Your virus scanner of choice!

[Bodzilla]

Whats your Virus scanner that your currently using?

i had Mc'cafe for a fair while and it was really good, just over the last 12 months it went to hell and became a useless piece of shit.

i'm currently using Kaspersky which is apparently fucking awesome.
no drama's yet, but i'm working off a fresh install of XP so i expect there shouldnt be any :p.

[NuggetWarmer]

McAfee FTW

[ramis92]

Not using any right now. I don't see a need to get one, since I've been virus-free for two years. I might get Norton in the future if needed.

[ultama121]

Welp, I know there are far better ones out there, but I'm lazy and have AVG. :X

[Xetsuei]

Lol, McAfee.

NOD32 ftw.

[SnaFuBAR]

On my tower, i've got trend micro, on my server, norton, and on my netbook, McAffe. Looking to switch to a primo antivirus soon, though.

[Rentafence]

Avast!

[Reaper Man]

Avast!

[Sever]

AVG

[Saggy]

McAfee

[Hotrod]

I use AVG, has been great so far.

[Bastinka]

Avast!


Avast!

The smart mans choice.

[Phobias]

Trend micro.

[BobtheGreatII]

AVG

[Bodzilla]

Trend micro.
i was gunna switch to that aobut 6 months ago, but i'm a lazy lazy man.

i found that Mc'cafee's became useless now, did fuck all to stop the spyware getting into my comp and norton..... well tis' still being norton.

anyone else heard of kaspersky?

i havnt had any dealings with AVG or avast

[Bodzilla]

Not using any right now. I don't see a need to get one, since I've been virus-free for two years. I might get Norton in the future if needed.
dead man walking.

[Corndogman]

I had McAfee, but I did a system recovery and some of its files got corrupted or something, and it wouldnt work anymore, nor could I uninstall or reinstall.

So now I'm using AVG.


Not using any right now. I don't see a need to get one, since I've been virus-free for two years.

That's because you're not looking at porn :eng101:

[Xetsuei]

Not using any right now. I don't see a need to get one, since I've been virus-free for two years. I might get Norton in the future if needed.

Just because your computer is still working doesn't mean it doesn't have viruses.

[Hotrod]

Just because your computer is still working doesn't mean it doesn't have viruses.
Exactly, I just randomly decided to do a virus check after posting in this thread, and what pops up? A virus, that was found in a pretty old file, about a year old. It didn't show up on any of the other scans, but still. My computer ran, and still runs perfectly, but there was a virus, so it's always good to have a virus scanner ready, and used.

[jcap]

Norton fucking blows.
McAfee sucks hard.
Avast sucks.
AVG is shit.
Trend Micro I have mixed feelings on. Haven't used it enough to tell.
Never used Panda.
Kaspersky is awesome.
NOD32 is awesome as well.

It will never cease to amaze me how people can still use Norton (and say they have no problems with it). It had its prime time in the 90s up through 2001.

[Bodzilla]

Norton fucking blows.
McAfee sucks hard.
Avast sucks.
AVG is shit.
Trend Micro I have mixed feelings on. Haven't used it enough to tell.
Never used Panda.
Kaspersky is awesome.
NOD32 is awesome as well.

It will never cease to amaze me how people can still use Norton (and say they have no problems with it). It had its prime time in the 90s up through 2001.
sup brother. o/

[jcap]

As a matter of fact, after I wake up I'm heading out to the store to get Kaspersky 2009 and TaxCut Home and Business Federal. Also have to get another copy of Office Small Business 2007. -_-

[Bodzilla]

well there ya go.

[RedBaron]

I had McAfee, but I did a system recovery and some of its files got corrupted or something, and it wouldnt work anymore, nor could I uninstall or reinstall.
Run MCPR.exe and reinstall McAfee security center:

http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507&lc=1033

As for me, I've always been a McAfee supporter, and still am. However, just recently, I was raided by trojans during the time of the Microsoft IE crisis, and I was using IE then. McAfee did not do a single thing to protect me, so I downloaded a free scanner/remover: Malwarebytes'. Malwarebytes' destroyed all of the malware while McAfee didn't. You guys can google Malwarebytes' or look for it on majorgeeks.com, it's a free scanner/remover that only runs when you execute it, so it doesn't always run in your system's background like McAfee and Norton does, saving valuable resources. It has updates almost once every two days and is very reliable. As for me, I am currently running both McAfee and Malwarebytes'.

