What antivirus program do you use?

Pauly

TNRabbit wrote: »

Microsoft Security Essentials is what we use at work; it's great.

+1

No problems what so ever

Sherardp

Free AVG with Malwarebytes, Windows Firewall, and CCleaner.

thuffman03

Motzart wrote: »

I have Time Warner Cable Inet and they provide CA Security Center for FREE.
So far it works great for me!

I run a Pent 4 with HT....2 Gig of Kingston HyperX Ram and XP Home Ed SP3

A friend of mine works for CA support. CA has not been very quick to respond to virus'. Always at the bottom of the pack. I would not use them. In fact he does not even use their AV application.


There are several free that are just AV. I would suggest something like Norton 360. It is not cheep but you have to think what the cost of not having the PC/Laptop available and the cost of having someone clean up the system if you do get infected.

If you are a member of Costco or Sams club they sometimes sell a 3 license package really cheep.

schutz2106

Used to faithfully use norton but new program seemed to slow my pc down. Got it refunded and now just make sure updates run. Havent had a problem but kids pc is new and has norton preloaded for 2 years.

heiney9

All you guys that are worried about system resources should look into Vipre.

H9

fishbones

I use Norton-360, and have used Norton for many years. Last year's version was fantastic, the best my computer has ever run. The years before were slower and didn't stop all viruses, and this year's version, while not letting any viruses through so far, runs alllllll the time and slowing my computer down tremendously - I hate it.

A friend of mine, who was a diehard Norton fan, changed for reasons above to ParetoLogic and is ecstacially happy with it. His computer runs faster than he has ever seen and has solved old driver issues too (if you get the whole package).

Some of the other ones on this thread look interesting...

EDIT: BTW, I love CCleaner!

fishbones

schutz2106 wrote: »

Used to faithfully use norton but new program seemed to slow my pc down. Got it refunded and now just make sure updates run. Havent had a problem but kids pc is new and has norton preloaded for 2 years.

If I could ask, how did you get it refunded...anything in particular you said? The only reason I haven't switched yet is because I just bought the dam thing 2 months ago.

SWFalken

I'm going to be the wiseacre in the room and say OSX. I have run one flavor or another of Mac OS since I bought my first Apple Powerbook in 2000. I have never had a virus and I have never run any kind of Antivirus/Anti-malware software. You could chalk it up to luck I suppose, but my machines are live on the internet 10 hrs. a day behind only a simple firewall and I troll the web as much as anybody. To answer your question seriously, Symantec lives on my corporate crap box Panasonic Toughbook running XP SP3. It seems to work well enough although it does take quite a while to boot when you have it set to scan all of the time.

kuntasensei

Janne wrote: »

I have been a Norton guy since beginning of time. Never had a virus so why try something else?

To get your system resources back. Norton is a total CPU and memory hog, and is the most bloated anti-virus software on the market. Sure, you're virus free... but you could be virus-free AND get 10% of your computing speed back by using another program. I've had problems with every single computer I've put Norton on, both at home and my office, and in every case, uninstalling Norton was the ultimate solution.

But above all else, the best anti-virus is smart computing habits. Too many people will open every attachment and click on every link or fake error message without using a little common sense.

maggiefan

Microsoft Security Essentials, CCleaner. All free and never a problem.

Jstas

jflail2 wrote: »

IAnd Bob is spot on. Patch Tuesday is a good day

No it's not. That's the day everything friggin' breaks.

cokewithvanilla

I don't use AV software on my computers. I just don't look at child **** . When I install for customers I use Kaspersky. Norton is a control freak.

ben62670

AVG, but it is starting to get bloated.

dorokusai

Webroot, love it.

Jstas

SWFalken wrote: »

I'm going to be the wiseacre in the room and say OSX. I have run one flavor or another of Mac OS since I bought my first Apple Powerbook in 2000. I have never had a virus and I have never run any kind of Antivirus/Anti-malware software. You could chalk it up to luck I suppose, but my machines are live on the internet 10 hrs. a day behind only a simple firewall and I troll the web as much as anybody. To answer your question seriously, Symantec lives on my corporate crap box Panasonic Toughbook running XP SP3. It seems to work well enough although it does take quite a while to boot when you have it set to scan all of the time.

