Which AntiVirus Client to use?

[TSDible]

Ok... I know that many versions of this have been asked before, but I have a different selection of AV Clients available to me.

Since I'm a government employee (Army Civilian), I have access to several AV Clients free of charge. Which of these would be the best to use for a home system?

Norton AV 2003 (I actually purchased this one along with SystemWorks, but only has 1 year of Live updates)
McAfee VirusScan Home 7.0
Norton AV Corporate Edition 8.1.0.something

Of course, the other free ones are out there too, but I figured I might as well go with one of these. I'm leaning towards the Norton 2003 or Corporate. Any thoughts?

TIA

If you are an army employee, and would like a link to where you can download NAV, Norton Firewall, other various Norton Clients, and the McAfee clients... Send me an email from your AKO account. I will reply from my .mil account and give you the link. Don't try to abuse this, since you must have a valid AKO account to access the page. If you are not an army employee, but employed by the armed forces, contact your technical support. They will give you or provide links to whatever you need. (Or that has been my experience so far)

 

[OLtimrNewbie]

My personal choice is Trend Micro's PC-Cillon 2003. Fast with updates on the latest viruses. I haven't been stung yet using their product.

 

[TSDible]

Unfortuneately, the government doesn't have a deal with Trend like they do with McAfee and Norton. At least not that I'm aware of.

 

[thatsright]

I wouldn't touch any McAfee product with a 20Ft. pole. Un-installing that stuff is just a nightmare for me.

NAV is the Best. I currently Run the 2002 version. As for which version you may want to use, well any of the newer will keep you protected; 2002 or 2003, or even the 2004 which will come out within the month. Perhaps a little known fact is that the subscriptions for their free virus definitions only last a year, but if you ever have to re-install your O/S and then re-install Norton AV 2002, the Subscription expire date gets reset for another 366 days. NAV 2002 has killed a few Kazaa files that were in the middle of downloading and contained virus/worms. In fact, come to think of it, this is really the only way I have gotten virus's is through Kazaa or WinMX

Norton Anti-Virus Corporate ED is the M1A1 Tank of Anti-Virus protection. If you are running a network, this is simply the best there is. Here at work we have it set to update every night at 11:30 pm to retrieve the daily Virus definitions. After installing NAV-CE on the Master Server, any client logging onto the network for the 1st time, NAV-CE will forcibly download the NAV-CE program to their client PC. Sometimes Symantec will also release SEVERAL virus Definitions updates PER DAY for the corporate version, which for a home user is probably overkill, but for a Corporate/Secure Network it's vital. You can set the Corp. ED. Live update to retrieve updates at different times of the day of course.

Now I'm not sure if you were thinking of getting the Corp Edition for your home? Also, I'm not sure if you need a NT/W2K/Windows2003 server to run off of strictly or if you could just run it on a stand alone PC. But if you want to run it on a stand alone desktop PC, you might be better oof to get the home version of NAV.


Good luck, and let us know more so what your specific needs are.

 

[Schadenfroh]

avg = good and free

 

[ProviaFan]

I'd recommend some type of Norton Antivirus; since you have access to it already for free, there's no reason to use a free version of something more limited (AVG, which you'd have to pay for if you wanted more features). From thatsright's description, it seems like the corporate edition is a litte overkill for a home PC (unless you run your own home LAN with a Win2k3 domain controller et. al.).

 

[TSDible]

Ok...

Thanks for the advice all...

I'm going to go with NAV 2003 for now. My subscription is good for a year since I just redid windows...

 

[madthumbs]

Originally posted by: thatsright
I wouldn't touch any McAfee product with a 20Ft. pole.

-Yeah.. in fact, I've had less problems with the virii I've found on my computer! If McAfee was it, I'd go without!

 

[AngryKid]

Go with Norton AV Corporate, it's a beautiful product. McAfee sucks.