antivirus

how would you rank mcafee,norton,panda

 

in my opinion they are all good av programs, The deciding factor for me would be which one ran the best on my comp. I wouldn't worry about protection with either one.

 

Panda; never used it. Norton; do not like. Mcafee; it's been a long time, I think it has improved a whole bunch since I used it. Out of the three that would be my choice.

Friend BigC has gotten shy about his support for any one AV program and I just a humble student of the Master would never want to speak for him but would just say that over the years he has leaned toward Mcafee. I would consider his experience a key thing in your consideration. Do a search of the AV forums to learn more on his thinking if you would like more good advice.

 

I've tried out all of these programs. I like McAfee but didn't like their once/week auto updates. I believe that they are now offering once a day auto updates, but you would need to verify this if it is important to you.

I found Norton to be extremely porous (on my machines and my friends') and if you use this product, I would highly recommend a good anti-trojan, e.g. Ewido (my preference) or BOClean.

Panda messed up my system when I tried to install it. So my experiences with it were very short-lived.

At the end, I purchased Kaspersky, though I do like others such as NOD32 and BitDefender.

Rich

 

1, 2 and 3 or a, b and c

 

I use AVG Free, certainly not the very best AV software, but
- it's free of charge,
- it has automatic updatings almost every day,
- it scans my computer every day automatically.
Occasionally I install/uninstall AntiVir and AVast, but they report nothing either.

Nothing to be proud of, I guess I'm just lucky and alot has to do with my carefull behaviour on the internet and the way I treat my spam-emails.
I don't even remember the day, I had a virus infection.
It's kind of boring to run all these scanners for nothing.
I'm just waiting for the day, something really happens.

Firewalls are made of straw, I think the same about any security software.
IMO security is an endless war between brilliant brains, good and evil and it's always a challenge for both sides, to beat eachother. They both get a kick out of it and that is pure human nature.

Besides there is too much money involved, like in any war.
Malware is good business, Anti-Malware is good business and both give jobs/hobbies to many people.
In others words everybody is satisfied, except the poor ignorant powerless users of course, but who cares about them.
There is no reason to kill the goose with the golden eggs and the law is too slow and powerless in many cases.
So the actual internet is an excellent battlefield without killing people and at the same time a real gold mine, if you know how to use it.
Nobody is going to change that and the rest is show : many warnings, many reviews, many opinions, many discussions, many complaints, a few convictions, ... but did that change anything during all these years ?
No, it becomes even worse every day.

 

1. McAfee
- nice detection; not as heavy as norton on resources
2. Panda
- good detection; not as heavy as norton on resources
3. Norton
- nice detection; heavy on resources

Regards,

snowboard

 

Creature ErikAlbert,
I guess it is better to be bored then infected. Enjoyed your thoughts in your post and well said too.

Also,
I think AVG Free is a fine AV for free, especially for those who want basic protection without much intervention by user after set up. When my mother gets her PC. It is the one I intend to load up for her.

 

Hi Erik,

Excellent insight into what is a never ending process of learning geek stuff that all the non-geeks out there don't want anything to do with and don't understand. Hobbies are good and some people get a kick out of what they do, I can understand that.

But I don't want popups asking me what to do if program X wants to access the internet or learning about every process that may be harmful to my computer. Why should I have to shut down this program so I can install some other program or update.

Yea, the clueless people out there pay the price, but I'll stick with my minimalist approach which hasn't let me down. I want my internet experience to be as seamless and invisible as possible.

Regard,

Jaws

 

Hi Erik,

I can speak for myself that my own experiences are considerably better nowadays. Before I took security seriously, I would constantly be having problems on my machine, my son's, or those used my other family members. If it wasn't one thing it was another. Of particular concern were things like keyloggers which were making their way on machines through unknown pathways.

Nowadays, life is pretty simple. With top-notch AVs on the machines (in my case KAV), I no longer have to spend tons of hours cleaning machines. Even when my friends ask for help, at least I can offer a solution which keeps them out of trouble (so I don't have to continually clean their machines). Many of them thought that they were clean, until weird things began to happen and then, after running some tools, the true situation became apparent to them.

So, at least in my case, things have improved tremendously. But I can't speak for the industry-wide situation, other than the fact that as long as companies like MS are more interested in creating operating systems and tools that create a seamless experience (e.g. allow any cookie on the machine that anyone wants to put on it), the more vulnerable people are to malicious actions that seek to take advantage of these huge holes. The fact is, nothing of value in my home is kept "wide-open" to the public and nowadays that also includes my computer.

Rich

 

Hi Jaws, richrf,
Well, I had my newbie time too on the internet.
I had that stupid idea, that a firewall and AV was enough to protect my computer.
My very first Anti-Spyware scanner was Spybot S&D and it reported more than 200 malwares on my computer .
Even after running Spybot, my computer didn't work properly and I had to re-install it from scratch.

Joining the malware forum SWI was a good decision and by reading the qualified posts and asking questions, I learned alot about how to protect my computer in no time. You can't do this on your own.
I also realized that becoming a security expert wasn't possible for me.
I'm too old. What's the point of becoming an experienced security expert at the age of 70.
I never grew up with security and I always worked with computers without internet connection.
Yes, I know the saying "you are never too old to learn", but I prefer to do more pleasant things at my age, than learning all that boring internet stuff in detail.
So I will be a typical user until I die, but I do at least something to protect my computer.

My sister doesn't care at all in spite of all my warnings, but I have to fix her computer every time she is in trouble. Women !!! Only an accidental genetic mutation can save them.
I'm lucky my wife likes to read the internet only, her ideas about hardware and software aren't related to computers.

 

I'll vote for Panda from those three

 

FireCat,
Since I have never used it can you help me out with your thoughts?

Whoops sorry all, I see there is a Panda thread going anything else different I would welcome, but I will go there and read carefully. I see one says Ram useage is high?? True?

 

1. Norton

2. McAfee

3. Panda

 

Panda from those three because:

1)Very good detection
2)Daily updates
3)No shopping center
4)Not as pricey as Norton or McAfee

Bad points:

Slightly resource heavy.

 

McAfee, Norton and Panda (1., 2. and 3.)

 

1.Mcafee
2.Norton
3.Panda