Antivirus software advice?

I currently use Microsoft Security Essentials. I am aware that it's not as good as it once was and am looking for a replacement. Plusnet offer McAffee free but a recent review in Computeractive gave it quite a poor rating. Of the free alternatives, Avast did best.

Any ideas, please?

I use Avast and MSE, they work together.

AVG and ZoneAlarm for me.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

AVG and ZoneAlarm for me.

Be careful with anything from ZoneAlarm as they dump crapware on you at the slightist excuse which can be VERY,VERY difficult to remove.

I have used Nortan in its many forms currently using 360.

Despite what I have read elsewhere it causes me no problems never had a virus yet (or that I know off) stopped the kids going where they shouldn't

Avast and Super Anti Spyware. Have used all of the 'Free' anti-virus AVG, Avira but Avast outpaces them all including the paid for type.

You get what you pay for !! Free is Free..

Proper security does not cost that much tbh..


http://www.eset.com/us/home/

Free 30 day trial you can try before you make your mind up

A couple of sites to have a look at:-

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Useful sites...I had a bad experience(performance wise) with Kaspersky and eventually had to remove it. Now trying Bitdefender Antivirus Plus - $30 for the US, £30 for the UK apparently ...

Nothing is perfect, so I use two. For the last three years it's been Webroot secureanywhere complete and Kaspersky Pure 3.0.

Norton internet security, been using it for years with no problems at all and you can buy old versions cheap and use their keys. example the last renewal was something like £30 but got the "old" boxed set from a argos outlet store for £5. the key works fine.

For free, Avast and AVG are supposed to be good (you would be best to check the PC Mag reviews).

Bitr Defender internet security 2014 not as expensive as that, you probably will be able to beat the price of £19.00 if you search around,
I used to use Bit defender, but it started getting resource hungry So i changed to eset smart security and you can get good deals on that too, the last retail box version i bought last year was £12 for 1yr &3pc's

I have just cleaned up someones PC that was running really slow, that has avast free on it, waste of time as Mbam found over 100 high risk objects that avast had let through and some where happily running along side it ,
Most of the free av products are very limited in what threats they can protect you from , But no av will stop bloatware such a conduit and other toolbar seach providers installing that are sometims bundled with other free apps if the operater fails to spot the prompts or fails to unselect the bloat/maleware

Thanks for your responses. What do people think about Plusnet's free McAffee?

Home/SOHO which is what it is, and what you can buy retail, McAfee is always amongst the worst in comparative tests such as the ones you've been pointed to.

Kaspersky Internet Security always seems to win magazine tests for protection, but I've used it for 3yrs on Win7.64 and there's often performance issues, usually just a slow startup or non-functioning Firefox addons after Firefox updates but if it's protection you want I don't think there's any better. The best free one at present is Avast, it gives better protection than most paid for AV software. I've also used that on an XP setup and it's been problem free.

I use this one Comodo Internet Security Pro 6, one of the best one.

Haven't had any issues in over 10 years.

My two penny worth. It is my belief that if an AV product is bundled in with a new PC it is more a case of a financial kick back from that provider. Likewise if an ISP offers an AV product then it becomes a disincentive to change ISPs because of the need to buy [or use a free] AV product.

I have no doubt that any AV product will do what it says on the tin but surely the effectiveness of the product is more to do with the frequency/speed that updates are pushed down to update the product. When was the last time you noticed your database changed?

Then assuming you need help from the supplier of the product, how easy is it to contact them for advice in configuring the firewall or help in removing malware or an infection and at what cost?

At quite frequent intervals a new version of the product appears, would that be a free upgrade for you or do you have to buy it?

AV products are akin to the effectiveness of electricity earthling, a life saver if things go seriously wrong. The analogy also applies to the security on your PC, do you really want that protection to be on the cheap or even free? I would be seriously inconvenienced if my PC was infected in any way and therefore use an AV product that ticks all the boxes which I have highlighted above. And that product is rarely seen in retail stores.

I use Avast! free, with periodic scans by MBAM (Malwarebytes antiMalware); with Windows for firewall.
Also WOT plugin to Chrome to reduce risk of visiting dodgy sites.

I do find MBAM sometimes reports things as bad that I consider acceptable and would be irritating if I allowed it to fix them (some cookies in particular).

