Author Topic: Antivirus - Report your tests and experience (Read 10161 times)

va!n · « **on:** April 28, 2008 »

hi guys,
i know there are a lot and independent official tests on the net about what antivirus may be the best in comparsion to other freeware and comercial viruskiller products. I dont really know what and whom i should believe in this tests and does this tests are really independent?

Norton Antivirus (comercial):
In the past (around 2004/2005?) i tried NortonAntivirus for private use and i had to use/work with this (server version) on one of my last jobs. However when people are saying norton may be good, i dont like this program. I remember situation in the old company when Norton alerts Virus/Trojans but the program was not able to remove it... (only due fact of some knowledge it was possible to me, to remove the viruses by hand instead by norton!!!)

AV Antivir (Free version for private use):
Possible some of you guys may know the free version of AV antivir for private use! Nice its free but what do you really expect from a free antivirus? I used this free version of a very long time because i thought its good and protect me against viruses. Sadly one day i got extreme problems and even with the lastest database (update) antivir didnt found any problem on the drives. But i found myself out that my system was still infected by a virus/trojan (checked taskmen, regestry, files). So i tried another antivirus programm and my system was full of viruses! (antivir only found a hand full of viruses a lot viruses was not found!)

NOD32 (comercial):
Next i tried a most unknown antivirus! I used this programm over years for costumers and private use! One very good feature is, that this tool does not require a lot of system resources! It only require some MB and very very low CPU ussage when it works in background! So the system dont slows down like with other antivirus programs i know! The program works very well for me. But i had situations when it found a virus and the program was not able to remove it. (i had to remove it again myself by hand). But all in one it worked very well for me all the time! So this is my favourite!

TrustPort Antivirus (comercial/trial:
Today i searched on the web about what antivirus program won the last product tests and it was "TrustPort Antivirus" before GData and others... I dont think i heared this product before. So i thought its time to test a new product which detected nearly all viruses in the product test. Downloadsize of the trial version is 110 MB as exe and i think this is much! Installed it needed 160 MB on harddrive!

I started to scan my drives and it started very slowly in the first 30 seconds... then it got a boost scanning files... Working with the system was nearly unpossible this time! I noticed the CPU usage was between 80-100% and for this scanning files was to slow i think. After some time the scanner reached file number 4515 and the CPU was from now 100% all the time... i waited about 10 minutes but the CPU ussage was still 100% and the antivirus seemed like frozen (but from the taskman it was still running, no problem)... It was not possible to pause/stop/close the check... Even not with the taskmen... i had complete to reboot! *thumb down*

va!n · « **Reply #1 on:** April 28, 2008 »

So i think it would be nice to discuss here about antivirus software and your own opinion and experience with. Please let us know the name of the product, freeware/shareware/comercial and if possible used OS. Thanks.

Jim · « **Reply #2 on:** April 29, 2008 »

AVG from grisoft and Spybot from Kolla. Can't beat it. Don't need to pay for it.

Jim

combatking0 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 30, 2008 »

We use Sophos where I work, and it works very well. The daily scan even deletes viruses from the kids USB pens if they're plugged in. We use Windows 2000 and XP computers, as well as MacOS X.

Architect_414 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 30, 2008 »

Quote from: Jim on April 29, 2008

AVG from grisoft and Spybot from Kolla. Can't beat it. Don't need to pay for it.

Jim

+1 on the AVG!

DaZZaBoY · « **Reply #5 on:** May 03, 2008 »

AVG Free here too. The older versions seemed to struggle a little with certain viruses but the newer updates seem to be more competant. Can't knock a freebie!

Shockwave · « **Reply #6 on:** May 03, 2008 »

AVG and/or Kaspersky.

I use Kaspersky, I find it slightly better than AVG (not so many false alerts) but both are very good software.. AVG being free is a huge plus.

Architect_414 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 03, 2008 »

Quote from: Shockwave on May 03, 2008

AVG and/or Kaspersky.

I use Kaspersky, I find it slightly better than AVG (not so many false alerts) but both are very good software.. AVG being free is a huge plus.

Kapersky, hmm, we use it at school, and either the school systems have a hell of alot of virus's or kapersky gives false warnings, i mean whenever i open an excell file it says its infected...

Jim · « **Reply #8 on:** May 04, 2008 »

That could be a number of things-
Out of date Kasperky files.
False positive on XLS files that have macros in them.
All your XLS files have virusses in them! (Quite possible if kaspersky is old and not cleaning them).

I got AVG8.0 the other day. It's much the same deal as 7.x, but it has this thing called 'Link Scanner' which goes off to google, yahoo, etc to check whether the link you have clicked in IE is safe. Screw that for a privacy measure! You can disable it, but then the AVG icon in the tooltray is an error symbol which when you click it says "you are not protected". Not a nuisance, but bad feature.
...
Hey, I've just found it's possible to install 8 without the feature
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=11041749&sort=postdate
Will try that later.

<later>
I was able to remove the option entirely even though I had already installed:

Code: [Select]

avg_free_stf_en_8_100a1295.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearchAnd choose add/remove features from the setup menu.

Jim

DaZZaBoY · « **Reply #9 on:** May 11, 2008 »

Nice one Jim.

Just updated to AVG 8.0 last night myself and on the surface, everything seems more polished and generally shiny and nice. I let the AVG toolbar install, just to see what features it had and all seems pretty good so far.

I'm a little dubious about the Link Scanner but we'll see how it goes on that.

Clyde · « **Reply #10 on:** March 16, 2009 »

There is a new version of AVG available, version 8.5.

Shockwave · « **Reply #11 on:** March 16, 2009 »

When my version of KAV expires I'll be installing AVG.

TinDragon · « **Reply #12 on:** March 16, 2009 »

I am an AVG free user, has been the best solution I have ever found.

Mcafee, Norton etc are all bloatware and imho completely crap, infact norton is

in hiding

relsoft · « **Reply #13 on:** March 17, 2009 »

AVG here. I am a fan eversince!!!!

Aside from that. I also used Avast(Sis' comp) and Nod32(slow comps) on some pcs. But nothing beats AVG.

BTW, this laptop had Norton (licensed fro 2 years) but I removed it after 2 months and installed AVG.

nawitus · « **Reply #14 on:** March 19, 2009 »

Are you guys using a broken OS? My OS is not broken so it doesn't need slower programs like antivirus. I've been connected to the net for years and 0 virus so far. Oh, I use a linux based OS.

Jim · « **Reply #15 on:** March 19, 2009 »

This isn't the OS wars thread. It's a sad fact that the OS that's installed on the majority of home users' computers is going to be the main target of the virus people. If everyone moved to a different OS then that would become the next target. When Apple's Safari started becoming popular with its promise of being hack-proof, it soon got the same treatment.

Anyone tried AVG8.5 yet? Are there any noticeable differences?

Jim

Clyde · « **Reply #16 on:** March 21, 2009 »

Only noticeable difference is that it doesnt interfere with the speed / performance as much. Noticeable to me, as I dont have state of the art setup. Also it can deal with new forms of trojans.

At present it is telling Windows Security that it is set to being Off. And trying to change it via security settings to On, doesnt do anything.

mind · « **Reply #17 on:** March 21, 2009 »

AVG is indeed brilliant.. +1

Shockwave · « **Reply #18 on:** March 21, 2009 »

Going to try it on the laptop first

nkk_kan · « **Reply #19 on:** March 26, 2009 »

I found KAV to be the best one by far..though i don't use it

I never liked AVG, it never worked properly for me..
I don't have any on my (already slow) system but i'm fairly aware of what i download/use to avoid virus. ;p