anti virus suggestions

I always just turn off AVG when playing online, and the (also free) Zone Alarm firewall has a "game mode" which uses minimal resources.
 
I use AVG AND ThreatFire together. I kill AVG for gaming, but still get decent coverage from Threatfire without too much hit to the gaming experience.

http://www.threatfire.com/

It has lots of options, though not easy to actually configure. In it's basic mode, it does a good job if you're not doing anything risky like surfing porn or filesharing.

Phil
 
If you are buying one its my opinion you are wasting your money if you don't get McAfee or Spyware Doctor. If you are on the hunt for a free AV get AVG.


I've paid for both, paid for Spysweeper and Norton all within the last few years and also quite recently trying to save my wife's computer.

My wife is the one in our family that always needs a good AV because she is the one going to all these iffy sites shopping and searching out coupons for discounts and stuff like this. She fries, and I kid you not, she fries a perfectly good computer about every two years by getting it so infected with crap that its beyond even my best computer guys ability to fix it and we just start over. I just went through this again with her.

If all you are doing is browsing the forums, checking email, and maybe using Google or Yahoo now and then AVG free edition seems to work great, doesn't slow down the system by taxing it as much as AVAST or others I've tried and although when my wife got infected with the Trojan.dropper, and Killtiexe crap neither Norton, AVG, SpySweeper or my old version of McAfee found it to remove it it is very good. In fact it is no telling how long it was an infected computer until I loaded the SpydWare Doctor and it found it. Since then I have also found that McAfees new version is the best out there currently.

Now, for the other things I've noticed. Maybe you guys can take note or add to this. SpySweeper is talked of very highly and sells a lot. In my opinion though its crap. It taxes the heck out of even a good fast capable computer, it makes restarts and shut downs take forever and a day because its always screwing with things somehow, and overall it didn't really find anything or once save us from a single problem.

SpyWareDoctor is great, it actually catches a lot and removes it when it does. Its a great one to have but it too taxes the system, makes shut downs harder at times, and for sure causes delays so if you are impatient or need to shut down quick as we often do in electrical thunderstorms in spring time you will be quite frustrated by it or SpySweeper at times. At least for the trouble SpyWareDoctor actually works great though. You pay for that with very frequent reboots of the computer. It needs to restart about every time it updates.

Norton? Don't waste your money. Hey it finds things. You are often times on your own to remove them though. I have never had an AV that tells me it cannot remove things so often as this one. In short in my opinion. It sucks. Thats all I'll say.

AVG free is a good program. I rate it best of the free ones based on what I have used to date. I like it a lot and keep it on my lap top that I use for the forums and checking my emails. It does not tax the system or cause any of the issues the others do but it does miss things the paid for ones find and remove.

For Anti Spyware. I think some of the free ones are ok but they seem to add their own spyware to your computers so you need more than one in my opinion, and I have not noticed or read of any conflicts or issues by having more than one Spyware program on your computer. In fact with the way things are being done now with many of the AV programs also having anti spyware most folks have more than one of these anyway. Free ones? SpyBot, the old stand by seems to be the best or among them to me but perhaps ADAwareSE personal is just as good or better. You can't get by without one of each program and in many respects the anti spyware programs are what you will end up needing quicker than an AV. I can tell you only of my own experiences after paying for several and using a lot of free ones. I don't think at this writing that you can find a better team of protection for your computer than McAffee's latest AV and XOFTSPYSE for anti Spyware. These two or XOFTSPYSE and SpyWareDoctor are probably the best protection I've seen to date for our computers. I have two computers set up with both.

SpyWareDoctor seems to me to be a top notch AV and Anti Spyware program all in one but I don't know that I'll repurchase it. I personally don't much care for the 'sideeffects' of smooth operation with some of these programs. I may get it again though, it just depends on what occurs with my wife's computer next I guess. :D I will be buying XOFTSPYSE again for sure I think and I like the registry cleaner they sell too. That registry cleaner program alone has saved mine and my wife's computers and fixed some otherwise hard to repair errors on at least a half dozen occasions now since buying it.

STR
 
Hey STR have you tried counterspy ? The free trial works in full mode for the duration.
I use Counterspy along with the free Spybot search & destroy fro spyware adaware and malware.

For antivirus I use Norton and AVG free.

All these programs work perfectly together and do not conflict. I to go on sites that are prone to viruss and my computer is completely clear of problems. I have been running for 3 years now without a glich.

Doing this as well as regularly checking for new windows updates (Even if you have automatic updates checked) seams to do the trick. Thats one thing that peolple tend to forget about and its just as important as Antivirus and Spyware.
 
Norton is way overated. The last time I updated an old desktop it screwed it up bad.

We use McAfee for now.

:cool:
 
harrybobble said:
Hey STR have you tried counterspy ? The free trial works in full mode for the duration.
I use Counterspy along with the free Spybot search & destroy fro spyware adaware and malware.

For antivirus I use Norton and AVG free.

All these programs work perfectly together and do not conflict. I to go on sites that are prone to viruss and my computer is completely clear of problems. I have been running for 3 years now without a glich.

