anti virus program

[Normand]

anybody have a recommendation??

i currently use norton 360 and i'm looking for something different/better.

free or buy doesnt matter.

[ol' blue]

I use avast (its free). I haven't had an infection, but it has caught a few before it made it into my machine. I also use firefox and adaware and stay pretty clean for the most part.

[Clay]

I like McAfee, it is seamless, doesn't take up as much room on my computer as Norton. I also purchased Spy Sweeper, but the truth is that McAfee has caught almost everything that Spy Sweeper gets, but I like the redundancy. Check out this link:

This was done in April of 08: http://reviews.cnet.com/1990-6600_7-...rColumnArea1.1

Rick

[Mato Kuwapi]

I've been using AVG Free Anti virus for a few years now. I really like it. I took off Norton in favor of it. Norton slowed may computer to a snails crawl. AVG doesn't do that.

http://free.avg.com/ww.download-avg-...s-free-edition

[DG]

I use Norton. Which, after what Mato said, might explain my puter's slowness these days. I tried AVG and it messed up my puter beyond belief, so it left in a hurry.

Any of the commercial programs should work just fine. I hesitate to use off-brand software because I stongly suspect that the people who wrote it spend their off hours in Kazakhstan hacking into people's puters through the software they got you to buy, or install for free. Nothing is free.

[JohnScott]

We had Norton on our last computer and it was just fine, except it was a bit pricey.

On our current computer, we've been using AVG Free since day one. No problems at all. We do have anti-virus protection and a firewall from our ISP also, which may make AVG seem better than it really is on its own ??

[Eight Thumbs]

I've found that no matter what virus protection I use, there is always something that comes along which can infect my computer. And that's true even if you update regularly. I had an attack the other day that took over my computer with flashing lights, noise and an unremovable pop up that told me I had been infected with spyware and I must buy the best virus remover on the market. You couldn't make the popup disappear, not even with a computer restart, it was still there. All it wanted was my personal information and credit card number to order this great antivirus program. BTW, I was not on a questionable site at the time; I was actually researching the history of deductive reasoning----honest.

The computer professionals at my university have decided that McAffee antivirus protection is the way to go. When I told them about this incident, they weren't surprised but still insisted that McAffee is the best on the market. One added that this is the type of problem you run into when you have millions of highly computer literate people in third world countries who have no opportunity to find jobs commensurate with their education level.

I won't argue with the computer geeks---McAffee, I guess. 8T

[ducksterman]

I'm a free AVG fan.

I suppose you all know not to run two at once.

[dudley]

I had an attack the other day that took over my computer with flashing lights, noise and an unremovable pop up that told me I had been infected with spyware and I must buy the best virus remover on the market. You couldn't make the popup disappear, not even with a computer restart, it was still there. All it wanted was my personal information and credit card number to order this great antivirus program. BTW, I was not on a questionable site at the time; I was actually researching the history of deductive reasoning----honest.

I got this too, it's called Antivirus 2009
My computer hasn't been right since

Antivirus 2009 is a new rogue anti-spyware program. It is also a clone of Antivirus 2008 - also a rogue, and one that's produced more clones than any other recently. The list of these clones is long: System Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Vista Antivirus 2008, XP Antivirus 2008 etc.

Like any other of it's predecessors, Antivirus2009 uses trojans, such as Zlob or Vundo, to spread. These trojans lurk in porn/warez websites disguised as video codecs, and, upon entering the system, floods the user with popups and fake system notifications, supposedly to inform him of an infection. While the system at hand may indeed be infected, Antivirus 2009 will inform the user of this regardless of whether it's true or not. The point of this disinformation is to convince the user he is infected and therefore needs an antispyware program to dispose of the threat. The user might click on one of the popups or notifications, all of which claim they will take him to a legitimate security tool, but try to make him purchase Antivirus2009's "licensed version" instead.

Antivirus 2009 is a scam and should be treated as such: do NOT download or buy it and block it's homepage using your HOSTS file.

[Gardenfish]

Spyhunter nailed a slew of things that AVG did not find and my computer is no longer slow. Norton is used because it pays a fee to computer manufacturers. AVG nailed some things that Norton missed. Hooray for Spyhunter. Spyhunter costs twnty bucks or so and is well worth it. It cleaned a ton of crap that other programs left.