What antivirus should I get.

I want a paid antivirus. I want it to be very light on resources but extremely effective. I don't want one with a lot of compatibility issues. I want one that does not give lot's of pop ups asking if you trust this program and other things.

Please recommend a program that best matches this description.

 

Norton Internet Security 2009 or e-Set's NOD32.

 

I strongly advise you to try out Norton Antivirus 2009. I have the Security Suite package and i love it. Greatest product Symantec has put out to date.

I'm sure others will chime in and tell you that there are great free programs which I'm sure they're decent. However I prefer the look and feel of the paid programs.

Also if you want a product that does registry cleaning, etc consider Norton SystemWorks V12 Premier Edition. It includes NAV 2009 so you'd be getting virus protection as well as some nice PC tuneup features.

 

If you want paid AV, check out Eset´s NOD32 (lightest on resources), Avira Premium or KAV (Kaspersky AV).
You can check their performance on www.av-comparatives.org

 

Is NOD32 powerful also?

 

Kaspersky AV

 

I don't like it. It detects Lenovo software and virus/malware,ext.

 

I hate Kaspersky. The most overrated stuff I've ever come across.

I'd rather go with BitDefender (despite my horrible experience with their beta and their boards) before I went with Kaspersky.

 

The two i recommend are NOD32 (very effective, easy to use and light on system resources) and i am also using Avast! antivirus. I used to use nod32 but i find avast a little lighter on system resources, every bit as good, and a lot cheaper (avast is free).

Norton is not great because its so cumbersome, and a huge system resource footprint, and cost a LOT of money.

AVG used to be a great choice, but the problem is its popularity, and thus, there are a LOT of trojans and virus' out there tailored specifically to attack it due to its prevelance and popularity. It is a good product though, and its free as well.

Kaspersky failed the most recent detection tests, as did Avira, Surprisingly. i also find Kas to be hard to use and navigate and overly complicated for what it does. and it costs money.

Do not use CA. its GARBAGE, detection, functionality, system footprint, cost.....all are horrible. avoid CA entirely

McAfee is a paid service and middle of the road. why pay when you can get better software for free??

My votes are for Avast for free software and NOD32 for paid software. they are the cream of the crop. I say that for the reason that they have the best detections, fewest false positives, lightest footprints on your system and have a great reputation.

Honorable mention in my opinion are AVG, and avira, but avira needs help in the detection arena as it didnt do so hot in the latest round of tests.



ev

 

Well... I'm personally using AVG, and can recommend that, not only for the improved detection core and anti-rootkit in the 8.0 version...

It has two really good components, so called WebShield and LinkScanner, which help to keep the malware out of your computer (it's detected even *before* it gets a chance to get into your computer via your browser). The Internet Security edition contains also a firewall. It's doing very well in the Virus Bulletin and AV Comparative tests.

There is a 30day trial available on the vendor's website.

 

Is it okay if I install an antivirus program even after all my software/everything is installed. All I need to do is uninstall my existing antivirus program and install the new one right? Will there be any problems?

 

It should be okay, anyway make sure that your current AV has been uninstalled really completely (AV vendors usually have some remover tool on their website). It's also usually recommended to reboot before the install (so that no unnecessary apps are running) and to temporarily disable any security software and, just to make sure, (if you're running Vista) UAC.

 

What is UAC? Can you look to see if CA Antivirus has a removal tool please?

 

Kaspersky AV 2009 is the best. It's not overrated.

I use it because unlike the other AVs that just continue to scan your files, Kaspersky scans files for viruses before you open them and only allows you to open them if they are clean. You can also disable things like automatic start-up scanning. The settings are easily configurable.

 

Norton's suites NIS 2008 and NIS 2009 do NOT have a huge footprint.
Haven't used NAV in a while but I can't imagine it using much resources considering the suites.

This is the second time I read a post from you about Kaspersky and Avira failing detection tests.
Again, which tests are these?
Are you talking about the most recent AV-bulletin test where Kaspersky and Avira AntiVir scored 1 (one!) false positive each?
What kind of help does Avira need in the "detection arena"? It has the best heuristics available.
Not according to me but according to AV-Comparatives where it scored #1 in detection. Again.

 

Is it okay if I install an antivirus program even after all my software/everything is installed. All I need to do is uninstall my existing antivirus program and install the new one right? Will there be any problems?

 

It is OK.
You can install an AV program whenever you want.
Just make sure you have uninstalled your current antivirus program and reboot/restart your notebook before installing the new AV program.

Do you have only an antivirus program from CA or a full security suite including a firewall etc?
For the CA antivirus program there isn't a special uninstall tool AFAIK so you should be able to uninstall it simply from Add/Remove programs.
For their Security Suite 2007/2008, you can download their uninstaller and find instructions on this page.
Cheers.

 

^ Yes, that should be fine.

 

I have only the antivirus installed. How can I make sure though? What does AFAIK mean?

 

You can check by clicking on Start; Control Panel; Programs and Features.
Here you can see your installed programs.
In this list you should see CA Antivirus.
So, click once on CA Antivirus and choose Uninstall/Change.
Reboot your notebook and install your new Antivirus software.

AFAIK means as far as I know.

 

CA has deleted some viruses or quarantined them, if I delete CA what happens to those Viruses? I think they got deleted though.

 

ok, since you didnt bother to go back and read my response to your question about this in the LAST THREAD i posted the link to, i will post it AGAIN.

