simo

Using Nortons (yes I know ) @ the moment but needs renewing.

Who / what should I consider?

Cheers Simon

G00ner

Nod32 for Antivirus, windows firewall is adequate for 99% of home users, so long as your careful about what you download etc.

jowl

AVG and Kerio for me on my machine

AVG and Windows firewall on rest of family machines.

Also check with on-line AV scanners every so often

Scooby Soon!

I tried AVG but it doesnt pick up all viruses , i am now running Avast which has a very good website virus checker and Sygate for my Firewall.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

I use Mcafee, no problems and once your signed on, nice downloads
Check out places like www.scan.co.uk for the software, cheaper than you think and alot of BIG companies use this software.

Tony

Daz34

Kaspersky Antivirus 5 is superb

Markus

I use the following:

Spybot Search & Destroy
Zone Alarm Pro
Solo Antivirus

simo

cheers all will have a look in the next day or so.

Simon

warrenm2

another vote for sygate firewall

iain atkins

I use Kaspersky here as well, since its been installed on my machines nothing has got through!

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

I don't use any

Router's firewall and Firefox suffices for me.

I may occasionally use MS anti-spyware to make sure system is still clean.

Not had a single malware/virus/trojan ever on any PC I've used.

Virus scanners are a waste of time and resource imo.

Iain Young

You must be the luckiest person out there.

Personally, I use the latest Panda antivirus suite (firewall / antivirus). hardly uses any resources, updates every day, and seems very reliable. Switched to this after having loads of problems with both McAfee and Norton, and I haven't looked back since.

AVG is a joke. I've seen it let through loads of stuff. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone...

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

No not at all, its common sense to stay uninfected. I simply dont execute any attachments, unless from trusted sources and even when they are I will probably do an online scan anyway

Iain Young

Nor do I, and I must say I've never had a virus infection on my pcs either. Better safe than sorry though. The virus checkers and firewalls etc take so little resources that it's worth having them installed for peace of mind imo.

You wouldn't go driving around without seatbelts would you? I've never actually needed to use one of those either, but...

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

That's different There's too many idiots on the road to take that risk.

At least with a PC you have control over what gets saved or opened.

Also I'm a gamer so the more RAM/resource I have the better.

Iain Young

I don't see why it's different. There's too many clever and evil people on the internet to take the risk where virses, hacking etc are concerned.

I'm a big time gamer as well, and can't say I've noticed any frame rate drop at all by having a virus checker installed. Even the Norton one!!. I haven't even got a terribly up to date pc any more either (need to do something about that and build myself a new one next year ), so I guess you'd notice it even less on the latest batch of hardware.

There are more ways of getting a virus onto your machine than relying on you opening an attachment or running a dodgy exe. Some of them are quite devious...

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

The other types would come from a website, javascript, activex, or a trojan, which would need to executed to plant itself. Thats also why I use FFox and Tbird, as they are less susceptible to those type of threats. There were rumours of hackers bein able to infect jpegs, but I've not seen that happen yet. Otherwise how else could you possibly get infected?

Overall I think the threat is low at this point in time.

Iain Young

You are joking right. Firefox has had several patches recently to fix gaping holes in its security (which allow malicious websites access to some very low level stuff). Who knows what is still in there waiting to be discovered. At least with ie, most of the big nasty holes have already been found

There's no such thing as a secure browser.

JackClark

I agree, people are now educated to most of the risks so the common infection vectors are inaffective. Malicious software nowadays is all about the money, nothing very innovative has been written lately that doesn't try to make cash. The clever authors - and there arn't many - are writing bots that play online poker, plenty of scope for cash there.

As long as you don't play in a cess pit and have basic security up and running you're pretty safe.

I've been working for an Antivirus company for 12 years so have a bit of a clue.

Of course this could all change in the next couple of minutes.

Iain Young

All the more reason to be protected, just in case it does....

Scooby Soon!

x 2


I hope you don't ever look at ebay? There is currently a Trojan being used on there that the second you open the auction page (just by clicking on the auction title) it loads a Trojan on to your computer

I wish I was that care free!

JackClark

Exactly the reason I run AV software, a hardware and software firewall and XP updates itself very nicely.

pedroartois

I agree with Panda AV suite - they have a very good indication of virus/malware spread around the globe on their web site and some spot on advice about manual infection removal. I'm a web designer and pc engineer, I've lost count of the number of times Panda's site has come in useful.

JackClark

>and some spot on advice about manual infection removal.

Surely that's a minus point. Good Antivirus software removes what it finds. Unfortunately most Antivirus software companies focused on detection as that's what wins reviews. The engine built here in Aylesbury has always been designed as a virus removal tool, that's what sets it apart from others.

Iain Young

I must say that I switched to Panda from McAfee because I was having so many problems with the engine though Jack. When I installed panda on a friends pc, it also found a few things things that a fully up-to-date mcafee had missed. My confidence in McAfee was severly dented that day...

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

I use, well search eBay 24/7 not had a single issue. Pls link me to a URL or something that shows details about this 'trojan' of yours

Iain Young

How do you know if you have been infected or not if you haven't got a virus scanner installed?

Just curious

Chris L

For the more technically astute amongst you - then fine, feel free to not load AV if you are comfortable with that. However for the vast majority of users that is simply bad advice. From a risk management POV - if you have a known risk / threat and there is a way of mitgating or reducing that threat - then you do it. Simple as that.

Working with guys who spend their professional lives compromising systems, it makes you very aware of the threats that are out there. Afterall, if you don't run some form AV, how can you be sure that you are not infected? Again, for the vast majority of people, they simply don't have the technical know-how to check this (and I'm not even sure if a professional would know how to do it 100% manually and be 100% correct).

Viruses / trojans / hackers etc will always look for the weakest link. By installing a basic firewall (or using the XP SP2 firewall - which is surprisingly good) and some AV software you go a long way to reducing the basic risks of surfing the Internet. I would advise any user to do just that.

GrollySTI

Do a search for mwav (MicroWorld Antivirus).

Run their on line checker(mwav) and you may be amazed at what it picks up.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Done. Nothing found This also answers your question Iain. Although usually I use Panda's online service.