A good antivirus?

[takakenji]

what's a reliable and good antivirus program that is free?

 

[HINDYhat]

Avira works fine for me.

 

[Vampiro320]

Avast, A squared, my over protective and very snoopy mom.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

To be honest, the best protection is yourself, simply being aware of what you are doing.

AVGFree seems to do the job for me (I'm used to Norton, basically, but that's not free) - however, it's rather over-protective on the trojan-like files.

 

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I use avast and it works pretty well.

 

[MortAr]

I use avast and it works pretty well.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

I used AVGFree for a small time. It's ok, but not that good and it ignores my exceptions.
It constantly deleted key files in NewGen and I added the whole folder and the files it removed to the list of exceptions, but it still removed them...
Now I'm using Norton Internet Security. It's not free, but it's teh sex. Also, Norton Anti-Virus is really good too. Never removed any harmless files.

 

[HINDYhat]

lolnorton
Norton is basically a virus in itself.

Seriously, though, you should totally legally acquire Avira Premium Security Suite. It's fantastic, and it even makes your PC beep when a virus is detected, instead of playing gay sound effects! !

 

[redmarine]

I'm currently using Microsoft Security Essentials with Search & Destroy. So far it has protected me heavily while on the internet and from pesky virus infected USB drives.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

lolnorton
Norton is basically a virus in itself.

Seriously, though, you should totally legally acquire Avira Premium Security Suite. It's fantastic, and it even makes your PC beep when a virus is detected, instead of playing gay sound effects! !

I have no system speaker, how does it beep? Sounds annoying. I prefer silence.

 

[TheBlooddancer]

I used AVGFree, then i was like, why not get something better?
Then i found this 'give us ur mail, and we'll send you a 1 year key' for iOrbit's security (legit) and now i got that. Also Bullguard, pro, free too.

 

[MortAr]

I have no system speaker, how does it beep? Sounds annoying. I prefer silence.

Its beeps like when you reboot the PC or when theres somekind of error. Basically you don't need sound for that.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

Norton is actually really good. It protected me well until 2 months after my licence or w/e it's called went out. Then I got some weird virus and I had to reformat my computer.
Also, Norton is easy configured and it doesn't ignore what you're trying to make it do, like AVGFree. I kinda got the feeling that the AVGFree program was thinking: "I don't think he knows if that folder contains viruses or not, so I'll just ignore him and keep removing the files." Norton never messed up the NewGen folder, but it did react to some other things I had which used trojan like functions, but it was easy to add it to the exceptions.

 

[HINDYhat]

I have no system speaker, how does it beep? Sounds annoying. I prefer silence.

You can obviously configure it to do whatever you want, but I wasn't exactly trying to list why Avira was better than Norton.

My experience with Norton is that it lagged my computer, was difficult to close and even harder to uninstall.

 

[redmarine]

You can obviously configure it to do whatever you want, but I wasn't exactly trying to list why Avira was better than Norton.

My experience with Norton is that it lagged my computer, was difficult to close and even harder to uninstall.

And don't forget that irremovable virus they implement onto your system^^

 

[CombatTheWombat]

I use Avast! Its free and I have never had any problems with it.

 

[takakenji]

avira, avast, which one D:

 

[HINDYhat]

How about you just try them out?

OH, also, Avira's virus scanning application is called "Luke Filewalker."
CHECKMATE!

 

[Deleted member 157129]

You can obviously configure it to do whatever you want, but I wasn't exactly trying to list why Avira was better than Norton.

My experience with Norton is that it lagged my computer, was difficult to close and even harder to uninstall.

You can just configure it not to run when you don't want it to. Lag problems solved - it doesn't lag when it's sleeping (ie not searching through your files, and even then- if you have a relatively new computer, not more than 3 years old, it won't lag then either). I don't know why it would be difficult to close, it has this X in the upper right corner, and it's used to close the program. Also, it is possible to right-click and choose Exit if you find that more comfortable (yes, it does end the process if you honestly want it to). Now, then uninstalling is as easy as uninstalling most things, you simply uninstall it, and it gently asks you if you want to remove all components or just this one (which most likely will render the other components useless, so it will flame you hard for your stupidity and ask again).

On a more serious note; it's rather important that you can't just close down the anti-virus software.. any virus can do that as well, if it's so incredibly easy. It's a reason it is made that way.

