Good Antivirus Software recommendation?

I just reformatted my hard drive and I have two questions general questions for my Windows XP machine,

1. Is there any 'good' free antivirus software out there that can keep my system fairly clean (something that runs in the background and keeps itself up to date)?
2. What is the best anti virus solution over all (paid or free)?

Before this I was using Norton Antivirus, but I get the impression that it's not really all that great. Before I re-formated I followed a link to an online antivirus scanner and it found what it said was 4 infections and many suspected files. I'm looking for something that will automatically check all incoming and out going files - including e-mail.

I know that NO antivirus is perfect, but what would guys recommend?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

 

Mac OS X

On a more serious note, look into Etrust EZ Antivirus.

Free alternatives that are decent would be Avast or AVG. However, note Avast recently gave my XP a BSOD, so I lean more towards AVG.

 

. The best "free" anti-virus proggy is Linux, of course...

. A good free one for Windwoes is AntiVir, and Avast is tops acording to Consumer Reports ... I think CR is above its head when dealing with anything more complex than a toaster-oven.

I think a combination of Kaspersky and Nod32 would be the overall best, but both are for pay. An excellent choice if you can have just one is still Kaspersky. And I use a version of TrendMicro's PC-Cillin - it comes free with VCom's (http://www.v-com.com ) SystemSuite 5 and 6 (my fave utilty suite) along with Sygate Firewall and you get some type of anti-spyware in the new v.6. (CR has those, Kas and Cillin, as its top two paid AV progs).

.bh.

 

I give a huge recommendation to Kaspersky.
Norton didn't touch the last Trojan I received, but Kaspersky found it and deleted it without damage.

I had been using Avast but it let several malware virus segments through which I have now deleted, again using Kaspersky.

 

Here's a good comparison of pay-for AV programs. Even if you don't get one of these you will get an informed idea of what to look for in free AV's.

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=antivirus+software

I've used PC-cillin for two years without any problems.

 

Both AVAST! Home Edition and AVG Free Edition are very good. I run both on 3 different systems, AVAST on my XP Pro system and AVG on both XP Home systems. A good thread to read is How to Protect yourself from malware!

 

Halo et al.,

Actually it is no problem at all having more than one AV proggy installed at a time. It's just that all of them must be capable of having their memory-resident (real-time) portions disabled. Personally, I wouldn't have one where I couldn't disable the Mem-Res portion.
. Install one AV prog. Disable its Mem-Res features
. Install the next - Disable its Mem-res features
. Ditto
. Ditto as many times as you want.
Finally, reboot and ENABLE ONLY ONE's Mem-Res features.

Et Voila!

.bh.

 

Adrynalyne what's a BSOD?

 

It is a problem.

For example, I installed Avast when I had Panda installed. It saw Panda as a virus. They conflict. Resources have little to do with it. Having the memory resident scanner is irrelevant too, as it picked it up on scans.

I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in dealing with 20+ false positives all the time.

Of course, I don't use antivirus anymore, so it doesnt matter

 

Antiquated term for Stop error

Blue Screen of Death

 

Halo,

I did read your post and understood. Others might have gotten the impression that it is not advisable to have more than one installed which, of course, isn't the case - as long as you use a little common sense.

Adrynalyne,

First line of my original post: Best free AV = Linux. Which approximates your solution - particularly Xandros.

.bh.

 

Yes AntiVir is a good free antivirus, but Avast offers more and different protection like mailscanning, spyware/adware detection, P2P protection, and others.

Why would you need to disable its mem resource? Makes no sense too me. You mean resident scanner or memory scanner? otherwise I have no clue what you are talking about...

Too have two antiviruses on your system you must take one antivirus and switch off its resident scanner, and leave the other antivirus resident scanner on. So the other antivirus w/o the resident scanner on could be a demand scanner only.

Most likely you would get a BSOD screen or random system crashes.

controlmind

 

Mem-Res = Memory Resident or Real Time AV scanning e.g. scanning email, file openings, etc. You can have only ONE AV program memory resident at a time.

.bh.

 

Even disabling one isn't an ideal solution.

The ideal solution is to only ever have one AntiVirus program installed, and keep that updated and on Auto-Protect.

