What is the most reliable Anti-viral software out today?

[Mark30001]

I don't know if a similar thread has been started, but what is the most reliable anti-viral software out there?

I've heard many cases where Norton is better than Mc-Afee, & vica-versa. I've also heard of Symantec (Norton) Corporate & Enterprise Editions, and also AVG.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[PhantasyStar]

Like you posted, I currently use the 30 day free trial of AVG. It got rid of the 12 Java viruses that I had for a while.

[PhreQuencYViii]

AVG free is THE best. To me anyway.

http://free.grisoft.com/softw/70free/setup/avg70free_338a597.exe

Nortan and McAfee and all that crap is just totally bloated and on top of that costs a ton....Just use AVG dude. Simple, fast, lightweight.

[gaming247]

I use norton but it totally kills computer resources (and the wallet a bit too).

Never heard of AVG, might have to look into that.

[Borman]

AVG gets my vote

[Greatsaintlouis]

AVG as well. It's free, it's light on your system, and I've found it to consistently identify and clean virii that Norton and McAfee never picked up. Besides, that whole "You've owned your antivirus software for six months - time to cough up another $30 for new definitions" is just complete bullshit.

Your results may vary, but I use a combination of ZoneAlarm Free, AVG, and the Microsoft Anti-Spyware beta, and I haven't had a problem since I set things up like this. Every week or so, I'll run Lavasoft's AdAware just to catch the few things that slipped through the firewall and virus/spyware scanners.

[LeGIt]

We used to use norton at work but their prices are high, they only do updates once a week (so if a virus is out after they do update you gotta wait a week for AV pattern) and it hits your system resources hard.

We've since picked up AVG 7 Network edition and the price we pay for 2 years subscription for 100 machines is significantly cheaper than Norton's price for 1 year. AV updates are daily, sometimes multiple updates a day and it really doesn't hog the machine's resources too much either. Gotta love the remote administration tool too ;)

[WolverineDK]

nod32 is the best antivirus program. I use it myself. and it has won awards after awards.

[the_steadster]

Sophos isn't bad. It's also not great however
I alternate between AVG free and kaspersky personally. Depends what mood I'm in - kaspersky I feel is better but eats system resources for breakfast lunch and dinner

[Zilog Jones]

I've been using AVG Free for at least 2 years now, if not 3, and it works great. My only issue was when version 7.0 first came out at the beginning of the year and after the first update it decided to make every single Windows process crash consecutively - there's been no problems at all since then though.

Also, my friend's laptop had issues - mainly due to its lack of a firewall and being on a virus-tastic network for a year. I tried scanning it with Norton Corporate Edition 2005 (which the college gave him, and was just updated) - it found nothing. Then immediately after that I tried AVG Free - it found several hundred duplicates of about 5 different trojans. Go figure.

[Divine Evolution]

If you're not going the spend any money do AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/) .
If you are going to spend money NEVER, let me repeat, NEVER buy a Symantec product. I used Norton Anti-Virus from 1999 to 2004. There is no other peice of software besides AOL that has gotten to such an absolutely UNBELIEVEABLE level of bloat! I installed NAV2K4 on my Athlon64 just after installing WinXP and I actually noticed lag. There is NO reason an A/V should lag your system and there is NO reason an A/V should add more than three processes to your task manager. Furthermore I've never experienced a more vulnerable piece of software than NAV. Just about every piece of Adware or Spyware can corrupt your NAV installation (and even just uninstalling some common programs can ruin NAV) and you'll need to fully UNinstall it and REinstall it (and sometimes the uninstallation doesn't even get rid of the corrupted part since NAV doesn't completely uninstall from Add/Remove Programs - you have to go download a program named SymNRT to actually remove Norton).
If you are going to spend money do it on TrendMicro (http://www.trendmicro.com/) PC-cillin (http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/desktop/pc-cillin/evaluate/overview.htm) .
You can get the full Internet Security suite for just the price of the A/V from Symantec or you can buy just the TrendMicro PC-cillin Antivirus in pretty much any electronics store for about $40.
~Krelian

[PhreQuencYViii]

Yeah, sometimes to uninstall NAV you need to reformat, because of how bad it hooks into your windows stuff....at least it was like that on everything under XP. Still not good though.

My motherboard came with PC-Cillin, its pretty good and saved me during the Blaster crisis. :no

Mark dude, really, just go and download AVG.

