[Asterix]

What do you recommend? Thanks.

 

[Oink1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asterix What do you recommend? Thanks.

AVG free All you need...

 

[KenW]

Another vote for AVG. I've been using Norton AV for years and presently have 2005 installed. For some reason, I get notification that I need to activate my copy. Well, I did that when I first installed it. When I tried to re-activate, I got a message that I couldn't as I'd "exceeded" the number of installs for my copy. Well, that's bunk so I called Symantec. The rep was nice enough and she found my activation key was "locked". She unlocked it and sent an email with a link to follow for the purpose of downloading a fix for a glitch which caused this in the first place. When I get to the page where the file is located and try to download it, the download won't start and the effort times out. Well, I contact Symantec again and explain that I can't download their program. They tell me it's my firewall. I tell them I've shut it down for this and tried but still nada. Then they tell me it's Firefox and that I should use IE. As much as I hate the thought of opening that garbage program, I do so and still no success. Then they ask if I'm sure I've closed ZoneAlarm.

When I reply yes, I'm certain, they ask me to open it up and shut it down yet again as if I were a moron and couldn't close a program without help. Well, just to keep peace, I do so and confirm that I've shut the program down. I also verify that the Windows firewall is shut down as well. Still no dice. Then they are convinced that it's my computer and they ask me to go to the symantec page. Sure enough, I go and the page comes up fine. I can tell the rep is running out of ideas and he has one more "guess" which he's sure will solve the problem. He asks me to try and download something from the internet. Well, since I'm already at their site, I go for their virus definitions. Yep, success. I politely suggest that perhaps the problem maybe, possibly, might be with their site?? Nah, he says that can't be. Then the light goes off and he's telling me that I need to go to my ISP and tell them I need permission/access to ftp transfers. Well, why didn't I think of that? Silly me. I've been looking at Symantec when the problem obviously lies with my lousy ISP. NOT!!!! I then pop open my Powerdesk program and do a quick download from an ftp site I have access to and lo and behold, it's fine! I politely thanked him for his time and effort and the call ended. So the problem came up with Norton AV. They had me locked up and to their credit, got me unlocked. They send me a fix which I can't download from their site so the problem is with my ISP which it clearly isn't. So the moral of the story....AVG for me. If the Norton locks up again and requires activation, I'm not going to bother. It's to control panel for an uninstall and I won't look back. Activation, subscriptions, etc....bah, Symantec has seen the last of my money.

 

[blessingx]

The best anti-virus is OS X or Linux. I haven't had an anti-virus prog installed at home for the three years since I 'switched'.

After that I'd say NOD32. Much better than Norton/Symantec/Dr. Solomon's or McAfee. Doesn't slow the system down (like the competition) and pushes updates (instead of timed). Mine (work laptop) updated twice today. I've really not seen a similar 'install and forget about it' anywhere else. Plus they claim "since May 1998, NOD32 has not missed a single in-the-wild virus in Virus Bulletin test". Encouraged several clients on the PC to move over to it and so far everyones happy. I can't say enough about this program. If you're going to use Windows (which I don't recommend in most cases), the only two utilities I say are mandatory are PartitionMagic and NOD32. Well that and run 'chkdsk c: /f /r' every month.

 

[Asterix]

Thanks, I installed AWG Free for now, since I was also have trouble with NAV.

 

[Jigglybootch]

I also have to go with AVG. For being free, it's a damn fine piece of software.

 

[AZ-GT]

I agree with Mac OSX

 

[DaKi][er]

i've been using some form of windows for the past 10 years or so now and have never had an antivirus program installed, ever
and have yet to have a problem with viruses in that time yet

though only using web based email, and having a proper dedicated firewall/internet server helps these days and knowing not to open blabla.jpg.exe

 

[Asmo]

Symantec Anti Virus Corporate
Avast! Anti Virus Home Edition (FREE)
NOD32

Those are my 3 favorite (not in any order)

http://housecall.trendmicro.com is pretty good aswell for web based scanning.

 

[Welly Wu]

Another contender is Clam Antivirus: http://www.clamav.net . It is open source and free software too. It works on multiple platforms. Personally, I use F-PROT, but I may switch to NOD32 or ClamAV.

 

[rauer]

I use the AVG too on one of my PCs. It seems to get average results in tests at best. On the other hand, it seems to use much less resources than many others and it's free.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

AVG ROXX LOL ;D

 

[c_crazy88]

I recommend Kaspersky Anti-Virus -- both their Personal and Personal Pro versions are top-notch. It updates 12 times daily, there isn't much of a strain on resources while it's running in the background, and it is the only anti-viral software that can detect trojans correctly.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Kaspersky, Symantec, and McAfee all perform quite well in independent tests. NOD32 has excelled at one specific test (Virus Bulletin) for a while, but has failed miserably at many others, so I cannot recommend it.

I would say the best all-rounder is Symantec Antivirus Corporate. It is light on system resources and offers very stable detection rates. Kaspersky is typically more secure, but can bring many systems down to their knees.

 

[ReDVsion]

I normally used AntiVir until I switched to a server OS, now I use ClamWin (windows frontend for ClamAV). I don't like using virus software that runs 24/7 in the background. I can do my own scans.