Recommend me an antivirus?

[pryomancer]

Well I'm looking to start paying for a decent antivirus program, instead of clogging my pc up with crappy trial editions and lagging me.

 

 

 

So I'm looking for an antivirus which would be available in a good computer store, and which can cover these areas-

 

antivirus

 

anti-spyware

 

internet security

 

firewall

 

anti-phishing

 

 

 

Basically what Norton 360 would cover, although I'm not sure if I can get that. Is 360 any good? Is Norton any good?

 

Recommend me some good programs.

[JoeDaStudd]

Ok

 

Anti Virus; Avast free or AVG free, both are great. (I'm using AVG Free)

 

Anti spy/mal/adware; Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware, those two will take out 99% of spy/ad/mal ware.

 

Firewall: Zonealarm basic (free)

 

Anti Phishing; IE7 or Firefox (I prefer Firefox)

 

Internet security: Use common sense failing that use Firefox, install these add-ons adblock plus, no-script, McAfee site advisor and customize google (remove those annoying links to spam sites).

 

 

 

That should do.

 

 

 

However the best protection is common sense, if a site looks iffy don't download from it or give it your details.

 

 

 

PS all the above are completely free.

[blade995]

You asking if Norton is anyu good is going to cause WWIII on this forum......

 

 

 

Anyway, you may not be able to get free software that can all of that in one, but you can get free programs that will do all of those things.

 

 

 

Antivirus: AVG Free here

 

 

 

anti-spyware: Ad-aware and Spybot here and here

 

 

 

Firewall: Zonealarm free version here

 

 

 

Anti-phishing: IE& and Firefox both have antiphishing built into them I believe. So upgrade to IE7 if you haven't already.

 

 

 

EDIT: Joe you beat me to it, oh well, I included links :P .

[Mercifull]

Been using F-Secure recently. Seems really good and the people post regular updates on their website about the state of the internet and latest threats and stuff. Really good.

[ltb2006]

I'd go with avg,its decent and free =)

[pryomancer]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear, I don't want free stuff, I'm going out tomorrow to buy a proper antimalware from a shop.

 

 

 

I wanted some recommendations for decent software.

 

 

 

Thanks anyway though, I'm sure this will be useful to other people.

[Errdoth]

Some of the best things in life are free, and a lot of the programs posted above have "Pro" versions that cost. Though I'm not sure why you wouldn't be fine with the free stuff :?

[pryomancer]

Because some jobs I might apply for require a safe computer, and the employer probably won't be impressed with me just having a load of free programs.

[Errdoth]

Because some jobs I might apply for require a safe computer, and the employer probably won't be impressed with me just having a load of free programs.

 

 

 

Secret government dude :-$

[blade995]

Because some jobs I might apply for require a safe computer, and the employer probably won't be impressed with me just having a load of free programs.

 

 

 

I assure you, with the programs posted above, you can't get too much more secure. I don't think Norton could do a better job than those, it may even do it worse.

 

 

 

If you insist on wasting your money Nod32 is a good virus scanner it cost about $30. For anti-spyware Ad-aware and Spybot are the best programs that are free or paid for. Ad-aware does have a Pro version with ad-watch I guess can be more secure and slow down your PC just like all of the other money programs.

[ClareJonsson]

It you're applying for a job and want to appear more professional, then I would suggest the following:

 

 

 

For Viruses and Spam: Sophos Sweep - it's just about the industry standard that a lot of other software get their data from, but be warned, it's quite expensive. They also do site licences for larger organisations such as the University I am a technician at.

 

 

 

Firewall: Well the windows firewall is okay, but more professionally you would obviously be using a dedicated firewall between the PCs and the Net, usually something on a separate computer or a dedicated piece of hardware, both of which act like a gateway to the outside world and has full control and logging of incoming and outgoing packets.

 

 

 

It doesn't do any harm to have Windows Defender installed either, and this comes preinstalled if you have Vista anyway.

 

 

 

The other good thing about the above (Not including the dedicated firewall or hardware firewall) is that you have full control via group policies in the active directory on your domain. And all can be deployed via a service like SMS.

 

 

 

I am assuming of course the job your going for is something technical?

[junkiejeff]

This is an test of 27 different virusscanners.

 

First you see the name, second the precentage of virusses, trojans, bots and worms they have detected.

