I would put Avast! ahead of the other free ones, Norton and Mcaffee too. I have had 0 problems with my machine using Avast, though I have it well locked down overall with Comodo Pro Firewall, Comodo Defense+, Spybot, SpywareGuard, Malwarebytes and a custom hosts file.

 

I bet you you're right, that it is ahead of McAffee, they aren't doing so hot right now.

The newer Norton isn't as fast as some, but pretty decent protection. Thats great that you haven't had issues with Avast, but it technically doesn't have as a high a detection rate as the higher rated ones.

Not degrading you at all Altair, you obviously know what you are doing, but I've tried most of the free ones, and tested them thoroughly, including Avast. They all failed me, the only one that didn't so far is Kaspersky.

To each their own. As long as you know what you're doing, I guess thats what really matters.

 

I just don't feel like spending money on Kaspersky or NOD32. As far as Norton even if they had the best detection rate there's no way I'm putting that bloatware on my machine unless they've really slimmed it down.

I know a lot of people who don't even run an Antivirus, when I tell them they need one they refuse because they don't want to pay for it. So I tell them to get Avast, it's a hell of a lot better than nothing. In my case on the very rare chance I did get a virus and I couldn't remove it I don't mind reformatting.

 

Its not as bloated, BUT... it still puts so many files all over your HD, an uninstall and the "remove Norton tool" still don't get them all. I don't recommend Norton to people unless they are comfortable with it, already have it installed on their current machine, and just want to upgrade to the latest version.

True, it is better than AVeraGe, and better than nothing.

 

i rely on my computers for my living and i dont worry nearly as much about viruses and such as the rest of you...how much **** do you people look at?

 

This was already kind of answered in my previous post. Here's a partial quote from it that, in a sideways sort of way, takes care of your question:
And I am not so worried about it myself. What I am worried slightly about are people that are not good with computers, don't know how to fix them if something goes wrong, and then are misinformed that free AV programs are the best. Then they spend hundreds of dollars getting their computer cleaned up/restored/fixed because of stuff the viruses did.

If you know what you're doing with a computer, fixing it or reformatting or whatever, thats one thing. But recommending the free stuff to every Joe Blow out there, 99% of which aren't good with PCs, is reckless. Thats basically the main point I really wish to stress.

Its your guys' money and time, do with it what you wish. For the people that aren't, or don't care to be, good with PCs, I'm just trying to save you some.

 

Let's just say I don't pay much for software music or movies...


Pat, if you want next year at the M&G I can set you up with the same setup I run on my desktop. It won't cost you a cent and all you have to do is run updates every week or so for the spyware stuff and scan with spybot and adaware occasionally.

 

Altair, what you do works, there is nothing to dispute about that. The only problem with your setup is the fact that most people don't know how to reformat, and those that do know how to do that, rarely want to mess with it.
If it works for you then go for it, but you have to realize that everyone is not on the same knowledge page as you are.

For us here, I prefer symantec. We have ran norton since 2001. Yes, it did suck until norton2009 came out, and that one isn't so bad. I know that I have about 50 days left on our 5 different licenses, and I might have to listen to Jason when we renew.

Pat, I worry about not having AV programs from all of the *ahem* downloading *ahem* that I do. It's very easy to pick a bug that you don't want. So far Norton has failed me one time. It caught the VONDO worm, but it couldn't remove it. I had to do that manually, but it still caught and disabled it.

 

My best recommendation is not to use any type of software based security software that monitors and block/allow use on network. They "can" use alot of system resources and "could" cause problems with some of your software that needs access to network. The basic windows firewall will work just fine for most users and most users now should have a newer home router that also has hardware based firewall/network security that does a better job of blocking hackers vs software based security.

Microsoft finally came out with their own Antivirus/Antimalware program called "Microsoft security essentials". It's free. It works great as a basic first line defense and it will not clog up your hardware resources.

Just use your common sense and stay very aware of what's going on when you are surfing on internet and when you are opening emails. That is the best defense against hackers and viruses.

I just have a regular antivirus/malware product installed on my pc and never been hit by a virus yet for the past few years. Very clean system.

If you have to surf or do things in a very hostile environment, I would recommend to use another pc to surf those areas so if you get hit, you can simply reformat and rebuild the old pc.

 

I use AVG for normal web browsing and Mcafee's stinger to root out the heavy stuff. Any firewall/antivirus is good enough as long as you keep up to date on the windows updates.