Activity Feed Forums Sign Making Discussions Computers – Tablets – Phones what anti virus do you recommend?

  • Nick Minall

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    Bitdefender works for me!

  • Steve Vallis

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 8:57 pm

    Avg is free or Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 (Gets good mag reviews)

  • Steve Underhill

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 9:14 pm

    AVG or NOD32, I use NOD32 at home and AVG at work, both excellent.
    AVG is free for non commercial use by the way, else its a pretty cheap and good option for businesses.
    FAR better than the invasive and machine slowing mcaffee and norton.

  • Graeme Harrold

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    Avast for me too…….its free and works…..

  • Peter Normington

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    did you know, its almost impossible to remove norton from your computer?

    scamantec are not very helpfull either…(just my opinion)

    avg is my preferred tool, network/multi license edition is relatively cheap.

    Peter

  • Jill Marie Welsh

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 9:31 pm

    AVG here too.
    Love….Jill

  • Steve Underhill

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    What kind of software house has to make a removal tool for its own software, seeing as the uninstall program wont uninstall it?

    *Norton

  • Ian Bingham

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    AVG Here too

    Ian

  • John & Dawn Roddick

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 9:49 pm

    Thanks folks. When I go into AVG site it shows a cost for download – is there no longer a free version or am I in the wrong place?

  • Steve Underhill

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:00 pm
  • Peter Normington

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:02 pm

    I think they only do a trial now but the home version is not expensive,
    I bought avg years ago, well worth the money, I never ever had an infection…(so I am touching wood)

  • Steve Underhill

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:05 pm
    quote Peter Normington:

    I never ever had an infection…(so I am touching wood)

    Please re-phrase that immediately. 😮

    They do the free version still, basic protection only no realtime support etc.
    but Its good enough for me, I haven’t had a virus since using it and I use the net a LOT.

  • Peter Normington

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:07 pm
    quote Steve Underhill:

    quote Peter Normington:

    I never ever had an infection…(so I am touching wood)

    Please re-phrase that immediately. 😮

    They do the free version still, basic protection only no realtime support etc.
    but Its good enough for me, I haven’t had a virus since using it and I use the net a LOT.

    cant think off any other words Steve,
    can you find the free version on their site? I cant…

    Peter

  • Steve Underhill

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    Its ok Peter it was a joke about touching wood etc, Im braindead at the end of a long day, and have to resort to smutty jokes.

    Its in the link I just posted above, free version of AVG to download.
    http://free.grisoft.com/

    or direct download link here, (they are making it more tricky to get to but it is still there, its a 31 meg download)

    http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus- … d=10760089

  • John & Dawn Roddick

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:32 pm

    Thanks Steve I’m downloading as we speak.

    Any recommendations for spyware etc, as I think this just covers virus protection

  • David Rogers

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:43 pm

    Having been through any number of programs over the years including the lumbering dinosaur that is Norton…i can confirm that SOPHOS is one of the best (big £’s). I presently use ZoneLabs / Zonealarm ANTIVIRUS suite. Has all the usual gubbings – live antivirus, live firewall, anti-malware, anti-spyware and only £20 a year. (Also do 3 licenses for £35)

    i’ve not had a virus or other intrusion in four years on my personal machines – nor any of the 20 or so work machines.

    In fact – took Norton off my Vista machine – hated it so much.

    Freebie ones are fine if you don’t REALLY care about the data being protected…would you really want to trust your livelyhood to a freebie that often relies on you manually scanning? Me I rather spend a little cash and KNOW it’s protected live, 24/7.

    Dave

  • Steve Underhill

    Member
    February 12, 2008 at 10:44 pm

    Yes, adaware and spybot, they work well together and not in conflict like AVG/Norton, and should take care of your needs, if you are googling them though make sure you download the correct software, IE there are programs called no-adware, and spywarebot etc that are in fact spywear programs themselves,or at least you have to pay to use them.

    Heres links to save you the hassle

    http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/ … 43809773/1

    http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007/3 … d=10045910

    And these 2 free ones have protected me since they came out, never had spyware or a virus and Im probably so lax i deserve one.
    So free isnt always second best.

