What's the best Virus protection program?

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: doomtrader

I'm using NOD 32 for few years and I'm very pleased.
It's something like 50$ for year.

Is that on the same machine you program with? Steep price.

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

ZoneAlarm is another good choice. They've always had a solid reputation for their firewalls, and now they are using the Kaspersky AV engine. Its cheaper as well but still highly rated.

Zone Alarm made my pcs run at a snail's pace...will never use it again...

[JamesM]

I used to use online armor for my firewall, and will use it again once they develop a version that works with windows 7.  A very good and flexible firewall.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Zone Alarm made my pcs run at a snail's pace...will never use it again...

That was the other reason I quit using it. Although the random crashes were the worst.

AVG's Resident Shield ran slow too. Horribly slow. The newest version 9 is extremely slow and ran my HD all the time.

[06 Maestro]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

I have used many virus programs and am currently using AVG. However, I am tired of AVG's persistent naggings of version upgrades as they usually are worse than the last.
[&:]

Hi Larry

I was getting a little annoyed with the upgrade prompts myself-and was considering putting another 2 PC's on Avast (which I also use elsewhere). However, after I finally got around to doing the upgrade/update, the prompts stopped.

The current version is 9.0.702. There are noticeable improvements. During the install it asks about a scan to enable something like a smart scan-which I allowed. My scan time has dropped from over 2 hours to 58 minutes-not bad for my setup.

If you never tried Avast, you should give it a shot-it is a good system. I am hesitant to say one is better than the other simply because they change so often. I have used both for years. At times both programs have attained the top position in service quality and ease of use. What is true today may not be true in another month.

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Zone Alarm made my pcs run at a snail's pace...will never use it again...

That was the other reason I quit using it. Although the random crashes were the worst.

AVG's Resident Shield ran slow too. Horribly slow. The newest version 9 is extremely slow and ran my HD all the time.

Were these issues with the current or recent version of ZA? I tried an older version back in the early part of the decade and didn't like it and since then have used Computer Associates, then switching to Kaspersky. Latest ZoneAlarm got good reviews and uses the Kaspersky AV engine which made me consider it.

[LarryP]

The last ZA I used was about three years ago. Every version has received good reviews. That's what made me buy it.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: 06 Maestro

Hi Larry

I was getting a little annoyed with the upgrade prompts myself-and was considering putting another 2 PC's on Avast (which I also use elsewhere). However, after I finally got around to doing the upgrade/update, the prompts stopped.

The current version is 9.0.702. There are noticeable improvements. During the install it asks about a scan to enable something like a smart scan-which I allowed. My scan time has dropped from over 2 hours to 58 minutes-not bad for my setup.

I upgraded to the 9 version. My 8.5 was upgraded from the 7.x version. And on and on. However, my hard drive would not stop being busy after the upgrade. I even turned off the Resident Shield and it still did it. I went back to the 8.5 but got tired of the constant naggings to upgrade.

The problem with AVG is (and I know from years of using it) when they have tired of asking you to upgrade, they stop making the definition files for the previous version. So my subscription is worthless unless I upgrade to the new interface.

I'm never going back to AVG. I hate the way they do things.

[Raverdave]

Just downloaded Avast! based on the strength of the recommendations here and it works just great !

[doomtrader]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: doomtrader

I'm using NOD 32 for few years and I'm very pleased.
It's something like 50$ for year.

Is that on the same machine you program with? Steep price.

Yes, that's the same machine.
The price might look high, but NOD use very limited resources, don't bother me and really keeps my system (also e-mail and web) safe.
As they say: If you value your time there is nothing for free.

[killroyishere]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

Kaspersky is the absolute best but it also the most expensive. You get 10-12 updates a day and it uses a minimum of resources. After a Trojan attack last fall I decided to spare no expense in computer protection.

I think there are some discounted on amazon.com for around $49 which isn't a bad price for Kaspersky.

[sprior]

I started using MS Security Essentials, a lot ligher on the system that AVG had become. Got it running on XP and Vista machins so far with no issues.

[kingstuart444]

i use avg as well, but seems to suck up resources especially when booting up. it takes a long time to be able to open email and browser. would not mind trying avast for AV. does anybody have a good and maybe free firewall they can recommend. one that does not hog or annoy with too many prompts?

thanks much

[cantona2]

I use and I am very haapy with ESET Smart Security

[milkweg]

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

Been using Avast.

I tried Avira, once, awhile back but it had huge annoying popups asking me to upgrade from free to full version and I didn't bother to dig and find out if I could disable them.

Yes, you can. There is an instructional video on yourtube that shows you how even. Those that are too lazy to do research make baseless complaints and often turn people off a product that they may well prefer over some intrusive security suite like Kaspersky. Kasperky's firewall is what I call annoyance software and would never pay for that when I already have a annoyance-free and free firewall in Windows. Don't buy into the "you need this" hype of companies like Kaspersky, those are just scare tactics to get you to hand over your money. I don't pay for any AV or ant-spyware progs and I'm betting I'm better protected than the average bear who pays for it. Of course the best protection is to surf safely and use Linux if you want to go to browse around risky areas of the internet.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Motomouse]

@ sumana : free = bad : lol (like linux, openoffice et al.) [;)]

I used free avira for many years without any troubles. Dropped it just recently because of an incompatibility with windows 7 64bit (excessivly forced chkdsk on boot, hey and even the paid premium version is reported to do the same). I recommend my avira substitute AVAST.

Regards
Freemouse

[gunny]

hmmm, you guys sold me on avast. Edit: Its a 60 day time limited demo if you don't register (just noticed the registration is free and painless)

[JamesM]

ORIGINAL: sumana

Free antivirus programs Are what cause alot of this sort of thing... Alot of them are free And that's why they never live up to the Features of A Paid Antivrus program And some are fake Antivirus programs Designed to steal your identity.
I reccomend: Sophos Antivirus,Norton internet security 2009,Norton 360 V3,Avira Antivir Premium... all Paid but offer very good protection.
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Domesday

I will never use or allow Nortons to be installed on one my systems again. The amount of problems that it caused me was too much yo go through that again.

I am using the pro version of Avast (paid for) and it is great.

[killroyishere]

Just an FYI I recently got a Java/CVE-2008-5353 virus with attached trojans of Java/Selace.a and Java/Selace.B and AVAST didn't detect it nor Malware. I discovered it while I was using Windows Live Care for a registry cleaning when it found it and suggested "Microsoft Security Essentials" and I downloaded that and ran a full scan and it detected all 3 and cleaned them. I did a quick scan first and it wasn't detected so this is one of those that you must use full scan to find it.

It's as I've read before it's said no one virus protection program is 100% effective and it's best to have a couple onhand in case one isn't detecting what is in your system. Microsoft Security Essentials is freeware as well and I would suggest that you also use Windows Live Care to do a clean and a free virus scan of your sytem as well often.