That's nice.

Macs are fun little wind-up toys but they aren't the answer for everybody. For some they work great. They are appliances. For others who wish to do things that Macs are just no good at, they aren't an option. Do they have viruses? Yes, they do. Do they get infected? Yes, they do. Do 90% of the Mac users ever encounter them? No, they don't. If they do they are not computer savvy enough to even notice in most cases. Then again, most people don't have anything worth stealing so it's a moot point.

Just because Macs work so great at not getting viruses doesn't mean they are an anti-virus solution. The ONLY reason Macs work so great is because Mac's market share is in the single digits. There aren't enough of them out there to make an attack of any size worth while. Security through obscurity, that's what makes Macs "safe".

Macs are a computer solution, not an anti-virus solution. If the purpose of you owning a computer is not to get viruses then there are certainly other options better than a Mac out there. A Mac is a good one though. But most people don't get a computer to battle viruses. They get computers to gamble online, surf ****, watch pirated TV shows and play Facebook games. If the stuff you want to do is not available to do or easy to do on a Mac then a Mac is not your solution. It's like saying you need a center channel with some bass response and then buying a subwoofer to use as your center channel. Sure it'll work but it's not the right solution for the problem. It has great bass response but it misses all the other stuff.

I am so sick of hearing the mac-believer argument that Macs don't get viruses and they are so great because of it. It completely misses every other point of having a computer. Honestly, add in all that other stuff and Macs are middle of the pack or worse. It's like having to listen to a Bose believer about how great Bose is. But when you get down to the nitty gritty, you see Bose for the sham that it is.


Oh and your Panasonic Toughbook is a dog because they use outdated hardware. It's the only hardware that has the fault tolerances that they need to meet the shock ratings they tout in their sales brochures. It's got nothing to do with what software you run but rather what amount of system resources you have.


Oh and yes, I have owned a Mac before and it was such a pile of garbage I made it a doorstop until a Mac geek cried and I sold it to him for $500. All of my Windows and UNIX systems run 24/7 with Internet visibility and I even have software set up to push some of my network shares out over a VPN connection. I'm running 5 Windows systems and two UNIX systems along with a router, a firewall, two network switches and a SCSI Bridge to a fiberchannel array for network storage.

cokewithvanilla

^^ nice post.

mdaudioguy

SWFalken wrote: »

I'm going to be the wiseacre in the room and say OSX.

I can't believe we made it to page 2 without one of you guys.

SWFalken

Jstas wrote: »

That's nice.

Macs are fun little wind-up toys but they aren't the answer for everybody. For some they work great. They are appliances. For others who wish to do things that Macs are just no good at, they aren't an option. Do they have viruses? Yes, they do. Do they get infected? Yes, they do. Do 90% of the Mac users ever encounter them? No, they don't. If they do they are not computer savvy enough to even notice in most cases. Then again, most people don't have anything worth stealing so it's a moot point.

Just because Macs work so great at not getting viruses doesn't mean they are an anti-virus solution. The ONLY reason Macs work so great is because Mac's market share is in the single digits. There aren't enough of them out there to make an attack of any size worth while. Security through obscurity, that's what makes Macs "safe".

Macs are a computer solution, not an anti-virus solution. If the purpose of you owning a computer is not to get viruses then there are certainly other options better than a Mac out there. A Mac is a good one though. But most people don't get a computer to battle viruses. They get computers to gamble online, surf ****, watch pirated TV shows and play Facebook games. If the stuff you want to do is not available to do or easy to do on a Mac then a Mac is not your solution. It's like saying you need a center channel with some bass response and then buying a subwoofer to use as your center channel. Sure it'll work but it's not the right solution for the problem. It has great bass response but it misses all the other stuff.

I am so sick of hearing the mac-believer argument that Macs don't get viruses and they are so great because of it. It completely misses every other point of having a computer. Honestly, add in all that other stuff and Macs are middle of the pack or worse. It's like having to listen to a Bose believer about how great Bose is. But when you get down to the nitty gritty, you see Bose for the sham that it is.


