What AntiVirus software do you use?

[undercoverDrunk]

Norton Corporate 10 because it's works with win64... stupid Q--- does NOD32 work in a 64 environment?

Any other 64 users out there with a better AV setup?

 

[Bernoulli]

Currently using Computer Associates eTrust Antivirus v7.0 ... not sure how it is, but, as far as I know, I am virus free, and have been quite happy with it's functionality.

 

[Clockworks]

I've used a good deal of AVs and here are my thoughts:

- Norton 2001-2005: It picks up a lot of viruses but it sometimes it does nothing to clean it (yes, I KNOW that it's there, so why can't you clean it?). Huge resource hog, a nice chunk of my speed goes down because of it. It also slows down my e-mail connection (i.e. send/receive) to a crawl, almost dial-up speed. The thing does catch viruses and when it can clean, it does a passable job.

- McAffee 2004: I've used and the competitor is kind of like Norton but I felt that it doesn't catch as much as Norton. I didn't like it very much because well, my intuition was telling me to "Get rid of it NOW, or else your PC will explode!!". I did and moved back to Norton.

- AVG (Free): My version of Norton 2005 was giving me problems so I moved to AVG for the moment. AVG didn't catch anwhere near as many as Norton did and some already did their pay load before I could remove it. I decided that you get what you paid for, nothing. It is however, better than nothing.

- Kaspersky: A MUCH better AV compared to any of the others that I've used. It catched a lot of viruses that the others didn't. It is also uses very little resources compared to others listed on top. So far a great experience, too bad my trail ended.

- NOD32: Ladies and germs, this is possibly the best paid AV out there. It caught basically everything that I had and more. It stopped every virus download that I had even in some unexpecting sites. If you are going to get an AV, get this one as it is cheaper, faster, and uses little resources. My trail just ended and I just purchased it. Between Kaspersky and NOD32, the NOD32 wins.

This list was all based when I had a copy of a friend's HD, her PC was infested with viruses and spyware.

The list was based on my experiences with different AVs out there, please don't call me a "n00b" or any other pointless insult because this is based EXPERIENCE. Please post yours.

 

[toxic]

Symantec Antivirus Corporate. As others have said, win64 support and not as bloated as Norton.

 

[Troz]

Norton: Spawn of Satan. System hog, tons of bloat, works, but there is better.

AVG (Free): My version of Norton 2005 was giving me problems so I moved to AVG for the moment. AVG didn't catch anwhere near as many as Norton did and some already did their pay load before I could remove it. I decided that you get what you paid for, nothing. It is however, better than nothing.

Funny, someone had Norton on their box, I ran a scan it said clean. I uninstalled and put AVG on and it found 3. Good thing Norton finds more than AVG does.

Personally I like AVG.

 

[PaHick]

Exact what about AVG is bad? Seriously, I've used AVG for years and found it to be a great little piece of software.

If you got a real issue with AVG let's hear it.....

I used to use AVG, but have since went Symantec Corp. My problem, and a big one IMO, is their update system problems. About once a month id have troubles getting updates, so id have to manually get them. During that time I never got infected, but its BS to put up with that ever month. Hell just the other day they had update problems again.

 

[mjz_5]

i never thought i would purchase an antivirus, but i did purchase NOD32, works great on my server

 

[c0ex]

I use many. On my desktop I use Mcafee and on my laptop I use norton.

speaking of, does any one here want Mcafee software? PM me.

 

[mosin]

Exact what about AVG is bad? Seriously, I've used AVG for years and found it to be a great little piece of software.

If you got a real issue with AVG let's hear it.....

Please, by all means, enlighten me.

I refer you gentlemen to post number six of this thread where you will be enlightened.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=938372

Mosin must be an antivirus guru!

I am at your service, Grasshopper. If one walks with the snake, he must walk carefully.

 

[RedShark]

Symantec Corporate 10 here--we get free copies from my university. Works great, much better than NAV.

 

[Ruffy]

Symantec should really be on the list. it's completely different than Norton

it's what I use

 

[mikeblas]

ComputerAssociates eTrust

 

[The Bryophyte]

Like Mosin said, AVG is not good for much of anything. It has a low detection rate and a clunky user interface. If you insist on getting free AV, Antivir is the way to go in my opinion. Of course, NOD32 and Kaspersky stand head and shoulders above Antivir.

