Re: Anti virus
 

Norton AV for home use (as opposed to Symantec AV for corporate use) is a particularly badly-coded, inefficient and generally annoying product. It's on my destroy-at-all-costs list. I'm not sure about the latest edition, but past instances used an Internet Explorer window to render the menus (meaning if IE was broken due to spyware, NAV wouldn't work), and installed Windows shell extensions which added no value to the user interface, other than (effectively) a Norton banner ad in every window.

Also, I've become disenfranchised with the latest version of McAfee AV, ever since it started displaying popup ads for its own upgrade (only $49.95!). That's unacceptable behaviour, and it's earned itself a place on the list too.

I've used AVG Free on Windows 2000 and XP, without issue, and Kaspersky seems to have a good reputation, though I've only used their online service.

On a more abstract level, consider the ramifications of the subscription model of software distribution. Do you really want the producers of this software to conclude that people are willing to pay per-month/per-year for anti-virus service? If not, don't buy software which uses that sales model. Personally, I liked the way they used to provide free upgrades in perpetuity (or until they stopped supporting that version, some years later), and I'm reasonably willing to spend my money in a way that reinforces that behaviour.

The never-use-IE, never-use-Outlook advice is really not helpful. Those programs have had holes in the past, and will continue to do so in the future, but the holes are usually patched very quickly, and are usually minor. People need to learn to keep their software patched—this goes for everything, not just IE and Outlook. As a functional matter, for business use, Outlook 2007 with Exchange 2007 is by far the best e-mail client in existence. And IE 7 is quite competitive with public-release builds of other offerings. By contrast, safe web browsing is always a good idea, and the rest of that advice is right on.

Re: Anti virus
 

This battle seems to be what the user likes best. Kinda like the Mac vs. PC battle. I've Used Norton for years and haven't had any problems with it at all. No viruses or anything. I normally run a scan with Adaware every month or so and it only picks up 3 or 4 items.

Some of the best advice offered so far has been safe internet surfing. Don't click on stupid pop-up ads, or those links that people get in their profile on AIM saying crazy party pictures and stuff. Make sure to check in the status bar, or right click and show hyperlink (for AIM) to see where you are actually being sent.

Re: Anti virus
 

Both are true and the last one is just hilarious. I would want to hide in the room and watch the person try to fix it just for fun. :D

Re: Anti virus
 

Hmmm,

AVG does inexplicably miss some infections every scan, and that is the reason I stopped using it. For the Price (and I know some of you won't agree), I think the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite is (In my opinion) The best I have used.

I benchmarked AVG, Mcafee, and ZA by Scanning a machine that had a known number of infections with each of them. While AVG missed a couple of infections, ZA seemed flawless (at least as much so as Mcafee =P). ZoneAlarm's Malware remover has never failed me (as benchmarked against spybot S&D), and I have no complaints with the firewall, although I usually put my trust in My router's.

Just a few thoughts,

-Cody C

Re: Anti virus
 

I use AVG free editing. It's a great program, runs on its own without you having to constantly monitor it. It also scans email. You can schedule it to do updates/scans when you aren't using your pc so it doesn't slow down your normal work.

Re: Anti virus
 

I heard there was this really good software called Ubuntu.

C'mon, someone had to say it. :D

Re: Anti virus
 

True, but then the issue is usually PLBKAC*.



*Problem Lies Between Keyboard And Chair

Re: Anti virus
 

I use whatever copy of software my dad bought for the year. Two years ago it was McAfee, last year it was Norton. I can't say that I've got any complaints for either of them, however, I think the problem really lies with Windows.
[tangent]
probably 95% of the viruses that I've experienced have created complications with the registry (which completely mess the computer until the next reformat). One can imagine that all the hype about a more secure OS was created, and then the developers at MS kept banging their heads over the same problem: How can we determine whether something is a virus or not? Which of course gave them the idea, yes or no. If a Vista computer gets infected with some sort of virus, well, the it must be PLBKAC.

Perhaps if they made 3-4 different subsections of the registry... the very low level stuff, which shouldn't be modified, the mid level, trusted software, and then the last level, where anything can really edit. Then you can wipe as far down as it needs...
[/tangent]

Anyhow, the list of software applications that I use include Firefox, Pidgin, and SUPER... using these I really never get any complications

Re: Anti virus
 

I'm not too experienced in this field, but I use Window's Defender for my XP box. It seems to actually do quite a good job, as well as being nice and non-intrusive on my CPU and RAM usage when I'm CADing.

I guess the guys who made Window's are actually decent at keeping it secure.


Edit: But no software is a replacement for caution while browsing, and being smart before running programs of unknow origin.

Re: Anti virus
 

On the topic of AV software, is it better to quarantine a detected file, or completely remove it (Delete the file)?

Re: Anti virus
 

Basically, the point of quarantining a file is so that if it turns out that the file wasn't a virus, and a piece of some software that you NEED.... you can put it back. For the most part, this doesn't happen. But it's just as safe to quarantine the file as opposed to deleting it, and then if you need it back, it's there.

Jacob

Re: Anti virus
 

Very rarely, software that you install on your computer may come with things that show up as viruses/malware/etc when doing a scan. Although rare, by deleting these files you may be violating the user agreement that you clicked "I Agree" to when you first installed it.

I once had this issue years ago (before the days of Firefox), when I was experimenting with Opera. Back then, Opera used to come with built-in advertising unless you paid a fee, and thus would come up in virus/malware scans. :-/

Re: Anti virus
 

I am definitely a freeware guy myself. Spybot is probably the best spy/ virus protection I have seen.

Re: Anti virus
 

There's a comparison of AV products on av-comparatives.org where they tested their performance against "unknown" threats. They used February defs and put them up against malware that have come out since.

Avira came out on top, catching 71% of them, but with many false positives. NOD32 looks like the winner with 68% and very few false positives. AVG (which I have used till now) only found 8%. Guess I'll be doing some home helpdesk work this weekend...

Re: Anti virus
 

I use Nod32 for antivirus and Spybot: Search and Destroy for antispyware.
Nod32 is very nice, it doesn't use much in the way of resources (As I type this, it's using about 23 MB of RAM) because it's not as bloated as, say, Norton.

Spybot: Search and Destroy has a nice thing called Resident which prompts you to allow or deny a change to important parts of the registry (such as startup) so if a program that shouldn't be adding stuff to the registry is, you can block it from changing the registry.

Also: I had no spyware when I set Firefox to prompt every time a site wanted to set a cookie for a few months. However, it got annoying after a while.