What Anti Virus Is Best And Why? CA or Webroot ?

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I used to use AVG Free, but like someone said above, it turned into "malware" of its own. It was just too much trouble.

I've been happy with Microsoft Security Essentials. It's a good hands-off solution...it quietly downloads and installs updates along with other Microsoft updates. It just does what it does quietly.
 
The best solution is to use multiple tools. The AVs don't necessarily catch all the malware.

Pick a good freeware AV (Avast, MSE, or perhaps AVG). Use Malwarebytes (free version) to run bi-weekly or perhaps monthly scans.

If you're willing to spend money on an AV/anti-malware program I'd recommend HitmanPro 3.5. http://www.surfright.nl/en $40 for a 3 year 1 PC license, $60 for 3 year 3 PC license.

It's my last resort when cleaning up messes on other peoples computers. It can detect malware that other programs completely miss and will eradicate it. Just used it last night on our church secretary's computer to yank out some nasty stuff that Avast and MSE missed and for which Malwarebytes was only able to clean up part of the infection.

The best part about HitmanPro is that you don't even need to buy the license until you really need it (if even then). You can run it without installing it and just use it as a scanner. If it finds something, then you can activate the 31 day free license to remove the problem. That's why I like it so much for doing an 1 time cleanup on other peoples computers.
 
As usual in AV threads (and, indeed, in most posts in this section), you will see many ignorant, uneducated or regurgitated opinions. Check into them yourself, read independent reviews and then decide what suits your needs.

For my own part, I choose MSE.
 
Originally Posted By: greenaccord02


For my own part, I choose MSE.


No offense, but if you read reviews from various sources, to include AVComparatives.org, MSE is a very poor products.

Of all the free products out there today as far as AM is concerned, Avast 6 has the highest detection and protection rates. It didn't in the past, but it sure does today.

Avira used to be great, but they make you install the Ask.com toolbar now for the free version.
 
I've used them all in great volume and still prefer NOD32 over any of them. That's why I bought the site license. However, I'm quite happy with Kaspersky as well, and the latest Norton isn't bad.

In real world use, I've found NOD32 to find thing that MSE, Avast, Avira and even Norton didn't. The latest was about 50 malware infections on one of my neighbours laptops. It had a fully up-to-date Norton 2011 install on it
crazy2.gif


And as others have said, it is VERY lightweight.
 
One can search their life away, there's nothing that shows MSE to be anything other than middle of the road at best.....
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
ESET NOD32 has consistently been at or near the top.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

It typically bests the others in terms of lowest resource usage (it's written in machine code and uses about half the RAM and CPU of most others). I have used it for about 7 years now. Never going back to Symantec.

What always struck me about NOD32 is how consistent it is year to year. Symantec and the others seem to have "on" years and then "off" years.


Do you know what machine code is? No one writes in machine code. Its unmaintainable. People "patch" with machine code but don't write it. Even if something had to be super fast and efficient, they might use assembler but never machine code. I agree I would not want a anti-virus written purely in Java. I speak from 35 years of computer experience writing in assembler and PLX.
 
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Whatever AV you decide on, it is not a bad idea to also have the free version of Malwarebyte's Antimalware on your computer for a second opinion and backup scan. And to check for rootkits you can run TDSKiller from Kaspersky and GMER. And perhaps Dr. Web CureIt!. And you can submit files toVirusTotal and ThreatExpert.
 
Interesting to see the comment here, personally I find McAfee is not bad on the detection even though they may not be as efficient as others on the CPU/memory utilization, but their strong point is very less false positives. If you use Avira/AVG, many times you will see false positives, that end up you cant clean and frustrate you. Most of the time the issue with AV is if your computer is old, then many AV will bog you down except a few like MSE.
I would agree MSE is not the best for zero day detection, but they are quite good on cleaning up.
 
Originally Posted By: Mystic
Whatever AV you decide on, it is not a bad idea to also have the free version of Malwarebyte's Antimalware on your computer for a second opinion and backup scan. And to check for rootkits you can run TDSKiller from Kaspersky and GMER. And perhaps Dr. Web CureIt!. And you can submit files toVirusTotal and ThreatExpert.


Yes, all good
smile.gif


Everyone should be running in Limited User Account instead of root (Administrator) and then there's no need for all these things.
 
Forgot to mention another little gem I came across last night while cleaning up a computer.

