Free AV vs. Nod32

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Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2003
Messages
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Hey all, I've been using NOD32 since like version 2.5, and my license is due to expire soon, and I have been reading some mixed reviews, some stating that NOD32 just isn't that good anymore. Are any of the free AV like Avast, AVG, Panda Cloud, etc. good enough or better than NOD32? I'm using malwarebytes pro as well. I can't seem to find any AV reviews online that seem to be honest comparisons.
 
I don't even use an AV anymore. Sanboxie for browsing when in doubt. And Malwarebytes for periodic scans. No issues in over a year.
 
I had a similar question a few weeks ago too. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1628877

The general consensus is, if you're a smart browser, free AV (Microsoft Security Essentials recommended) is sufficient for your needs. As long as you don't visit suspicious sites and download random files, you're good to go. Even then, I'm pretty sure MSE will catch most of those infected files.
 
Chrisroman said:
I don't even use an AV anymore. Sanboxie for browsing when in doubt. And Malwarebytes for periodic scans. No issues in over a year.
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Why not just install something and not worry about it at all instead of trying to play it safe.

i hope one day [H] gets some new item that spreads to all the people who think not running AV is the cool thing to do, since i assume you dont sandbox when you browse websites you trust every day...


MrsOldMX said:
Avast and MSE are like the new sheriffs in town.
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yup.
 
MrGuvernment said:
i hope one day [H] gets some new item that spreads to all the people who think not running AV is the cool thing to do, since i assume you dont sandbox when you browse websites you trust every day...

.
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Why would you hope for something like that? Thats sick.

I sandbox everything other than VPN/corporate access. No point for AV. With virtual/sandbox options AV is quickly becoming irrelevent.
 
Chrisroman said:
I don't even use an AV anymore. Sanboxie for browsing when in doubt. And Malwarebytes for periodic scans. No issues in over a year.
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i started using sandboxie after i got a virus. only gripe i had with it was that i believe it doesn't allow you to pull up your last session unless u have extentions. i then started using chrome and dont know if you can do the right click>reopen closed tabs
 
As ive said before and i have LULZ I swear by Kaspersky Internet Security Suite. Its so damn good it blocks you from even visiting UNKnown sites by default or infected ones. KIS doesn tlike malwarebytes so it deletes it but i reinstall with no problems. http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

you can also get KIS FREE after mail in rebates during christmas time thats what i do. it;ll be like 59 bucks with 59 mail in sucks waiting 6 weeks but its FREE :D
 
Chrisroman said:
Why would you hope for something like that? Thats sick.

I sandbox everything other than VPN/corporate access. No point for AV. With virtual/sandbox options AV is quickly becoming irrelevent.
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tell that to %99 of people who browse [H] and don't sandbox, it is nice a few people know to do this, but most don't, heck, i don't even sandbox.
 
I used to use AVG, but the last year i've been steering away from it and to MSE. Its very good and i've never had anything get by it. If you want to buy something i'd vote for Kaspersky
 
While most people jump on telling you MSE as the default, don't be so quick to decide. MSE is very easy to use and has good detection rates. I put it on all of the home machines for clients I work on. What it does lack though, which I feel is an absolute must, is a web filter, aka network intrusion detection (NIDS). This is why I personally use Avast 6.

With Avast 6 I do a custom installation that includes the File Shield, Web Filter, and Script Shield. Avast, in this configuration, is also lighter memory wise than MSE. The Web Filter completely blocks connections that even attempt to download malware. It also happens to be very good at doing so. With MSE, you don't know you're infected until the malware is already on your machine, possibly installed. It also includes an automatic sandbox feature, which sandboxes any executables it does not recognize. You have a file that it prompts that you know is safe? Just check the box to always allow. The only downside to Avast 6 is that it requires a yearly subscription (free) that you have to sign up for by filling out a form in their application. I just input bogus information. The registration is the reason I don't put it on client machines.

Another very good product that is completely free and has better detection/blocking than MSE is Comodo IS. Comodo is similar to Avast 6 feature wise. It has excellent detection rates and a nice sand boxing feature. Comodo blocks almost everything, but It does not have the web filter.

