More Awesome Than You!

Our Nortons subscription runs out next month and we are thinking of trying something new. This thread   http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12504.0.html suggests AVG, Advast and Zone Alarm. Is this the current thinking? Anyone have something they just love? It doesn't have to be free, just reliable.

I've always been fine with Avast.  I never think about it, which is a good sign.

I'm using Avira - seems to do the job.  I also run Malwarebytes antimalware scanner periodically, since I have found it finds things that other anti-malware software miss (*cough* Ad-Aware *cough*).  It is a good idea to get rid of Norton in any case, just due to its resource hog status.

Went with AVG for a couple years, worked pretty well, though lately operating during a scan. I probably don't actually /need/ to run a Virus Scan every night, but I like to.

Lately, I've been trialling NOD32, which is going down smooth. May make it permanent.

I use Kaspersky's Internet Protection Suite, got everything in one package, but it's not a free one so I don't know if that makes a difference.

I used AVG free for a couple of years too. My computer started acting up recently so I switched to Avast! which immediately found 2 viruses AVG didn't see.

Thanks folks. Food for thought there. We are also using Stopzillla which seems to pick up things Nortons misses. Anyway, this gives me a few names to look up on the weekend, a little light reading!

I have been trying one for the last 2 months from PC Tools (http://www.pctools.com) called Threatfire that came with their firewall. You can get it alone, though the firewall easily lets you pick which applications (Sim2EP8.exe, launcher.exe, bodyshop.exe, etc.) are strictly forbidden to even attempt to access the internet. Works really well so far, and does not use much memory at all. Best thing? It is free.

Never had any problems with AVG free.

I've used AVG which caused problems (crashing and blue screens every fifteen minutes), although the problems in question appear to be a fault with the laptop and AVG should be okay with a different (non-faulty) computer. However, by changing to windows liveonecare the problem disappeared.

AVG has this annoying habit of declaring all your keygens to be malware.

I have AVG on my PC and NOD on my laptop. No problems with either. NOD updates itself, AVG I tell it to update every few days or when it tells me to.

Ugh, AVG Free is so gimped that it can't even detect rootkits.  Feel free to continue using that pile if you want but if you find that it's not working, give Avira or avast! a shot since they CAN detect rootkits.

I don't really like Threatfire but this is more of a personal preference since I wanted it to behave like a standard HIPS but it's even worse than Comodo in that regard.  Comodo's Defense+ is decent, however I find that if I don't tell it to fully trust some games Defense+ will pop up a prompt but it isn't visible.  I'm usually not able to alt-tab over to the prompt, so I ultimately have to logout and login again to resolve the issue.  Perhaps this is due to Comodo not using Native Widgets or something.  I'm currently using Outpost Firewall Pro's HP and it seems to work a lot better than Defense+ even though it doesn't cover as much stuff (like Keyboard Access which COMODO fails at anyway).

I am currently using a trial of Avira Premium alongside Outpost, however I'm considering trying out Norton Internet Security 2009 since it's speed is comparable to NOD32/ESS now and Norton can find more stuff than NOD32.

UPDATE:  I finished trying out NIS 2009 and it did live up to its claims.  Even with every part of Norton turned on, everything ran very smoothly with less resources than my Avira/Outpost combo.

However, when I performed a malware detection test involving XPAntivirus2009 ("Medium Risk") it wouldn't give me options on what to do with the file and instead it just "blocked" it.  I also tried disabling Auto-protect and re-enabling it after the file was unzipped to see if it would only quarantine the file but the file was just deleted.  The same thing happened when I tried a Qhost ("High Risk") sample.  If this wasn't enough, it also threw a safe keygen into its quarantine while I was scanning the computer with no decisions on what to do with a file.  Also, like ESS, it complains when you turn features off but I haven't bothered to see if it turns them back on like ESS.

I guess if you don't like making decisions then Norton 2009 is for you but otherwise you should go with something else that actually values your input such as avast!, Avira, or Kaspersky(Although it still whines when you turn its stuff off).

I've been using AVG/ZoneAlarm/Spybot and had no problems, with an occasional Rootkit Revealer run to make sure I haven't managed to pick up SecuROM again (still wondering how that happened.  :P)

Sometimes SecuRom will install without you even running the exe.  I had to reinstall everything on my wife's computer for a new hard drive, and when we installed Oblivion: Shivering Isles, it installed SecuRom.  It was dormant, however, and did not embed itself too badly, so it was easy to remove.  Keep in mind that this happened DURING the installation process.  We never started the exe file.

So there might be other games out there that install SecuRom while installing the game, and it's just WAITING for you to start your game.

Back on topic, I use AVG.   ;D  But I do have the "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" disc, and it has Avast and Avira on it, and they are good programs too.

I use AVG, but find it misses tons of stuff that I consider mal/spyware; so as a back-up I use PC Tools Disk Suite (free) and Spyware Doctor, which does a great job finding things AVG misses.

Kaspersky for sure.... Seldom fails people... Always able to remove virus (if not, go to Safe Mode)... Powerful firewall! Easy to use!
Although these sound like some commercial puff stuff, I really like Kaspersky!

Avast and Spybot are perfect for me.  Just got rid of some heinous trojans I had.

So did I. 293 infections to be exact. Granted, only one was a HIGH threat, Gamersonline? Never been there, done that. But it is still a relief to be able to turn on the computer without crappola hittting me from every direction.

I really must remember to turn OFF my computer each day rather than once a month.  :P

Hey, Blue. :-*

Hi Maria  :-*