 

[EXreaction]

Where is Avast?
Out of all the AV programs I have tried, Avast is easily the best.

 

[PaHick]

I believe Avast is pretty good also, but I couldnt stand how it scans...everything was slower when I ran Avast. Actually was worse than Norton IMO.

 

[malingjc]

I'm wondering how long it's been since you've tried AVG Free. I constantly find viruses using AVG that norton and mcafee miss. I had a computer the other day with Norton - I scanned it with AVG and found 119 Trojans. Oops! Yep. Norton sucks.

I had a Beagle variant emailed to my Parents (who use Norton 2005), went right through. Scanned with AVG, found it in a flash.

 

[Wildfire]

Good ol Avast for me!!!

 

[Komataguri]

ROFLMAO

Do you have a problem?

 

[Sp3cial Person]

both of my computers came with norton, both copies were uninstalled within a day. I go with Zonealarm. It definitly gets the job done and I haven't had a virus since I started using it. Bloody good firewall/IM security/site blocking, too.

edit: I have also had some experience with AVG and IMO, it's a piece of crap. I installed it on my brother's PC right before it went tits-up and the screen was flooded with "OH NO! FIREFOX IS TRYING TO ACCESS THE INTERNET!! SHIT! A NEEDED EXE JUST RAN!! CLOSE IT!!" messages. Since then, I have reformatted his PC and installed Zonealarm and he hasn't had any problems (but he's also too damn stupid to listen to me and use spybot/ad-aware, so I'm just waiting for the msn message that says "hey,can you come down here, something's up with my PC".).

 

[fastgeek]

First off, thanks to whoever posted the link to that AV test, was worth looking at. Personally I haven't heard of NOD32 before today, or I simply forgot about it, went ahead and DL'd the trial versions for future use. Personally I can't stand Norton / Symantec / McAfee. All of these programs are resource hogs and often seem to cause more problems than they fix. As of this moment I'm quite happy with AVG, both in Free and Professional versions. Sure the interface isn't the best, but rarely does it ever refuse to delete or quarentine a file; unlike NAV which is damn near helpless. Never thought it was all that slow, at least in respect to NAV/McAfee, but will be interesting to see how fast NOD32 is in the real world. Some have mentioned program crashes & issues with the update engine, thankfully I haven't encountered these problems. FWIW I've been in the PC field for over twleve years now and run my own repair / consulting business and use AVG extensively on client machines; but if NOD32 really is better then I'll be more than happy to switch.

(Although there doesn't seem to be a way to manually update the virus database w/o a connection to the internet, will have to see if there's a way around that. After all, there are times you simply do NOT want to let the computer go online, which makes a manual update a very important feature; which AVG supports right out of the box.)

Regards,
fastgeek

 

[Dataman]

ETrust.

Great program. I switched from AVG.

DM

 

[ChingChang]

Maybe because AVG doesn't work worth a damn?

I've been using AVG for years, and have not got any viruses. It's better than the other virus scanners that I have tried.

I'll have to check out that NOD32 scanner. It sounds pretty good...

 

[Ice Czar]

Time Module Object Name Threat Action User Information
10/21/2005 8:17:16 AM IMON email message from: [email protected] to: [email protected] with subject Re: <5664ddff?$??§2> dated Fri, 21 Oct 2005 09:38:06 +0100 Win32/Netsky.C worm contained infected files

10/20/2005 12:57:46 PM IMON email message from: [email protected] to: [email protected] with subject you? dated Thu, 20 Oct 2005 10:14:08 +0100 Win32/Netsky.C worm contained infected files

10/14/2005 11:17:46 AM IMON email message from: [email protected] to: [email protected] with subject Re: read it immediately dated Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:59:17 +0530 Win32/Netsky.Q worm contained infected files

11/9/2005 7:58:31 AM IMON email message from: //[email protected] to: [email protected] with subject Mail Delivery (failure [email protected]) dated Sun, 9 Oct 2005 02:52:47 +0330 Win32/Netsky.Q worm contained infected files

11/9/2005 7:58:26 AM IMON email message from: [email protected] to: [email protected] with subject Re: here dated Sun, 9 Oct 2005 01:03:45 +0330 Win32/Netsky.Q worm contained infected files

3 guesses

 

[Jodiuh]

Voted for Avast. Previously used Bitdefender. But I've found Avast's real time web monitoring quite useful.

