Which Security Suite/Anti-virus package do you use?

[popo]

To turn it around on the risk level, to those who do use AV as matter of routine, how many such detections have they found and prevented that would have occurred without requiring user intervention? During the times I was running AV, they NEVER found anything that I would have run anyway. The nearest I ever got to a real threat was the random e-mail attachment.

Look at it another way. What is your time cost running AV? Balance that with predicted cost of having a serious infection and cleanup afterwards. To me, a genuine infection would still work out less costly in the long term than running AV software continuously.

[Bob Andersson]

.
Hey, why is my thread being subverted. I asked what anti-virus/security package forum members used, not whether using one was a good idea. Those who don't use one weren't invited to join in...

My own fault, perhaps, as I did popo the courtesy of replying to his first "I don't use one" post but I'd appreciate it if this thread could get back on topic. Thanks.

Bob.

[popo]

I did say which AV packages I did use to start with, but certainly it has drifted since for which I apologise to Bob. I do still use MSSE on machines which are not performance critical as hinted earlier.

[maxjj]

I have been using and would recommend AVAST, the free version, it automatically updates.
I also use firefox with adblock plus.



Previously have tried the avg, Sophos and Norton, which I found particular bad at affecting pc performance.

[oldCarlos]

We use IE on our Vista PC.

Installed & run AVG 2011, Hitman Pro 3.5 & ZoneAlarm (instead of Windows Defender)
Tried Norton twice in the past & had loads of issues, so uninstalled it.

[Bob Andersson]

Hi oldCarlos,

Wow, that was an eye-opener as I didn't realise ZoneAlarm was still going and I hadn't heard of Hitman Pro before. That idea of having a "second opinion" is a good one and is something that attracted me to G Data's InternetSecurity 2011. G Data doesn't use it's own proprietary anti-virus engine, instead it licences two such engines which work in tandem. It's one of the reasons they get such a high detection rate and it sounds very much as though you are accomplishing the same thing by combining AVG 2011 and Hitman Pro. But you've actually gone one step further and run ZoneAlarm as well. Is it the version which also provides a firewall? So, if I understand you, ZoneAlarm provides anti-virus (plus a firewall?), AVG 2011 also provides anti-virus and Hitman Pro provides a third level of anti-virus but has to be run manually? And as you use them they must all play nicely together as well.

Bob.

[Citruspers]

Ahh, ZoneAlarm. It used to be great back in the day, but now I feel it turned into bloatware. Unless you want outbound protection, the default windows firewall is pretty good. A bit too good, actually, we've had a LOT of problems in the Cisco labs with windows boxes not even responding to ICMPs when the firewall was turned on (the school just migrated). Spent half an hour checking protocols and debugging routers.....

[oldwarbler]

Another Linux user here - no external probs in 9 years - but I do help with a lot of Windows boxes for friends.

They're all XP-Pro users. I set up a new install with the free basic version of Zone-Alarm, and install the free Avast AV. Then put the box behind a firewalled router - we usually use the lower cost routers like the ASUS RX3041 and similar.

Set Avast to manual update only, not auto.

That seems to keep them fairly clean - until somebody - often their kids - clicks on something they shouldn't.

It's also possible to dual-boot Windows and Linux, and use the Linux side for internet, while having a full Windows install to run familiar or essential Windows applications.

You can use a Transfer partition to Copy things quickly between Linux and Windows - BUT - you MUST AV-etc check Everything you transfer to Windows - things that are un-noticed in a User Logon in Linux, can be very bad news on Windows side.

I ran dual-boot boxes for several years - and caught myself out badly, a few times!

Dave.

[maxjj]

certainly not an expert here, but isn`t running two virus programs, ie hitman and avg, generally a bad idea. Uses more resources and can conflict with each other. Most of the problems I have seen on other peoples machines come from running two virus programs.

In Addition with avast, I occasionally I do a boot time scan.
Spybot is still a useful program that I use sometimes.


I ran vista premium, used to use zone alarm, but found it unnecessary for blocking stuff going in. It can be useful to block stuff going out, have considered putting it back on due to Adobe feeling so lonely that it need to connect to the mothership all the time.

Often wished that adobe could become a more simple efficient beast, if my wife hadn`t bought the whole mastersuit for her studies in multimedia I would seriously try and get rid of it all together.

[AnderssonPhoto]

I use Norton internet security 2010 on my laptop. I got 7 cd keys from Symantec, so that's why I use it. ^^

I used to use Symantec Anti Virus Enterprise on my main pc but then I switched to Nod32 4

[mirageii]

Norton Internet Security works for me. They do a three user licence version to cover multiple machines and WHS usually discount it at Easter and august bank hols. I hate to pay for what is at best a protection racket, but once it's installed I can basically forget it until next year.

In the past Norton seemed to have quite a significant effect on performance but they seem to have fixed that.

[Citruspers]

Norton was rubbish in the past, and actually the source of MANY IT questions due to it's overzealous firewall. They seem to have addressed the performance issues indeed but it's still too extensive for what I need.

[jester212]

I personally use ESET-NOD32 anti-virus. Have done now for the past 3 years. Absolute 1st class service and you hardly even know its there.

[BleuDragon]

On my main machine that I game on or do photo editing on I had AVG.
I've been using AVG for years and use to enjoy it.

I recently went from a wireless connection to a fios connection, and have been seeing a steady decline in usability for online gaming. After playing with a lot of things, looked at my processes and saw a lot of AVG stuff. Could not disable AVG and could not kill the processes even as an administrator. So I uninstalled AVG and I'm now able to use my internet connection as I intended.

However, I also do some things that most people would not do. I'm rarely an administrator. I've taken the linux principle to heart where I'm a user for 99% of the time and only an administrator for when I want to do administrator type things. Of course I also have a separate computer to surf the web than my main machine.

Short answer:
Main machine - no AV while I'm investigating something new
Linux machine - nothing and loving it
Server - AVG due to not caring about performance right now
Laptop - AVG (will soon be trashed)
Parent's machine - Trend Micro as I like them more than AVG

[@idan]

AVG all the way. Used it for many years now and it has never let me down.

What I enjoy most is that it doesn't cripple your machine like other Anti Virus s/w out their.

Now gone to iMac so don't need anything...