In search of decent antivirus software

[toxic.influx]

I've used several different vendors of antivirus software over the course of a few years: McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, Panda, AVG...none of these of impressed me as far as detection of known threats, detection of unknown threats, etc. goes. Additionally, a few of them are quite the resource hog and dramatically slow performance on my machines whether scanning or not.

I browsed around the forums and around the internet and it seems as if NOD32 receives some very good reviews, as does BitDefender (first time I've heard of them).

Can anyone provide a recommendation for decent antivirus software that isn't a resource hog and has very good detection and protection?

Thanks
toxic.influx

[ShagDevil]

For home systems, I like Kaspersky. Although, I'm keeping a weary eye on them now. Their recent updated version (I think 6.0) looks like it's starting to get a little bloated. In any event, It's still fairly quick, has good detection rates, and doesn't swamp my system resources.
For the coporate environment, I've stuck with Symantec's Corporate AV solutions.

[ByTeWrangler]

Greeting's

I dont think today having an anti-virus itself is going to detect all the malware out there. You need multiple scanning software's for your PC (ofcourse, not all of them working in real-time).

I think following would make a good pair (free):

AVG
A2
Ewido

And VERY Important... A weekly scan at Housecall


If you still prefer to have one anti-virus... Then I prefer Trend-Micro.. I also prefer Symantec, except the Memory-hog that it is it still works.

[brokencrow]

And VERY Important... A weekly scan at Housecall

Panda's got a good online scan, too.

I dont think today having an anti-virus itself is going to detect all the malware out there.

Makes one wonder if AV apps warrant all the processing power they use.

[jockey0109]

I recommend AVAST...good for most cases. with small size of updates, less resource hog and effective protection in most of the cases. I use the same.

[toxic.influx]

Thanks everyone for the reply. I may try Trend Micro again, its been about two years since I've used them, perhaps they are better. I just got away from Panda, it was a big RAM hog even when idle and even with its default settings made apps load really slow, especially World of Warcraft (can't have that not working :p)

Thanks for the help.


toxic.influx

[zigar]

My webserver uses clamAV ...open source, free from most "features" and beats major AV companies to protection 77% of the time
http://www.linuxpipeline.com/166400446 (also has a wintel port)

At work My desktops use SAV corporate 10...mostly ok and easy to administer

At home I use a suite of tools provided by my cable company actually the F-Secure suite and I like it pretty much certainly didn't require the reformat of my HD like Norton home 2005 did... (not -ever - going to go with symantec home av software again)


HOWEVER... AV and most spyware scanners are retroactive protection... (edit:to clarify... av is retroactive because you need to wait for def's to be pushed...)

I've fallen :mushy: for Blink from eEye as an intrustion -prevention- system. Blink happily denies virtually all (or maybe -all-) zero days, phishing scams, buffer overflows and most anything else for my webserver, AD and file servers and desktops. Features include a spyware scanner that found things that 5 other scanners did not, a vulnerability assessment tool, application and system firewall...it's an IPS not an IDS...detection is too late...prevention is where it's at...

http://www.eeye.com/html/products/blink/index.html

and it's bloody cheap $59.00 US per machine..(with my users...that's priceless)

[cgkanchi]

I use NOD32 at home and I must say, I've been impressed. It catches pretty much everything I've ever thrown at it and is fast and has an incredibly small footprint on system resources (the monitor program only takes 6.5 megs). Strongly recommended.

Cheers,
cgkanchi

[al1aprize]

There used to be so many free firewalls and antiviruses. Now some have gone commercial, others have died. Now only a few survivors are truly free.
These include:
* AVG
* Avast
* AntiVir
* ClamAV
* and few others

[toxic.influx]

Thanks guys. NOD32 offered a free 30 day trial so I just installed that. I definately notice a difference over Panda. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks again

toxic.influx