Choice of Virus Scanner

Having just reinstalled my OS on reinstalling the version of McAfee VS that I had been using for some time (v7 had been very stable for me) it gave me errors on installation.

Having had lot of problems with previous versions of McAfee and also not quite beleiving that I was still getting updates long after the 1 year renewal period..? even downloading updates to the engine direct from the website...(is this unusual?) I was minded to ditch it in favour of the free version of AVG whilst I mused on what to do.

Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated. Should I stick with AVG free or go for another? note that AVG has failed quite a few certification tests as have most. ESET NOD32 seems to be the only one that has consistently not let any 'in the wild' viruses through for some time according to the Virus Bulletin.

Notice there is a NOD32 forum here so presumably some fans - will take a look there as well.

 

You would not get updates through the program after the renewal period expired. Downloading updates from the web site is what people can do when the subscription has expired. Perhaps the errors were because McAfee did not uninstall completely. Yes NOD is great but you have to learn to use it although geeks will tell you it's easy. Their idea of easy and mine are quite different. If you do opt for NOD ,use settings on NOD forum by Blackspear and follow them to the letter. The current version of Avast which is 4.6 is a little better than AVG and is also free, but neither is as good as NOD which you must pay for. Also consider Kaspersky and Bitdefender.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=37509

 

I agree with Hammer's recommendations.

If you are concerned about trojans, you may want to consider getting an anti-trojan (e.g. Ewido, BOClean) to work alongside NOD32.

Rich

 

A-squared has a free antitrojan program although the resident guard is disabled and you must update manually. Check AV- Comparatives for antivirus test results. Bitdefender Standard has a simple well organized interface. http://www.av-comparatives.org/

 

+1 vote for nod32. however if u want free protection avast is worth a try.

 

Avast free and Bitdefender 7.2(also free) as backup scanner.

 

Hi there kevvyb2005.

*The free route*
- AntiVir Personal Edition
-BitDefender Free Edition v7 or Dr Web cure it (backup)
-Ewido security suite.... (protection against Trojans, Worms, Dialers, Hijackers, Spyware and Keyloggers)

*My personal route*
- Kaspersky anti virus personal 5.0 *paid*
-Bitdefender Free Edition v7 (backup) *free*
-Ewido security suite *free*

I am running three pc's ......with Kaspersky on pc1 .. AntiVir on pc2, and pc3.
Have been running 'clean' with this setup.

P.S
On my two mac's .... anti virus = N/A

 

I started trying the new Norman Beta that`s free right now and it`s working great...so far. I don`t think it`ll make up to Nod`s status but we`ll have to give it some time.

 

How is the Norman beta on resource usage?

 

Yes, it does have a easy interface for any user and it is stable on my comp. It also has great hueristics/detection rates


And along side BitDefender, I have SpywareBlaster, Spybot, Ad-Aware, Trojan Hunter, Sygate Pro, and WormGuard.


Regards,

snowboard

 

And I believe the heuristics engine is still improving, maybe by end of 2005 it will be even better

 

Actually it`s not all that great. It has six running processes and goes between 30 and 40.

 

Ouch! That rivals NAV.

 

Tell Scotty you need more power.

 

kevvyb2005,

if you can pay for an AV, I recomend the excellent NOD32, if not try the avast! Home Edition that is better than some pay AV's...

Regards

 

Or try BitDefender as well. Very good signature detection and improving heuristics.

 

In my opinion, BitDefender is a very good AV, with a very good detection rate and excellent GUI, but I don't like the resources usage and some conflits...

 

If you want an av that is light on resources and has good detection rates and is very inexpensive you might consider F-Prot. It will run on just about any computer out there.

 

Command AV would be a better choice than F-Prot, dont you think (because Command AV has good heuristic engine alongside the F-Prot engine)?

 

It's as light as a feather on my slow 1.1 celeron pc.

 

Just food for thought...... I bought Command and found out that it uses twice the ram as F-Prot. If I remember correctly, 4 services running for Command compared to 2 for F-Prot. On my machine, F-Prot was using about 12-16mb of ram and Comand was normally at 22-26mb. I thought Command only used one engine and that was F-Prot?

 

perhaps the heuristic engine increases the mem usage?

 

When I had command av I had nothing but problems applying the program upgrades. And as such I don't recommend authentium products (command av)

 

Command does not use the same engine as F-Prot, It is a modified F-prot engine that uses f-prot av defs as well as commands own defs.

 

I'm running KAV 5 Personal. It runs very nicely on my old computer. Very easy to configure. Very good detection rates.

I've also used NOD32 and BitDefender 8 Standard. Both are very good, but I think KAV 5 is better. It's easier to configure than NOD32, and BitDefender seemed to slow my computer down a little. Except for the startup scan, I hardly notice KAV 5 is there. I'm not bashing NOD32 or BitDefender. It's my opinion on these three.