Anyway, I'm not looking for a fight, and I haven't tried Avira, so obviously I can't compare them, but I've never had a better, more satisfying Antivirus Software than Norton Internet Security. It was worth the cost many times over.

 

[Pyritie]

but it did react to some other things I had which used trojan like functions, but it was easy to add it the exceptions.

Then apparently you were using it wrong there is an exceptions thingy

Also, read this. I posted it earlier in the chat today but it's relavent.

[10-04-58] Pyritie: Kimberly, btw: real situation that happened two days ago about how much norton sucks
[10-05-25] Anachron: Joe-black-5, http://funnyexam.com...l-2nd-line-not-again LOL!
[10-05-29] Pyritie: Old guy up my street back on my parent's road had some computer questions during the summer so I helped him and got monies.
[10-06-01] Pyritie: Two days ago he called and said he had problems with IE. Apparently something was blocking every page he went to and said the only way to fix it is by paying for this $60 program.
[10-06-12] Pyritie: So of course he didn't buy it and called me.
[10-06-31] Pyritie: His computer had norton and that windows defender on it
[10-06-48] Pyritie: I was gonna get him to install FF and use that instead, but yesterday he called me and said it was all fixed
[10-07-00] Pyritie: Apparently windows defender caught it and removed the adware
[10-07-14] Pyritie: When he restarted his computer
[10-07-23] supertoinkz: brb dinner
[10-07-24] Pyritie: Windows defender ffs
[10-07-33] Pyritie: Norton on the other hand did jackshit
[10-07-53] Pyritie: So if you're all concerned about security, kimberly, then don't go with norton

As for me, I used to use avast but now it won't run on windows server :c

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Then apparently you were using it wrong there is an exceptions thingy

Also, read this. I posted it earlier in the chat today but it's relavent.



As for me, I used to use avast but now it won't run on windows server :c

Norton AntiVirus doesn't kill ad- and spyware. That's what you need something else for, like Spybot Search & Destroy.

 

[Pyritie]

Well programs like avast do both, so there

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Sure, I don't know, but Norton is probably better at what they do than some free program that claims to do everything. Else Norton would be out of business in no time.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

Norton puts them in quarantine.

Then apparently you were using it wrong there is an exceptions thingy

Umm..

but it was easy to add it to the exceptions.

What did I do wrong?

 

[Pyritie]

What did I do wrong?

I was referring to AVGfree.

Sure, I don't know, but Norton is probably better at what they do than some free program that claims to do everything. Else Norton would be out of business in no time.

I honestly have no idea how they manage to stay in business.

 

[Kuhneghetz]

Norton AV is a self-indulgent glutton of a powerhog no matter how I configured it. Plus it wastes too much filespace.

I stick to better (and free) alternatives like Avast (on my laptop) and Avira (on my desktop comp).

NOD32 is a very good AV as well. Not free though.

 

[Reaper2008]

Avast is great, but my McAfee works fine too. Good firewall backed up by an antivirus with 93% accuracy (and less false positives than any other), that catches anything except adware/spyware. Even if it did though, I'd use dedicated antispywares, cause they're just better.

I had Norton on a PC. When I uninstalled, it made my PC unable to use the internet. I had to restore to a backup and revo-uninstall it.

 

[Ironside]

I say Avast, you can easily get for free, works very well, and compared to some it gives you to choose what to do if it find virus, by some it simply start deleting... which is bad.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

I was referring to AVGfree.

Ah, I see. I doubt it. There was a list there with the title "PUP exceptions" and PUP is Potentially Unwanted Programs. I filled it with all the exe's 'n shit, but it continued to delete them.

 

[Pyritie]

Ah, I see. I doubt it. There was a list there with the title "PUP exceptions" and PUP is Potentially Unwanted Programs. I filled it with all the exe's 'n shit, but it continued to delete them.

That still doesn't mean norton is any better

See, when avast finds something, it explicitly asks you what to do. And "Do nothing" is one of the options. It's a bit hard to find, but it is an option.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

Norton also asks, while AVGFree only did and didn't even notice you.
If Norton finds a trojan it will warn you and ask what to do. And it's easy to choose Ignore or Do nothing or w/e it's called. It's a long time since I got a virus

 

[Kuhneghetz]

Oh, and if people are criticising the free version of Avira due to it's pop-up ads, there's a trick you can do to remove the pop-ups.

http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-the-Popup-Ads-in-Avira-Antivir

 

[Deleted member 157129]

That still doesn't mean norton is any better

See, when avast finds something, it explicitly asks you what to do. And "Do nothing" is one of the options. It's a bit hard to find, but it is an option.