 

[ScYcS]

Avast

 

[1c3d0g]

ETrust.

Great program. I switched from AVG.

DM

I agree, eTrust is also a good program.

 

[zenmachi]

You do realize Symantec stops support on their products after 3 years, right?

I use Nod32.

still going strong...

 

[chronic9]

i like avast pro, its nice and detects just about everything. but i will try NOD32 as i see SOOO many good responses to it on my next re-install of windows.
i use to be a BIG fan of symantec systemworks, but then all that extra software it came with was a waste of space and memory, so i switched to Norton Corp. 9 and then got a virus. afterwards switched to avast and been virus free for the past 9+ months.

 

[morningreis]

I don't use any form of AV or Firewall.

I run XP SP2. I always stay current with Windows updates. Furthermore, I have a 158KB HOSTS file to protect from sites that will exploit stuff in IE. I use FireFox and stay current with security patches for that too. I also use Spyware blaster and I am behind a Router that provides some level of protection.

I installed SP2 a week after it came out, and I have not had one Spyware/Malware/Trojan/Virus problem since. I run Adaware once in a while, but nothing serious ever turns up in that.

I used to use Norton back when I was on SP1, but I despised it. It is an AV program and yet it is an immense resource hog.

 

[CorpX]

nod32 and it was a big big jump for me after using the bloated norton for 2 years.

 

[Lantano]

I don't use any form of AV or Firewall.

I run Adaware once in a while, but nothing serious ever turns up in that.

Damn dude, you sure like living on the edge.... at least use a free AV such as AVG or AntiVir... Also, try the trail version of Webroots Spyware Sleeper and the free Spybot, (findem both at CNET Downloads.com) you might be surprised at what ADAWARE doesn't find, I sure was....

 

[Lantano]

FWIW I've been in the PC field for over twleve years now and run my own repair / consulting business and use AVG extensively on client machines; but if NOD32 really is better then I'll be more than happy to switch.

Yes, like you, I've been doing this a while (15+ years) I am a hobbyist though never made it a business, but do a lot of personal PC work for coworkers, friends, church members... etc. AVG has been my choice for about 3 years now and not one machine I have put it on has come back with virus probs.

To me that says a lot, because in the past I always used Norton AV and I did see a lot of PC's come back with virus related problems (especially when those numnuts would let it expire). With AVG free it will not expire and you take the lazy element out of the equation. But I'm always on the look out for better solutions and will give NOD32 a try. I've heard about NOD32 before but never had the need to look into using it.

I do recommend Webroot's Spyware Sweeper, especially for the under educated PC crowd. For us in the know, the antispyware cocktail of Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D and Adaware should suffice, but my recent experience is that Spyware Sweeper will save the unwashed masses from their on follies. Believe me, I know some folks that every 3 months I would see their PC back because of their surfing habits... started installing Spyware Sweeper about 1 year ago and I have not seen those PC's back yet. (now if they don't renew the annual subscription all bets are off.....)

 

[mosin]

I don't use any form of AV or Firewall.

I run XP SP2. I always stay current with Windows updates. Furthermore, I have a 158KB HOSTS file to protect from sites that will exploit stuff in IE. I use FireFox and stay current with security patches for that too. I also use Spyware blaster and I am behind a Router that provides some level of protection.

I installed SP2 a week after it came out, and I have not had one Spyware/Malware/Trojan/Virus problem since. I run Adaware once in a while, but nothing serious ever turns up in that.

I used to use Norton back when I was on SP1, but I despised it. It is an AV program and yet it is an immense resource hog.

Do you think mayonnaise will work as a condom?

I don't use any form of AV or Firewall.

Damn dude, you sure like living on the edge....

Where would the world be without people to spread shit around without any concern for others? It's no more living on the edge than a lot of risky lifestyles are, is it? At least only other people's computers are at risk because of guys like him.

Lantano,
You should read Virus Bulletin's tests because AVG isn't as good as you think, by a large margin!

I'm wondering how long it's been since you've tried AVG Free. I constantly find viruses using AVG that norton and mcafee miss. I had a computer the other day with Norton - I scanned it with AVG and found 119 Trojans. Oops! Yep. Norton sucks.