I suggest looking up reviews online. The best reviews IMO are the youtube ones where people test sample data in real time. While some of them may be loaded with pre-tested links, most are not. The one I prefer is Languy99. He does genuine reviews of AV products and personally uses Comodo.
 
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most IDS is over rated anyways and be the time it detect's something it is too late, well may stop some script kiddies, but for the most part if you have ports open and your hosting something, someone will get in that way and go right past your IDS.

ummm the BEST test are from av-comparatives, not youtube..lol IMO :)

for web filtering i would say just get a decent firewall, pfsense or untangle would do the job, althought often more than most poeople need.

be nice the day Linksys or Dlink or someone makes a decent home router with this stuff in it.
 
av-comparitives is a great resource. Unfortunately they only test a small amount of products and do not update to newer versions throughout the year. An example of this is last year they did not update to MSE v. 2.0 until the end of the year, even though the newer version had improved detection rates. They also do not release information on a regular basis. Sometimes I don't want to read 6-12 month old information.
 
bigdogchris said:
While most people jump on telling you MSE as the default, don't be so quick to decide. MSE is very easy to use and has good detection rates. I put it on all of the home machines for clients I work on. What it does lack though, which I feel is an absolute must, is a web filter, aka network intrusion detection (NIDS). This is why I personally use Avast 6.

With Avast 6 I do a custom installation that includes the File Shield, Web Filter, and Script Shield. Avast, in this configuration, is also lighter memory wise than MSE. The Web Filter completely blocks connections that even attempt to download malware. It also happens to be very good at doing so. With MSE, you don't know you're infected until the malware is already on your machine, possibly installed. It also includes an automatic sandbox feature, which sandboxes any executables it does not recognize. You have a file that it prompts that you know is safe? Just check the box to always allow. The only downside to Avast 6 is that it requires a yearly subscription (free) that you have to sign up for by filling out a form in their application. I just input bogus information. The registration is the reason I don't put it on client machines.

Another very good product that is completely free and has better detection/blocking than MSE is Comodo IS. Comodo is similar to Avast 6 feature wise. It has excellent detection rates and a nice sand boxing feature. Comodo blocks almost everything, but It does not have the web filter.

I suggest looking up reviews online. The best reviews IMO are the youtube ones where people test sample data in real time. While some of them may be loaded with pre-tested links, most are not. The one I prefer is Languy99. He does genuine reviews of AV products and personally uses Comodo.
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Web shield but not network shield? It says network shield blocks websites. Isn't that a good feature to have?
 
[F8];1037721518 said:
Web shield but not network shield? It says network shield blocks websites. Isn't that a good feature to have?
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Network Shield is a fancy name for 'firewall'. The Windows Firewall is integrated and works just fine. There's no need for another layer of tacked on bloat, in my opinion.
 
I'll echo what bigdogchris said.
I've put MSE on machines in the past; now they are all running Avast 6 Free (full install though, only tweak I do is setting heuristics to High on all the shields that have a heuristic setting).
 
The truth is though the best AV is good browsing habits. I went without AV for years and never had an infection. I just didn't go to sites and do things that you shouldn't do. I've recently been attacked through live.com though (last year), delivered through ads, so no one is safe anymore. Of course Avast blocked it though. My test machine with MSE got hammered when I went to the site though.
 
bigdogchris said:
The truth is though the best AV is good browsing habits. I went without AV for years and never had an infection. I just didn't go to sites and do things that you shouldn't do. I've recently been attacked through live.com though (last year), delivered through ads, so no one is safe anymore. Of course Avast blocked it though. My test machine with MSE got hammered when I went to the site though.
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As you just said, you can be attacked thru ads, hell does anyone remember the ad that infected these vary message boards last year? (think it was last year).....If i didnt have AV on i'd have never of known, even with save browsing habits
 
I tried NOD32 and the firewall software they have makes it impossible to do normal tasks, I gave it to a friend. I wasn't able to see any network shares or anything, it was horrible!