  • Duncan Wilkie

    Member
    February 13, 2008 at 5:49 am

    First, never allow Norton on your system. It is a bugger to get rid of and causes all kinds of software conflicts. I would search the internet for "Removing Norton from your computer". It’s not as simple as removing the program from my experience.
    Norton comes on Dell computers unless you specify you don’t want it.
    I use Avast at Home and at the shop. I really like it. It’s free for home use. Reasonable for business use.
    I also have Spyware Dr.
    Good 1-2 punch for me.

  • Shane Drew

    Member
    February 13, 2008 at 6:55 am

    I’ve been using the paid version of Virusfighter until recently, It let a virus on and I was left counting the cost.

    I’ve changed my work computers over to Zone Alarms suite, and my home computers to Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0. To be honest tho, I’ll probably change everything at home to Zone Alarm too.

  • DaneRead

    Member
    February 13, 2008 at 6:56 am

    hi i had symantic corporate edition for about 2 years always thought it was great never had a problem. Be advised this is not Norton.

    A friend said to me that he is using e-scan and finds it great. He said lets test it out and see what happens. I have had AVG before but not very happy with it.

    Installed e-scan yesterday and it found 27 viruses. It also scans for Adware etc.

    My computer has suddenly got a lot faster. Always took long on start up. Never could understand why. Bearing in mind that im running a P4 duo with 2GB ram & a 256k graphics card.

    Much better now very impressed.

  • Deleted User

    Deleted User
    February 13, 2008 at 7:19 am

    I would recommend you NOD32 (by eset) or kaspersky (eats a bit more of CPU), but avoid bitdefender (good detection but it eats LOTS of CPU) and about sophos,AVG, antivir lots of false detections.
    If you want to test nod32 check site named nsane (google).

  • Peter Dee

    Member
    February 13, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Well I have been with McAfee for many years and have experienced easy, automatic non-intrusive protection. Total internet security suite is £50 for 3 PC’s.
    It includes the superb McAfee Site Advisor which automatically traffic lights results in Google as to their safety.

    Spyware, I use 2 free programs as they both work in different ways.
    Spywareblaster:
    http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
    This gives automatic protection at boot up. The program doesn’t need to be running all the time – read their FAQ’s.
    I manually check for updates to the definitions database and the auto updates facility is £5.31 for a year.

    I also use Superantispyware.
    http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html
    This is for scanning the PC for any possible infection. This is done from the control center and once done the program is closed so no CPU usage. The free version also has lots of other tools.
    The paid for pro version has automatic real time scanning plus more for £15.00 (just checked – it’s £10 today).

    BTW, as mentioned earlier, Norton is to be avoided at all costs.
    My new laptop came pre-loaded and it was power crazed, intrusive and plastered all over the file system.

    Took some getting rid of as well. Just when you think it’s gone it springs into life again… (:)

  • Dave Rowland

    Member
    February 13, 2008 at 8:43 pm

    Ok.. this is my opinion.

    Dont use one!

    1: Buy a router, hide behind it.
    How you going to get attacked behind a router?

    2: Download SpamFighter for an email client (see Shanes spamfighter post)
    Crap/Virus come from posts you don’t normally associated with, Some ISP’s will filter for viruses, infact a lot do now. Spamfighter prevents so much spam

    3: Popups and dodgy sites
    Use Firefox, IE7 is pretty good but Firefox is very good at not allowing suspicious websites from running programs.

    4: CD’s from customers, just take a chance lol.. doesn’t happen that often that they will have something dodgy on it.

    I just suggest that people dont get sucked into spending money on Antivirus or Norton measures when they are already taken steps to protect their computer. lol

  • Roger Goswell

    Member
    February 19, 2008 at 10:27 pm

    Avast is good and as said it FREE

  • Gordon Forbes

    Member
    February 19, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    As mentioned above NOD 32 good package took the two year option.
    I have Norton on my laptop and its going once they want money I hate it for the same reasons as others too intrusive and the new McAfee is the same just too much bloat and wants to take control.

  • Deleted User

    Deleted User
    February 20, 2008 at 9:02 am

    Dave Rowland, to go round router is simple so router will help you just against direct attacks but not from attacks from http(browsers vulnerability).
    No AV shouldnt be choose for anyone.

  • Dave Rowland

    Member
    February 20, 2008 at 9:46 am

    And what websites would you find such attacks?
    Does IE7 contain browser vulnerabilities?

  • Peter Shaw

    Member
    February 20, 2008 at 10:33 am

    I use AVG and have done for years with no infections. Keep your eyes open for good free offers in the computer magazines, too. For example I am currently running AVG Professional version for free as it was given away in Personal Computer World magazine Feb 08 edition.