I had a Beagle variant emailed to my Parents (who use Norton 2005), went right through. Scanned with AVG, found it in a flash.

I'm wondering if you read the link that I provided earlier. Just because AVG caught one that Norton missed doesn't make it better at catching things. Norton is better than AVG, but AVG managed to find one that Norton missed. If you come on here making claims about AVG, be prepared to back them up. In October of 2005, that's as recent as you can get, AVG failed to pass Virus Bulletin's test. This is a serious market blow to Grisoft because it impacts sales, but a little bell should ring in your head about a scanner that has twenty-one failures, but only nine passes. AVG is a poor virus scanner that is not safe to use, and you shouldn't go around recommending it to anyone. It does not work. Well, it was Server 2003 that was tested on this time, but the last time it was tested for XP. It passed, but barely. That was back in June. Then, it was near the bottom of the heap of those scanners that passed the test. Almost all others beat it.

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/products.xml?avg.xml

 

[Cannydog]

I use Avast4Home. It's free. It's not some huge bloatware package. It can be configured to automatically check my email and news, web and network traffic, and even P2P traffic. And it automatically updates. What more can you want?

I also was impressed when I installed in on a friend's computer and it detected several Trojans. Since these files could not be deleted in Windows, the program asked to be setup for a boot time scan. When we allowed this proceedure it sucessufully eliminated a whole number of Trojans (I didn't try to count the files it deleted - there were quite a few). Now my friend's system is working as it should. It seems PC-Cillin wasn't properly updated, or it just wasn't doing it's job.

 

[fuelvolts]

Avast Home Edition all the way!!!

 

[Ice Czar]

still going strong...

Opinion @ eWeek
Only Suckers Renew

In 2001 Symantec increased the price from $3.95 to $9.95, quite a large increase on its own. Just recently, coincident with the release of the 2006 versions of their security line of products, Symantec once again increased the price of the subscription renewal to $29.99. The new 2006 version of Norton Antivirus, of course including an annual subscription itself, costs $39.99. Symantec's message is clear: you're a sucker if you don't upgrade the program. The only question is whether you're a sucker for getting the new version too.

conclusion

For this they deserve a raise? Other companies release at least once a day, many of them hourly, such as BitDefender and Kaspersky. This usually matters little, but if you're one of the unfortunate few to get one of the very common new threats at level 2 or 1 there could be 6 more days before Norton ponies up with protection for it. And for keeping you at the old, embarrassingly slow schedule, they do you the favor of charging you almost as much as they do for a full new copy.

Maybe anti-virus vendors figure that their time is limited and that they better suck whatever money they can from customers before something supplants them. We've been looking at products like Panda TruPrevent that don't rely on signatures for detection; they're not perfect, but they're getting a lot better. One day if they get good enough the great Norton Cash Cow will moo its last.

to wit


The Six Dumbest Ideas In Computer Security

#2) Enumerating Badness
Back in the early days of computer security, there were only a relatively small number of well-known security holes. That had a lot to do with the widespread adoption of "Default Permit" because, when there were only 15 well-known ways to hack into a network, it was possible to individually examine and think about those 15 attack vectors and block them. So security practitioners got into the habit of "Enumerating Badness" - listing all the bad things that we know about. Once you list all the badness, then you can put things in place to detect it, or block it.

Why is "Enumerating Badness" a dumb idea? It's a dumb idea because sometime around 1992 the amount of Badness in the Internet began to vastly outweigh the amount of Goodness. For every harmless, legitimate, application, there are dozens or hundreds of pieces of malware, worm tests, exploits, or viral code. Examine a typical antivirus package and you'll see it knows about 75,000+ viruses that might infect your machine. Compare that to the legitimate 30 or so apps that I've installed on my machine, and you can see it's rather dumb to try to track 75,000 pieces of Badness when even a simpleton could track 30 pieces of Goodness. In fact, if I were to simply track the 30 pieces of Goodness on my machine, and allow nothing else to run, I would have simultaneously solved the following problems:

* Spyware
* Viruses
* Remote Control Trojans
* Exploits that involve executing pre-installed code that you don't use regularly

Thanks to all the marketing hype around disclosing and announcing vulnerabilities, there are (according to some industry analysts) between 200 and 700 new pieces of Badness hitting the Internet every month. Not only is "Enumerating Badness" a dumb idea, it's gotten dumber during the few minutes of your time you've bequeathed me by reading this article.

