About a week and a half ago, I had some serious problems with this computer, so I ended up having to do a system restore and lost a lot of files and programs.

One of these programs I lost was Microtrend Internet Security, my anti-virus program. I tried reinstalling it from CD, but for some reason it wasn't working, so I ended up downloading the free AVG anti-virus, since I had used it in the past. Now, I'm being told, I should switch to ESET NOD32♦

Rather than switch to that, and have somebody else tell me to use something else, I figured I'd dare to compare and see what the consensus was with T&T. Which is the best anti-virus program? Something that will protect me while surfing the web, downloading files, and general security against trojans and other threats at the same time.

BTW: I'm running Windows XP Media Center edition.

So T&T, which is the best anti-virus?



-Selah

They say NOD32 because it's the easiest to crack therefore more people are using it.

Other's expire eventually even though they're cracked.

http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=2152741

^^^ A great post by RKelly that should be made into a sticky with this program added. <superantispyware>

http://www.superantispyware.com/

Thanx R. Kelly

Avast. Free registration gets you a year or two of free updates, after which you can register for free again.

Avira Antivir (free edition) does the job well (tends to give a few false positives, but easy to see through) while not slowing down your system at all.

that's what I use ... freeware FTW.
Its footprint is pretty small.
Kaspersky is rated best, but cracking it (to make it free) became difficult.

Antivirus will not save you, especially if you download or go to random websites.

If I'm running a Windows OS, I'll have this setup
Returnil+Sandboxie+ProcessGuard 3.15+TeaTimer+Comodo BOClean+PandaAV

....way to bog your PC down....

The only thing that will save you from viruses is common sense. My laptop has no anti virus or defender what so ever and it's doing fine because i know where i can go and what not to download.

....way to bog your PC down....

The only thing that will save you from viruses is common sense. My laptop has no anti virus or defender what so ever and it's doing fine because i know where i can go and what not to download.

I have great common sense and know all the safe computer habits, I'm just paranoid. I strongly prefer GNU/Linux for downloading and web browsing.

kaspersky.......suck it

seconding avira..avast is absolute shit and avg is half descent at best...

avira has a small footprint and a high detection rate and i detest anything norton

No one for McAfee?

It came with my internet package. Seems to be reliable from my experience. That's the best I can say about it.

I've used Kaspersky and NOD 32 depending on which one was cracked at the time. I like NOD 32 more but I'd recommend either of them.

No one is for McAfee because it's shit. I agree with the people who said get Avira. It's free and doesn't use a lot of system resources.

kaspersky is good if you want to feel super safe. They tend to be on top of things always. NOD 32 is just as good but they are a little slow sometimes and they dont pick up somethings sometiems (I was recently infected with Ardamax, NOD 32 didnt get it but SBS&D and Outpost firewall took care of them.)

McAfee are slow and generally awful. When my family first got a computer, this came with it...unfortunately.

I used to use AVG, but I found the updater to be annoyingly slow so I switched to Avira. Uses much less memory too.

anti-virus XP FTW!!

I prefer
Firefox with AdBlock, AVG Free, and McAfee Site Advisor

http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ff.html


Site advisor tells you what sites are good and what ones can't be trusted.

That's what i use and i have no problems with virus.

On the free side of things, AVG misses half the stuff you throw at it, Avast I have had good experience with. Avira is also good, but the ads are annoying (though you can disable them through a file permissions tweak).
On the other hand I paid for Nod32 for a year and was very impressed.

Stay the fuck away from Norton. It's like an elephant sitting on your computer. It seems to work by consuming all CPU cycles and RAM so malware has nothing to work with. :/

I'm using Avira and I love it.

Who can say no to Luke Filewalker?! Seriously.

Unix.

Another vote for Avira.

Lol McAfee is shit? A certain telecommunications giant in Australia (let's call it...artsleT) uses it on all their computers. Sucks to be them.
Also I second or third or whatever Norton being a pile of crap. Nearly destroyed my computer installing and trying to get rid of it

Iolo antivirus

I switched from ESET to KASPERSKY, it found 30+ viri off the bat.

It is by far the best antivirus I have ever used. Just pirate yourself a copy.

MY only complaint is that it doesn't really trust anything so you have to tell it to.

AVG + Adaware