Also, if you still are not using Firefox, then you're just shooting yourself in the foot. I learned this the hard way from the IE crisis. I am now using Firefox and downloaded the free plugin: Adblock-Plus for it. Not only does it eliminate every ad from every site, and therefore drastically reducing loadtimes and bandwidth usage, but you'll also be surprised to find that most of your trojans and malwares were from the ad banners on your favorite sites (like FPSB for example, for those who go there).

[Phopojijo]

Just because your computer is still working doesn't mean it doesn't have viruses.Just because your computer has an antivirus package doesn't mean you don't have a virus o.O

For the vast majority of people... the following 3 steps is enough:

1) Keep Windows Up To Date. And with XP... make sure you install disk has Service Pack 2 pre-installed... a vanilla copy of XP could get a virus before you have a chance to update it. Make it yourself or get MS to ship you one... either or.

2) Keep a Hardware Firewall. This can be as simple as a properly set up router... bounce any unrequested package on any port you're not explicitly expecting.

3) Don't Do Anything Stupid. If someone sends you a picture you haven't spoke to in 3 years, and it's last 3 letters are ".exe" DON'T OPEN IT.

4) ((If you have Vista)) Run As a Limited User And Have A Good Admin Password. If a virus wants to install itself, and it didn't hook into a core Windows application (which hopefully D.E.P. should pick up) -- Windows will ask for a password. If the virus doesn't know the password... it can't install itself can it? ((Assuming you don't type your password in for it... see 3))

If you want a fifth line of defense, then pick up an Antivirus package.

Nod32 and Kaspersky are both VERY good packages.

AVG and Avast I believe are both free and decent. Microsoft OneCare is very good as well and is going to become free sometime in 2009.

I personally don't use any antivirus. I may get a virus... but let's face it... I may get a virus anyway. I have nothing to protect. I'm secure enough without it. 3 lines of defense are good enough (for me).

And lastly...

If you get a virus

The only way to remove it is to back up your data, format your harddrive, and reinstall Windows from a trusted source. That's it. People say they can remove it... and they can remove the virus -- but.

1) There's no guarantee it's all gone.
2) There's no guarantee it didn't unpatch you or open a new backdoor for later.
3) There's no guarantee that the virus didn't simply break parts of Windows, making it slower and/or unstable and/or crash if certain parts of it are patched/updated.

[DaneO'Roo]

Combo of Spybot, AVG, Killbox, CCLeaner and Adaware is my PC health program. Nothing gets through now. If it did, killbox and spybot would be all over that like people on redtube.

[RickYng]

AVs are redundant if you talk about "keeping your PC clean". I don't use one because the real malicious viruses won't care for an AV and the more harmless ones I can detect myself.

AVs slow your computer down (you can have the best rig out there and it is still going to be slower since there is no way of nulling out the access time from the AV to the HDD) and most of the time cause more problems than a virus.

The biggest protection for me is to use Vista 64-bit. Yes not 32-bit but 64-bit. In order for a virus to do something harmful it has to work at ring0 or Kernel-level. For that it needs to install a system driver to get "elevated privileges". Once there the AV can't delete it unless it is also on that higher niveau (which is not sitting around in the tray bar). Vista 64-bit has driver enforced signing on by default. The virus would have to disable that first (which is possible, Microsoft mistake there; it's even a feature for the average user) but that would require reboot and it would alert me.

For me the only useful tools are the ones not doing real-time-scanning all the time and only do some scans from time to time to get rid of junk, traces and corrupted registry entries.

[Jelly]

I've been using Kaspersky for a few years, and I'm pretty happy with it. Always (as far as I know) picks up any viruses in my downloaded files. I've started using Ubuntu more often for browsing now, though, so less worry about that sort of stuff.

[ExAm]

Avast. Never had any slowdown issues with it, and my PC has been running extremely well, even after deleting a couple trojans.

[Vicky]

I'm surprised Comodo doesn't pop-up, nowadays they have a combined firewall/defense+/scanner package. It's free, and the only firewall that doesn't leak (unless others followed their example by now).

[FRain]

Avast! and AVG.

Avast is just on the go protection and I have AVG run at 2am every morning, ever since my computer got raped by those viruses.

[Evil_Monkey]

You should make a poll, just so we can see what the most used is. But to answer your question, I use AVG.

[klange]

sudo clamscan / > /home/klange/scan_results & disown
Then I wait a day.