Now, your typical IT executive, when I discuss this concept with him or her, will stand up and say something like, "That sounds great, but our enterprise network is really complicated. Knowing about all the different apps that we rely on would be impossible! What you're saying sounds reasonable until you think about it and realize how absurd it is!" To which I respond, "How can you call yourself a 'Chief Technology Officer' if you have no idea what your technology is doing?" A CTO isn't going to know detail about every application on the network, but if you haven't got a vague idea what's going on it's impossible to do capacity planning, disaster planning, security planning, or virtually any of the things in a CTO's charter.

In 1994 I wrote a firewall product that needed some system log analysis routines that would alert the administrator in case some kind of unexpected condition was detected. The first version used "Enumerating Badness" (I've been dumb, too) but the second version used what I termed "Artificial Ignorance" - a process whereby you throw away the log entries you know aren't interesting. If there's anything left after you've thrown away the stuff you know isn't interesting, then the leftovers must be interesting. This approach worked amazingly well, and detected a number of very interesting operational conditions and errors that it simply never would have occurred to me to look for.

"Enumerating Badness" is the idea behind a huge number of security products and systems, from anti-virus to intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, application security, and "deep packet inspection" firewalls. What these programs and devices do is outsource your process of knowing what's good. Instead of you taking the time to list the 30 or so legitimate things you need to do, it's easier to pay $29.95/year to someone else who will try to maintain an exhaustive list of all the evil in the world. Except, unfortunately, your badness expert will get $29.95/year for the antivirus list, another $29.95/year for the spyware list, and you'll buy a $19.95 "personal firewall" that has application control for network applications. By the time you're done paying other people to enumerate all the malware your system could come in contact with, you'll more than double the cost of your "inexpensive" desktop operating system.

One clear symptom that you have a case of "Enumerating Badness" is that you've got a system or software that needs signature updates on a regular basis, or a system that lets past a new worm that it hasn't seen before. The cure for "Enumerating Badness" is, of course, "Enumerating Goodness." Amazingly, there is virtually no support in operating systems for such software-level controls. I've tried using Windows XP Pro's Program Execution Control but it's oriented toward "Enumerating Badness" and is, itself a dumb implementation of a dumb idea.

In a sense, "Enumerating Badness" is a special dumb-case of "Default Permit" - our #1 dumb computer security idea. But it's so prevalent that it's in a class by itself.

the full version of Processguard and extentions like noscript for firefox and a good rule based firewall all alow you to enumerate goodness

the drawback being your then the one that allows badness
which is why you still need an AV scanner to give you an idea if the file youve just downloaded is what it appears to be before you allow it to install or something else blocking a javascript from doing something its not supposed to
(and NOD32 has been a leader in Heuristics and better at the update, there is also a Corporate Version)

then there are direct exploits of the OS or an aplication
the only cure is hope a patch is released and you here about ity before your a victim

you can also cut down your attack profile (like standing sideways in a pistol duel)
dont use Instant Messaging? dont worry about that whole class of infections \ exploits

all the above of course are difficult when its a network full of idiots your attempting to protect from thermselves

 

[mosin]

Well boss, it's good advice for sure. I use NOD32, Kerio, ProcessGuard, Firefox with the noscript extension, PocoMail, a NAT firewall on top of that, and a lot tweaks to my operating system's security permissions. Messaging does not even exist on my machine at all. Nonetheless, I don't really consider myself to be bulletproof. I suppose some people will never change, though. It just goes to show that you can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. We have these threads all along, and while a lot people benefit from them, there are always those who do not. They believe that free is the only way to go, or are too lazy to investigate the product they are already using, let alone actually getting one that works safely, whether it be a virus scanner, or a browser. They just don't get it.

 

[morningreis]

Where would the world be without people to spread shit around without any concern for others? It's no more living on the edge than a lot of risky lifestyles are, is it? At least only other people's computers are at risk because of guys like him.