 

 

 

1. WebWasher 99,83%

 

2. AVK 2007 99,56%

 

3. BitDefender 98,10%

 

4. AntiVir 98,02%

 

5. F-Secure 97,97%

 

6. Kaspersky 97,64%

 

7. Symantec 96,18%

 

8. Microsoft 96,01%

 

9. Trend Micro 95,48%

 

10. Ikarus 95,46%

 

11. Avast! 95,24%

 

12. AVG 95,10%

 

13. Sophos 95,03%

 

14. Nod32 93,65%

 

15. F-Prot 93,46%

 

16. Panda 93,31%

 

17. Fortinet 91,19%

 

18. Norman 90,81%

 

19. Rising 88,22%

 

20. McAfee 86,40%

 

21. VBA32 85,36%

 

22. Dr Web 83,00%

 

23. QuickHeal 80,30%

 

24. ClamAV 75,56%

 

25. VirusBuster 75,36%

 

26. eTrust-VET 73,76%

 

27. Command 73,14%

 

28. QuickHeal 63,03%

 

29. eTrust-VET 62,12%

 

 

 

As you see AVK and AntiVir are first and second.

 

AVK actually is based on the scan engines of Kaspersky and Avast.

 

Webwasher is based on the scan engine of Antivir.

 

This "dual" scan engine only makes the scans slower and in some cases it might even say that unharmfull files are malware.

 

 

 

You can see that Symantec ended 5th.

 

I actually don't recommend it because it uses allot of memory.

 

 

 

Most people say that the think Nod32 is best.

 

I also use it and it's lightweight and very effective.

 

 

 

I recommend you using Firefox for the internet security and the anti-pishing.

 

I don't know much about a firewall and anti-spyware, but ESET smarty security(Nod32) has both and it's pretty good.

 

Also having a security pack of like Bitdefender works pretty good.

 

 

 

Well, I hoped my info helped,

 

Good luck finding what you need!

[blade995]

^^^^

 

Any source on that information?

[kelerps]

This is an test of 27 different virusscanners.

 

First you see the name, second the precentage of virusses, trojans, bots and worms they have detected.

 

 

 

1. WebWasher 99,83%

 

2. AVK 2007 99,56%

 

3. BitDefender 98,10%

 

4. AntiVir 98,02%

 

5. F-Secure 97,97%

 

6. Kaspersky 97,64%

 

7. Symantec 96,18%

 

8. Microsoft 96,01%

 

9. Trend Micro 95,48%

 

10. Ikarus 95,46%

 

11. Avast! 95,24%

 

12. AVG 95,10%

 

13. Sophos 95,03%

 

14. Nod32 93,65%

 

15. F-Prot 93,46%

 

16. Panda 93,31%

 

17. Fortinet 91,19%

 

18. Norman 90,81%

 

19. Rising 88,22%

 

20. McAfee 86,40%

 

21. VBA32 85,36%

 

22. Dr Web 83,00%

 

23. QuickHeal 80,30%

 

24. ClamAV 75,56%

 

25. VirusBuster 75,36%

 

26. eTrust-VET 73,76%

 

27. Command 73,14%

 

28. QuickHeal 63,03%

 

29. eTrust-VET 62,12%

 

 

 

As you see AVK and AntiVir are first and second.

 

AVK actually is based on the scan engines of Kaspersky and Avast.

 

Webwasher is based on the scan engine of Antivir.

 

This "dual" scan engine only makes the scans slower and in some cases it might even say that unharmfull files are malware.

 

 

 

You can see that Symantec ended 5th.

 

I actually don't recommend it because it uses allot of memory.

 

 

 

Most people say that the think Nod32 is best.

 

I also use it and it's lightweight and very effective.

 

 

 

I recommend you using Firefox for the internet security and the anti-pishing.

 

I don't know much about a firewall and anti-spyware, but ESET smarty security(Nod32) has both and it's pretty good.

 

Also having a security pack of like Bitdefender works pretty good.

 

 

 

Well, I hoped my info helped,

 

Good luck finding what you need!

 

 

 

I wouldn't really trust those statistics because many people have tested all of them and claimed it was a reliable and large sample but they seem to come out quite different. It does seem that the most widely used ones are consistently toward the top. Keep in mind this does not test the ability to recognize a virus that is not in their database.

 

 

 

I wouldn't worry about the number too much as other factors are more important in a decision. Kaspersky and Zone alarm have worked out well for me. Most importantly participate in safe internet practices.

[pryomancer]

Well i now have Norton 360.

 

Installed perfectly with no problems, it seems to be working very well, and I've had Norton products before on my old computer.

 

Quick to scan my whole pc, too.

 

 

 

Thanks for all your help and suggestions, I'm sure this will also serve as an aid to others.

 

 

 

This can be closed, if no further discussion is required.

[QueenValerie]

Closed on request.