Anti Virus Programs

[THE Junkyard Hog]

Are there any good free anti-virus progrmas? I have rememoved virtumonde a mllion times and it is stil there.  Am I going to have to re-load this box??

If there are no free ones, what is the best pay one? I downloaded the new avg free, and it seems to slow me down more than before.

[Doug]

www.eset.com - NOD32 is what I wholeheartedly endorse and recommend.  I tend to run that on all windows boxes, including my VPS and the dedicated servers (when I had them).  It's also EXTREMELY light on resources.

Also, get your hands on AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy (SpyBot S&D).  Both of these are found on the programs section of www.spywareinfo.com

[RebelliousHog]

www.eset.com - NOD32 is what I wholeheartedly endorse and recommend.  I tend to run that on all windows boxes, including my VPS and the dedicated servers (when I had them).  It's also EXTREMELY light on resources.

Also, get your hands on AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy (SpyBot S&D).  Both of these are found on the programs section of www.spywareinfo.com

All I ever see at the eset site is the 30 day free trial. I can't find a free version.

I agree that AVG uses TONS of space and slows down your PC big time. I switched to  AntiVir free. Seems to be doing well.

I based my decision on this: http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/a/freeav.htm

[Doug]

NOD32 has a free 30 day trial.  It doesn't stop running after that 30 days, but the live update (on the fly, no less) is disabled and you get nagged a bit to register it.  The beautiful thing about NOD32 is that it's slightly cheaper than most of the big dogs of Anti Virus software, and performs a hell of a lot better.

These guys did anti-virus software right, from the ground up.

[THE Junkyard Hog]

www.eset.com - NOD32 is what I wholeheartedly endorse and recommend.  I tend to run that on all windows boxes, including my VPS and the dedicated servers (when I had them).  It's also EXTREMELY light on resources.

Also, get your hands on AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy (SpyBot S&D).  Both of these are found on the programs section of www.spywareinfo.com

I'm going to try the 30 day, how much is it after?  I usually use the free work share license or whatever we call it, but I switched jobs and our I.T. is much bigger now. Don't really want to bother them till I get to know them.  I also use adaware and spybot AND a daily virtuemonde remover.

My IT guys say I need to quit looking at the Pron. That's how he got all the viruses.

[Doug]

Prices are right on the NOD website... and yes, they're VERY generous with their discounts for multiple licenses and multiple years.

[007 License To Squeal]

I have used AVG for years, but Leo Laporte says Nod32 has the best record for catching bugs.

[tiber]

If people on your computer can be trusted to scan something they've downloaded BEFORE executing it, give ClamWin a try.  It's free, has regular updates, and is very very light on resources because it does not provide an on-access realtime scanner.  Hence, the reason for scanning things that you download. 
In other words, ClamWin is not a no-brainer tool... but the best free tool I've found that is up to date and light. 

http://www.clamwin.com/

[RebelliousHog]

I have used AVG for years, but Leo Laporte says Nod32 has the best record for catching bugs.

Me, too. AVG just takes up too much space to run. If you're on the PC when it starts to scan, you can't do shiite. It seemed to work well, just is resource heavy.

[The Great Hambino]

Avast is ok.  I have used them all.  Clamwin is great to run from a flash drive on a computer that is just completely screwed. I've also used AVG Free, Avast, Norton, and NOD32, which is what I currently use on both my computers personal computers. It is a little more resource heavy than AVG Free, but I don't care, because it is a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the resource hog that is the beast Norton.

[The Great Hambino]

Also, get CCleaner from CCleaner.com to clean your pc. It is straightforward and easy to do.

[HogFan82]

I have AVG and havent noticed any real slowdown.  It is what my companies IT manager told me about, so I went with it.

[ThreeHogNight]

AVG works good for me.

[PositronHog]

Panda has the best scanner period, nobody can match it. Though it does require a lot of Ram for everyday use, I suggest at least 4GB of ram.
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/internet-security/?sitepanda=particulares

[Doug]

Sorry, but here's the tech in me speaking:  NOD35 has blown Panda out of the water, consistently and every time... and NOD32 will operate fine on a system that's got 512 megs of RAM.

Obviously, the more RAM that you have, the better off you'll be... but NOD32 runs in resident memory, and is specificaly designed to be as inobtrusive on your system as possible.

Processors supported: 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) Intel®, AMD® or 100% compatible
Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP (32 and 64-bit editions), Microsoft Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit editions)
Memory: 33 - 38 MB on average
Disk Space (download): 16MB
Disk Space (installation): 78MB

FYI, I've also used the Home Edition on Win2003 Standard with ZERO problems.

[PositronHog]

Sorry, but here's the tech in me speaking:  NOD35 has blown Panda out of the water, consistently and every time... and NOD32 will operate fine on a system that's got 512 megs of RAM.

Obviously, the more RAM that you have, the better off you'll be... but NOD32 runs in resident memory, and is specificaly designed to be as inobtrusive on your system as possible.

Processors supported: 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) Intel®, AMD® or 100% compatible
Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP (32 and 64-bit editions), Microsoft Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit editions)
Memory: 33 - 38 MB on average
Disk Space (download): 16MB
Disk Space (installation): 78MB

FYI, I've also used the Home Edition on Win2003 Standard with ZERO problems.

Wow, I was not expecting these results..... Go to Comparative and Check out 19. I was impressed with how well NOD 32 did, especially in the false positive score. Do you run your detection settings at the highest or default?

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Kinda thought 33-38 MB seemed kinda small so I went to Nod 32 web site and it requires 128 MB. I also figured that 33-38 was the amount of memory it used during everyday operation.

http://www.eset.com

I also saw where sggrant323 commented on Norton being a resource hog. While in the past that may have been true its not now, Panda has took that prize. I've tried Norton's 2008 security suite, Kaspersky security suite, McAfee, Live OneCare, Panda and BitDefender so far this year. Remember I said suites which in more encompassing but I would say Nortons was definitely in the top 2. I am almost done with Live Onecare and have put NOD32 as the next on my list and look forward to using it per Douglas's recommendation.

Douglas do you know off the top of your head what anti-virus does not run in resident memory? If they don't I won't even waste my time trying them because I thought all anti-viruses did nowadays. I know the big 3 free do and Avg has always ran in resident memory.


http://wiki.castlecops.com/Lists_of_freeware_antivirus

For those who are wondering what resident memory is.http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/memory_resident.html

Pandas a beast at finding and removing, but be-ware, you better have the system to run it.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2178158,00.asp

Excellent reading for anybody wanting to know about all-in-one security.http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2186661,00.asp

[Doug]

Do you run your detection settings at the highest or default?

Kinda thought 33-38 MB seemed kinda small so I went to Nod 32 web site and it requires 128 MB. I also figured that 33-38 was the amount of memory it used during everyday operation.

http://www.eset.com/products/nod32.php is where I got my information... 128 megs of RAM is system memory.  NOD typically uses about 33-38 megs on a standard configuration.  I typically run it a bit tighter. 

Douglas do you know off the top of your head what anti-virus does not run in resident memory?

I don't think any of them do, anymore.  It's rather foolish to have an anti-virus program NOT protecting you in real time.

[Steef]

I just switched from Trend Micro to AntVir.

And switched to SpyBot S&D, too.

Both of 'em found stuff that my 'pay' programs missed.

[sirhog]

The best spyware remover I have used is superantispyware. I have used it on numerous computers and it has always removed the spyware.

www.superantispyware.com

[Title Town]

Thanks for the info. My subscription  just went out and  I was wondering what to do.