Antivirus Software - what' the best - worst

voodoochili

Member
May 3, 2004
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:shocked:

Ok with all the virus stuff going around its time for me to get with it. I'm usually behind a hardware firewall from my router, but I know that it won't catch all and sometimes I use wireless networks. I tried Norton but it seemed to cause more problems than fix so I've just foregone the antivirus software and deal with it when I get a virus which has only be a few times so far. So I put the question to you guys whats the best- worst. thanks in advance for your input.
 

StevenYoo

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2001
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i also would like to know.

people keep arguing back and forth about Panda and AVG and symantec and etc.

so i dunno
 

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Best... Really liked NAV2003 but heard bad things about NAV2004. I'm running AVG and so far so good.

Worst... Mcafee ASaP. We used this pile of garbage at work for a couple of years. It's great if you want something you can't configure, doesn't catch all the viruses, and stops updating for no reason. With a 100 user network I bet I had to do about 5 reinstalls every month because the client quit grabbing new engine/DAT updates.
 

voodoochili

Member
May 3, 2004
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Well I just downloaded Bitdefender pro demo version. Previously I tried Trendmicro, which seemed pretty good but wasnt letting me manual update. Bitdefender seems very intuitive asking about this and that connecting and pccillin wasnt asking this stuff, maybe a setting wasnt checked, but as of now I'll try this then the Panda and make a decision. Seems like everything else , some have good experience's some bad, guess its trial and error, but Norton was a nightmare, I wouldnt' use it if was free for life, sorry. . .
 

CindySue22

Member
Mar 9, 2004
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I vote for AVG also. Seems to do the job, regular updates, and it's FREE!

Got a ? though>>>>>Why do they give this stuff away?
 

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
33,944
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I use NAV 2003 &amp; Trend's online scan utility while servicing computers. This seems to be a great combination.
 

clicknext

Banned
Mar 27, 2002
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Norton Antivirus 2003 has been great for me. I tried 2004 and it had some terrible problems that only some users have experienced.
 

MaluMan

Member
Nov 23, 2002
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i've also had a good exp w/NAV2003, i've installed 2004 on a few ppl's computers no major problems, although i think it takes up more resources than a lot of the other products available
 

bleuiko

Golden Member
Feb 22, 2001
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For you guys that are using Panda, have you actually ran a full scan or just used the autoprotect?

I downloaded the free Panda Titanium offered to IT professionals and it works fine for auto protect... but everytime I ran the full scan, it would crash in the middle...

I am now using AVG. It works great.
 

gistech1978

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2002
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Originally posted by: bleuiko
For you guys that are using Panda, have you actually ran a full scan or just used the autoprotect?

I downloaded the free Panda Titanium offered to IT professionals and it works fine for auto protect... but everytime I ran the full scan, it would crash in the middle...

I am now using AVG. It works great.

both.
i had panda AV do the RAM hog thing on me once. it was using around 500 megs of RAM for some reason
that was with titanium 3.0.0.0 i updated to 3.0.0.1 and everything is butter. so far.
 

drag

Elite Member
Jul 4, 2002
8,708
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Originally posted by: CindySue22
I vote for AVG also. Seems to do the job, regular updates, and it's FREE!

Got a ? though>>>>>Why do they give this stuff away?

Because software is relatively cheap and easy to produce (compared to something like a scooter or a video card) + you can have unlimited copies of it floating around and it doesn't cost the creator anything more then it took to create the software in the first place.

That way giving away free versions of software is much cheaper advertisement then, say, buying pop-ups on various tech webpages. Plus it is much more effective, AND it gets people to like you instead of hating you.

By showing how well their software works they can sell their services and expertise to companies that may need their services, but lack the skills or money to hire/develop/train employes/custom-software with the same quality.
 

CindySue22

Member
Mar 9, 2004
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Originally posted by: drag
Originally posted by: CindySue22
I vote for AVG also. Seems to do the job, regular updates, and it's FREE!

Got a ? though>>>>>Why do they give this stuff away?

Because software is relatively cheap and easy to produce (compared to something like a scooter or a video card) + you can have unlimited copies of it floating around and it doesn't cost the creator anything more then it took to create the software in the first place.

That way giving away free versions of software is much cheaper advertisement then, say, buying pop-ups on various tech webpages. Plus it is much more effective, AND it gets people to like you instead of hating you.

By showing how well their software works they can sell their services and expertise to companies that may need their services, but lack the skills or money to hire/develop/train employes/custom-software with the same quality.

Kind of what I thought-I just wish flightsim developers had the same mindset. ;)
 

substance12

Senior member
Nov 6, 2000
633
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71
I was fixing a friend's computer last night and we didn't knwo what was wrong. I did the following:

1) windows update - never completed because apparently i got the sasser virus
2) did nav live update upon reboot and rebooted again
3) ran virus scan &amp; windows update... not sure which order
4) no viruses found...which i found odd, so i used trend micros online scan and found the sasser virus and removed it.

this is the 2nd time nav has not caught a virus (beit on my computer or a friends) and trend micro online scan has.

I'm considering panda or possibly AVG. Does AVG have a auto update feature?