Rkill http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/rkill

Quote:

RKill is a program that was developed at BleepingComputer.com that attempts to terminate known malware processes so that your normal security software can then run and clean your computer of infections. When RKill runs it will kill malware processes and then import a Registry file that removes incorrect file associations and fixes policies that stop us from using certain tools. When finished it will display a log file that shows the processes that were terminated while the program was running.

As RKill only terminates a program's running process, and does not delete any files, after running it you should not reboot your computer as any malware processes that are configured to start automatically will just be started again. Instead, after running RKill you should immediately scan your computer using some sort of anti-malware or anti-virus program so that the infections can be properly removed.


Nice little program. It allowed me to kill the [censored] Zenton System Guard fake AV program's processes that the secretary managed to install. I couldn't run Process Explorer to kill the processes tied to it as the fake AV program shut down Process Explorer before it could even load, but RKill was able to terminate it. Malwarebytes picked up 16 infected files/registry keys which stopped the program from loading at logon but and then HitmanPro picked up another 5 files that Malwarebytes missed.
 
I use Avast Internet Security and haven't had any problems for 2yrs. I also run Malwarebytes Pro a long side it. I run the Avast also on all family computers.

Avast Free and MSE Free are good also just make sure your OS Firewall is turned on as these free ones don't have a firewall with them.

In my opinion AVG, Norton, and McAfee are total junk I've had to fix so many pc's with this protection on them. I just wouldn't recommend using them at all.
 
My personal choice when I used Windows was AVAST!. I like the ability to scan before Windows boots up to disable some malware that runs from RAM. Also AVZ by Kaspersky Lab is good stuff to remove [censored] when system already infected.
 
Originally Posted By: zyxelenator
Just did some HW for network security class. Here is some comparison article I happened to read just before I seen this thread.
http://av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_od_aug2011.pdf


I like that comparison because it really does show the correlation between the false positives and total % detection.

For example, from this thread, we are discussing:

Product/Rating/False-Postives/Speed
1. Avira: 99.5% few/fast
2. Panda: 99.3% very few/average
3. F-Secure: 98.5% few/average
4. BitDefender: 98.4% few/average
5. NOD32: 97.3% very few/average
6. Avast!: 97.2% few/fast
7. Kaspersky: 96.8% very few/average
8. McAfee: 96.8% none/fast
9. Trend-Micro: 96.6% few/fast
10. AVG: 95.7% many/average
11. Norton: 95.1% many/average
12. Sophos: 94.2% many/average
13. MS SE: 92.1% very few/slow

Ranked giving weight to the false positives:
1. McAfee: 96.8% none/fast
2. Panda: 99.3% very few/average
3. NOD32: 97.3% very few/average
4. Kaspersky: 96.8% very few/average
5. MS SE: 92.1% very few/slow
6. Avira: 99.5% few/fast
7. F-Secure: 98.5% few/average
8. BitDefender: 98.4% few/average
9. Avast!: 97.2% few/fast
10. Trend-Micro: 96.6% few/fast
11. AVG: 95.7% many/average
12. Norton: 95.1% many/average
13. Sophos: 94.2% many/average

Based on that, my personal choice would be Panda, NOD32 or Kaspersky based on reasonably high detection rates and low false positives.
 
Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
As usual in AV threads (and, indeed, in most posts in this section), you will see many ignorant, uneducated or regurgitated opinions.



Was this statement necessary? You seem to be calling many who post here ignorant and/or uneducated......why? Just asking..

For the record...Avira works for me.
 
I am very happy with this product. http://www.comodo.com/
I have given many of the product mentioned here a try over the years. I find that staying with one product for long period of time may not be the best thing to do. They are always trying to outdo each other. The antivirus program companies are very competitive
 
Originally Posted By: ddrumman2004
Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
As usual in AV threads (and, indeed, in most posts in this section), you will see many ignorant, uneducated or regurgitated opinions.



Was this statement necessary? You seem to be calling many who post here ignorant and/or uneducated......why? Just asking..

For the record...Avira works for me.


People come here with serious questions about security and are met with a deluge of opinions ranging from regurgitated marketing to paranoia with only a few of real merit. It's hard if the OP is a non-technical person to determine which are which. Maybe my statements weren't necessary, but I just get tired of seeing it.

Anyway, I'm glad Avira has been a good solution for you.
 
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