Anti-Virus Systems

[CrazedGoblin]

what anti-virus do people use and has anyone had any really bad experiances with the programs?

I for one have had horrible encounters with Norton Anti-Virus were it detected a Virus on the win32 file and promtly deleted the win32 file. Also on one of my friends PCs Norton let a virus through which infected his PC then norton managed to delete itself, not sure if this was the virus though hehe :smallbiggrin:

[Ichneumon]

I use norton.

I hate anti-virus systems. Mine gives a warning on almost EVERTHING on my computer.

[BRC]

I use norton.

I hate anti-virus systems. Mine gives a warning on almost EVERTHING on my computer.

I was really expecting you to make a joke that referenced your avatar

[Ichneumon]

I was really expecting you to make a joke that referenced your avatar

I know, but I am too sick for any puns. Seriously, I have a cold or something.

[Galathir]

I use Kaspersky and I've been really happy with it. It's easy to use, does an excellent job of detecting and removing threats and doesn't hog system resources. It only scans during idle times, so you system doesn't slow down to a crawl.

I've tried Norton and hated it. My computer kept freezing up, I couldn't run programs, and it was just generally all around horrible.

[CrazedGoblin]

I use norton.

I hate anti-virus systems. Mine gives a warning on almost EVERTHING on my computer.

hehe ive heard of instances were it has detected itself as a virus

[Hoggy]

I use Avast! Home Edition.

a) Works a treat.
b) How could any self-respecting pirate donkey use any other? :smalltongue:

Seeruslee tho, it's really thorough. Takes a while to start up, but no other critisicms.

[CrazedGoblin]

AVAST rules! i mean it even talks to me, what more could i ask from an anti-virus :smallbiggrin:

[Eldred]

I use Norton, however, it can't pick up spyware to save its life. I once got infected with a load of spyware and adware and it didnt pick up any of it. So now I use Norton and AVG Anti-Spyware together - works a lot better.

[CrazedGoblin]

for spyware i use Spy Bot Search and Destroy 1.4, its free and i think its wicked :smallbiggrin:

[Samiam303]

I've had a really good experience with AVG Free Edition. It runs really smoothly without hogging resources, and it's caught a bunch of viruses that Norton missed. I'm glad I moved from Norton to it.

[Castaras]

Mcafee here.

Whatever you people do, DON'T get Panda. Panda is probably the worst anti-virus system I have had to cope with. It is awful. Freaking awful. :smalleek:

[eidreff]

Gotta agree Panda was appalling, i think that it deliberately allowed at lest two virus infections just about when it was time to renew!

Currently use AVG free edition, no problems, and they do spyware and rootkit detection tools too.

[tannish2]

holy crap someone managed to get norton off their comp? for me even an uninstall a reformat and another reformat DIDNT ****ING WORK that computer is dead to me now. never heard of anyone getting it OFF of a system before, except a lawyer walking down to symantec headquarters and telling them to remove it.

im currently using AVG, had bad experiences with norton and mcafee, norton is the worst thing you can do to you computer, thats including magnets, sledgehammers, and magnetically charged sledgehammers packed with a nuclear bomb.

[CrazedGoblin]

holy crap someone managed to get norton off their comp? for me even an uninstall a reformat and another reformat DIDNT ****ING WORK that computer is dead to me now. never heard of anyone getting it OFF of a system before, except a lawyer walking down to symantec headquarters and telling them to remove it.

im currently using AVG, had bad experiences with norton and mcafee, norton is the worst thing you can do to you computer, thats including magnets, sledgehammers, and magnetically charged sledgehammers packed with a nuclear bomb.

the other day i was experimenting on my work laptop with norton so i disabled the automatic updates for a day, i turned them back on and it said norton must be reinstalled because it cant find files, and the program didnt even update!

so i deleleted the whole program muhahah!

[PlatinumJester]

I don't have an anti virus system :smalleek:.

[Ettlesby]

I use SpyBot - Search and Destroy, AVG Anti-Virus, and Ad-Aware. I like to have a few Anti-Virus program just in case one misses something.

[CrazedGoblin]

I don't have an anti virus system :smalleek:.

you probably have windows antivirus which is the equivelent of going up against a tank with a spoon, a bog standard stainless steel average day to day spoon :smallbiggrin:

[PlatinumJester]

you probably have windows antivirus which is the equivelent of going up against a tank with a spoon, a bog standard stainless steel average day to day spoon :smallbiggrin:

Stick the spoon in between the engine valves.