    Peter

  • M Brown

    Member
    February 26, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Hi All,

    I found that AVG doesn’t find any infections at all, well it is free. I had AVG about 6 years ago. Did scans, just for it to say nothing found. Then I bought McAfee did a scan after I got rid of AVG for it to find many infections. Now that my subscription on the updates have ran out I have changed to "THE SHIELD DELUXE 2008" which is great, doesn’t slow my pc down like most of the others. Its also got better reviews than any of the other anti virus progs out there. The first scan found 5 infections where the others missed them. My pc now works so much quicker. So glad I typed in "What is the best anti virus program" in http://www.ask.com. I wont be using any of the others again. Also my brother-in-law is systems security analyst for high-end banks and goes all over the world and he also said "The Shield" is the best. Its also priced well.

    Hope my views help.

    From
    Mark

  • Robert Lambie Robert Lambie

    Member
    February 26, 2008 at 9:49 am

    i use norton and have done for years and never had a virus ever. ive heard it slows down your pc but iver never expereinced that but my pc is pretty high spec so maybe why im not noticing it.

    at work its a different matter. our pc’s vary greatly in performance.
    we had a big problem with a virus in our system last week.
    i bought kapersky antivirus and loaded it. not only did the computers take ages to boot up completely, everything operated very slowly, from sending and opening emails to just working in photoshop. evrything just seemed bogged down. i eneded up uninstalling it…

    i then bought AVG 7.5 pro (network edition) it was more expensive than the kapersky but works a treat. it run checks and updates much faster. it located infected files and cleaned them. it located the virus .exe files and deleted them. shut down rebooted and run another check… everything clean as a whistle the compters run btter.

    i cant fault norton as i said, but avg for the time i have had it really does the job.

  • Peter Dee

    Member
    February 26, 2008 at 10:04 am
    quote Robert Lambie:

    i bought kapersky antivirus and loaded it. not only did the computers take ages to boot up completely, everything operated very slowly, from sending and opening emails to just working in photoshop. evrything just seemed bogged down. i eneded up uninstalling it…

    Mark mentions Security Shield 2008 which in fact uses Kaspersky 6.0 internally.

  • Steve McAdie

    Member
    February 26, 2008 at 11:55 am

    As I understand it the main difference between the anti virus programs is the speed that the companies manage to get the virus definitions out.(sooner the better). Any anti virus program is only as good as the last update. I have used mcafee for last 4 or 5 yrs and don’t have any problems with it also use their firewall. It slows the boot up down but that doesn’t bother me.

    Steve

  • Stephen Morriss

    Member
    February 26, 2008 at 12:11 pm

    AVG free runs a test once a day and also downloads updates once a day.
    It’s always caught virus’s in emails.
    I also run Zonealarm and Lavasoft Adaware, adaware has to be run manually but I find that better as I’m not keen on having loads of programs taking up the resources on my pc.
    I’ve often thought about the zonelabs suite, does anyone know what virus scanner it uses or is it their own.

    Steve

  • Robert Lambie Robert Lambie

    Member
    February 26, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    spyware terminator is free and is ranked highest for spyware prevention.
    however, when it is loaded, do not load the antivirus, or toolbar plugin as this is freeware bundled, and was not part of the reviews the software got.
    i have used the paying version of adaware for years… but spyware terminator eliminates much more. as has been said, its their database on viruses and spyware thats the key and i believe recent magazine reviews said terminator had the largest database.

  • Jamie Kimp

    Member
    March 15, 2008 at 12:11 am

    Norton has not good great ratings but i suppose it’s personal preference, I have heard it works with some people and not with others, If you want to pay for top notch look at this http://shop.trendmicro.com/uk/?site=Goo … =acqUK0001

    PC Cillin the best around for virus protection, or if your like me and don’t like spending use avast antivirus but make sure you download from download.com for security, also download for free from download.com ‘spybot search and destroy’ Hope this helps

  • Gordon Ellis

    Member
    November 7, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    Remember the slogan "Norton is a Nightmare" Best is Avast. Used to be AVG until the lastest update for Vista. Good site to get this stuff is Hippo Software. You will have real problems getting rid of Norton.