 

@Zepper:

Hmmm, I think you are wrong about this. Yes, there are tons more viruses out there for windows. BUT, there are some for linux machines.

Have you looked ad clamAV? It is a linux antivirus program. So, this tells you that linux is not antivirus free.


Anyway, clamAV is an antivirus program that protects linux, MAC OSX, and Windows. But, one may wonder about something. Was clamav a windows product? No! It was ported to windows from linux.

NOTE: IF everyone already knew this, then just ignore all this. I really despize the gunho MAC and linux individuals that say MACs and Linux flavours are virus and security hole free.

 

What, their not? OMG ***Runs away****

 

I've reread my post and realized perhaps a war could start. I do want to say, I have used MACs and various linux distros in the past, and REAL unix distros(Well HPUX and Solaris (SunOS)). All I can say is, there are many security patches that needed to be installed on a weekly basis.

 

I use Linux (Fedora Core) and Solaris 10. No OS straight out of the box is secure or immune to viruses, trojans or rootkits. The later is more prevalent in the *nix OSes.

The frequency of patches is one of the things I like about *nix systems, no waiting till the first Tuesday of the month to put out a fix.

 

That is quite true.

I just wanted to state that there are viruses for linux and MACs. Why else design an antivurs program for them?

Even though I'm a primary user of MSWindows, I still use *nix machines. Maybe not daily, but I still do. Though, most of my real, hardcore *nix experience is non-gui. No "windows" look. Just all command line functinality.

It is rather sad that I don't remember all this *nix goodness anymore. Been 2 years since I was in the military.

 

WHO LET THE CATS OUT?

Settle down people, testosterone levels way too high...

I posted on this thread primarily because I had received a virus on my work pc (Win XP). Not sure if it was because they are all networked, but now I'm dealing with similar problems on my iMac (OSX 10.3.9) and MacMini (10.4.2). I worked on nix lots too in the last 4 yrs and had problems on them as well.
No one is safe, stay indoors, on the net, share the love, share the pain.

As was said... AV, Firewall, Anti-spyware, OS updates and common sense surfing.
I'll second that.

 

Thought I'd sound off here, too...

Best all-around I'd have to say (IMHO) is Symantec... But since their licensing requirements are damn near highway robbery, I won't buy it.

Trend-Micro is a close second, although their server pricing is up there...

I use F-Prot right now, because I can get a 10-machine license for $50: never had any real issues (sometimes I get an error on Win2k3 Adv Server), updates are daily if not more often, and I don't worry about annoying licensing non-sense.

Just my opinion, but I won't trust any "free" A/V with my data. None. Period. Sorry, guys...

 

I would go with Avast or AVG as SPD suggested. Both are available as free downloads on MG.

 

I agree!

I choose avast, since it is free.

AVG, unless they have changed their product, is quite nice, except for the fact, they refuse to fix a problem. They demand a FULL scan to fix the problem. Unless they fixed this issue.

Either choice is better than the bloatware that symantec and Mcafee have become.....

 

sorry to disargee with a few of you but AVG was infected by both Win32/Parite.B (virus) and SpyShrieff (a pretend anti-spyware program), as was McAfee and the only anti-virus left for me was BitDefender, so i would say BitDefender all the way...

 

Well thats not a surprise considering that AVG doesn 't protect against spyware.

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32pariteb.html

As for being infected by Parite.B, two things could have happened there. Your virus definitions were way out of date, or it was a false positive. That virus is 4 years old!

 

Not sure what you mean by testosterone levels, the only real heat in this thread, and that wasn't even heat, was the challenge to unsound advice.


SPD, correct me if I am wrong, but for rootkits to work, you have to give root permission for it to install, and work. I know its that way in OS X, anyway. Anything that would operate at that level requires user interaction, aka, you must give the install program admin/root access.

 

That's correct root permission must be granted before a rootkit can install/execute. That's why it is so important to harden the system before connecting it to a network or the Internet (same applies for windows, for anyone else who is reading this). Most rootkits take advantage of flaws in older unpatched kernels. It is so hard to explain to *nix n00bs why it isn't a good idea to operate a system as root; of course OSX doesn't grant the ability to login as root in normal mode, if I'm not mistaken, however Super User mode is available when root access is needed.