[Taemos]

I haven't had much luck with either McAfee or Norton programs. We use McAfee at work, and the only time it detects something is when I'm running a spyware scan and the spyware program (Ad-Aware, Spybot, or Microsoft Antispyware, one of the three) picks something up. McAfee pops up right after something is detected. How convenient...

[Mark30001]

Thank you guys for all of the responses! :) I still can't believe my dad bought Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier & Internet Security 2005 combo (I kinda nagged him into doing it) :(.

[PhreQuencYViii]

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH see if you can like, ebay it or something.....how much is it anyway?

[liquitt]

using NOD32

PS: Microsoft uses it, too, LOL :P

[WolverineDK]

I use nod32 as an antivirus program, and I have bought Symantec Norton motherfucking internet security, because of the firewall, because sygate and my pc did not like eachother. and sadly Symantec has just bought Sygate, so Symantec is probaly trying to make the best firwall VERY shitty and laggy.

The only Symantec product I liked was Norton Commander in the old dos days, since then I have been hating it Symantec products.

Again people we are quite screwed.

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

i recently bought norton antivirus 2005....only reason is...i installed AVG awhile ago.....and upon restart...i was unable to login...admin or not....anyways

if your really money-hungry you can get norton antivirus for free.....

until the end of augest norton attached a 20/30cdn cupon to the box....
upon opening the box....you'll find another slip that will get you 20cdn off of norton 2005 with proof of ownership of a previous norton product...ie cover from manual...

im gettin ready to send it all in...ive read the small print as best i can...and it all seems legite...soo we'll see what happens

[PhreQuencYViii]

Or you could get it from.............................................. .................................................. ..................................nevermind

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

yea......*cough*Bitt....*cough* i was tempted but i thought it would be melo-dramtic...downloadin an antiviruse software to get rid of viruses while actually all your d-loadin is viruses....




i have nothing against bittorrents or the such, i just do not trust the people

[PhreQuencYViii]

Well I mean, most torrent programs detect wether your downloading BS or not, so downloading something won't get you viruses or anything but I get what you mean.

Although I don't get why someone would torrent norton instead of taking 5 seconds to download avg for free..................

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

true.....but ive had problems with every concievable program....so i like to not take risks

[PhreQuencYViii]

Well, just in case you were wondering, check out http://azureus.sourceforge.net/, it's what I use and you can make it only download what you want it to and see everything before it downloads, etc. I don't use BT much though.

[the_steadster]

I'd advise against azureus. Its very, very slow as it is written in java, and its a complete resource hog. I just use the official client, i know there's better software, but it does the job for me.

[dj898]

not sure anyone mentioned but I use A-Vast... (or avast)

[PhreQuencYViii]

Avast is great too, as is nod32 and some others named here.

The original BT client is great, its nice and simple and works. I just like azureus's thing where it lets you pick what files to download. I have slow upload on my DSL (which is about to be swithed to cable :D ) so I dunno if it's a resource hog since I'm never on the comp when it's running.

[Divine Evolution]

i recently bought norton antivirus 2005....only reason is...i installed AVG awhile ago.....and upon restart...i was unable to login...admin or not....anyways
Actually I know what caused the problem wasn't the antivirus but what was removed. I've seen Norton and McAffee do it too.
There's a file named wsaupdater.exe in /System32/ that many pieces Adware/Spyware infect. When removed your system cannot process logon.
~Krelian

[JTI2K]

Well, I never paid for software, basically cuz Ive never had a program that deserve to be paid.

Anyways, norton is cool, but it DOES eat a lot of CPU, so even when ive the complete suite (firewall, antiV, corporate version, spam, remote, etc...) I removed it after i saw how ZoneAlarmPro runs like a charm and didnt eat away my resources, and shit cant NEVER enter my PC (cant say if the basic version works fine too)

Now my system is running slow, but dont worry ppl, is not a virus, just the classic windows crap we are been feed since W98. At least M$ finally confesed that windows DOES corrupt itself with the time and a fresh install is the ONLY way to repair those problems.

[Mark30001]

Well, I've just run AVG Network Edition on this really old PC (required a CD key, which was obtained, hehe).

12 Viruses & Trojans... Some of the files cannot be deleted. Oh well, I can just crash this PC...

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

i just installed norton avs2005.....holy crap...ive never had an easier installation of software ever!

[Taemos]

I'd advise against azureus. Its very, very slow as it is written in java, and its a complete resource hog. I just use the official client, i know there's better software, but it does the job for me.

That's odd. I've never had any problems with Azureus. Maybe that's because I'm on a T1 when I'm using it. I never had any luck with the official client, but I only tried using it once.