Best Anti-Virus Program

[dew7]

I wanted feedback from users on anti-virus programs.  Thanks in advance.

[Jeysie]

I use NOD32 myself. Compared to McAfee and Norton, at least, it:

Costs around the same (in fact, it's a bit cheaper)

Offers the same (if not better) virus detection, both for hard drive files and e-mail attachments

Also has daily updates, and offers automatic update options

Scans a lot faster. Scanning my whole 8GB drive takes about 7 minutes, as opposed to Norton taking 20 minutes to scan the 1GB drive I have at work. (Plus Norton slows things down while scanning, while NOD32 doesn't.)

Is smaller (5MB download, 10MB installed) and takes up a lot fewer resources. Back when I used McAfee I actually had to turn off the in-background scanning because it kept my modem from staying connected properly.

Is available for many OSs, including Mac, Linux, and DOS (!) Not to mention being available in many languages.

If you find your current anti-virus clogs down your system too much, I recommend giving NOD32 a try.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[dew7]

Norton is great but a resource hog imo --
no experience with Nod32
I want to try Trend Micro PC-cillin Inernet Security 2004
Best Buy in June issue of PCWorld

[Jeysie]

Dew: If you're curious, NOD32 actually has a fully-functional trial version you can download and run for 30-days.

(Yes, I'm about as subtle as a water hose to the face, why do you ask? )

Peace & Luv, Liz

[dew7]

Just wondering -- as you can see I am stong willed about certain topics   I may try the program one of these days --- thanks for your opinion

[Louisiana Night]

Norton is the only thing I've used, for extended periods of time. It works well, and is updated regularly.

[dew7]

Yeah, my dad actually likes and uses Norton too.

[Louisiana Night]

Except with Linux, I just use whatever that distro comes with. If anyone can name a good one for Linux, I'd like to hear about it.

[Storm]

I tried installing Norton Systemworks and couldn't get it to work It just crashed my system every time I tried to run it, claiming it's missing files and sometimes not claiming anything at all

Anyways, the computer I'm using now had an updated Norton Antivirus for a while, with weekly scans and all. Norton didn't find any virus, but when AntiVir (free antivirus program) was installed it found 2 viruses. Weird

[Grundy]

Scans a lot faster. Scanning my whole 8GB drive takes about 7 minutes, as opposed to Norton taking 20 minutes to scan the 1GB drive I have at work. (Plus Norton slows things down while scanning, while NOD32 doesn't.)

How fast it scans depends on HDD speed and cpu speed.  If you're scanning a computer with only a 1GB HDD, then it must be ancient, and slow....
1GB hdd wont scan faster than a 8GB hdd. The 8 will have a higher RPM, access speed, response time etc...


But, even though I use Norton, I have to agree that it uses up system resources!  

[Yonkey]

I use Norton, and usually disable it when doing file-intensive tasks (like installing MS Office or something) since the auto protect slows down the computer.

I like that it automatically updates itself and scans incoming and outgoing e-mail.

[dew7]

I installed AntiVir on a friend's machine and it found 2 viruses which it cleaned.

[racx_00]

The Worst Virus Scanner ever IMO would have to be Pc-Cillin

And the Best Virus Scanner IMO is Avast and NOD32

[Storm]

I can't remember the name of the worst antivirus I used... it scanned OK and everything, but it's "immune" option literally killed files. Lost some games that way IIRC

[dew7]

I may stick with AntiVir because it is from a German company and has worked fine for me so far.  Remember, a German young adult was responsible for Sasser so Germans seem to know their computer stuff all right.  BTW, Avast continually scanned on my computer and I found the interface annoying.  I have not yet tried NOD32.

[racx_00]

Avast is continually running while you use the computer , it also stops viruses coming from the net while you are connected because it realises the viruses incoming , it also gets rid of viruses really well unlike Pc-Cillin

[Jeysie]

NOD32 picked up a few virus e-mail attachments I got lately. Durn spammers... bad enough they send you spam, then they get infected and send you viruses on top of it.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[dew7]

Posted by: racx_00  Posted on: Today at 06:04:49am  
Avast is continually running while you use the computer , it also stops viruses coming from the net while you are connected because it realises the viruses incoming , it also gets rid of viruses really well unlike Pc-Cillin  

Dew7's opinion:

I do not want an antivirus program that continually runs and drains resources and that is why no AVAST on my machine.  Thank you very much!  I need resources to run games.  :> :> :>            

[Jeysie]

That's why I switched from McAfee... McAfee's background monitor used way too many resources, and would muck with my games and especially my modem. But I kept managing to almost forget to scan stuff I downloaded, so I looked for something that would allow me to have background monitoring while only using a small amount of resources.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Drunken Chinchilla]

I had Sophos virus checker on my system for the past year and it just didnt really do much at all. For updates you ahd to manually go to the site and download all the new virus definitions etc and then copy them into the file! Call me lazy but when most virus checkers have automatic updates I dont understand why a virus checker used by major companies world over couldn't include a simple feature such as that   Also I kept getting various pop up trojans and stuff like that despite it being on 24-7 so I got rid of it.  

Now I've got the free virus checker AVG which works wonders and includes a automatic updates too!