[NullZero]

Had NOD32, but can't get it installed successfully on my Windows Vista (no idea why)
Had Kaparsky, but was being a bitch blocking programs and things.
Had Avast, was good, can't say anything bad about it
Testing out Norton 360, it doesn't take 10GB of memory like it use to, but idk about the protection.

[Needles]

AVG. I have McAfee, but they want me to pay to be able to get rid of things I don't want in the scan. The only thing it's ever been used for is to block trojans and viruses as they first occur, but after my PC reformat, it won't work at all. And it didn't even really catch any of the trojans and viruses my dad got onto the PC, so I'm guessing that it litterally worked about less than 10% of the time.
Also, Norton is on my old PC, but they want me to pay to be able to get rid of things too.

[Dr Nick]

Seems My McAffee center turned to shit, but then I formatted, and reinstalled it. Had a little trouble getting my account to work, but I got that sorted out, and now it's working like it should!

[Roostervier]

Atm, Avast! Free and so far from my experience, better than Norton. I might look into Kaspersky or NOD32 though.

[JunkfoodMan]

Avast! for free protection, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware/Spybot for scanning.

[ramis92]

dead man walking.

call me a zombie. been walkin for 2 years.

[jcap]

Norton 360 has to be the the biggest, most bloated pile of steaming shit I've ever encountered.

[DarkHalo003]

ClamWin. Norton is an annoying piece of crap. I canceled it's prescription a year ago and it's still doing virus scans. :gonk:

[Jelly]

Norton 360 has to be the the biggest, most bloated pile of steaming shit I've ever encountered.
The reviews that I've read about Norton's most recent attempt - Norton 2009 - have said that it's way lighter on resources than previous versions. I'm actually thinking of trying it once my Kaspersky subscription runs out.

[CabooseJr]

Avast!

[StankBacon]

mcafee, never gave me any problems.

[Terror(NO)More]

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

[Saggy]

ClamWin. Norton is an annoying piece of crap. I canceled it's prescription a year ago and it's still doing virus scans. :gonk:
So your saying that your doctor ordered you to use Norton?

[legionaire45]

Lol, my dad insisted on putting Norton 360 2.0 or whatever it is now on his computer. The license ran out or something and he called up their tech support because I was at school. After the guy did some stuff and randomly hung up, my dad restarted his PC. Windows wouldn't boot. I had to go in and recover the data he had from another computer and reinstall the OS....it was so broken that a repair install didn't fix the problem.

That's one reason why I use AVG :3

[Syuusuke]

NOD32
because I can.

There's a 4th version out on beta!

[Phopojijo]

Lol, my dad insisted on putting Norton 360 2.0 or whatever it is now on his computer. The license ran out or something and he called up their tech support because I was at school. After the guy did some stuff and randomly hung up, my dad restarted his PC. Windows wouldn't boot. I had to go in and recover the data he had from another computer and reinstall the OS....it was so broken that a repair install didn't fix the problem.

That's one reason why I use AVG :3If he installed 2 *different* antivirus packages on the same computer, that could prevent a computer from booting.

Always uninstall old Antivirus packages before installing new ones. (If you install a new one >_>)

[DarkHalo003]

So your saying that your doctor ordered you to use Norton?
No, it calls it a prescription. Norton sucks like that. I'm sorry you suck Norton, but it's not my fault you lose customers due to sucking at virus protecting. ClamWin is fast, easy, and doesn't randomly start virus scanning. I only keep Norton's crap on my computer so I don't have to worry about the alternative Windows Firewall settings. ClamWin also scans RAM and Files with easy navigation, something Norton never did. :)

It's also free.

[Disaster]

Kapersky

It's fuckin awesome.

[InnerGoat]

I've got Kaspersky on Windows 7, and AVG on XP

[Limited]

Rocking with AVG right now as I'm a cheap bastard. I'm considering getting NOD32 as my dad has used that for years.

Phopojijo, having an antivirus is a MUST, its not just for scanning if you feel you have something, a decent antivirus helps prevent infections.

I cant believe you think your not gaining anything having one. Don't do anything stupid and you won't get one? I'm a pretty security concious person, I have firefox with adblock/noscript/other boxes of tricks, and yet I went to a trusted source and got a virus, from literally loading the webpage. There was nothing I could have done better to prevent infection.

[cheezdue]

Spy Sweeper and TrendMicro for me.

[Phopojijo]

Rocking with AVG right now as I'm a cheap bastard. I'm considering getting NOD32 as my dad has used that for years.

