What do you recommend?

Okay so my NIS 2004 subscription expires in a couple of weeks - I've used NIS for about 4 years but was recently concerned when doing a Panda online scan to find a couple of worm viruses (probably dormant) on my machine and when doing a BitDefender online scan finding a trojan.
I trusted NIS and my trust has felt dented since these two online scans - currently I use NIS 2004 with Panda Trueprotect as a backup.
What do you think, should I renew my NIS 2004 subscription for around £20, upgrade to NIS 2005 at around £39 or should I take a completely different route - what would give me the best value quality protection and why do you say that?

UPDATE

Following the suggestions here I am giving Kaspersky Security Suite a trial and first impressions are favourable. Initially it seemed to cause some conflict and I couldn't download the Symantec removal tool - numerous efforts were fruitless, however seems to have stabilised now.
However I note that in its initial scan it is throwing up some "cannot be processed" reports that concern me - see https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=479093#post479093 to see what I mean.

 

IMO, you can't go wrong with either NOD32, KAV, or BitDefender.

 

Hi rjbsec,

My goal is the highest security possible since I use my machine for financial applications. I chose KAV 4.5 as my replacement for Norton, for the following reasons:

1) Frequent (hourly) database updates
2) Alway current scan engine (executables are updated via online update service)
3) Highest overall detection rate for all types of malware (99+% viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.)
4) Only AV rated Advanced+ on both on-demand and restrospective AV-comparative tests. http://www.av-comparatives.org/
5) Runs well on my XP SP2, 512K, 2.4 GHz system
6) Runs well alongside my other real-time security products (Ewido, ProcessGuard, RegDefend, WormGuard)
7) Self-protecting
8 ) Excellent support (on the Kaspersky forum and my favorite Don Pelotas)
9) Excellent user references

So far, KAV has lived up to my very high expectations.

Rich

 

u cant go wrong with kav. whatever u choose id recommend drweb cureit (free standalone scanner) as a backup

 

KAV - and it's only £28.

 

I strongly recommend KAV (and imho, you don't need any other AV along with it)! I've been using KAV Personal v5 on my home-office system and when it comes to AV protection, I couldn't feel more secure!

I might add that I was trying to decide between KAV, NOD, DrWeb and BitDefender. I had some reservations about KAV because some people mentioned that it's a resource hog, but since it seems to win most AV 'competitions' I downloaded the trial version and liked it so much I bought it. ...and my system hasn't missed a beat since installing it.

 

If you can buy I recommend NOD32, and if you will not be satisfied with NOD32, try Kaspersky.
If you awant a free one, try the great avast! that it better than some pay AV's...

 

No question who comes out top recommendation so far!

KAV 5 is an AV, I've been used to NIS which an AV + Firewall etc.
KAV does Personal Security Suite, would you recommend that as a replacement, or some better combination?

 

For a Security Suite, at this moment I recommend the Kaspersky Personal Security Suite, but the ZoneAlarm Security Suite is also very nice...

When the Kaspersky Internet Suite will be finished, it will be the best of all...

 

Whatever you choose, then after having uninstalled Norton, then please for your own sake, use the Norton removal-tool called symNRT (specificly for 2004), this will remove the last remnants of Norton which sometimes creates conflicts when you trial other products, download it from here and info here.

The trial downloadpage for Kaspersky is here.

 

I have not tried KAV's Personal Security Suite as I use and am quite satisfied with the ZoneAlarm Pro firewall. But it would not surprise me at all to learn that the KAV Security Suite is very good.

 

Does the KAV virus engine auto-update like Norton's liveupdate or is update of the virus def's a manual operation?

 

you can set KAV to auto update def every hour or you can DL the def manually if you like.

http://www.kaspersky.com/avupdates

 

How about trying Process Guard and Deep Freeze. Total cost is about £40.

Process Guard will stop nasty things from running and Deep Freeze will remove the nasty things after a reboot.

 

Hi,

I've never used Kaspersky's firewall. I've always used ZoneAlarm Pro and it works fine with KAV.

Rich

 

There is a review of the Kaspersky Security Suite here:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1777099,00.asp

 

I have used Kaspersky antihacker and have had problems with it on several different installs. I love Kav av but don't like their firewall.

 

Decided to give Kapersky Security Suite a try and uninstalled NIS but could not get any response from the link to download the SymNRT.exe programme for clean removal.
Installed KAV anyway but obvious conflicts and can't use KAV or close it down - as it won't take a re-install without being closed down I'm stuffed at the moment!
Anyone know where else I can find a working download site for SymNRT.exe?

 

I know alot of people like the comfort feeling of an all-in-one security suite, however if you do plenty of reading on this forum you will see that most security product savvy members use separate programs - often some of these are freeware saving money.

For instance purchase a top AV - KAV or NOD32 or Bitdefender, etc... and use a freeware firewall such as Zone Alarm, Sygate, Netveda, Kerio etc.. There are some good freeware anti-spyware programs that do as good a job, if not better than the suite products. Example freeware Spywareblaster, Spybot, Adaware etc or even the MS Antispyware beta.

Some of the money saved you could also buy an anti-trojan such as BOClean or Ewido, TrojanHunter etc - although if you chose KAV as your AV you probably wouldn't need an AT.

 

KAV seems to have sorted itself out now and is running a scan.
However "report" shows a number of entries as follows:-

It then says:-

Is this another trojan in some sort of quarantine?
Why hasn't KAV been able to process it, is it defeating KAV or is this normal?

 

Go here: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...sf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=

 

That's the one I'm having problems with - click on the link but just never starts, whether I just click on the link or do "Save target as ..."

UPDATE
Just discovered IE 6.0, not the link, is the problem - worked fine in Firefox but Norton programme uninstall is obviously a big problem and has the potential for causing major "scares" to the unwary.

 

It might be a really good idea to uninstall the suite (exit from the tray first) and run the Norton tool, then reinstall, just so Kav or any other AV you want to trial gets a fair chance.

If you have additional questions about use and so on, you are more than welcome to do so in the Kaspersky forum , the documentation for the suite is downloadable from here , there is also doc's specificly for the AV & Antihacker

 

It was really difficult for me to finally uninstall Norton. Norton's products have had this problem for as long as I can remember. You would think they would have had this problem fixed by now ... if they really wanted to.

Rich

 

I think that's good advice, I would certainly do that next time - others beware!

Thanks