help me choose antivirus

Albinoni · Dec 24, 2005

If your looking for a free AV solution than give Avast Home edition a go if not AVG Free edition.

Also CA eTrust also offer a 1 yr free trial for their AV product.

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/

I think for a good free AV protection solution the above is more than adequate.

Chuck57 · Dec 24, 2005

I'd also suggest AVAST as maybe the best overall amongst the free antivirus. It also does very well against many of the paid versions. No antivirus is perfect and probably never will be. There are people here and on other forums who have used AVAST for years and won't have anything else on their computers.

Another point I like with AVAST is that they have a VERY good discussion forum, and the people there will go out of their way to help you if you have a problem. Answers or suggestions to help you come very quickly, sometimes minutes after you post. That's what I call real support.

Howard Kaikow · Dec 24, 2005

metallicakid15 said:

hmm everything went well but by installing norton 2005 my boot time went up by 20 seconds, but i dont mind waiting for my computer to boot up important thing is im protected..

p.s. i was wondering if norton 2004 is supported by norton still and if its lighter on resources? since i also have a norton 2004 cd that i got for free from buying the computer. im still wondering if the cd was really free and not inlcuded in the computers price.. oh well...
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2 reduce overhead, make sure that AutoProtect is enabled in NAV 2005 and disable NAV's Office plug-in.

metallicakid15 · Dec 24, 2005

so i guess staying with norton is the best solution i have or i could buy defender pro for 20$ its 15 in 1 package whihc uses kaspersky scanning engine if im not correct?

joter · Dec 24, 2005

I think that the best free AV will be Antivir personal edition classic 7.0, by far.
Now its on beta. You can wait until Jan 17th.

Regards
joter

Howard Kaikow · Dec 26, 2005

metallicakid15 said:

so i guess staying with norton is the best solution i have or i could buy defender pro for 20$ its 15 in 1 package whihc uses kaspersky scanning engine if im not correct?
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Which AV is best?
If you ask 10 people, you may get 11 answers.
No AV produce can catch unknown viri, worms, etc.
Then it becomes an issue of which has the best heuristics?
Well, I doubt that there's any effective way to determine which heuristics are best.

Despite my distaste for Symantec, I use NAV.
Why?
Because I program Office macros and I want to use the AV that likely has the largest market share, so I can see if there are any issues with NAV.

If you only need a single copy of NAV, there are deals almost all year long, some of which are $0 AFTER rebates.

Such deals are available at online sellers and at larger retailers, e.g., in the USA, Comp USA, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples and Frys.

Blackcat · Dec 24, 2005

Howard Kaikow said:

2 reduce overhead, make sure that AutoProtect is enabled in NAV 2005
Click to expand...

Howard Kaikow · Dec 24, 2005

Blackcat said:

Click to expand...

u truncated the sentence.

TAP · Dec 24, 2005

avast! Home Edition seems to work perfectly for me here, it's lite, no slow down, no obtrusion and no any problems related program itself. I've used avast! almost 1 year with good results, its automatic update mechanism works great, avast! catches many malware and even its heuristic in mail scanner module catches some worms before signature released.

wildvirus88 · Dec 24, 2005

AVG Free is a big $hit

TAP · Dec 25, 2005

I think AVG Free's detection rates is good enough for prevent users from today's most dangerous viruses, worms, trojans that are circulating in the wild, even though AVG Free doesn't detect spyware, adware and riskware (AVG Pro does) and the good things about AVG Free are that it's lite, simple and stable.

But the big drawback of AVG Free is that it has no automatic update mechanism at all, it has simple scheduled task for checking update only once a day so when it comes to a big outbreak that Grisoft releases signature several time a day so AVG Free's users are in the high risk if they don't do a manual updates.

With avast! Home you can set it to do an automatic checking for update hourly.

sweater · Dec 25, 2005

Me... also, I use and trust Avast! Home Edition. Its free and really good and has lots of features that you'll probably discover not expected in a free anti-virus package. Its one of the best around. Just add Script Blocker software coz it's not available in the free version, only on pro. As of now my Microsoft Antispyware Beta provides me protections for this.. it has Script Blocker, and also the No Scripts extension on my Firefox browser adds another layer for me.

For back-up on-demand scanners (for more peace of mind)... also use BitDefender 8 free, Kaspersky free cleaner, and Dr. Web free, and also the ClamWin Anti-virus (but this is slow in scanning... but very effective).

metallicakid15 · Dec 26, 2005

hmm i did a safe mode scan with norton 2005, so then i unistalled norton, installed avast and found remaining files of the sasser worm virus.... on boot scan with avast..

im sticking with avats now i like it even though it might fall a little lower than norton in detection rate.

sweater · Dec 28, 2005

KDNeese said:

In trying to find the right antivirus, I have tried several of the trial versions as well as the free versions. I also have a side business which consists of ridding people's computers of malware and viruses, so have personally seen which ones work and which don't. First of all, there are many witnesses who would be the first to tell you that Norton and McAfee are extreme resource hogs, and have told me (after the changes I made on their systems) how much quicker and responsive their systems are now after getting rid of either of these. Most people don't have a clue what's out there, so go with the AV that is marketed the best.

Let me let you in on another little secret. I have seen many posts in here about Avast and what a great antivirus it is. Personally, I used Avast for a while - however, I can tell you that it is much more invasive and much more resource intensive than several of theothers. One of the reasons I got rid of it was for that very reason, and I'm running a brand new XP Athlon-64 computer, not an older model. But that's not the main point I want to make about Avast. The problem is this: If you are running any antivirus that does NOT run at the kernel level, it is extremely susceptible to destruction by a virus or malware. Avast does not run at the kernel level, and is easily disabled by certain malwares.

