best free protection for viruses, spyware

Comodo Antivirus! (free firewall and av)
Very fast
Low system resourse usage
Very reliable.

Go comodo!

 

never heard of Comodo? How is it? how long have you been using it? can you tell meh about your experience? how does it compare to teh almighteh Avira AntiVir (FREE)?

 

NOD32 v4, even if it has some issues with Vista SP2, hope ESET will iron them soon.

Pros: Light, Fast, Low on resources, Great Detection rate, Low false positives

Cons: Not FREE (like Avira), some issues with SP2

Cheers,
Miki

 

I'd say Avast! or NOD32. Norton slows down any computer and misses a surprising amount of trojans. AVG works with Vista but once in a while the Updates take a long time to download or the resident Protection fails to initialize. AVG Free doesn't work on the 64 bit version of Vista, while Avast! does.

 

Norton 2009 no longer a resources hog that would slow-down your computer.
Only OLDER Norton(2008, 2007, 2006 >>>) would slow-down your computer like hell.
Avast!(FREE) is great I know it. But the Avira Antivir Personal 9(FREE) is almightly!
However, some people have problems with Avira sometime(basically no problems).

Currently, Kaspersky 2009 is the BEST!
NOD32 is great too but protection slightly weaker than Kaspersky 2009.
However, NOD32 uses slightly less resources than Kaspersky 2009.
Avira Antivir Personal 9(FREE) was the BEST FREE AV out there.

 

Avast! is a good choice. It's quite light and usually has daily updates. Also has forums with good support/feedback if you run into problems. Works on 64-bit systems and never had any issues with it, either on XP or Vista, no matter which Service Pack. Only annoyance is that you have to register every year as the free license expires after that period and it stops updating your virus database. But then again, it's once per year and it's free, so not really a complaint

 

The best antivirus is whatever works for you. Also staying off dodgy sites helps too.

 

Which one do you prefer?

 

I think people voted Avira simply because it's free.
Its engine is good, but however not as great as ESET or Kaspersky.
I bet if the poll is only for paid software, the results would have been different.

 

Why so, Han Bao Quan?
It's got a higher detection rate than both Eset's NOD32 or Kaspersky's AV.
Or do you mean FP's?
Cheers.

 

I take pro-active over higher detection rates, plus it has more false detections.
I used Avira for like 3 years before using kaspersky and now ESET.
The thing is, Avira is quite good at stopping virus from getting into your computer. However, I purposely let a virus in to test Avira, and it couldn't do much once my computer was infected.
Hence the switch.

 

I voted for NOD32, Kaspersky, Norton 2009, and Avira. Either one of those choices is good.

 

I get Norton for free, and always liked it more than any other. But when I tried out AVG, I liked the resource load and the detection rate was great. Between AVG, Threatfire and Adaware, I haven't had a single security incident on this computer.

 

So...Avira it is. How does it fare against rootkits/spyware?

What are the 'best' free anti-spyware/anti-rootkits/anti-trojan?
The sticked list is around 2 years old. Can it still be trusted?

Thanks!

 

For since how long that I can remember:

. XP: Comodo, Avast, SpywareBlaster. Stopped using AdAware after they got fancy. Stopped using AVG and Zone Alarm when they decided to take their eye of the ball on what they were good at.

. Vista: Avast, SpywareBlaster, Windows Firewall and Defenders. Dropped Comodo after they decided to expand their repertoire to play with virus scanner.

. W7: Avast, SpywareBlaster, Windows firewall & defenders.

And a touch of awareness when surfing works wonder together with the mentioned tools.

I have experienced a few attacks during the year, but they all got stopped dead track.

cheers ...

 

I voted "Other."

I think a well configured limited user account, Windows Firewall, and Software Restriction Policies stops malware dead. It can't infect if it can't execute.

Of course, you'll need Pro, Business, or Ultimate to use SRP.

http://hype-free.blogspot.com/2008/04/windows-xp-high-security-configuration.html
http://mechbgon.com/srp/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/cc507878.aspx

 

I have only used AVG. What are some of the advantages to something like Avira AntiVir?