although, it looks like a good product which does what it needs to do (protect you against viruses), it just makes it really difficult to get normal tasks to work like before.
 
fventura03 said:
I tried NOD32 and the firewall software they have makes it impossible to do normal tasks, I gave it to a friend. I wasn't able to see any network shares or anything, it was horrible!

although, it looks like a good product which does what it needs to do (protect you against viruses), it just makes it really difficult to get normal tasks to work like before.
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Windows can't automatically open up ports on someone elses firewall :D
 
dj LiTh said:
As you just said, you can be attacked thru ads, hell does anyone remember the ad that infected these vary message boards last year? (think it was last year).....If i didnt have AV on i'd have never of known, even with save browsing habits
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It wasn't an ad, it was an infection through Javascript.

I do agree though that "click jacking" type infections are worse now than a traditional "open this suspicious file" type virus or malware. Sure, safe browsing is key....but then again when a website you've always trusted and never had any problems with (such as the [H]) gets infected themselves (like the Javascript thing earlier this year)....the "safe browsing" idea doesn't really work anymore.

IMHO safe browsing is like continuing to not use a condom but you're more choosy with your women. Sorry, that doesn't work. ;) Anyone with a computer should have an updated AV; there's no excuse not to. Pick a free one, update it when you get online (even if that's only 1 hr a week at a coffee shop or bookstore with free wifi).
 
If you want to go the extreme route without using any AV software on your main computer and without resorting to Sandboxie, there's always VMware Player with Linux Guest using Unity. Think of Unity as XP Mode in Windows 7 but better.

Even better is that you can set Player to encrypt keystrokes coming from the Host to the Guest machine.

You'll just need a good amount of RAM on the Host (i.e.- 4 GB minimum) and about 5 to 10 GB of hard drive space to do this.

Reason for Linux is that the majority of viruses and malware are pointed towards Windows PCs. You would only have to worry about hidden iFrame and Javascript exploits, which can be blocked with AdBlock/NoScript in Firefox or Chrome.

If you go this route, I recommend Linux Mint. I can run it with Player set to 512 MB of RAM in the Guest VM. It's a painless installation and have had less problems installing Mint than Ubuntu for some reason.
 
A little outdated now (Dec 2010, they do a test once a year), but I use AV Comparatives instead of asking in forums. People have no clue what the hell they're talking about. These guys at least do, and they do more than "I use AVG lol". They run a ton of tests and are very in-depth yet easy to understand in their reports.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/en/comparativesreviews/summary-reports

Personally I use MSE based on their results. It's free (I'm never going to pay for AV since these days free is usually close or just as good as paid, and I'm internet-smart), and is lightest of the free if I remember right from those tests (important for me).
 
thecrafter said:
AV Comparatives
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They test more than 1x a year, they have retrospective and on demand tests several times a year. Problem now is some of the companies request not to be included in the testing, so the results aren't really as complete as they used to be.

It seems like MSE finishes behind Avira and Avast in detection and ahead of AVG.
False Positives (FP's) it finishes near the top.

I'd personally rather have a better detection rate at a cost of more FP's, so I use Avast. ;)
 
If you're smart and careful with your computer use you don't really need AV protection, but with software such as MSE which requires hardly any resources and is free, there's no reason not to use it.

Have common sense when downloading things, use Noscript, and you'll never see an AV alert.
 
no true this day in age.

you cant be smart when you have known "safe" site being comprised by bad add sites or code injections, sure noscript works now but there will be / is ways around it.
 
MrGuvernment said:
no true this day in age.

you cant be smart when you have known "safe" site being comprised by bad add sites or code injections, sure noscript works now but there will be / is ways around it.
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They're right. I see it's not the first time you're saying this in this thread and I remember I said the same things in another thread about a year ago and I'm sure you flamed me as well.

Right now I got a fast enough laptop to not worry about the minimal performance decrease and headache AV *MIGHT* introduce so I just install MSE. But before that I ran with no AV for at least 3 years and have not had one virus (I installed the leading free AV and ran a scan couple times a year just for peace of mind). I didn't even use Noscript. Just Firefox, an up to date Win system and my brain.

