In your opinion what is the best Anti Virus protection? Or worst?

Question

Hi guys. Im looking for your opinions on Anti virus protection.

Best value, protection, lowest memory used, updates, and computer effiency.

And also what is the worst anit virus protection that you have used. Just interested on what everyone thinks on this subject.

Cheers

Answer 1

Having used many antivirus programs, I found that AVG was the best up to V7.5, but V8 was bloated and slow, so I ditched it and now use Avast anti-virus better definitions, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit built in, faster and more reliable:

http://www.download.com/Avast-Home-Editi...

Setup Guide:

http://cotojo.wordpress.com/2008/07/15

Anti-spyware, Anti-rootkit, Antivirus kernel, Automatic updates, Integrated Virus Cleaner, International Languages, Network Shield, P2P and IM Shields, Resident protection, Simple User Interface, Strong self-protection, Support for 64-bit Windows Systems and more for free.

Low resources, good detection rates and simple to use.

Free v Paid AntiVirus:

Many, but not all, of the free versions have less functionality.  The virus definitions are the same in both the free version and the paid version.  For many vendors, they hope that you will upgrade to the paid version.

Example from Avast and AVG Free v. Paid:

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-compare-h...

http://free.avg.com/ww.download-avg-anti...

Answer 2

MalwareBytes Antimalware:

Best , But Paid Real Time Protection.......

Kaspersky:

Nonetheless But KIS 8 has Lower Detection Rate Than KIS 7

Low CPU and RAM Usage

Trustworthy

Hourly Updates

Best scanning ever ......

I Recommend Only KIS 7\

Good on SLOW PCs

99% detection rate.......

Average GUI

Best Created Ever RESCUE DISK OPTION

AVAST Home Edition

60% virus detection rate

pre-boot scanning

freeware

great skins(Great GUI)

Excellent P2P & Kaaza Protection.....

Low CPU usage

4 processes!! (services)

High RAM usage

Ease of Use

AVG 8 Free:

Low detection rate(about 55%)

High Speed Scanning

Frequent Updates

Good Firewall

NOT Effective in blocking viruses

Anti-Spam is sucking............

Eye-catching GUI

CPU and RAM consuming

Norton 2008(antivirus)

Somewhat LOW and Better on Cpu and Ram Usage.......

Sucks--scanning,protection,firewall,NO Anti-Spam,

Overall Sucking and Removal Process is WORTHY TIME CONSUMING...................

62% detection rate

Spyware Doctor With Antivirus

Hasn't Changed GUI over 3 yrs.....

Frqt.. Updates

Effective Scanning .....

good removal process...........

LOW on SYSTEM RESOURCE USAGE

65% detection rate

F-Secure

SUCKS

My PC didnt boot up for 4 hrs........................................

Bit Defender Total Security 2008

Pros:

Good Backup Options

Real time proven scanning

Tune-up Facility is EXCELLENT

Hourly Updates.......

90% detection rate

Excellent GUI........

At LAST NOD 32

LOWEST System Resource Usage

Lowest RAM Usage

101% virus & trojan detection rate

Offers Component Updates Frequently........

GUI Not so Good

i know that this was time-consuming

(thanks For Reading)

Thus, IF U Have Upgraded PC, then use

Kaspersky With NOD32 alongwith Comodo Firewall and Spyware Doctor

And IF Slow One .......

Kaspersky or NOD32 Alone is Effective....

(all the stats above are based on my studies and experiences and Reports on NET)

GUI=Graphical User Interface

I am a Antivirus Tester----

Tested so Far------

AVAST Home and Pro 4.7

AVG

Spyware Doctor With Antivirus

Spyware Cleaner

McAfee Virus Scan

Norton 2007 & 2008

Kaspersky Internet Security 7 & 8

(Also KAV 6)

Bit Defender 10

(Total Security & 9 Free)

F-Secure

(Copy of Kaspersky)

I know that i am only 14 yrs..........

Answer 3

Most malwares are designed to attack popular

antivirus products (like Symantec, McAfee or Norton), but since free anti-virus product is much less used, it's capable of fighting the viruses when industry leaders fail.

The worst anti-virus is symantec. My company is infested with trojans and spywares. Symantec are good at detecting KNOWN viruses but suck at detecting UNKNOWN trojans and spywares.

The most effective is Avast.

Clamwin is useful for bootable USB drive when you can't boot up the PC to scan viruses.

Answer 4

kaspersky is good but not the best.  

