anti virus programs-a discussion

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kailasa108 said:
While COMODO's firewall is one of the best (free or purchased), the same is NOT true of their AV. If you look at the professional AV testing websites, you'll usually find that Avira's Antivir is the top AV (free or paid) that does not require hardware. It also includes rootkit detection.

AVG Free is usually rated poor.
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Please keep in mind, that Avira won't work for you, if you have installed (like me), linux like software in your windows installation (eg. Redhat's cygwin1.dll).

Comodo av, don't has and won't has a big virus database while is in its beta stage. Better to keep your distances from it, unless ofcourse you want to participate in beta testing.

Rootkit detection software, you can find there: http://www.antirootkit.com/software/index.htm

My personal opinion (please don't get mad, just my personal opinion), is not to depend in site reviews for helping you at your personal research. I think is better reading individual users experiences.

PS. I have here installed AVG and I'm quite satisfied from it, but I'm sure you can find other good solutions as well.

Greetings!!!:bigthumb:
 
Re: Anti Virus recommendations . . .

Greetings from Leon Springs, Texas USofA,

As a complete, or maybe an incomplete, NOVICE in this forum, NOT very experienced with these newer systems is what I really mean.

I have tried NORTON (barf!), PC-cillin (another!), AVG (again!), and many other that are either a resource HOG or just not very good, in my opinion which holds NO water.

My recommendation is Avira's AntiVir which is the one and only one I use and is updated as often as one can possibly keep their AV software updated to. I have had very good experiences with them as well as their software. Just recently moved from dial-up to DSL so most of my experiences have been in the dial-up arena. They worked with me and listened to suggestions given to them by ME as well. Being a not so smart user, but; with some good suggestions they did listen and tested a suggestion for maybe 6 - 8 months before implementing one that gave them a clear advantage and those of us on dial-ups, at that time maybe a couple of years ago, to send and append or merge their updates of their 'vdf' files instead of sending a FULL 'vdf' file every time we updated our systems. Made their requirement of band width much less and our updates were much faster. A very small thingy for them but was a very large HELP for their USERS especially those of us on dial-up.

In my opinion they will work with you if you ask and provide some information for them to work with. Your decision on which one to use is really more up to the individual as to which you feel the most comfortable and the ease of setup & use for you. Some like Kaparsky I do not like one that adds their advertiesment to the end of my e-mail (AVG is one).

Do your own testing and find your comfort zone then enjoy,

Thank you for reading my rant and posty toastie,
 
Re: Anti Virus recommendations . . .

If you are not aware of CastleCops Forum then go there and check out all they have available for your consumption or reading if you prefer.

Their Forum: Edit (Site closed) if you just want to read then you may or if you wish to ask questions then Register, it is painless.

There are other sites that have Forums that are very well monitored and filled with information for your consumption or reading as before.

Enjoy,
 
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LoneLurker said:
My recommendation is Avira's AntiVir which is the one and only one I use and is updated as often as one can possibly keep their AV software updated to. I have had very good experiences with them as well as their software.
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+1 from me to avira! I was a beta tester some years ago. Very good company, very friendly people at their forums and very good products. (I'm also using their free ntfs4dos (for accessing my ntfs partitions under freedos).
The only thing I want to see at future versions is support for red hat's cygwin users like me (I'm using it for emulating linux programs under xp).
Since I can't right now use avira, I'm using avg and I'm quite satisfied with it.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that avira won't failed you!:bigthumb:

LoneLurker said:
Just recently moved from dial-up to DSL
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Then, Enjoy your DSL connection!:bigthumb:
 
Re: Anti Virus recommendations . . .

EW,

Thank you for this posty and hopefully you will get your 'cygwin' added to the Avira lineup so you, as well, will be protected to the MAX.

With you having been a ßeta tester they will accommodate you in the near future.

The only problem I am having with the DSL is the wind burns from this faster speed, need to leave here for a short so my skin can cool off some. BAG! (Big A__ Grin!)

Again thank you for the posting,

Elf Wizard said:
+1 from me to avira! I was a beta tester some years ago. Very good company, very friendly people at their forums and very good products. (I'm also using their free ntfs4dos (for accessing my ntfs partitions under freedos).
The only thing I want to see at future versions is support for red hat's cygwin users like me (I'm using it for emulating linux programs under xp).
Since I can't right now use avira, I'm using avg and I'm quite satisfied with it.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that avira won't failed you!:bigthumb:


Then, Enjoy your DSL connection!:bigthumb:
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LoneLurker said:
EW,

Thank you for this posty and hopefully you will get your 'cygwin' added to the Avira lineup so you, as well, will be protected to the MAX.

With you having been a ßeta tester they will accommodate you in the near future.

The only problem I am having with the DSL is the wind burns from this faster speed, need to leave here for a short so my skin can cool off some. BAG! (Big A__ Grin!)

Again thank you for the posting,
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I'm new to dsl too! I'm also having problems with it. Although I bought a new bigger disk, I'm having to buy again and again packs of dvds.:laugh:

Greetings!!!:bigthumb:
Giorgos.
 
Gaming4JC, I use the same programs except for Bit Defender ... which I didn't find to my liking at all.

I've never had a virus and I've been consistently on the internet since it was the Darpa/Arpa net of the mid 70s, but I've removed or otherwise "fixed" damage caused by hundreds in other's machines.

I run my machine pretty lean and run the detection programs as "on Demand" scanners.