The same applies to Norton, although it is not hard to find.

 

[Crazed_seal2]

Norton is a freaken virus anyway basicly, You install it, then you try to unistall it, it ruins your computa and you sit in bed going 'stupid norton' anyway My AVGFree works heaps good, It leaves mah Newgen stuff alone cause i know how to use it. Plus Trend Micro is da mojo even though its not free, its like the main Anti Virus in da entire world.

 

[redmarine]

If you want one of the best anti-virus if not the best then get Kaspersky. Omgawed it's creepily good.

 

[Kala]

if you want a good antivirus you have to pay for it..

 

[takakenji]

i asked for a good FREE one.

 

[redmarine]

i asked for a good FREE one.

AVG, Avast, Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

[Vulcano]

Norton = nice GUI
Norton != AV
I really hate norton, on an old pc it never found a virus and it increased shutdown time to about 10 minutes !!!!!!!!!!!, and when you click the Norton icon then you had to wait ages for the beautiful, yet unuseful interface coming up.

Avira is best free av imo, only - about it is the ad when its updating.
Avast is not bad too.
AVG is one of the worse free av imo, although i didn't used it for a while so it could be improved in the meantime.

But as someone else said, the best protection is yourself. Don't download (porn) from torrents/old school Gnutella, don't click ads, don't use IE, and you should remain virus-free for a long time.

 

[kharma]

Trend Micro would be my recommendation over Norton in the paid area.

As for free, I used AVG for a little while, but I don't really like their newest version. If you're really just looking for a super-simple anti-virus scanner that you can run whenever you want without having it sit in the background munching on resources, there's a free program from Trend Micro called HouseCall. It's pretty nifty and has no ads or nagware.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

Lol, seems like there are many here who've got the wrong version of Norton or something, because Norton isn't a virus, at least not the correct version. Maybe if you have downloaded it illegally, but that's just stupid. Also, uninstalling Norton is a piece of cake, so I don't understand why you are unable to uninstall it. And it doesn't take ages to open it unless you got a computer with a crappy CPU like a single-core cpu @ 1KHz and 1MB RAM or something like that. That also applies to shutdown time. I remember when I had a crappy (much better than the one I described) computer it increased startup time with 30 seconds or something, but that is almost nothing.

I have Norton and it totally rocks (for me because I have a legal version) and I never get viruses. It only uses up to 2% of my CPU when it's doing a full search of the computer which it only does when I'm inactive or when I order it to do a search. It starts up very quickly and the UI loads in less than half a second and it doesn't increase the shutdown time. It actually warns me when it notices a virus unlike AVG which silently removed pipe.dll and some other files (Jass NewGen Pack stuff). So if you want a good Anti-Virus then I suggest buying Norton Internet Security or Norton Anti-Virus 2009.

 

[Vulcano]

i am talking about all legal norton versions. The pc i was talking about was a 256 MB ram, 1,3 Ghz, and it was norton 2003 (probably less heavy then 360).
I had 360 on my laptop, which was unusable during scans. Was also very difficult to remove and increased boot and shutdown time. Scans also took +- 3 hours and with avira its +- 1 hour (and there are also a lot more files now on my harddrive). And avira is at least as good as norton, so why spend money on it?

Probably your pc costed (correct english?) more than 2000€ but i don't have the money for something so expensive.

 

[Blaxor]

Norton really is somewhat hard to install even with a legit version.. My father bought it at the same time as he bought the comp he's using right now and after the licence expired he wasn't able to uninstall it without logging on to nortons own website to dl a 20-40 mb .exe that would unistall it for him.. in conclusion it's not all that great.. you should really be able to uninstall anything without any problems.

Oh and my friend bought it too for some reason even when I told him not to.. he installed it and when the install was done his computer got screwed.. it made the comp so slow that it took almost 2 mins to start up IE..

I've got some experience with many AV's and norton is by far the worst.. I've tested avast, avg (not free one), kaspersky, nod 32, norman and norton.. at the moment i use norman and it's good but doesn't detect malware/spyware thus i use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware that is a good complement to any AV.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

Then you can't have bought the Norton 2007/2008/2009 or 2010 version. Because I know those work completely fine.