Phopojijo, having an antivirus is a MUST, its not just for scanning if you feel you have something, a decent antivirus helps prevent infections.

I cant believe you think your not gaining anything having one. Don't do anything stupid and you won't get one? I'm a pretty security concious person, I have firefox with adblock/noscript/other boxes of tricks, and yet I went to a trusted source and got a virus, from literally loading the webpage. There was nothing I could have done better to prevent infection.Yep, probably a malicious Jpeg.

Here's the problem... antivirus may not have helped you either. There is no 100% security.

It's true... I am more vulnerable than you. However, I am secure enough for my needs.

And that was the key point I was trying to make... you need to balance security with needs. If you are a bank, you'd probably want to go tonnes more secure than even you are. I'm not... if I get infected, I get a slow down, some popups... they may steal my homework's keystrokes... find out I really like Unreal Tournament and Strong Bad's CG4AP... and I lose an afternoon reinstalling Windows. ((yes I'm exadurating, there's a couple of passwords like Email they can steal but... meh))

For me... getting AV software for that risk is not worth it. There simply isn't enough potential damage. Your results may vary.

There's always 2 sides to security:

A) How many ways can I be attacked.
B) What can they do if they succeed.

Balance...
(I'm actually making a podcast on this soon)

[Geo]

AVG, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Adaware does the trick for me.

[Inferno]

Yeah... I don't have virus protection software on either of my computers OS's...
Someone yell at me to get (X) virus software now.

PS - first post from my Ipod touch:)

[Lex1337]

I got CA Antivirus 2009. I got the year trial.

[klange]

Rocking with AVG right now as I'm a cheap bastard. I'm considering getting NOD32 as my dad has used that for years.

Phopojijo, having an antivirus is a MUST, its not just for scanning if you feel you have something, a decent antivirus helps prevent infections.

I cant believe you think your not gaining anything having one. Don't do anything stupid and you won't get one? I'm a pretty security concious person, I have firefox with adblock/noscript/other boxes of tricks, and yet I went to a trusted source and got a virus, from literally loading the webpage. There was nothing I could have done better to prevent infection.
Even I have a virus scanner. Never want to be "that Linux carrier" passing viruses in files because they never caused me trouble. My current Windows install has been there for over a year behind a super-secure network and I never do anything on it, so I don't really have anything on it (I ran MalwareBytes earlier to test it as I was helping a friend remove something).

[Limited]

Alright I understand your madness now :P

For me my computers integrity comes first, if I get infected I cannot do my work as efficiently, I cant afford to have to keep installing windows. Its also my duty to protect my university work, if it gets on internet (for some wacky reason) I could get done for collusion.

[Phopojijo]

Alright I understand your madness now :P

For me my computers integrity comes first, if I get infected I cannot do my work as efficiently, I cant afford to have to keep installing windows. Its also my duty to protect my university work, if it gets on internet (for some wacky reason) I could get done for collusion.And therefore you need extra security :p

I mean, if you really wanted complete security in a computer, you'd never turn it on. But -- there's a balance that needs to be made :p

[Hunter]

I just got BitDefender. Seems pretty good.

[Huero]

Is Kaspersky Vista compatible?
Looking into buying 2009.
ATM running off terrible, terrible Norton.

[TeeKup]

I just got BitDefender. Seems pretty good.

HAH HA HA HA HA.

[Hunter]

HAH HA HA HA HA.

Explain.

[Jelly]

Is Kaspersky Vista compatible?
Looking into buying 2009.
ATM running off terrible, terrible Norton.
Yes, Kaspersky has been vista-compatible since version 6.

HAH HA HA HA HA.
From what I've heard, there's nothing wrong with Bitdefender.

[StankBacon]

i never heard of it :|

[TheGhost]

I'm using my 25,000 day trial version of NOD32 (on Windows Vista) to the fullest of its potential.

[paladin]

Wow.

I have Norton and AVG. Windows defender works pretty good though.

[RickYng]

HAH HA HA HA HA.


Explain.



From what I've heard, there's nothing wrong with Bitdefender.

Well I used it for a while...even though the scanner detects everything it's not really 'responsive'. You don't notice when it does something, the GUI fucks up a lot of time and it does so many things in the background you don't notice.

I deleted it in the end and I have been fine since then. Definitely better though than Norton or anything out there I have tried.

[Hunter]

I noticed that. It has switched the Welcome Screen of even though it is on in the Control Panel. And I want the Welcome Screen on...