When I say "lean", my HiJack list is only 23 entries, my start up list 5 entries and my available RAM is 624Mb (average) out of 768Mb - this is on a dual boot (98SE/2000Pro) machine. Ain't much going on inside this box unless I ask there to be. :)
 
i think avast is the best

after norton ruined my machine, i searched around for a free av on download.com i found avast and have stayed for over 2 years now. They offer great protection, small resources, and best of all its free! They often do very well on the av tests that are conducted, higher then avg usually. And they often get awards for detection. I like that it updates every day, sometimes even 2 times a day. and the small update size is perfect for dial up users, and the sounds and things are neat. I think avast or antivir is a great choice for protection. Avg is no longer a top notch program in my opinion. There antispyware on the other hand, is good. Viruis protection isn't as good.
 
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stupid shitty spyware

At the bottom left side of the screen an icon that resmbles a shield changes from a question mark to a x sign please its also coming up with a pop up saying i have active spyware please help i click on it an it takes me to a websit called virus reponse 2009 i ran sybot an it is saying there is no spyware so what do i do
 
Imho

I spent a year trying all of the recommended AVs, firewalls, registry cleaners, HIPS programs, optimizers, defraggers and anti-spyware on four different XP-based PCs. (And to let you know I download stuff off of the Internet frequently, so I want the best.) Here's what I use:

AV: either ESET's NOD32 or Avira's Antivir - the paid versions. I haven't had any infections since using them. They both have rootkit detection. They both have pretty clunky interfaces...but their ease of use runs rings around Kaspersky unless you just use it "out of the box" - in which case it's not very effective. Antivir occasionally throws a false positive at me...but no big deal.

Firewall: COMODO - best there is, easy to use, has a VERY good HIPS function and it's free. Need I say more?

Anti-spyware - AVG (paid). They've discontinued it as a stand-alone...but I disregarded their "upgrade now" pitches and guess what... my program now says I have an unlimited license, and I continue to get signature updates; Spybot - everyone says this is worthless, but I like it...if for no other reason than its immunization feature; and Ad-aware 2008 (free) - it seems to catch everything the other two miss.

HIPS - I'm still undecided on this...PREVX 2 is my favorite so far...but I haven't bought it yet. I run PREVX CSI (a baby not-real-time version of PREVX2) as a double-check - since they have an extensiveonline database of bogeys from their user community.

Cleaners (Registry and file) - The best there is are two products from Superwin Software (ever heard of them? probably not) - A1 Click Ultra PC Cleaner and Regvac. I use CCleaner when I'm feeling lazy and don't have any problems. Regvac has saved me from doing a system rebuild more than once. You have to be a little careful with A1 not to clean too much!

Edit
Registry Cleaners, not recommended

Optimizers - Pick from several - each of them seem to have their own particular blend of what they consider optimized. I like Iobit's Advanced WindowsCare V2 Pro for all of the added tools and ease of use. But my all time favorite is Iolo's System Mechanic...I don't recommend their latest version because it is paranoid that you might not have a real license...stick with version 7 for now.

Defraggers - Perfectdisk 2008 - If you have a HD bigger than 80gigs, get this...period. Their super optimization function keeps your files from getting defragged in the first place. Other mentionables...Vopt 9 - very nice features including a cleaner that you can run before you defrag and a kill process function to speed up defrag time...and Iolo's SmartDefrag...it's free and good...has a background feature that helps keeps your files contiguous.

"And that's all I have to say about that...."
 
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kailasa108 said:
Firewall: COMODO - best there is, easy to use, has a VERY good HIPS function and it's free. Need I say more?

Spybot - everyone says this is worthless, but I like it...if for no other reason than its immunization feature; and Ad-aware 2008 (free) - it seems to catch everything the other two miss.

"And that's all I have to say about that...."
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Word. Comodo Pro Firewall includes HIP, so I don't need a single HIP program on my machine.
I don't see how Spybot-Search&Destroy is "worthless" if people haven't even tested it or ran it for the first time. People who just base their answers on other people's judgments are :sick:.

Avira performs excellently and has a decent detection rate. I also feel avast! is another program that is promising and robust. Their technology is sophisticated because AV's back then didn't include rookit detection.

However, when it comes to those "tune-up" softwares that claim to 'speed-up' your computer by cleaning the registry, I would be, "get out of my face".

If people disagree, then so be it.

\m/^_^\m/
 
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crowbar said:
Do the experts here have a favorite anti virus they could recommend?

I have been flirting with buying bit-defender, but am holding out to make a more informed decision ....
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im no expert but i reccomend
panda
avast
or mcafee

but i dont really like mcafee any more but i mostly reccomend panda
 
I tried out the Panda's cloud anti-virus; the principle behind the product seems good, although I wouldn't recommend using it on your 'main' machine as it is still in beta (I have experienced some bugginess!).

I used to use AVG's free anti-virus on all of our machines, but after testing the beta of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), I was amazed at the detection rate, scanning speed, RAM/CPU usage and other welcome quirks such as the lack of advertisements urging you to upgrade to the premium version as experienced in many other free AVs. As soon as MSE came out of beta (which was quite recent) I switched all of our computers to it. :laugh:

Of course, no anti-virus will protect you against everything. That's why employing layered security by using other programs like Spybot-S&D is best way to protecting your PC.
 
Top of the Morning to you, Honda12

Thank you for the MSE antivirus tip, I did not know about it.

I have been using AVG for some time, started with the free version and stuck with the software when it became full pay.
The product is good but the CS is abysmal in the US. Got a better response last Year when I was in FR and had to call the German HQ to renew.

I will try your Microsoft substitute as an additional layer of protection. Still, there is nothing like a good router as a physical firewall first defense

Tata,

MIF.
 
:laugh::laugh::laugh:
Oh... it's just classic when some people are under the impression that cleaning their registry with a generic cleaner will get rid of active and potential infections.
 
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