Antivirus Protection..?

[matty-hodgson]

basically, just a quick thread on "what's hot and what's not"
i've had AVG for a year now, and my license runs out on monday, so i want to ask everyone here what they think is the best antivirus program is atm so that i can buy some decent protection, AVG didn't really seem all that good if i'm honest, and the fact i have to disable the firewall to connect on Skype and MSN wasn't very good.
got up to about £40 - £50 to spend on it.

cheers in advance

links would be handy too, if you've got the time.

[PeterStoba]

Kaspersky - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Kaspe...ar-OEM-Edition

[lodore]

Hey Matty,
I use Kaspersky internet security.
buy from here
download lastest version from here
btw do a custom install without content filtering.
image link
all you do is select custom at the start of installation click on the bit that looks like a disc next to content filtering and then use the do not install option.( cant remember exact name)
then it should look same as screenshot.
use automatic mode.
during installation there will be a section which shows malware categories. tick all the boxes. all should be ticked except other programs (this can lead to detection of legitimate programs to be detected as not a virus riskware/(name of program)
if that happerns just pm me with details and ill tell ya how to set up an exclusion.

[Haiku32]

I just use the various free programs and do scans every few days. Never actually gotten a virus, trojan, worm, spyware or anything in my computer.

But for all the good rep Kaspersky gets, and it's only £8.... I'm tempted .

[tonpal]

I use Kaspersky. Not had any problems with it.

[Dreaming]

I use clamwin which is on-demand only. It's free tho and works.

[lodore]

I use clamwin which is on-demand only. It's free tho and works.

clamwin has low detection and i wouldnt reccomended it.
for ondemand scanners i reccomend drweb cure it (have to redownload to update)
superantispyware free
for free antivirus protection with realtime protection i reccomend avast!

[Saracen]

I use Kaspersky. Not had any problems with it.

I tried Kaspersky. It wouldn't install on one of my machines because it didn't like the Comodo firewall and insisted I uninstall it. No chance. It wouldn't install on another (that was using ZoneAlarm) telling me there was an error 1304 and objecting to a driver file in \windows\system32\drivers (a ZoneAlarm file IIRC) ...... and it installed on a 3rd machine, wouldn't uninstall and killed that Windows installation.

A lot of people use it and love it, including some friends. But after having paid for that licence I ended up chucking it in the bin, because it's FAR too temperamental about what it will and won't work with.

I might be prepared to use their suite if I was willing to use their firewall, but I'm content with my current firewall products and I'm not messing about problem-solving driver clashes or uninstalling firewalls just to use their stand-alone AV module.

So I use a mix of NOD32 (top product IMHO, but not free), Avast, Avira Personal and AVG free.

[lodore]

I tried Kaspersky. It wouldn't install on one of my machines because it didn't like the Comodo firewall and insisted I uninstall it. No chance. It wouldn't install on another (that was using ZoneAlarm) telling me there was an error 1304 and objecting to a driver file in \windows\system32\drivers (a ZoneAlarm file IIRC) ...... and it installed on a 3rd machine, wouldn't uninstall and killed that Windows installation.

A lot of people use it and love it, including some friends. But after having paid for that licence I ended up chucking it in the bin, because it's FAR too temperamental about what it will and won't work with.

I might be prepared to use their suite if I was willing to use their firewall, but I'm content with my current firewall products and I'm not messing about problem-solving driver clashes or uninstalling firewalls just to use their stand-alone AV module.

So I use a mix of NOD32 (top product IMHO, but not free), Avast, Avira Personal and AVG free.