 

Correct, you cannot log in as root in Darwin, while running OS X. You can prior to X, but not during, and the option is not painfully obvious.

OS X is pretty locked down out of the box. Even su isn't activated, until the user purposely enables it, and that requires *nix knowledge.

 

Someone put some thought into the design of the OS. I just might pickup a copy of Tiger, when it's released, for x86 if Apple makes it available for retail.

 

Shade, my .02.............For free I recommend and use on several comps, AVG (AV) Kerio(FW) and a combination of other software.........CCleaner, Ad-aware, a-squared, spywareblaster, Ewido, MS antispyware, Spybot S&D. On my main comp I use Trend-Micro's PC-cillin (I really like this) while it initially costs about 49.00 you can renew for 25.00 each yr. I have used 2 AV at one time (AVG/PC-cillin) and they play well together, but Norton andMcAfee fight liike cats and dogs. Good Luck

 

Back to antivirus recommendations...... what do you guys think of BidDefender 8 or 9, and Shield Pro 2006 for relatively cheap paid antivirus software? Any experiences with either?

I agree that Symantec Norton isn't as good as it is cracked up to be - it let some virii on my machine. Thanks

 

I have used BitDefender 9 and liked it, it was just too heavy on resources for me..overall its a great antivirus with excellent detection rates..I would choose that over Shield Pro..

 

Hello.
I currently use McAfee and bought the Complete Internet Suite nearly a year ago. My one year anti-virus protection is going to end soon. I was pricing the stand-alone McAfee anti-virus update software, and I have to say the price is quite steep. Nearly $50 for that, and for just $20 more I can get the latest Complete Internet Suite, which I really wouldn't need considering the virus protection is the only part set to expire.

I have most of the McAfee elements installed and they work good, but I have to do something to get anti-virus protection soon.

I am deciding to choose either AVG or BitDefender as both of those are free. Two questions, though. First, do either or both of these provide automatic updates or the option to manually update with the latest virus definitions? Second, can I just uninstall the McAfee anti-virus portion and download and install one of these two free programs, while keeping the other McAfee elements like firewall and privacy service installed and operating without conflict?

Thank you all for the information.

 

I've got good news for you, You can download and install avg free edition, Because it doesn't take up as much resources and it's free and it's virus definitions is regurly updated.

 

Tom,

BitDefender Free version does not have realtime protection as only the paid versions do.

AVG does have realtime protection as it is on both the paid and free versions.

Yes they both provide automatic updates. BitDefender updates around 10 times a day while AVG updates 1 time a day.

Unistalling McAfee and keeping its other components should not be a problem running with either of these antiviruses.

I would recommend if you have the money to get BitDefender instead of AVG as it has much higher detection rates, great hueristics and good protection againest threats.

 

Bitdefender Free version does eat some ram even if no resident part. Almost the same as a regular AV if I remember correctly. No reason to hate it but does seem wrong... Anyway, it also comes with a commandline scanner which can be used even if you turn all services off. Same exe-file can also do updates so put an entry in Task Scheduler, like once per day, and it runs by itself - after you have activated it in download manager, FF extension or whereever. Useful for 2nd oppinion and takes up zero resources.

Search hd for "bdc.exe" and use something like "bdc.exe %1 /r /p /I" as commandline, best to call through a batchfile:

bdc.exe %1 /r /p /I
if not errorlevel 1 goto end
echo Blah Blah, put whatever you want to message/run if scan not approved.
pause
:end

In Task Scheduler "xxxxxx/bdc.exe" "/update" with quotation marks and xxxx replaced by path will work.

I have some more in batch, only test certain fileextension but never mind. Has worked flawless for 4 months now. Not touched it at all. GUI dont work without disabled services, I dont care. Main AV is Avast but with no resident part Bitdefender Free should work with anything. If you dont use resident AV at all throw ashquick.exe from Avast into batchfile

For Firefox: Download Statusbar http://downloadstatusbar.mozdev.org/ lets you run on-demand check of every download.