Probably your pc costed (correct english?) more than 2000€ but i don't have the money for something so expensive.

It costed about 350€, so, no, it wasn't expensive. Currently I have Norton Internet Security 2009 or 2010 and it works very good. Increases startup and shutdown time with 2 seconds, uses 0% of my CPU when it's not running a scan and uses max 2% when scanning so I can play Crysis at max (not very high as I only have Dx 9.0c) without noticing any difference in gameplay. Installing and uninstalling Norton is a piece of cake, at least with the 2007 or newer version of Norton.

@kharma, I got Trend Micro on my laptop (I want to uninstall, but I don't have administrative privileges as it's currently owned by the school) and it's not that good. It keeps spamming me with messages about a threat which isn't a threat. Ever since I got NewGen pack on the laptop it kept saying pipe.dll is a threat, but not a threat... I went like "wtf?!" when I first saw the message. When the laptop is mine (in 2,5 years) I will immediately uninstall it and install Norton

I love Norton as it's the best anti-virus I've ever seen. It's quick, doesn't increase startup/shutdown time with several minutes like other anti-viruses. I can play games while it scans and it actually finds viruses and it protects against threats. I remember I got AVG once, because I had reformated my computer and my license had run out so there was no point in installing it and I got viruses pretty fast (no, I do not download pronz), but when I installed Norton it found them immediately and removed them.

 

[Pyritie]

When the laptop is mine (in 2,5 years) I will immediately uninstall it and install Norton

I'm loling

 

[Deolrin]

I use Norton 360, but I'm not so sure if it's so great for me, especially considering my computer lags like hell since I got it, but that is understandable with my 1GB ram. Sadly I don't have the legal version of Northon 360, but it seems to work just fine, I mean.. It removes viruses and shit when I've got them, or so it seems. So anyways, I'm not so sure about it. My shutdown time has increased a lot since I've got it. So you guys recommend Avira or w\e it's called, or what? (I hope I'm not hijacking the thread, I did not intend for that)

 

[Vulcano]

just look for it on download.com.

About norton, when i had norton i sometimes had the intention that it was just giving fake reports so the user thinks its finding viruses.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

About norton, when i had norton i sometimes had the intention that it was just giving fake reports so the user thinks its finding viruses.

Lulz. It doesn't report much to me, but I visit almost only the hive so that's understandable. I did get a trojan once, but it was removed the second it got into my computer. Sometimes it gives false-positives though, but every anti-virus does that and many anti-viruses gives more of them. I had a server a while ago and Norton reacted to it and said it was a trojan. I was already prepared for it though, as the place I downloaded it from said that if I have a anti-virus program, then it will most likely react to it because of the way it works, but it was easy to fix. I just had to add it to the exceptions and release it from quarantine. Also, if you got Norton Internet Security it will also warn you from entering websites which got viruses or similar on them, thus stopping you from allowing viruses to get into your computer in the first place.

 

[Pyritie]

I did get a trojan once, but it was removed the second it got into my computer.

How do you know that wasn't fake too?

Sometimes it gives false-positives though, but every anti-virus does that and many anti-viruses gives more of them.

Good ones don't, at least not very often at all. The only false positive avast ever gave me was from some keygens and JNGP, but those were pretty much expected.

I had a server a while ago and Norton reacted to it and said it was a trojan.

Why the hell would a server be a trojan?

Also, if you got Norton Internet Security it will also warn you from entering websites which got viruses or similar on them, thus stopping you from allowing viruses to get into your computer in the first place.

Internet browsing common sense beats any sort of alerts programs give you.

 

[The Reborn Devil]

How do you know that wasn't fake too?

I'm very certain. I downloaded a file from a website I didn't quite trust, but it was the only place I could get it. It was an .exe file for a special program and Norton reacted immediately and I didn't want to take the risk and ignore Nortons warning.

Good ones don't, at least not very often at all. The only false positive avast ever gave me was from some keygens and JNGP, but those were pretty much expected.

The only false positives Norton gives me are from keygens and trojan-like servers. It didn't react to the pipe.dll or those things, but to rtcexehack.exe. If your anti-virus don't give false positives then it isn't good enough.

Why the hell would a server be a trojan?

It wasn't, but it worked like a trojan (the socket stuff). That is why Norton reacted, and the author said that any good anti-virus would react to it.

Internet browsing common sense beats any sort of alerts programs give you.

I combine them, which is even better.