A perfect case in point is an incident that occurred a little over a week ago with my father-in-law's computer. I went to see what the problem was after he called me and said his computer was almost completely locked up. The first thing I noticed was that his little blue ball (aka Avast icon) was missing from the system tray. I asked him why in the world he had uninstalled Avast. Well, he hadn't. Something else had uninstalled it for him, so to speak. I went into Windows Explorer and looked under Avast's program files, and saw that something had either deleted or altered every file in the folders. The Avast.exe program had been changed to Avast.E_E. Basically, it no longer existed. The same thing had happened to some of his other security software. The only thing that wasn't altered or disabled in any way was Ewido. That is because Ewido runs at the kernel level and is basically able to repair its own files if some malware attempts to delete or alter them. The bottom line is that Avast was totally defenseless against this virus. First of all, it did not catch it in the first place. Secondly, if it did indeed try to detect the virus, the virus disabled and killed Avast before it had a chance to do anything. The only way I was able to get rid of the virus was by booting into Safe Mode and then running an DOS-mode antivirus scanner - and under DOS, the virus could no longer hide or protect itself, and was subsequently removed.

As far as I know, there is only one AV that runs in kernel mode and is therefore not a sitting duck for some virus or trojan, and that is NOD32. Also, since I have dealt with many antivirus systems and have received a ton of feedback from people whose systems I've worked on (most of which were running Norton or McAfee, which you can purchase at Costco or Wal-Mart and therefore the best known and available, I can tell you that, without exception, people have raved about how much faster and responsive their systems were after installing NOD32. People think that having an all-in-one application or security suite is somehow less intensive on their resources, and I have not found this to be the case. What I recommend to all my customers is this: Purchase NOD32, and run it with either Zone Alarm or Kerio. I know some people like Sygate - but I ran Sygate for awhile and tested the firewall at Sygate's own website, and it failed the test, with the TCP and HTTP ports being open and able to be read, which is not a good thing. Anyway, run NOD32 with Zone Alarm or Kerio, Winpatrol, and either Counterspy (much less resource intensive than SpySweeper, and I feel is better at detection) or Microsoft Antispyware (for free).

To be honest, I know there are many who think you can protect your computer for free, but like all things in life, you get what you pay for. I now run paid versions of NOD32, Counterspy, Sunbelt-Kerio Personal Firewall with its Host Intrusion and Prevention System. Along with that, however, I run free versions of Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Ewido and SpywareBlaster. After my experiences seeing what malware has done and can do to people's systems, even when they are low-risk surfers and extremely careful, has made me change my tune about running all freeware.

Bottom line - Here are the reasons I believe NOD32 is your best bet and well worth the $39 it costs:

1. Runs at kernel mode and therefore is not susceptible to disabling like most AVs. Your AV does you no good if something can so easily destroy it, like I saw on my father-in-law's computer.

2. It uses both signature and heuristic detection methods. I know Avast uses some heuristics, but they are not nearly as advanced as those employed by NOD32. I would never use simply a signature-based AV, as a virus could be on the loose for a week before it is even discovered. Then, a copy of the virus must be sent to the AV company for analysis. Then, that signature must be put into the signature database. Then, the AV on a person's computer must download the signature datafile. That's simply too much time for a virus to do its dirty work.

3. NOD32 also detects trojans and other malware. I know this from personal experience as well as what others have told me. Not long ago I inadvertently ended up at a malicious site that attempted to download several trojans onto my system. My trojan scanner, that is supposed to be a great trojan-stopper, didn't detect squat. However, NOD32 sensed them and blocked all four of them. Also, in the time I have used NOD, it has never given me one false positive. I used to get all sorts of false positives with Avast.

4. NOD32 is the least invasive of any AV I have ever tried, and my customers would attest to the same thing. If you don't believe me, download NOD32 and try it (from www.eset.com). They have a 30-day trial version, which is well enough time for you to see how uninvasive it is. Unless it alerts to something, you wouldn't even know it is there.

5. If you have recently purchased a new computer with a 64-bit processor, you are very limited in your choices for an antivirus. As far as I know, there are only two companies that have 64-bit antivirus products: Avast and NOD32. While Avast is a good antivirus and I did actually like it even though it was very invasive, I don't want what happened to my father-in-law to happen to me. I want an AV running at the kernel level so malware can't disable it and then in turn disable my system. You can run a 32-bit antivirus on a 64-bit system, but that is not the problem. The problem is if you encounter a 64-bit VIRUS. A 32-bit antivirus product is then absolutely worthless. While 64-bit viruses are not prevalent right now, they will be in the near future, since eventually the 64-bit format for Windows is going to be the norm.

Everybody has their preference on which antivirus they believe to be the best. However, as I said, I have seen these varied products operating in the real world, and also see what can happen if ONE rogue malware happens to invade your system. And don't think you're immune because you have antivirus, firewall and all the other toys. In fact, one of your biggest risks for spyware and other malware is from software you buy at the store. There are many software products that, in addition to loading their software on your computer, also load a bunch of "friends" along with it. My purpose here is not to push one particular product, but to attempt to get people to protect themselves in a practical sense. As I said, what good is your antivirus if it is disabled before it has a chance to detect anything? Let me just encourage you not to make a decision based on an emotional attachment to a certain product, but make your decision according to practical guidelines. That means you try to place the products on your computer that give you the best protection while, at the same time, have the least risk of being rendered useless by some virus or trojan that sneaks in unawares.
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If Avast can be possibly disabled by some malwares or advanced Trojans... how can we protect it to avoid this thing to happens?

Can we use and trust process protection software/s like ProcessGuard to protect it from being terminated or modified?

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