hail-hail

Looking for recommendations on the best antivirus and Spyware software, happy to pay for it. Any ideas?

bob269

Nod32

Antivirus Software - from ESET

Iain Young

Another vote for Nod32 here

mike1210

And another

BlkKnight

FOURTHED

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Willing to pay eh !!

£50 and I'll tell you which is best

Hanley

Another vote here for NOD32

Doesn't come much better.

I've just extended a 2 year licence for a pc and a laptop at a cost of around £60.

ScoTTyB

kaspersky

D16GER

Regarding Spyware, I find it hard to beat a combo of Spybot and SpywareBlaster, both of which are free.

D16GER

Kaspersky's pricing online, using the code WHSMITH is also very, very good.

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

I use a combination of Spywareblaster, Spybot and AVG all of which are free and a doddle to use

Iain Young

Even the latest and greatest version of AVG lets viruses through. Definitely not recommended at all.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

NOD32 found a couple of trojans on mine that Norton has let through, also SIGNIFICANTLY less of a system hog!

Ns04

SirFozzalot

I had Bullguard installed on my laptop when I bought it and I've never had a problem with it, just renewed my subscription.

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

Iain I do not believe any AV is bulletproof. On what basis is AVG "Definitely not recommended at all"? If you have a better one that is free I'd gladly like to hear about it.

All I can report is that in the 3 or more years I've been using AVG Free it hasnt let me down. In fact it has performed as good and in some instances better than any of the subscription based platforms I've used.

Fozz I've been out to several callouts where machines have been badly wrecked with viruses and were using upto date versions of Bullguard. So I couldnt reccomend that one.

If I had to choose a subscription based AV my personal choice would have to be NOD32 as I also found this to very quick and extremely effective

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

nod32

Iain Young

No antivirus is 100% secure, and I don't recall ever saying that. What is true however is that some antivirus programs are a lot better at securing your computer than others. Nod32 is one such program that uses very few resources, and has one of the best detection / protection rates out there.

Only last weekend I had to rescue a PC for a friend. He had the very latest version of AVG installed, and it had let through a multitude of nasty critters (he had about 13 different nasty things on the machine that AVG had simply not detected). I ended up backing up his data, formatiing the drive, reinstalling the OS etc (it was the only way to be sure).

You get what you pay for.

You have been lucky then.

Same here.

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

Iain I think AV and AS are mainly only as effective as the people that use them.
How many ordinary peeps actually configure the software properly and ensure it is run a regular basis?
I see lots of machines that have never had a defrag let alone run an AV test. Many have the tools installed on the pc/lappy but never use them but thats another topic lol

I dont consider myself lucky but careful with how my machines are configured to begin with. All of them run Mozilla, AVG AV, Spywareblaster and Spybot. That FREE combination is like Domestos it kills 99.9% of all known germs dead!

bob269

This is true, however i've never configured nod32 since installing it's factory settings. When you say run on a regular basis do you mean physically telling the program to run a virus check, if so, why would you need, the software tells you the very moment something is trying to infiltrate. As long as its self updating which it tells you in the notification area everytime it does then you shouldnt need to worry.

I browse some dodgy **** sites and have never had any issues with spyware/malware and the likes

A good virus proggy should just sit there quietly doing its business without you having to worry

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

Couldnt agree more Bob. IMHO NOD32 is the nuts but there are some progs that need tinkering and setting up properly to get them to run at their best. Fortunatey NOD32 doesnt.

I surf all over the net day and night have never been let down by what I use. I'm not saying its infallible just that its worked for me.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

NOD32 here too, best AV I've ever used

ChrisB

The firewall component of Bullguard is vile. Terrible piece of software!

fluffy1970

iTrader: (1)

hi i use zonealarm and avast antivirus
never had a problem
and it all free

Iain Young

Again, you've been lucky. I had to recover a virus ridden machine a couple of weeks ago with Avast installed...

stiscooby

Kaspersky.

Wouldn't touch AVG. Yes, there are probably many people who have it and "never had a problem" but thats the point, the reason they have never had a problem is because a virus/spyware etc has probably never tried to get onto the PC in the first place.

You find out how good your Anti Virus software is when an attempted attack/infection occurs.

Scotsman

iTrader: (3)

Recently started using Kaspersky and it's first class. Won the group test in PC Pro recently as well.