Just don't do what that Chinese guy did and stand in front of it, hoping it will stop because it won't.

[CrazedGoblin]

see it is usefull in a very tiny way :smallbiggrin:

[daggaz]

I use AVG, which recently just melded itself with Ewido. Both had free versions, and both were the most highly recommended programs on the danish antivirus forums. I also used Ad-Aware for some time, but ever since I learned more about my system, there is never anything for it to catch.

The most useful tool tho, is HijackThis, which lets you edit your registry among other things. Be warned tho, never use this program unless you know what you are doing, as you can completely destroy your system with it. Also, it will show up on a lot antispyware programs as a hacking program. I only use it to permanently excise the occasional virus that gets thru my firewall and escapes detection from Norton.

[tannish2]

the other day i was experimenting on my work laptop with norton so i disabled the automatic updates for a day, i turned them back on and it said norton must be reinstalled because it cant find files, and the program didnt even update!

so i deleleted the whole program muhahah!

WRONG, its still there... norton antivirus is EVIL

symantec is a ****ing evil company, and i just thought of a good use for norton antivirus! give it as a gift to people you dont like. or if they know **** about computers sneak in and install it while they arent looking.

[Samiam303]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/linux_user_at_best_buy.png

[Jack Squat]

Whatever you people do, DON'T get Panda. Panda is probably the worst anti-virus system I have had to cope with. It is awful. Freaking awful. :smalleek:

My high school had panda the last semester I was there. Now, I had a few "joke" programs on my flash drive (you know...the ones that make the CD tray pop open and a rasberry sound comes through the speakers, the screen change brightness/contrast every few seconds, and other stuff that are generally annoying but don't do any harm) and I stuck it in my assigned computer. Panda decided to scan my flash-drive, which is understandable, but then it decided to delete those programs from my drive automatically. It even worked it's ways into the hidden zip files and removed my backups in there too.

As it was doing this, it put a note on my screen that said something along the lines of "A joke program has been detected on your computer. A joke program is a harmless program that temporarily changes computer settings." If these programs are harmless, why in the world would they be deleted as a threat? I normally say that a panda did something not board appropriate to my flash drive..

The good news is that I found a few that still work...one that makes the motherboard beep for a second every half second, and one that lets me change what a key is read as (my favourite one to change is the "e" key, normally to one around it); so I had a little fun with those.

anyways, back on topic...at the moment, I use my school provided McAffee Enterprise, although before I was forced to get that, I used AVG free.

[Eldpollard]

I use AVG free and I've found it to be a very good programme.

[hippie_dwarf]

Never get net nanny. Ever!. My parents got it on our computer. You have ot log onto it to use the internet, fine i can cope with that. But one day i tryed to log on, and it said i had to be logged on to log in, What!? :smallfurious: . It went bye-bye very shortly after, and McAfee took over. No such incidents since.

[The Valiant Turtle]

AVG Free and Avast! are free for home users and both do a pretty decent job, we use AVG where I work, but Avast! seems to use less system resources. Neither of those detect Spyware to my knowledge, but I don't personally expect my anti-virus to do that.

Among the non-free Anti-Virus the only one I would recommend is Kaspersky. It is probably the best overall anti-virus available

[Telonius]

Norton on my home computer. Computer is a few years old, but ever since I updated Norton the thing's been running molasses-slow. I've already decided to abandon Norton in the next computer I get. First pet peeve that comes to mind? When it updates, and requires a restart. You can't minimize the screen telling you that you need a restart. There's no "Restart Later" option. This makes saving your data difficult, and is just plain obnoxious. That's only the tip of the iceberg.

[CrazedGoblin]

WRONG, its still there... norton antivirus is EVIL

symantec is a ****ing evil company, and i just thought of a good use for norton antivirus! give it as a gift to people you dont like. or if they know **** about computers sneak in and install it while they arent looking.

ill have to keep an eye out for it then sneaky little program

[NEO|Phyte]

I've found that simple antivirus software isn't enough these days, so I've upgraded to something stronger.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2606/antishodanvl8lz7.jpg


On a more serious note, I use AVG Free.