AV software

[guest4]

Following recommendations from various sources, and the fact that I was getting sick of Norton's bloaty tendencies and becoming less and less confident that its was catching all the nasties, I downloaded the trial of Kaspersky's Internet security software last week.

Norton only ever seemed to catch one item each weekly scan and it was usually spyware. Kaspersky on the other hand has caught 9 in just over a week, most of which were trojans. I'm not sure what was happening to my computer while those all stayed on my poot in the past.

It also updates daily, sometimes several times in a day and generally my computer seems more sorted, like its not having to cope with some huge wheezy program slowing it down.

I say generally because it has goofed a couple of times, seeming to get stuck on some task and locking my poot up. I need to watch this as if its something that happens a lot I don't really want to keep it.

However, its currently on half price so about £19 for a full security suite which seems pretty good.

[Alfonso_Frisk]

I have tried a lot of the progs out there and had varying results and issues. I have had Zone alarm for a couple of years now and for me its been great.

I also use AVg7
adaware se - update and scan once a week
spybot search and destroy - update and scan once a week
Windows defender

I also had Previx which was a trial and was pretty good catching spyware etc

I will sometimes do an on-line scan at Panda if I get the paranoid head on.

All the above and the pthers are only any good if they are updated often

[Mick]

Like you Alf, I run Adaware SE and Spybot.    Adaware always finds loads more spyware than Norton.

Used AVG a few years ago, and although it was good at finding viruses, it wouldn't clean them off my system.  Guess it's improved quite a bit now though?

[anglefire]

I stopped using AVG 8 about a year ago - after it stopped updating automatically. I thought the support was terrible (I had the paid version!) it took a month to reply to my query!

I now use ESet NOD32 - and that is great - overhead is tiny and by all the reports its one of the best out there.

I stopped using free ones some time ago - they just don't seem to cut it!

Mind you I have nothing on my MAC - which seems to be the norm!

[bones615]

I was running AVG until I tried Avast (free), It found quite a bit that AVG had missed but maybe if i ran AVG now it would now find some that Avast has missed? The only downside is that you can not set a time for it to scan it has to be started manually. Also got spybot, Windows defender & Zone Alarm Firewall.
A couple of useful bits I use occasionally are Windows live One care safety scanner  http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/default.htm & CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/ which clears unwanted junk from your registry.
Best bit is they are all free!!!

Simon

[Chris P]

I use Spybot and it's great.  Also has some very useful startup lists and secure file deletion bits.  Plus it's free.

It's worth pointing out that Norton is still primarily AV software and isn't as good with spyware/adware etc as a dedicated program.

The problem is that all the AV software are different and I wish they would standardise it somehow.  If you google around you'll get 100 different in dependant reviews of AV software all of which list their top 10 and all of which pick different ones.  Norton, ESET NOD32, Kapersky, AVG, Shield Deluxe, BitDefender, Avast, McAffee and Zone Alarm all usually crop up.

I don't rely on 1 program.  I use Norton Internet Security, Spybot & MalWare and between the 3 of them they pick up pretty much everything.  As I said above, Spybot is excellent for it's startup lists, internal process monitor and other tools as well.  I tried ESET NOD 32 and found it good but heavy on system resources (but then they all are relatively heavy).  I'll be trying out Zone Alarm Extreme and Shield Deluxe next .

You're always fighting a loosing battle though because any internet security software is always reactive (rather than proactive) because you can't make them detect malicious software that doesn't exist yet - someone always has to make the bad stuff first!