Heres the link. if youd BOTHERED to go back and read my posting in reponse to your question YOUD ALREADY KNOW where i saw it. the heuristics arent any better than any of the others. ive used it and saw no difference either way.

But i will say thank you for posting the link to av comparatives. i had not seen that, and its another tool for evaluating. thanks. and as far as the graphs show on AV Comparative, Avira does in fact do awesome. I stand CORRECTED.


http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/10/02/security-giants-fail-virus-bulletin-test



ev

 

NOD32 << can't go wrong with this.

Avast << My personal favorite free AV.

 

+1 to that.


ev

 

NOD32 is terrible! It was the best AV last year, but this year competition is far away.

The best AV is Avira AntiVir Premium.

Download:
http://www.avira.com/en/downloads/avira_antivir_premium.html

30 days premium licence promotion:
https://license.avira.com/en/promotion-t0q1aatr05zwftftgnqr

So, try and see yourself.

Also you can install PC Tools ThreatFire for additional protection, too .

He said AV, not security suit .

 

You're a funny guy.
In that thread you referred to, I asked which tests (notice; tests; indicating more than one) you meant.
And I asked if you referred to this Virus bulletin test in which Avira, Kaspersky and F-Secure all failed because they scored one false positive, which was already discussed in this thread.
I'm glad you've read some of the AV-Comparatives tests, so you know now that Avira's heuristics are outstanding.

Eversman, it's nothing personal but if someone writes about an AV program failing in test s, that person better back it up with data from multiple tests.
And scoring one false positive is pretty far from 'failing' in my book.
Cheers.

 

Hi,

This question is addressed to you because I feel you have lot's of expeirence with antivirus programs. A lot of people are recommending NOD32 saying it's light on resources and very effective, only one person said this year it's not good. What do you think about this matter?

If anyone else has an opinion on this please say it.

 

NOD32 is good, and has a low resource usage.

KIS is good as well, and licenses are available for ~10 bux on ebay.

 

What is KIS? Is Norton 2009 good?

 

Kaspersky Internet Security (7.0)....
You can try out its trial version which has full functionality for a month.

No idea how it compares to Norton 2009.

 

NOD32 has always been one of the best antivirus programs but in the most recent tests it has been beaten by Avira AntiVir.
Some people will say that means NOD32 is bad. I don't think so, it only means it was not the best during that period of the test.
Maybe NOD32 will beat Avira AntiVir in the next test, that doesn't mean Avira is bad all of a sudden.

Some excellent test results can be found here.
Read some of the Comparatives results, then you will know the scores of the different programs.
Cheers.

 

What do you think of Norton 2009?

 

An improved security suite compared to NIS 2008.
2008 has been the major improvement, the versions before (2006,2007) were resource hogs which means they used very much memory.
NIS 2009/Norton Internet Security 2009 uses not more than 9 MB (on XP) which is very, very low.

There are however free products like antivirus from Avira and Avast which are even better than Norton's AV.
In my signature you can find many free programs which, combined together, give you the same protection as a paid suite.
But like you said, you don't mind spending money and then NIS 2009 wouldn't be a bad choice.
Some security software veterans at Wilders Security like it very much. That says a lot!
Cheers.

 

OK, man, WHATEVER YOU SAY. lay off the coolaid and get over yourself. If you are so self-centered you are THAT into a posts grammar, you really need something else to do besides read these posts.

And you asked where i read it and i answered. sorry that wasnt good enough for you. it was for the rest of the world.

CHEERS


eversman

 

I recommend Avast!, it integrates with your browser and warns you about Malicious Scripts / Malware in the websites you visit, it monitors your downloads before your browser finishes "creating" the file, it scans every file you attempt to execute before it can be opened, its P2P Shield is well, good, it protects you from attacks over your own Local Area Network as well, its scanning is well, slow ( Throught Scan, not Normal Scan), really slow even on a Triple-Way RAID-0 / Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 machine, but it has a really good detection and heuristic power, it also doubles as Anti-Spyware too, and is good at it actually.

It takes up some resources from the system, yet not being a resource-hog, its User Interface is user-friendly actually, and its Virus Recovery Database module is actually good and useful.

It has catched 99.9% of the malware I have thrown at it (except for Trojan/Bancos, a Brazilian Bank Accounts Stealing Trojan Horse, hides itself within Windows' core as "Hidden Boot Files" which cannot be seen not even if you choose to see the "Hidden Elements"), even older / mutated versions of the original malware.

I use Avast! Home Edition 4.8, I am in love with it, and I have recommended it to a lot of friends and all of them have been happy, one of them even got a malware-laden computer (Avast! found 418 different viruses / spyware in his computer) and Avast! left it squeaky clean.

 

eset nod32 antivirus (not smart security), imo simply the best

 

I was a nod32 user for many years, but bought kav now.
Ever since Nod32 V3 came out it's gone down hill.
I used to have system lockups where the cpu utilization would be ~90% ( as shown in task manager in front of the nod process ) and stay like that for a few minutes making the system unusable for a few minutes. This seemed to happen randomly.
I reinstalled it, but the problem continued. KAV has been running fine for 3 months now, no issues whatsoever.
I am using avira free on a desktop, and it is very light on resources. However, sometimes it is not updated for a few days continously whereas kav is updated every few hours.

I suggest you give both Nod and KAV a try before making your purchase.
I am using vista x64 on my laptop and XP on my desktop btw