The Best anti-virus

[Macstorm]

Well, I'll finally tell you. The best AV on the market is SOPHOS.

Yep, it's expensive. Only companies buy it. But it has it all... fast, small, efficient, well designed, easy to deploy and maintain, new definitions every time they are needed, etc

101% agree

I'm using Small Business Edition 4.01 version on my desktop PC now...

[Jeremy]

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/01/27/1320184.htm

Just switched and it rules.

[Zxian]

With one of the most advanced heuristic detection technologies in the industry, and the only heuristic detection at the desktop level, BitDefender is capable of staying ahead of the malware creators and provides automatic updates as soon as new variants of viruses are detected by BitDefender Labs.

Huh? The only heuristic detection at the desktop level? Any anti-virus that has the ability to catch an ITW virus probably has heuristic detection methods. NOD32's main selling point is that it uses heuristics to detect viruses - not signatures. Interestingly enough, they didn't test ZoneAlarm - their 2005 World Class winner - nor NOD32.

Also, they talk about scanning speeds, but isn't a good anti-virus mainly supposed to prevent you from getting a virus in the first place? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, good points, Zxian, but I think common-sense, strict security policies and a hardware firewall would do more in the aid of preventing a user from becoming infected from a virus moreso than the actual anti-virus software. The signature files are, of course, to detect a wide variety of viruses incase one happens to become infected. Naturally, there are mixed views on this topic.

Personally, I have 5 anti-virus programs. BitDefender, McAfree Virus Scan 2006, NOD32, Kaspersky, and Avast. From experience, I prefer a program that isn't an "all-in-one" type of thing. BitDefender, however, does have more features included besides the virus-scanner, but I choose it because it's #1 according to PCWorld, and in agreement with DigeratiPrime, it has the coolest GUI I've seen in an anti-virus. Users who are weary of process-excessive software might want to be cautious of BD, though. It has 8 processes running by default which consume approximately 80 MBs on RAM. Of course, you can always do what I do and stop, set to manual everything and delete the start-up entries and only run the anti-virus on occasion if you happen to download a strange archived file and become paranoid. But, if you have 1 GB of RAM and simply don't care about processes because you feel that as long as you are familiar with what shows as listed in Task Manager, that it can be left alone, then BitDefender seems like the best choice as far as what i have mentioned above goes.

As far as signatures and virus-recognition goes, I'm not sure which anti-virus is the best in that respect. It's a combination of virus definitions, scanning options, user-friendliness, and other features that may appeal to users. Lol, like I said in the first paragraph... mixed views. Now I'm back where I started.

[DigeratiPrime]

BitDefender 8.0 Pro Plus!

Very FAST, Firewall & Anti-Virus, Installer about 13MB, Very Clean Interface.

Homepage: http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/products.php?p_id=25

still the best all in one. Only disadvantage to bitdefender is the number of running processes:

BitDefender 9 Internet Security:

====================

Process...............Working Set

====================

bdss.exe..............21,232

xcommsvr.exe.......3,124

bdnagent.exe............920

bdmcon.exe..........16,324

livesrv.exe..............4,392

vsserv.exe............18,116

bdoesrv.exe...........1,640

====================

TOTAL...................65,748

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6.1.737.000:

====================

Process.............Working Set

====================

vsmon.exe............24,472

isafe.exe...............10,992

zlclient.exe..............4,296

====================

TOTAL...................39,760

ZoneAlarm SecuritySuite used less processes (3) and less total ram (40MB) however its a bit more buggy and the anti-virus doesnt see to detect as much. It does have better web filtering, but i reccomend K9 for that. Both are good programs though.

screenshot:

just want to add i dont actually use antivirus or firewall software, because i dont get viruses, spyware, etc. I do test them though before i reccomend them to others.

[N1K]

NOD32, got it for my 28 birthday from one of my forum buddies. Full licence for one year, not even expensive..

[Andrew932]

Got rid of Norton Internet Security in the end. Had some weird messages about the Firewall not loading properly.

Installed Avast Home Edition and Kerio 2.1.5 firewall.

Oh and what the hells Norman? -Is it another one of Norton concoctions?

Edited February 3, 2006 by Andrew932

[butman0]

McAfee.

I use him and I never was disappointed.

[AmphetaMarinE]

ZoneAlarm is definately my security suite of choice

[Nxqd3051990]

NOD32 for me ............

[Wesmosis]

4 votes between NOD32 ane Symantec

[x3ndou_]

Symantec Antivirus Corporate DEFIDENTALLY. Super small package, quick scans and auto updating. Plus, it isn't cluttered. Best antivirus program available.

[MartY3]

My best defense against anti virus is myself. Uhh its called ctrl alt del noticing an odd named .exe killing the process and deleting it from the registry then removing the exe.

your pc must be well infected then m8 thats not a very good anti virus atall, especially if all you do is ctrl,alt,del which only calls up windows task manager, most virus's doesent even show up in windows gay tak man anyway plus not allways come in the form of an executable.

norton has to be the most ridiculas piece of s**t ever made, wtf is so many people doing using this junk? it is an infection itself. Terrible terrible AV, mcafee not bad, but still eats a whole lot of ram, Avast Profesionall (Not free edition)with zone alarm professional firewall (not free edition) is killer combination

[blade1357]

think nortion the best out ther i havent had anny problam out of it

[MartY3]

do a online scan, bitdefender or simeler, then see if you still think its good, also your pc would run a whole lot faster without it. seriously