Who Are The TOP AV Apps And Why?

I was talking about the AV just sitting in the background running as a service and detecting, then opening it and running a full system scan with it.

I don't get what you are saying?

By the way has anyone used Sophos Anti-Rootkit:

http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html

Avg has one also for free:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0?prd=arw

Figure they might not be bad to have to extra protection, and you can't beat the price.

 

Why different organizations have different results? That's because they have different ways to evaluate, and they use different virus sample.
So, there are no real gold award, because the so-called gold award is based on a evaluation, but this evaluation is man-made.
Some Leak-test use their man-made ways to evaluate firewall, so there are very safe softwares that are considered garbage for the unexperienced novices and I estimate that there are 80% of the users actually don't have a lot of knowledge about Internet, so some leak-test can influence 80% marketing share.
I trust Panda and have use it more than two years. One main reason I buy it is that I like its TruPrevent, the other is that I heard too much "bad" rumors about Panda.

 

A TOP AV App. should cover a wide spectrum of malware, the days of needing a seperate spyware killer, trojan killer, and antivirus program should be behind us. They should not be separate components in a suite either. One scan searches for all the badware. Just my thoughts when it comes to looking for a "TOP AV App." Of course one should expect to pay for such a package too.

Are most of them going this way?

 

It appears that is happening, mercurie. I made a comment about this last year that standalone security apps could be heading for extinction. Today's antiviruses (which should now be renamed) are more than what they used to be. Now they are also antispyware, antimalware, antiphishing, antirootkit, antispam and firewall all rolled into one with future "anti-s" to be added when need arises.

For myself the case in point is that all year SAS has had nothing to do but clean cookies because Vista/Norton has been taking all the baddies on. I used to run about 5 different security apps but no longer feel I have to do so anymore.

 

I personally try and average things out with AV's since there are no clear winners at this game. (Beyond Marketing and hype)

As the worst anti virus of the pack will actually detect viruses but the best in the pack will often miss viruses. How can anyone say this is best or worst.

It is like saying a person is a savant because he is an expert in rose buds all the while he is an ignorant at everything else.

No matter what, it is always relative to the actual threat at hand and how the specific deals with it... Like they say the chain is always only as strong as it's weakest link!!!

 

I am amazed that there can be a 55 comment thread without even a shred of useful information.

 

Please enlighten us as to how your post is useful.

As stated on several occasions already, all anyone needs to do is use the SEARCH feature to find out who the TOP AV Apps are and why.

 

LOL, how can my post be useful if it is a part of this thread?

 

There is a list at

http://wiki.castlecops.com/Lists_of_freeware_antivirus#Testing_and_certification_sites

 

Ahhh finally some more information.

THANKS

 

I suppose we could do a poll on answer the first part of the question, but the why part is a big problem...particularly since no citeria is set...

There seems to be 3 kind of "data" , we can use to form our impression...

1. Actual testing with large amounts of malware

2. Ancedotal experiences (personal and those of others)

3. Knowledge of the underlying technicals of the product.


#3 Includes knowledge about features e.g X updates Y times a day, which ones offers web shield etc or even exotic details about how exactly the scanner works (which allows one to have a good guess on what it is weak against)... In theory the more details you know, the better your chances of deducing their strengths and weakness...

Still The fact is the really interesting technical bits are out of bounds except to the few who actually work in the industry and they usually keep quiet, and even when they say something, they are aware that the rest of us can't be 100% sure they aren't being biased.

#1 is the few sites that everyone knows, accompanied with the usual arguments about methodology.

#2 everyone has, but is hard to take into account by other people.. If lots of people say X sucks is it because X sucks, or because X is widespread so naturally you will see more complains?

Most people when considering what is the best AV, take into account these 3 factors to varying degrees.

 

Outdated information right?

 

LOL, sorry about that if that was you that I replied to before about.

Site looks fine, I was looking at something else, when I posted...

After all it's not easy to stay on top of everything...

Site seems fine...

 

I have tried many and spent a few bucks over the years. What is has boiled down to is fact, not opinion.
Whatever runs best on your system and gives you the protection you need. That is the top application. Another fact is that as many have stated here, a lot of the top rated applications simply do not run well on all systems. You can visit many security forums and read horror stories.

 

well,

both Nod32 and Kaspersky can both afford to purchase a full-page ad, in this weeks computeractive magazine.

does that make them the best, probably not

maybe just too much money.

 

According to the latest real AV-test, No sign of those overhyped NOD32's or Kaspersky's in the top 5 list.

1. WebWasher - 99,9%
2. AVK 2008 - 99,8%
3. AntiVir - 99,6%
4. Avast! - 99,4%
5. Trend Micro - 98,6%

 

LOL, now if there was ONLY a WebWasher software version...

 

So these guys checked 1 MILLION files and verified that they led to malicious activity?

Spare me.

 

POLLS POLLS POLLS

These are akin to asking a child what flavor Tootsie Roll Pop do you like. Why even ask for polls? Do folks want to perform some internet typing for the fun of it?

 

If you trust polls then you must also believe your politicians are telling you the truth... and keep their promises.

Last time I Polled my Wife... she said I was the best looking guy in Toronto!

 

Was she drunk Hermes

 

In answer to the original question, my opinion is, F-Secure, Kaspersky & Symantec, in no particular order. Try them and see which you like best.

 

Most security software are pretty ok these days.
You can read all polls and magazine tests but in this magazine product A is flavour of the month and in the other product B.
They all will "win" a test sometimes. Most importantly is what it can do for you. What are your wishes? What does your PC look like? What is your budget?
Best way to find out is to test them for yourself and see what the products can do for you

 

Unfortunately there is no test that currently exercises the capabilities of all modern AV capabilities. AV-Digestives it probaly the worst of the well-known testers because they are still doing flat-file scanning as opposed to Av-Test that is at least attempting to do some dynamic testing by running the samples. But even that is not enough as by copying a threat to the machine from a CD and running it, you are bypassing critical layers in the product's protection. e.g. a lot of vendors like Norton, ESET, Kaspersky have drive-by download protection. This layer is bypassed when these so called astute testers copy the malware manually to the machine.

Picking the best security product is really a personal choice. The best one for you depends on what your attack surface area is. e.g.
- if you tend not to patch your PC and therefore are prone to being exploited via a vulnerability, then I would go with Norton since they have the best 0-day IPS (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/Product/Product_NIS.html). No other product even has a feature that comes close.
- If you do a lot of surfing to new sites (even though they are not high-risk p0rn sites), then you need good drive-by protection. Again I would go with Norton.
- If you have a tendency to double-click every unknown exe, codec etc you can find, then I would go with Kaspersky, AVG, BitDefender or NOD32. If you want the best-antiphishing then go with Norton.
- If you want the best outbound firewall, then go with Comodo provided you are willing and able to answer the most cryptic dialogs.