Oh and your Panasonic Toughbook is a dog because they use outdated hardware. It's the only hardware that has the fault tolerances that they need to meet the shock ratings they tout in their sales brochures. It's got nothing to do with what software you run but rather what amount of system resources you have.


Oh and yes, I have owned a Mac before and it was such a pile of garbage I made it a doorstop until a Mac geek cried and I sold it to him for $500. All of my Windows and UNIX systems run 24/7 with Internet visibility and I even have software set up to push some of my network shares out over a VPN connection. I'm running 5 Windows systems and two UNIX systems along with a router, a firewall, two network switches and a SCSI Bridge to a fiberchannel array for network storage.

Jstas,
I made a positive comment about my personal experience with a platform that has served me well without so much as a single lost bit of data for almost 10 years. You chime in with comments about wind up toys and more PC fanboy nonsense. The most productive people that I know use the platform and have had for some time. Considering how few problems we have had as a group Vs. the problems that non Macintosh family and friends have had over the same period of time, I would say that there may be something to the Mac OS approach Vs. the Microsoft approach to OS design. I'm sure that you aren't as big a c*cksucker as your post makes you seem. I mean, you impress the hell out of me with your ability to manage 5 **** boxes and a couple of real computers, although, I do have doubts as to how productive one can be having so much useless hardware to contend with Vs. my one constantly productive wind up toy. And since you couldn't get past my sort of half joking (wiseacre) comment, I actually did make a real recommendation of Symantec's fine Anti Virus software. And as for things that Macs aren't good at, please enlighten us. I haven't found one thing in ten years that I couldn't do the previous ten with my DOS and eventually Windows boxes. I will admit that I don't play games very much anymore, so I'm not sure if it is any better as a game platform than it was in years past, but for real world applications, It continues to do anything I ask of it spectacularly well. And as for market share, Quoting Gartner, a well respected market research firm, there are approximately 25 Million Macs installed with a market share approaching 10%. That is no small target and no blip on the radar for people looking for consumers to exploit. Add to that the recognition that one would achieve by being the first person to cause major security problems for an arrogant, almost untouchable community of computer users, it seems to me that there may be more to the security of the underlying Mach/BSD architecture than what most PC users would be willing to admit. Given time, every consumer system sold today can be exploited with a little work. The thing is, Your Windows boxes take so little time and effort to break compared to an off the shelf Mac that you may as well paint them red and white like the targets that they are. Good God, I can't believe that I just wasted ten precious minutes of my amazing life to respond to your pathetic *ss. Now be a good mental and go play on the train tracks so we don't have to waste any more time with you.

messiah

As far as PC Fanboys, and nonsense like that that I'd like to say this: If it weren't for Ipods, ipads and Iphones your precious apple would probably be out of business. How many games do programmers write for apple computers? How many programs do mainstream software writers write for both PC and the mac? Just a thought

fishbones

Wondered how long it was gonna take to get ugly....

bobman1235

It really is funny that the Mac / PC wars have lasted since I started going online in the early/mid 90's. That's good staying power!

mrbiron

Kaspersky.......and common sense!

I have a Home Built, the little lady has a iMac, and are located in the same room. Every morning i get up, the iMac has iBlood and iTears all over the place and my pc has a screensaver of a little boy whistling.

bigaudiofanatic

Jstas wrote: »

That's nice.

Macs are fun little wind-up toys but they aren't the answer for everybody. For some they work great. They are appliances. For others who wish to do things that Macs are just no good at, they aren't an option. Do they have viruses? Yes, they do. Do they get infected? Yes, they do. Do 90% of the Mac users ever encounter them? No, they don't. If they do they are not computer savvy enough to even notice in most cases. Then again, most people don't have anything worth stealing so it's a moot point.

Just because Macs work so great at not getting viruses doesn't mean they are an anti-virus solution. The ONLY reason Macs work so great is because Mac's market share is in the single digits. There aren't enough of them out there to make an attack of any size worth while. Security through obscurity, that's what makes Macs "safe".