Hey Saracen,
btw its zonealarms problem. some zonealarm versions use kaspersky antivirus (older engine and signitures only so not same detection as kav2009) but zonealarm install the kaspersky antivirus drivers with the firewall only version even thou you cannot use the antivirus module...
that is why kaspersky only products cannot be installed along side zonealarm firewall. makes sence really otherwise if you installed kav2009 it would just bsod alot due to having to antivirus drivers installed.
for paid i reccomend kaspersky and nod32
for free i reccomend avast.
avg free doesnt have very good detection IME.
avira free has a nag screen everytime it updates,updator breaks alot (even with paid version)
plus the free version lacks spyware detection so you would need a second program to detect spyware.

if you dont understand something feel free to ask.

[shadowmaster]

Commodo Internet security is not bad, I use it on my laptop. On my main pc, I use bullguard though which I find to be pretty reliable.

I've also used Kaspersky which I would also recommend.

[matty-hodgson]

from what i can make out here, Kaspersky seems like a decent bet.
apart from Saracen's little speech about it being temperemental.
is it only temperemental like that because you use it with other programs?
cos i'd be using it on its own with no other programs for it to 'compete' with.

£8 for AV on Scan is an absolute steal!

does AVG Internet Security install cleanly, or is it one of these little beggars that just don't wanna budge? :\

oh, and btw thanks for all the suggestions
much appreciated.

[Giraffe]

Comodo's suite will be very good when the AV module has matured - about a year or so, I'd guess. Meanwhile Comodo, without the AV running, plays very nicely with Avast!
Mind, in about 6 months Avast! will be in v5 and be half a suite on its own, so the combination will be even better.
Simple firewalls and AVs aren't enough nowadays; detection isn't the only weapon as behaviour and blocking are sometimes the only defences against some malware.

[Hicks12]

Nod32 all the way, avg isnt to bad but it picks up alot of things that are not viruses. Nod32 has killed every virus i have had and avg just ignored it , if your paying cash then get nod as its like £35 for 2years(on offer on their site).

[GoNz0]

kaspersky fan, installed on lots of family and friends b4 and after problems and never come across an issue.

scan should offer a digital download service and just email the kaspersky licence and download link to there site !

[Saracen]

Hey Saracen,
btw its zonealarms problem. some zonealarm versions use kaspersky antivirus (older engine and signitures only so not same detection as kav2009) but zonealarm install the kaspersky antivirus drivers with the firewall only version even thou you cannot use the antivirus module...
that is why kaspersky only products cannot be installed along side zonealarm firewall. makes sence really otherwise if you installed kav2009 it would just bsod alot due to having to antivirus drivers installed.

It's not Zonealarm's problem.

As I said, on a Comodo system, it wouldn't install at all insisting I uninstalled Comodo. And on the third test system, which I deliberately ran offline with no firewall installed at all, it scragged Windows.

That's zero for three result. Not impressive.

So, if it's Zonealarm's problem, then by the same token, it's also Comodo's problem and Window's problem. What does it work with? Or am I supposed to just do without a firewall? That's not happening, I'm afraid.

By any stretch, when I install it on three different systems, with three different hardware configurations and three different firewall setups (including none at all), it's more than a ZoneAlarm problem.

In other words, it's temperamental. How many systems am I supposed to try installing it on before I get it to work on one?

from what i can make out here, Kaspersky seems like a decent bet.
apart from Saracen's little speech about it being temperemental.
is it only temperemental like that because you use it with other programs?
cos i'd be using it on its own with no other programs for it to 'compete' with.

Lots of people like it, recommend it and don't have problems with it. But I did. I can only tell you what happened to me. I can't tell you it's typical of what people experience and judging by what I've read over a long period, my experiences aren't typical. That, after all, is why I bought it in the first place.

However, in my personal experience, it wouldn't play nice with ZA, wouldn't play nice with Comodo and managed to kill a clean test system. After several hours of faffing around with that system trying to get it resuscitated, I ended up formatting and restoring an image backup. Fortunately, the system it killed was a test system and not a highly loaded live system.

Would you get that same effect, even without other programs competing? I don't know, but judging by anecdotal evidence I doubt it. I did, though.

[directhex]

i use f-secure. t'was cheap.