  • Justin Mann

    Member
    November 10, 2008 at 9:22 am

    I put Avast onto any machine I work with, have done for years and it works a treat. Always used to use Norton but it really does slow machines down and I’ve had a few viruses slip thorugh. I’ve worked on a few PC’s for friends recently, first thing I do is swap out the Norton for Avast. Before they even know it’s been done they comment on how quickly the PC boots.

    Not one for using tweaking software generally but a while back I tested Uniblue PowerSuite which cleans the registry and generally speeds things upo, works an absolute tweak but use the spyware cleaner with caution, it’s been know to remove essential files a time or two.

    Started running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware which also seems to work well and has stopped a few nasties.

    I use K-Meleon browser wherever possible over IE as I find it quicker and more reliable. If I do have to use IE I use version 6.

    Cheers,
    Justin 🙂

  • Phill Fenton

    Member
    April 7, 2011 at 8:30 am

    I have just been reading through this old thread (which dates from 2008) and was wondering what was peoples current opinions on various brands of antivirus software?

    AVG seemed one of the most popular options – what are your latest opinions?

  • George Elsmore

    Member
    April 7, 2011 at 8:46 am

    ESET NOD 32 Phill never had any thing on my computer in 2 years + it runs quietly in the background and its a good price also to have 2nd 3rd and 4th user licences is cheap have a look online.

    http://www.eset.co.uk/Products

    G

  • Dermot Howard

    Member
    April 7, 2011 at 9:04 am

    I’M with George, I have ESET nod32 and have never had a problem, we got the 4 user license to cover all the machines and as far as i know its never failed so far, I forget the price but is very reasonable.

  • Steve McAdie

    Member
    April 7, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    Now using free version of Comodo anti virus & firewall, works fine.

    Steve

  • Martin Pearson

    Member
    April 7, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    I’ve used bitdefender for years and never had a problem, it’s recently won some more awards from which so I can’t be the only one who likes it.

    Like some of the others it is well priced and covers multiple PC’s. Think the version I am using covers me for up to 3 machines.

    Free software is OK but it is never real time so there is always a bigger risk of getting a problem. For the little a paid version costs if you have your PC hooked up to the net and you are also using it for your business then I think it is money well spent. Having said that my design computer is isolated from everything else to help avoid any problems.

  • David-Foster-

    Member
    April 8, 2011 at 8:14 am

    Another vote for ESET Nod32. had it for years, never know you have it until it warns you of something dodgy and cleans it for you 😮

    Of course this is only for my PC’s, my Macs are naked :lol1:

  • Shane Drew

    Member
    April 8, 2011 at 8:17 am

    I use PC shield. A 3 user license is $au70. I’ve been using it on all my 6 computers for several years.

  • Alan Drury

    Member
    April 8, 2011 at 8:38 am

    I use Norton and always have, not especially because I like it but because I always have and have never got a virus, that is to say never got one its detected and that is the problem with ALL virus packages. Not detecting a virus means it hasn’t found one it is capable of finding not necessarily one doesn’t exist.
    As I’m now officially a crusty old git part of me thinks half the viruses are written by AV vendors anyway or am I getting cynical in my old age.
    Alan D

  • John Cooper

    Member
    April 8, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    I know this is a little wide of the question asked but, for those who like to ‘mess about’ with their PCs & software and maybe take the odd risk by trying something new, RollBack RX has been invaluable for me.

    http://www.rollbacksoftware.com/?gclid= … 4QodqVFoCg

    When you screw up your PC big-time it will get you out of trouble quickly and without any tech skill required.

    Cheers

    John

  • Andrew Martin

    Member
    April 8, 2011 at 2:40 pm

    My Anti Virus of choice is Avast pro

  • Stephen Morriss

    Member
    April 8, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    I’m using Norton now as well, it’s come top of all the major tests and the latest version isn’t TOO much of a hog, Avast and AVG have both let in that stupid system security virus/tojan so I’d don’t trust them that much anymore.

    Like Alan I’m sure half the virus’s out there have been set off by so called computer security companies.

    Steve

  • Dave Rowland

    Member
    April 8, 2011 at 4:08 pm
    quote Dermot Howard:

    I’M with George, I have ESET nod32 and have never had a problem, we got the 4 user license to cover all the machines and as far as i know its never failed so far, I forget the price but is very reasonable.

    ESET is designed to be very small footprint in memory and less harddisk activity… thats all we want 🙂

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