This stuff might happen as you describe but it's so rare and most likely the virus is outdated and Windows updates cover the security flaw that it already has no affect on the computer.

For some people, it's worth taking this (relatively non-existing) risk and not run AV for various reasons. Assuming you don't type "sex" into Google and go to page 505
 
lol, Nod32 has been free for a while. All I have to say is EAV- , whattt???? :D

anyways, I have heard/read that nod32 has been sub-par now for a few months in a few AV tests.

MSE has taken over from most people in tech I talk to every now and then... its free pretty much.

I personally use NOD32 and plan on using MSE, plus i always use MalwareBytes for malware/backup scanning.... just in case one misses my realtime virus scanner, i have MwB as a non-realtime backup scanner.

If you truly need a firewall, try zonealarm.... it blocks those chinese firewall attacks every US citizen gets about every 4-5 minutes. (the chinese 222.x.x.x IPs, etc..... you'll see them lol, just use your router settings to block those "ping attacks"... IMCP ping block, or something like that is the technical wording on some routers.)

Beyond that, you need security tools... and if you're that paranoid they are pretty easy to find if you truly need uber privacy
 
illli said:
i cringe everytime someone recommends comodo. i would never trust a company that does this http://www.calendarofupdates.com/updates/index.php?showtopic=19279
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... so they need to do a better job screening the people they sell certificates too. That doesn't mean that their proven excellent product is now not good anymore. Anyway, I use Avast myself and recommend that first and foremost. I'm just pointing out Comodo IS is another good product.
 
bigdogchris said:
I'm just pointing out Comodo IS is another good product.
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Agreed. Comodo is excellent. It has many features and offers a great amount of control. Most of the popular cheapo freebies out there don't hold a candle anywhere near it.

Comodo and Avast are great. MSE is good for those that just want something lightweight and basic that works. Combine any of those with SuperAntiSpyware to add icing to the cake.
 
I am looking to replace NOD32 at work. The detection or blocking rates just aren't there for us. I've been using Malwarebytes to clean everything the last year so at the very least I'll be purchasing its real-time protection and dumping NOD32.
 
Eiolon said:
I am looking to replace NOD32 at work. The detection or blocking rates just aren't there for us. I've been using Malwarebytes to clean everything the last year so at the very least I'll be purchasing its real-time protection and dumping NOD32.
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Well considering none of the freebee's can you legally use in a business, you'll have to pay for something. I highly recommend Kaspersky Business. They give you a very easy to use administration tool to run on a server. Plus, the endpoints can be customized to include as many or as little protection modules as you want. I use the File Anti-Virus, Mail Anti-Virus (we use Outlook), and Web Anti-Virus. I feel this is the best combination of protection and resource usage.

Kaspersky is very similar to Avast feature wise, but for business, the administration aspect is better. I'll stick with a freebee (Avast) at home though.
 
bigdogchris said:
... so they need to do a better job screening the people they sell certificates too. That doesn't mean that their proven excellent product is now not good anymore. Anyway, I use Avast myself and recommend that first and foremost. I'm just pointing out Comodo IS is another good product.
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sorry once a company like that breaks the trust, there is no going back. btw comodo was aware of what they were doing but continued to sell them.

you might be happy with those types of companies, or find those types of actions acceptable, but i sure dont.
 
If you want to pay for security then get Malwarebytes Pro. It comes with a free trail now as well so you can test it out. Its awesome with script malware and can run alongside Mse where it will complement it nicely as MSE is rather poor with detecting script malware.

A good combo is Avira/Avast/Mse with Comodo firewall. You can add Malwarebytes in the mix and you won't have much of a problem again as Malwarebytes blocks those wrong links you clicked and let go with no script
 
If you are cheap, stick with Avast/MSE. If you don't mind spending a few extra bucks I say NOD32 is worth it. There really isnt much to configure. I don't find it blocking legitimate apps or servers at all.
 
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