Macs are a computer solution, not an anti-virus solution. If the purpose of you owning a computer is not to get viruses then there are certainly other options better than a Mac out there. A Mac is a good one though. But most people don't get a computer to battle viruses. They get computers to gamble online, surf ****, watch pirated TV shows and play Facebook games. If the stuff you want to do is not available to do or easy to do on a Mac then a Mac is not your solution. It's like saying you need a center channel with some bass response and then buying a subwoofer to use as your center channel. Sure it'll work but it's not the right solution for the problem. It has great bass response but it misses all the other stuff.

I am so sick of hearing the mac-believer argument that Macs don't get viruses and they are so great because of it. It completely misses every other point of having a computer. Honestly, add in all that other stuff and Macs are middle of the pack or worse. It's like having to listen to a Bose believer about how great Bose is. But when you get down to the nitty gritty, you see Bose for the sham that it is.


Oh and your Panasonic Toughbook is a dog because they use outdated hardware. It's the only hardware that has the fault tolerances that they need to meet the shock ratings they tout in their sales brochures. It's got nothing to do with what software you run but rather what amount of system resources you have.


Oh and yes, I have owned a Mac before and it was such a pile of garbage I made it a doorstop until a Mac geek cried and I sold it to him for $500. All of my Windows and UNIX systems run 24/7 with Internet visibility and I even have software set up to push some of my network shares out over a VPN connection. I'm running 5 Windows systems and two UNIX systems along with a router, a firewall, two network switches and a SCSI Bridge to a fiberchannel array for network storage.

Might want to do some research apples stock numbers this quarter have exceded what they even planed it to be. Sales of new macs for new first time buyers have been increasing the past 3 years and are still growing. Returning mac users are still steady growth.

Game developers have even taken notice such as steam who are releasing their games out for mac and pc now. That will certainly drive sales even higher. Microsoft has released products for mac for years now but why? iworks is great and so much cheaper than office and does the same stuff better. I am in college for Network management and computer repair. I know what I have read and I know about windows. Right now windows sales are dropping. Why? Because simply people do not want to relearn a OS they have been using for X amount of years. A lot are saying hey sense we have to relearn a OS lets give mac a try. Yes they can get viruses but it is very very rare if ever. I have no problems repairing someones computer using tools on my thumb drive than plugging that now infected thumb drive into my mac to be reformatted. Try doing that with a windows computer without having to take care of an attack. I have a collection of over 800 albums I am in college and have a life. I do not want to have to worry about getting infected even though I know how to protect myself. So I choose mac and love it. Companies for people on the road are also looking at mac as they can keep their company safe when returning from the road.

I have had two macs on my second now. I love them bust on them all you like but in no way are their sales in the single digits. I have taken linux classes and I also run Ubuntu but I still prefer the OSX over it any day. Never a problem never a crash great tech support with english speaking people and plenty of places to take it if I even need a repair done.

Just my .02

Hydralisk

I find ZenOK Free Antivirus to be a good AV, I think it is light because its not just an anti-virus and it comes with a online backup and a couple of more feautures . I prefer to have an AV and backup combination instead of having two separate apps.

bigaudiofanatic

Avast is a great program that I use on windows computers.

ben62670

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Avast is a great program that I use on windows computers.

I used AVG for a while, but it became bloated. I have switched to AVAST and have been very happy

heiney9

On the new computer I'm using Microsoft Essentials instead of Vipre.

H9

shack

For three years I had 3 laptops with Trend Micro basic internet antivirus. Worked fine. Typically I could renew for $30 annually for the 3. This year they decided to "bundle" a a bunch of features I didn't want in their baseline product and triple the price. They offered a discount which was still more that double the renewal price of the previous year. I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials and never looked back. I am very pleased with the way it works. Not a resource hog and finds the bad stuff.

FittyFieFo

I use NOD32

mdaudioguy

Hard to tell at this moment whether Hydralisk (who woke this sleeping thread up today) is legit, or a spammer promoting the antivirus he linked to...