Recommended Virus Protection?
 

So I'm working on a computer with Norton Anti-Virus. The virus definition subscription just ran out and I am wondering the merits of signing on with Norton again or checking out McAfee or some other virus software.

As far as typical usage, I tend to be on the tame side for amount of internet usage and want it mainly for email. All recomendations are appreciated.

I'll be checking back over the next couple of days. Thanks in advance...

I've used both and IMHO there's not much between them. They both seem to offer frequent updates, which is what you want anyway.

I've always liked Norton AntiVirus myself. Hell, it snagged three spam emails over the past couple of weeks that were infected with the BugBear virus, so that makes it okay in my books.

I use MacAfee on my work laptop, but as of yet, it really hasn't impressed me very much. We had a virus running around our networks at work, and three of my friends got this virus on their laptops. Meanwhile, MacAfee was asleep at the wheel, and did nothing to detect, fix, or even quarantine this virus until it was too late. It's aggravating having no control over your own workstation, especially when you know you could do a better job of securing and maintaining it than those clowns in IT could.

edit: And by clowns, I mean clowns in the company I work for. So if you work in an IT department, then don't take that as a personal attack.

(Yes..that should provide me with adequate CYA-itude)

check out AVG from Grisoft. It was developed by a young french boy and uses heuristic inspection to look for the symptoms of virus infection rather than specific viruses (in other words, no libraries to update) They have a free version available for download (the one stipulation the boy requested when he sold the program to the company).

it's found infections that are overlooked by both mcaffee and norton

norton's been the best i've used.

i had mcafee on my old pc and it didnt find some files that it should have been.

norton's not perfect, but it's gettin enough of the job done

Thanks for the posts. I'll be checking back again in a few days to see if there are any additional recommendations.

I'll probably try AVG on my own system when I get it together. Since this is my parent's computer, I'll probably go with Norton for the ease of it. Thanks to all those that have posted.

AVG user here, it's free and it works!

I knew i there was decent anti virus software out there... just hadnt been too familar with it.

Thanks

I'm a proponent of AVG as well.

It's free, it runs very light on system resources, and it stays out of my way until it finds something, in which case it does it's job.

I install AVG on any computers I make or repair for friends and family, as well as using it on my own machine.

I'd highly reccomend it. And once again, it's totally free.

norton is my personal choice

was a big supporter of mcafee in early 90's but i like norton much better now

another cool one to look into is swat-it it is free has free updates and scans for trojans using heuristics as well

it however is not meant to be a replacement for a virus scanner but compliments one very well

This board introduced me to AVG and I find the program to be better than Norton of McAfee since it is not a memory hog.

Norton is the one that I use and working for a isp we have found them to be the quickest in getting virus definition updates. So go with Norton tried and true

Throw in another vote for AVG. Free, easy to use, and it's saved my ass a few times :D.

I've used AVG Pro and Norton, and both are quite good. I must say, however, that AVG is the best way to go. Norton is a serious memory hog, and uninstalling it can be a big fucking bitch. AVG uses few resources, but watch out when uninstalling it... I uninstalled it once, and it changed a shitload of my settings for no reason that I could see.

Another vote for AVG here saved my ass a few times as well.

Been using AVG for several years and I'm really happy with it. It updates virus profiles automatically and the downloads are fast..

AVG all the way.

AVG---caught TWO worms this week in my email--Bugabear---nasty little sob...

AVG here too, norton kills disk performance.

I've always liked NAV, since it's heyday on my Macintosh LC II. It's tough to change this type of brand loyalty because the whole Norton suite has never done me wrong and, better, has always done me right.

If you don't mind reformatting, you can just reinstall Norton again. That will give you another year free of charge. Just reformat, reinstall Windows, etc. It works. You should reinstall Windows at least once every 8 months anyway. Just my 2 cents...