Ahem... I certainly do not spread shit around. And I am certainly nor am I harboring any form of virus. I can guarantee that. So please don't say others are at risk because of me. I'm a not a complete retard just because I don't run an AV. I prefer to take precautions to prevent being affected by virii in the first place as opposed to installing sub par resource sapping bloatware AV solutions such as Norton and relying on them to save my ass when it is too late.

As I said before, my router protects me and my laptops from a LOT of things. It filters out a lot of traffic. DMZ is always off and I only forward ports when I need them.

 

[br0adband]

Symantec should really be on the list. it's completely different than Norton

it's what I use

It's the same code, minus some bloat of the retail versions. Besides that, how many home users in this thread are using Symantec Corp Edition anyway? It's not designed for home users, nor can any home user just pick up a phone and order it, not online either. So... how are all these home users legitimately running a piece of Corporate software, eh?

Just curious.

Symantec Corp Edition uses the same craptacular and slow as molasses scanning engine that the commercial Norton product line uses, and the same AV signatures for detection.

As I stated earlier, the only time I have ever had a virus on any machine I've ever owned was last year when I was using Symantec Corp AV on a work provided laptop (read: legitimate use).

Here's the timeline of events and why I don't recommend Symantec or Norton or any other AV software that doesn't do updates daily or more frequently:

1) The latest LiveUpdate took place on a Wednesday evening
2) Thursday morning a virus came out that would directly affect the laptop I was using as well as pretty much every machine in the entire organization
3) Thursday afternoon a signature for detection and removal of that particular virus was on the Symantec website as a manual download/manual install .exe (meaning something at the Symantec website that you manually download and manually install yourself, not using LiveUpdate)
4) Our machines, including my work laptop, were damaged and several pertinent data files were specifically targeted by the virus costing our company a bit of time and effort to get back on track
5) I found the manual update (explained below) and installed it on my laptop, took care of the issue save for the damage noted in 4) above and then instructed our Admin to get to work sending it out
6) The next week the signature for that particular virus appeared on LiveUpdate some 6 days after it would have actually been useful for our organization as well as a number of others I found out about over the weekend

Here's the kicker here: I found out about the manual update from MajorGeeks.com while browsing over the latest software releases. Thank god someone actually takes the time to track such things as the manual AV updates because if not, we wouldn't have known about it till late the following Wednesday when vastly more damage could have occurred. I thank MajorGeeks for keeping the rest of us up to speed.

Shame on Symantec/Norton for not immediately making a LiveUpdate available for those users of their products. Shame on them for having the update but keeping it practically hidden from the casual user. Shame on them for not even sending out an automated email response to their clients such as the company I was working for at the time about the manual update's availability.

They suck, plain and simple. They got too big for their britches years ago, they ruined the Norton name and it makes me sick to see them constantly making money hand over fist. I go into a CompUSA store and the lackeys there are pointing people to those bright yellow boxes left and right because of some special incentives for themselves. I almost became a lackey their years ago when I needed a job. Thankfully clearer heads prevailed (namely mine) when I laughed at the pithy pay they offered.

It's NOD32 or nothing at all for me, and I'm happy to say the company I worked with took my recommendation and scrapped their Symantec AV software because of the issue and was successfully refunded the difference remaining on their 5 year contract. They now use NOD32 Corp with far less maintenance, far less of a resource hit on their aging workstations (thereby continually keeping their ROI above water), and daily if not sooner updates for anything that comes their way.

Just my personally experienced $.02. YMMV.
bb

 

[mosin]

Ahem... I certainly do not spread shit around. And I am certainly nor am I harboring any form of virus. I can guarantee that. So please don't say others are at risk because of me. I'm a not a complete retard just because I don't run an AV. I prefer to take precautions to prevent being affected by virii in the first place as opposed to installing sub par resource sapping bloatware AV solutions such as Norton and relying on them to save my ass when it is too late.

As I said before, my router protects me and my laptops from a LOT of things. It filters out a lot of traffic. DMZ is always off and I only forward ports when I need them.

Do you believe that a virus will immediately destroy your computer? You could have all kinds of crap lurking around on there now, and wouldn't know it. How would you know? It's just like VD. You don't believe that a spyware removal tool is going to protect your machine, do you? What you are saying is like saying that you will never get VD, although you never wear condoms, because you only sleep with nice girls.