Doing this as well as regularly checking for new windows updates (Even if you have automatic updates checked) seams to do the trick. Thats one thing that peolple tend to forget about and its just as important as Antivirus and Spyware.
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I have not used it. By the way, everything I have ever read says, 'never run more than one AV on your computer at the same time'. You can mix spywares but many times having more than one AV will severely overtax the system and can cause conflict errors and other problems. Personally if I were you, I'd remove that Norton from your system.

STR
 
My laptop operates on free AVG. All my regional offices run their servers on Norton's. AVG is hard to beat. Trying to get my Botswana office onto licenced AVG for the server.
 
From everything so far I'm leaning towards AVG or McAfee. I downloaded the free AVG on an old computer and it does look simple enough to use and run. It didn't even seem to slow down the computer. They both look like they update, remove viruses automaticly. Thanks everyone. Is spyware and anti virus both really needed?
 
db said:
From everything so far I'm leaning towards AVG or McAfee. I downloaded the free AVG on an old computer and it does look simple enough to use and run. It didn't even seem to slow down the computer. They both look like they update, remove viruses automaticly. Thanks everyone. Is spyware and anti virus both really needed?
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I would have to say that these days yes for sure you need both. You need the AV to protect your computer and the Spyware to protect yourself. Let me explain.

Some, including myself say the spyware is more often what you'll be needing first and the most likely issue to give you problems. Some of the higher risk spyware used today can be very risky for your personal security and financial information, passwords, SS #s, credit card numbers and more. So, while these are technically not a virus that is going to attack your computer spyware is set up to use your computer as a tool to attack you. Protect yourself with a good one so one doesn't get you. I had my credit card snagged and its not nice to see stuff charged to your account when you didn't buy it. ID theft is the number one risk in the nation if not the world right now so yes, a good spyware protection program is a must.

STR
 
Keith_H said:
Even after you removed it in the control panel of your computer?
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I tried that first and it wouldn't let me. Unusual because previous version came off 123 easy. From the beginning it didn't perform well, but today I managed to remove by disabling my startups and going into the remove program defender has.They said if it hangs up on removing files to hit exit again because it will keep starting on its own.It was a battle but I've slain the dragon.
 
STR said:
Some, including myself say the spyware is more often what you'll be needing first and the most likely issue to give you problems. Some of the higher risk spyware used today can be very risky for your personal security and financial information, passwords, SS #s, credit card numbers and more. So, while these are technically not a virus that is going to attack your computer spyware is set up to use your computer as a tool to attack you.
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This is very well put -
spyware - basically spies on what you do on your PC -
and steals that information.......

ConsumerSearch on Spyware

they claim to be reviewing the reviews - ie: survey all the reviews and come to some concensus - kind of the right way to do research if we had the resources.

Long time Freeware favorites are -

Spyware Blaster - which is a resident program that monitors activities.

SpyBot S&D - scans for spyware - but also has a resident part that also monitors activities.

AdAware - scans for spyware - but recent complaints that it's become Bloatware.

While I'm at it -

ConsumerSearch on Firewalls

Surprisingly long time favorite ZoneAlarm no longer figures -
I know that the ZA Free version gave me very serious PC problems on the last update (and I do mean serious - my PC would not even boot up properly - I had to go to safe mode to remove ZA before I could boot propely) - ZA has also become somewhat bloated.

--
Vincent
http://picasaweb.com/UnknownVincent
http://UnknownVincent.Shutterfly.com
http://UnknownVT.Shutterfly.com
http://clik.to/UnknownVincent
 
I had AVG and dumped it for Panda-- now I'm very happy. It has stopped 5 virus attacks when I was on line.
 
I think I screwed up by downloading and trying AVG free on an old computer because I cann't seem to download it again on the other one. Looks like McAfee is probably what I'll have to buy now. Thanks for all the help from everyone. Can McAfee be bought on line or should I pick it up locally?
 
Robert Ptacel said:
Never go with Defender Pro. I still can't remove it completely from my computer. Anybody have any hints?
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You may have to reinstall it, then, download (free) revo uninstaller, it not only uses the program itself to uninstall, but then scans your system to look for bits and pieces of the program left in the registry and other hidden spots. Revo finds all of them, but be careful, it has 4 levels of how deep you want to go, some files are shared by other programs, but it has safe, moderate, and other levels to uninstall. Great program for getting rid of bloated programs such as Nortons and Macafee, Norton leaves a LOT of stuff on your computer, I would dump Norton in a heartbeat.
James
PS: no nerd here, but my son is a computer engineer and real geek. He keeps me posted on the latest greatest.
 
db said:
I think I screwed up by downloading and trying AVG free on an old computer because I cann't seem to download it again on the other one.
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There's no limit to how many computers you can run AVG on. If you tell us exactly what goes wrong when you try to download it we can probably help you.
 
Is McAfee a hard program to remove if I choose to remove it? Hard to remove is wwhy I will not get Norton any more.
Cougar it downloaded fine I saved it to a folder on my comp. and when I ran it it didn't run. It started and then I cann't remember what the message was but it didn't work or install. I just tried to download it again and I'm not getting the full download. I get about 100 kb of the file. downloading from http://free.grisoft.com/doc/downloads-products/us/frt/0?prd=aff
OK I got it and it is running now. I used the alternet download link. Thanks Cougar for letting me know I can use it even though I put it and then deleted it off an old computer.
 
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