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:thumbs: ... Platypus is quite right ... make sure with AVG you examine ALL the default settings carefully ... it works much better when you turn everything on ! :eek2: :devil:
For free I still think this is 'brill' !, but it has its 'oddities' & updating for pattern matches/ reference files isn't always the greatest ;)
As for leaving your home "unprotected", my mentality is to leave the doors wide open and care both a hi-capacity autoloader and a revolver backup.
I'm careful, I hate the hogs that AV software puts on my PC, and I scan at the slightest hint of abnormal behavior.
I own NortonAV and keep the latest updates religiously. In fact updating is scripted. With a few mouse-clicks, it downloads, and expands.
Same thing with McAfee SuperDAT. Many don't know you can download the SuperDAT, expand it, and run scan /adl /all /clean for free. If you want an AV service hogging your memory, you gotta pay McAfee for retail.
I don't know which company is best. I've had to fix too many computers that have problems created by McAfee, though. Lately, though, McAfee seems to be beating Norton by 1-3 days when getting new defs out.
Yeah, I used to think Norton was good, too. I scanned with BitDefender Standard 7.2 and found SIX infected files after using Norton AV for eight months. Norton also won't scan email properly using my email client (PocoMail 3.0.3).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferrit
I uninstalled NAV and found that, when you uninstall, it leaves a driver buried deep in the DCHP key in your registry (this is XP Home Edition SP-1) that prevents the DCHP service from starting -- cutting me off of my home network and Internet access.
Nope. No more NAV for me, thanks. Other good ones out there. You might look at EZ Antivirus from eTrust/CA -- they were giving it away free with a free firewall, but I don't know whether they still are. It's a bit out-dated as far as the interface, but seems to work well.
Right now I'm evaluating NOD32 and probably will purchase it.
I had avast! Pro 4.1 for a week or so, until it let two Bagle viruses slip through. (AVG Pro 7 missed the same two. Didn't try AVG free or avast Home free ed.)
Regardless, I think NAV is highly overrated, living off the Norton reputation from years past.
Gary Speer
I just found a java virus on my machine three days ago. It couldn't do anything because I'd had the MS patch that plugs the exploit already applied.
So the protections I'd rather have instead of always-on AV services is:
- Install all the latest patches
- Have at least one firewall layer
- Never view any email from someone you don't know. All my friends know how I sign my email subjects. I know how they sign theirs.
- If you have high-speed always-on Internet access, have a hardware firewall, then a dummy Internet gateway computer sharing out the connection, then have software firewalls on each computer that connect through the gateway.
If you follow these practices, and you're technically savvy, there's no need for live protection resource hogs.
Besides, the first thing a virus tends to do is kill the antivirus application. I worked on a PC that had a virus (I think it was Bugbear?) that damaged Norton's link to the antiV defs. Norton ran and would do a scan and report all was fine. Totally bogus! You can't trust AV services 100%.
So I ask, why install a giant resource hog that is only about 40-50% able to protect you?
I say this advice for home only, though...
Company net's where there are dozens or hundreds of computers where a virus can spread like wildfire and do tons of damage need ALL the protection they can get, including AV services that hog resources and are 50% reliable.
It's one of the costs of doing business.
- and to answer the initial query of this thread -
I'm currently using AVG 6 Free. Seems okay, but doesn't include Support - hence why we are all here - but beats paying for Support that never responds...
I've also looked at both Avast! and AntiVir, but recent posts on their Forum sites suggest things are not all as they should be there, either - so little incentive to shift to them.
And currently there is a commercial product from Computer Associates going 'free' for a one year trial, too - their E-Z Armor Suite in cooperation with Microsoft
( http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/index.cfm? )
I have used, at one time or another, McAfee and Norton. Norton most recently. Slick interface but a resource hog with a history of buggy problems with other software.
And, as with all the retail AVs, I resent paying for a piece of software that must be 're-subscribed to' each year. I mean, its one thing to choose to update to a more recent version of software (the old one still works) - its quite another for a manufacturer to demand it. In a fit of pique I ripped Norton out (my New Year's present to myself) and installed the aforementioned AVG.
There is *no* product out there that will stop everything from getting thru and every product is only as good as its build - but most especially, its last update and how often the scan is done.
So, read the commercial reviews, look at the products webpages, dig around in their forums or just do a Google on the product and see what shows up - and choose whatever you feel most comfortable with.