64-Bit Anti-Virus Suggestions

Y

Yaemish

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
69
I just switched from Vista 32 to 64. I noticed the speed increase from having a clean system right away. unfortunately McAfee 8.5i made that nice feeling go away. Can anyone recommend a good AV solution that won't limit the OS as much as McAfee does?
 
really need the AV? I've been running "naked" for years. I just make sure not to download questionable files, go to suspicious websites, downloading torrents, etc......I have yet to have any problems whatsoever.

The only real use I've seen for AV is in the corporate world, where you share docs with your coworker who may spend way to much time mindlessly downloading anything and everything that looks cool to them.
 
I have used Avast w/Vista-64. Worked fine with minimal OH. I currently have OneCare, simply because it is free to me thru my DSL provider. I use it mostly because it integrates seamlessly with Vista.

How good is OneCare? Like Avast, has minimal OH. How well it works it debatable, but if I were to get something, I'm not worried because I have multiple back-ups of everything important to me.

The worst virus I have on any of my computers, tho, is myself. F*** around with my HW far too much. I have a pretty good knack of killing OS's/BIOS's, etc. when I do something that I shouldn't do.:p:rolleyes:

BTW, ALOT of people swear by NOD32. Not free, but it is usually very highly rated.
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1247267
Rock&Roll said:
really need the AV? I've been running "naked" for years. I just make sure not to download questionable files,
Click to expand...
I have to laugh a little when people open this can of worms. How would you know if you were infected, without the software? In addition to that, with new methods of infection, and less user action required, the need for AV software is only growing. Now, add in a third and fourth point that you don't have to spend a lot, or anything to get protected, and the resources hit to a modern computer isn't even noticeable, you can't make an argument against running AV software anymore. It has more holes than swiss cheese.
 
All I know is that

1) I've never lost any data to a virus
2) I've never had a virus
3) I see no need for A/V

Now, spyware and that junk, everyone is at risk for that...

I really don't see how it's likely that I'll get anything that is actually dangerous to my data if I watch what I DL, and more importantly who I DL it from. So far, no probs.

I see AV being a security blanket for someone's psyche more than a utility of necessity.
 
So do you turn off all the images when you browse the web, so you're only looking at plain text?
 
well, considering I'm not DLing images from Warez or Pr0n sites, no. Last I checked the [H] wasn't planting viruses on my rig.

Tell me how I'm not supposed to just think you're paranoid? I mean jpegs and mpegs and flv's, yeah someone could infect them.......but what are the real chances on legit websites?

The biggest security concern I have is with passwords and money transactions online. Obviously a key logger could really kill you there. And after all these years I have had no incident's there. I've seen many people running no AV with no issue. The ones that do usually got the virus after DLing a torrent or something stupid like that.

I've got 10+ years of not buying into AV, and no ill effects have resulted....Maybe I'm just bull headed. I can't see any good reason for it in home use, unless you have kids or wives using your rig. I've got little reason to buy in, unless you can give me a specific account of an unsuspecting Virus magically ending up on someones HD, without it being caused by their own wreckless surfing.
 
This thread is not about whether you use AV or not. That's been beaten to death on these forums many times.

To answer the OP question. Use NOD32.
 
1 vote for NOD32. I'm running their 'suite' with a firewall, AV, and antispyware apps under Vista 64 and like it. They have the rep as a top AV app.

Just my 2c...
 
Rock&Roll said:
well, considering I'm not DLing images from Warez or Pr0n sites, no. Last I checked the [H] wasn't planting viruses on my rig.

Tell me how I'm not supposed to just think you're paranoid? I mean jpegs and mpegs and flv's, yeah someone could infect them.......but what are the real chances on legit websites?

The biggest security concern I have is with passwords and money transactions online. Obviously a key logger could really kill you there. And after all these years I have had no incident's there. I've seen many people running no AV with no issue. The ones that do usually got the virus after DLing a torrent or something stupid like that.

I've got 10+ years of not buying into AV, and no ill effects have resulted....Maybe I'm just bull headed. I can't see any good reason for it in home use, unless you have kids or wives using your rig. I've got little reason to buy in, unless you can give me a specific account of an unsuspecting Virus magically ending up on someones HD, without it being caused by their own wreckless surfing.
Click to expand...

I pretty much agree. I don't run ACTIVE virus scanners, they cause more trouble than they prevent. I will about every couple of weeks run passive scans, and I'll scan stuff that I'm not 100% confident in installing before I install.

Thing is, running Vista with IE in protected mode, UAC, and DEP turned on, is there anything out there yet that has penetrated all of that? I've researched this topic and very little is really said about just how good Vista's security really is.

I'm not saying that its foolproof or anything like that, but if one takes care about installing stuff, taking the time to look at warning messages, and using the built in stuff, keeping things patched, not opening unknown attachments, and running a proper firewall setup, then really, what are the chances of getting attacked? They are very,very low.
 
Rock&Roll said:
Tell me how I'm not supposed to just think you're paranoid?
Click to expand...
Good security professionals are a little paranoid...and that's the point. As mentioned above, I'm not going to go into this any farther. It's your computer, do what you want, but you really shouldn't be spreading that advice around, much the same way you don't want to tell people to not wear their seatbelts. It's been discussed ad nauseum on here, and the end result is always the same.

As an example of what I was talking about, here's a link if the new, creative ways a computer can be infected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile_vulnerability
 
Ahh. Security professional. It makes sense you would take it so seriously. Yes, in the professional sense, I would recommend AV to everyone an their brother. Who wouldn't?
 
I'm not actually a security professional. But, we've derailed this far enough.
 
Back on track then!!

Another vote for Eset Smart Security....one stop shopping, so to speak.
 
I am a security professional, and some do call me paranoid, ;) and I recommend one care, but some might call me biased. ;)

As to the Off Track Argument:
Defense in Depth is always the right way to protect your assets. Good AV, AS software is just part of Defense in Depth.

Note:
I work on the antimalware signatures for OneCare/Windows Defender/ForeFront

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
I find that AVG free edition suits me just fine in the 64bit enviroment. But thats just me.
 
i just bought Kaspersky AV and it seems to work very well i really like it.
 
i run vista 64 and nod32. top notch a-v and cant even tell its there. very lite on system.
 
kaspersky suite if you want an excellent security package for really cheap, a few deals were free after MIR

but Eset/Nod32 if you dont mind paying more, or relatively a lot more (as compared to free) for the best.
 
Another vote for Nod32. That's what I'm running on XP Pro and Vista Ultimate 64bit. Happy with it.
 
We run Panda Antivirus on our scanning machines at work. But we sell NOD32 to customers simply because it uses very little resources and their machines can easily handle it. We see too many people running Norton Internet Security on machines that just can't handle the bloat. And these machines are usually loaded with viruses and malware. Half the time we wind up uninstalling Norton because it causes too many problems.

I use NOD32 on my own system and it works as advertised. The GUI could be more user friendly and I hear that they are working on it for their next AV software release.
 
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