Answer 5

AVG FREE is a very good virus scanner, the reason being it is so "lightwight" and dosnt take many system resourses

the main reasons being

1# avg offers very good protection against virus and worms ect.

2# avg is fully updatable wich means you get the very latest protection.

3# avg is "freeware" meaning it is 100% free to use

4#avg uses very little of your computers recources and is pretty easy on the computers ram making it faster

MC AFFIE in my opinion is a very poor unreliable scanner to use the main reasons being

1# mc affie uses quite a lot of sytem resourses meaning it will lagg your computers speed if you keep it running

2# it dosnt realy make the grade in virus protection as it woulnt protect you from all viruses others would

3# mc affie can be tricky to get your head round in my opinion because it can be a pain to configure

4# the space it takes up on your computer installation wise is huge and you can get way more scanners that would be smaller than that

CONWARE SCANNER

theres nthing more i hate than when a virus descuises itself a help agent and installs some fort of virus scanner on you pc. the main ones being spy sheriff, "fire",and xp antivirus.

Answer 6

AVG but it  not the cheapest

Answer 7

Nod32 and McAfee and AVG are all good and McAfee is the best.and kaspersky is not that good.

Answer 8

Kaspersky is the best antivirus protection in the world.Kaspersky Anti-Virus provides you with traditional anti-virus protection based on the latest protection technologies. You can work, communicate, surf the internet and play online games on your computer safely and easily. Product Highlights- Three protection technologies against new and unknown threats: Hourly automated database updates, Preliminary behavior analysis, On-going behavior analysis. Protection from viruses, Trojans and worms. Protection from spyware and adware. Real-time scanning for email, Internet traffic and files. Protection from viruses when using ICQ and other IM clients. Protection from all types of keyloggers.

Answer 9

The best is http://www.cyber-defenders.com

It is absolutely the best available.  You can download it for free, you don't need a credit card.

Answer 10

nod 32 is the best about followed by avg

Answer 11

I am not sure which is the best.  But never use Norton anti-virus.  It is terrible and slows your computer to a crawl and takes over everything.  It is almost like a virus actually.  Stay away from it.

Answer 12

Kaspersky and NOD32 are the best to buy Avast and Antivir are the best free ones get then from http://www.download.com.

You should forget AVG free edition it has a nice interface but is poor at blocking viruses so not worth using.

Avast uses very little resources and has a good detection rate.

I've tested both Avast Home Edition (free) and AVG 8.0 (free), AVG let me save 75% of the test viruses to my hard drive only blocking 25% were as Avast blocked 75% of viruses, Avast picked up the other 25% of the viruses that were in zip files the second I tried to extract them.

I use Avast combined with Comodo Pro on my XP home computer and have no problems with virus's or spyware.

Test them yourself: http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_fil...

Answer 13

In the world of security, you get what you pay for!

Larger companies are able to be more proactive in developing signatures for the latest threats. Every day, new viruses are created or morphed from old ones that a whole new definition has to be written for.

If you pay for your AV, your getting a PAID staff to stay on top of things. Free AVs have to go about other ways and enticements to get their money to survive.

It all depends on what you do with your computer. Do you use it to surf p**n? Do you care about your information? Do you use it for sensitive information?

THE most important things you can do (besides running AV) is to ensure that the OS is fully patched, all of your software has the most current version, and that you do your everyday things with an account that does not have Admin Privileges!

If I was going to pay money (much better), I would go with Eset, Norton, McAfee, or Trend Micros, Kapersky.

Some good reviews for specifics are -

http://anti-virus-software-review.topten...

http://antivirus-software.topchoicerevie...

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

If I was going to set up your computer, I would use ESETs Smart Security Suite to cover AV, Spyware and Firewall needs.  I would also augment it with a relatively new free product called ThreatFire.  ThreatFire is behavioral based so has a good chance of picking up "zero day" attacks.  

I would really be putting weight on the value, protection and updates vice the lowest memory used.  Todays computer usually have a TON of memory in them.  As long as you have it running the full scan at night or when your not using it, you wont have anything to worry about!

Things you want -

1) Real time protection (yes it slows your machine down, but YOU have to have it)

2) Signitures updated every 24 hours (and makes sure that it does so)

3) Full system scans each night

4) Some type of Host Based Intrusion Detection Systems

All in All, no AV is better than another. Once a virus is found, they race to update their definitions first. Symantec/Norton will not be first all of the time... However, it DEFINITELY wont be AVG!