anti virus software
 

OK, I am at wits end......

I typically use Norton with no problems. I was away for 2-3 months, norton AV expired and wife did not renew it.

I do not have an virus that I am aware of. I have norton system works 2002 and AV 2005 on the computer. After coming home, decided to download AV 2008.

DOwnloads, but on installation, I get an error message saying they cannot uninstall 2005. I Call norton, they remote access for 2+ hours and they remove 2005. Now 2008 will STILL not install. I cannot remember the error message as I was too pissed off.

Is there something else as good to use?

AVG is free for personal use and gives good AV protection. If you're looking for an all-in-one security solution, though, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Norton is crap. There's not much out there that's worse.

Another vote for AVG Free. Another vote for Norton Spoiler: can go fuck itself. Other than AVG, many of my friends also use Avira AntiVir without problems.

There is filehippo.com that provides a nice list of anti-virus software that they test themselves. Also remember that an anti-virus is not all you need once norton is gone.
Anti-Virus
Firewalls and Security
Anti-Spyware

I keep an updated list of freeware that I personally endorse in the The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread (my list linked here).

AVG Antivirus works well like these guys said. Plus it's free (legally free).

I use Symantec Antivirus (different than Norton, Norton is the bloatware version that won't uninstall and causes problems all the time). AVG is just as good though.

I use Avast and I´m very happy with it, plus it's legally free.

I find a lot of antivirus packages are introducing more problems than they are fixing. the persistent state antivirus programs bug the hell out of me. "hi, we're always on, always watching, always eating your system resources, introducing another layer in which something can screw up if you use this software to scan email or firewall anything"

meh. Funny note, my friend was having computer issues so he updated his avg, next day, hard drive failure. go go.

Another vote for AVG. Works best when combined with safe net use. ;)

Should look at anti spyware software though.

only thing I hated about AVG is that it tagged all my outbound emails... that bugged the crap outta me and I never looked into how to change it. I figured it could be undone only by paying for it.

other than that AVG works as advertised.

as far as I roll tho, I always find a way to get a corporate work version... whatever flavor the employer has, norton, mcafee, whatever is free.

That's wicked bizarre... what email client were you using?

Outlook

Huh... I never liked outlook... but I do miss the simple calendar features. Still Rainlender and Thunderbird serve me well enough as long as I don't get lazy.

when you work in the corporate world, i find it easier to use the corporate tools. I'd rather use 1 tool and always do the same things, than do things 1 way at the office and 1 way at home; to me fighting and working against it is counter productive and a waste of time.

Thank you one and all for your replies. I must say, my naivity about Norton hurts. I guess the one paying the most for advertising may NOT be the best!

I wish I knew thies before I paid for it. Funny thing, I FINALLY got the norton installed, it scanned my computer, and I STILL have an ANNOYING pop up for an "infected file" leading me to a website for antivirus software.

that's malware or adaware which norton doesn't handle so well....

wow, you are good!!

Best Av bar none is Nod32. It costs about £19 per year, but it is worth it. Not a single virus has got through. Read up on it.

Well the first problem I noticed is that you are using Norton.

A lot seem to be using AVG, never tried it myself

I used to have Panda, total system hog, I don't recommend that to anyone.

Right now I am using Kaspersky and I find it to be great, no problems so far and it does not seem to eat up too many resources.

I actually looked into Node32, costs like 40 american or something for me to get, but I was able to get an OEM version of Kaspersky internet security for 20 bucks (70 or 80 at futureshop)

I use Avira AntiVir (free) and LOVE it. It's also rated VERY highly in it's effectiveness for heuristics use and few false-positives. <3 Avira!

I used Kaspersky for some time and liked it, then no longer wanted to pay for it and switched to AVG and have stuck to that. Very good in my experience. lt caught a virus very quickly that some sap was spreading with them on a lost MP3 player/USB drive (auto scanned it) that I plugged into my system to check out.

Gotta agree here, I switched to Avira from AVG and I couldn't be happier. I've never really had a problem at all, but from what I've read, Avira has a higher quality heuristic scanner?

ClamWin is free and lightweight but it doesn't have resident scanner. Originally developed for email scanning on nix machines I think, its open source and has a good detection rate, but these things are hard to tell really.

i need a new anti virus. too many options.

so, uhh, bump.

I like avast for a free antivirus. Doesn't seem to have a large footprint even during scanning.

Paying for an antivirus for personal use is stupid, these days.

When I'm on Windows (such as right now) I use avast. AVG has gone downhill in the three years between my last post and this one.

I keep toying with the idea of installing that whatever-it's-called one built on ClamAV, but I just haven't overcome my laziness yet.

Of course, the best way to protect yourself is Don't Be An Idiot, but y'know, it's generally better to have antivirus protection anyway. The resource use is so minimal on a modern PC that so long as you're using decent software the impact is negligible -- if your PC was built within the last 4 years or so you're probably not going to notice a difference in performance with avast running.

If you have a Windows system i would highly suggest using Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, plus it's one of the best virus defenses out there.

I use that on my personal PC and have found it to be highly effective. It does not bog down the PC like others have in the past.

I use AVG free and Malwarebytes which is also free. And you need a good firewall to make sure only the programs you want to connect to the net are allowed to. If a virus does get on my system and tries to send info to the internet I will get a pop-up that says " Dblock827.exe is trying to access the internet: Allow/Deny"

And for that I use Zonealarm free version.

Personally, I stay away from AVG free. One of my last jobs had me selling it to all the clients we had. One of the major distribution centers for AVG is right down the street frim my house. It was great, then it slowed became more of a resource hog, then it stopped catching as much stuff, and generally became an inferior product. My free copy on my laptop updated to 9.0 and basically was a shell of the it's original self.

IMHO, avg just lost it a long time ago.