Antivirus Software

[Fostire]

Today expired the antivirus that came with my laptop so I'm in need of a new one.

I really don't know much about antivirus software so I was hoping someone here could help me pick a new one.

I'm currently running windows vista but I should be getting Windows 7 soonish. Also I would prefer one that is free.

So, any recommendations?

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

What antivirus program came with your computer?

[Fostire]

What antivirus program came with your computer?

That would be Norton.

[Starscream]

I currently use Avast. It's free and works just fine.

Do you have a firewall? There's plenty of those that are free and effective as well.

[Kallisto]

I am using Avast! (home edition). It's a free program. I've never had any problems with it, on the contrary. It's very simple to register and manage, i.e. you don't really have to do anything once it's installed. It updates frequently on its own and takes little memory space.

Nothing but good things to say on Avast!, really.

*grins* Ninja'd.

[Fostire]

So 2 for avast. I'll try it out then.

Do you have a firewall? There's plenty of those that are free and effective as well.

Only windows Firewall.

[bluewind95]

Avast is great. But I'd still recommend HijackThis to go along with it. Just in case.

Edit: To clarify, HijackThis is not an antivirus. But if you know what actually should be in the registry, you can delete even those horrible virus cases that an antivirus won't catch/delete. If not, I recommend googling each part you can't recognize.

[Starscream]

Only windows Firewall.

Blech. Not a very good one at all. Check out the tables in this Wikipedia page, and you'll see that the windows firewall has a lot more red entries than most of the available alternatives.

That page can also give some nice free alternatives.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

To be quite honest, if you're happy with Norton, I'd just stick with it. It's really not all that expensive. I believe it's only about $50 a year for a subscription renewal/

[Fostire]

Blech. Not a very good one at all. Check out the tables in this Wikipedia page, and you'll see that the windows firewall has a lot more red entries than most of the available alternatives.

That page can also give some nice free alternatives.

Thanks for the info

[BritishBill]

I use AVG because its free!!!! You can download it at download.com

[Bouregard]

Norton Internet Security is it for me. Works fine. Althought not that cheap.

[Ichneumon]

I don't currently use any virus software, due to there not being many virusses (???) for my operating system of choice (Mac OSX), but I enjoyed McAffey.

[Telonius]

I've had problems with both Norton and McAfee hogging resources, I'd recommend against either of them.

[RS14]

I use AVG because its free!!!! You can download it at download.com

I don't use AV software (Linux), but the perception of AVG reflected on Slashdot seems to have dropped sharply with AVG 8, for what it is worth.

[Dvil]

I've had problems with both Norton and McAfee hogging resources, I'd recommend against either of them.

Same. I use AVG 'cos it's free, but I also love the fact that it runs very smoothly in the background, and doesn't really slow anything down. One thing with AVG though is that it'll try to to a virus scan once every 24 hours. For me it takes 30 minutes to an hour, and it does noticably slow down games while that's going on. So if you get AVG, and you're a gamer, you may have to schedule your fun a bit.

[Moonshadow]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T USE NORTON, IT MAKES MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT FIXES!!!!

Any program that requires you to download a *specific* uninstaller from it is just asking for trouble.

Ditch Norton, NOW, and get Avast!

Just as an example, when I had Norton on my laptop, my wireless connection would die every few minutes. Getting rid of it and installing Avast? I haven't had a drop out in months.

[Fostire]

Ditch Norton, NOW, and get Avast!

Done and done

[Totally Guy]

I don't currently use any virus software, due to there not being many virusses (???) for my operating system of choice (Mac OSX), but I enjoyed McAffey.

Can someone confirm this is largely true? I just made the switch from my old XP machine to a Mac OS X Leopard.

[RS14]

Can someone confirm this is largely true? I just made the switch from my old XP machine to a Mac OS X Leopard.

That is correct. While viruses can and have targeted OS X, it is uncommon.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T USE NORTON, IT MAKES MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT FIXES!!!!

Any program that requires you to download a *specific* uninstaller from it is just asking for trouble.

Ditch Norton, NOW, and get Avast!

Just as an example, when I had Norton on my laptop, my wireless connection would die every few minutes. Getting rid of it and installing Avast? I haven't had a drop out in months.

You must have been quite unlucky then. I've used Norton ever since I got my laptop 3 years ago, and have not had one issue with it. I even got a free upgrade to NAV 2010 after I reformatted my hard drive. Norton has in no way every interfered with my wireless connection what so ever.

[Ichneumon]

Can someone confirm this is largely true? I just made the switch from my old XP machine to a Mac OS X Leopard.

I will not say that there aren't any mac virusses, but they are rare. This isn't because Mac would somehow be more protected or more secure than Windows, but mostly because there just don't happen to be many Mac virusses.

[Starscream]

I will not say that there aren't any mac virusses, but they are rare. This isn't because Mac would somehow be more protected or more secure than Windows, but mostly because there just don't happen to be many Mac virusses.

This is exactly it. Mac has about 10% of the market. Windows has almost 90% (a small number use Unix, Linux and other options).

If you are a complete tool who wants to produce a computer virus, odds are you are going to target the OS with the biggest market share. You'll be able to infect 9X the machines that way. There's nothing particularly secure about Macs, it's just that the virus makers don't bother.

Adds a note of irony to Mac salesmen promoting their products with boasts about how "secure" they are. They'd better not do their job too well, that's all I can say.

[Dispozition]

Avast is a good one that's free, but if you can afford anything, or just need 30 days, get Nod32, I find it uses less resources and does a better job.

Speaking of which, I need to install anti-virus on my computers again...I hate giving them OS reloads...

[ninjalemur]

Avast

PandaCloud is also pretty good.

[Cicciograna]

I use Antivir, but I noticed one thing, as I have friends that use all sorts of antiviruses: if you stick to the free ones (Avast, AVG, Antivir, Comodo, etcetera), keep them updated and add a good Firewall and an AntiSpyware it doesn't really matter which one you choose.

[The Dark Fiddler]

I have to say, I'm glad I found this thread. My McAfee expired awhile ago, and I lack the money to but a new subscription, or the means of paying.

Thinking I'll try Avast! after all the praise it got here.

Here's hoping it'll stop all the annoying "HEY! OUT OF DATE! RENEW RENEW!"

[Mando Knight]

Adds a note of irony to Mac salesmen promoting their products with boasts about how "secure" they are. They'd better not do their job too well, that's all I can say.

Especially when that's the main focus for one of the Mac vs PC ads.
"I'm a top-o-the-line PC, but I can get viruses!"
"Well, I'm a Mac, so no one targets me with this stuff."
Consumer: "Well, I definitely want to be ignored by hackers more than getting the high spec hardware that I specified earlier in the commercial!"

It's not how the commercial states it, obviously. It implies that the $2000 Mac will get you all of the features of a $2000 PC and security from viruses.

[Ichneumon]

Most of the Mac vs Pc ads have been more humorous (not very) than really informational. Although some of them are funny, if you've seen one, you've basically seen all.

1. Pc shows Mac why Pc is supposedly better in X or says him he is suffering from a problem Q
2. Mac says some kind/nice things to show he is just a regular guy. Is concerned about Pc having problem Q or says that he can do X too or that it isn't really what people want.
3. It becomes clear that PC is not better as Mac doesn't suffer from Q or that Mac can do X just as well. Usually PC says something spiteful.

[Lupy]

I'll back up AVG and Avast. There's also good spyware-specific stuff out there too.