdefender Professional Edition 7.2

6. Panda Antivirus Platinum 7.0

7. Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2004

They rated how many/which virues where found, how fast and how much RAM it took while scanning.

What I don't like about F-Secure is that it starts a hell lot of processes... and they are named like: SERVIC~1.exe, backWeb-4476822.exe, FSM.EXE, FSMA.EXE, FSMB.EXE. the list goes on... :(

[Neoranga]

A little food for thought...

Avast

e-Trust

F-Secure

AVG - Worst Pass/Fail record!

Kaspersky

McAfee / Network Associates

Panda Software

Symantec / Norton - What I use.

Trend-Micro / PC-Cillin

[SIG]

A little food for thought...

Avast

e-Trust

F-Secure

AVG - Worst Pass/Fail record!

Kaspersky

McAfee / Network Associates

Panda Software

Symantec / Norton - What I use.

Trend-Micro / PC-Cillin

How about NOD32! :p

NOD32

------

It's strange but everytime someone switches Anti-Virus, that AV always finds viruses that the other didn't :p lol

[CJC]

How about NOD32! :p

NOD32

------

It's strange but everytime someone switches Anti-Virus, that AV always finds viruses that the other didn't :p lol

wow.. best record ive seen lol.. does anyone use this? what is the interface like? etc.

[trigger_my_passion]

I've just uninstalled AVG and installed Avast. Upon installation, I opted to have it scan the system after a restart and when restarted, it scanned and found few infections and deleted them. Here's the log:

06/05/2004 15:31

Scan of all local drives

File D:\files\Apps\Screen.Capture.And.Demo.Software\===dynamic===\River Past Screen Recorder v2.5.1.31216\screenrecorder_setup.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

File D:\SharedFolder\sri\appz\River Past Audio Converter v2.5.1.31216\audioconverter_setup.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

File D:\SharedFolder\sri\appz\River Past Screen Recorder v2.5.1.31216\screenrecorder_setup.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

File D:\System Volume Information\_restore{1D99E056-A7E0-47E3-927D-6EE0B63A926D}\RP102\A0077548.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

File D:\System Volume Information\_restore{1D99E056-A7E0-47E3-927D-6EE0B63A926D}\RP110\A0090318.exe is infected by Win95:SK - Deleted

File D:\System Volume Information\_restore{1D99E056-A7E0-47E3-927D-6EE0B63A926D}\RP110\A0090319.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

File D:\System Volume Information\_restore{1D99E056-A7E0-47E3-927D-6EE0B63A926D}\RP110\A0090320.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

File D:\System Volume Information\_restore{1D99E056-A7E0-47E3-927D-6EE0B63A926D}\RP110\A0090321.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

File D:\System Volume Information\_restore{83740A65-D927-416F-8C1F-4192F3E3F1ED}\RP366\A0128399.exe is infected by Win32:Trojan-gen. {VC} - Deleted

Number of searched folders: 30831

Number of tested files: 419142

[LOC Veteran]

wow.. best record ive seen lol.. does anyone use this? what is the interface like? etc.

Quite alot of people on Neowin use it apparently. The interface is clean and uncluttered. It scans incredibly fast, Norton takes sometimes upwards of 20-25 mins to do a complete scan on my system (when I bother to use it) NOD32 takes maybe, 7 minutes.

It catches everything, in fact I just did a quick test myself. I installed Norton 2004, Mcafee 2004, AVG and Avast.

All 4 of them missed a virus embedded in an email I just received, NOD32 nuked it.

NOD32 BEST THING EVAR

Oh yeah, it uses very little resources, and does only what it's meant to do. It does not currently have email protection (I used NOD to scan my email folder itself, not an incoming email)

[l0g0ut]

It does not currently have email protection (I used NOD to scan my email folder itself, not an incoming email)

which version did you use? i'm using NOD32 version 2.008 and it has email protection. it fact, it protects email no matter what application you use to view your email. Just enable IMON in the options.

[LOC Veteran]

Wow, I thought IMON was for web browsing protection and what not, it never dawned on me that it's for email.

NOD32 > EVERYTHING !!!

[jkinzer]

Used to use McAfee, now I use NAV with a subscription provided by my university. Never had a virus and I plan to keep it that way.