I find MBAM particularly useful when a careless install from some download inserts dodgy toolbars and search engine preferences.
Avast! and most other AV products don't try to address those.
That is usually when helping out less technical friends, but I am not 100% clear of falling into that trap.

On computers that are just used for browsing and maybe work processing I tend to use Microsoft AV;
it does less well in most reviews but has never let me down in those simple situations.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

I have no doubt that any AV product will do what it says on the tin but surely the effectiveness of the product is more to do with the frequency/speed that updates are pushed down to update the product. When was the last time you noticed your database changed?

Mine is updated every day (that's MSE). I would expect any other AV program to be the same.

In reply to a post by kasg:

Mine is updated every day (that's MSE). I would expect any other AV program to be the same.

Indeed - sounds like some people on here are a bit paranoid and under the 15 year old impression that having no AV means the computer will immediately get infected. I have Windows Defender on all my machines and don't have a problem.

Daily is quite irregular in my opinion. Other solutions will check for updates every few minutes.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Daily is quite irregular in my opinion. Other solutions will check for updates every few minutes.

Check for is completely separate to number of updates issued in a day.

The big vendors normally only issue one update a day, unless there is a big issue in progress, then you might get 5 or once I saw 8 updates in a day. Unless you have a corporate contract that gets updates every 15 mins, but those are not tested in advance.

Avast free is Anti-Virus, Malware Bytes is anti malware two differnt infection sources. Have tried them all over the years and am now running Avast coupled with SuperAntiSpyware with occasional scans with Mbam. Never had an infection problem.

I believe most AV products, free or otherwise, will update as and when required.

I never allow any programme to update automatically and that includes any MS product.

I usually update the AV prog' at least once a week.

I repeat, no issues in over 10 years. It's usually the dodgy websites that users visit or opening emails with attachments so mainly user error and not necessarily the AV that is at fault.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Check for is completely separate to number of updates issued in a day.

Indeed, I was not referring to how often it checks, but how often it actually updates.

Norton had a bad rep for years because it behaved like a virus (difficult to remove without having to format your HDD) and was notorious for slowing systems to a crawl. Then, around the mid 2000s, it suddenly got much, much better. Norton finally got a clue. But I think it's taken a bit of a downturn over the past two years. It performs very badly on older computers (by older, I'm talking about a couple of 2009 laptops I own). It performs great on my much more recent and powerful desktop though. I still find it unusable on that though because the full screen detection which is meant to stop it from scanning (in case you're watching a movie or playing a game) doesn't actually work. I can't tell you how many times I had games crash because it decide to start doing a scan due to inactivity. So I eventually just dumped it in favour of Kapersky which doesn't seem to have any of the above problems.

Nobody using Linux ?

In reply to a post by leej:

So I eventually just dumped it in favour of Kapersky which doesn't seem to have any of the above problems.

Apart from doing odd things to the network stack, so ping times and speed tests go haywire. None of them are perfect, they ALL mess with the operating system at a very low level, they all install low level code for every update that hasn't usually been very well tested.

AV is a nightmare.

In reply to a post by bsanotrun:

Nobody using Linux ?

I use FreeBSD for file serving and email. All email is passed through ClamAV and read with a text mode browser (mutt, with lynx to turn HTML email into text). I have tried kmail etc, but do not like them.

For Windows 7 I use Microsoft Security Essentials (free) and Malwarebytes (paid for), and do not use a mail reader.

I have only once been Trojaned. My fault. I had a zip file of dubious origin, containing further compressed files. Clicked on a supposed self extracting archive and later the machine started misbehaving. Picked what I really wanted to keep from the machine with the (LINUX) System Recovery CD (worth getting to know) with FTP to a FreeBSD machine and checked it with ClamAV, and fitted a new hard disk.

Did something similar to extract wanted (irreplaceable photographs) from a daughter's machine, which was crawling with malware.

I'm with StephenTodd here. Avast free and occasional Malwarebytes scan to flush out the things Avast doesn't find. Not a Chrome user but Firefox with Adblock+ and Ghostery gives a pleasant experience. It's only when browsing without these add-ons you realise how horrible things can be.

I've also used Microsoft's AV and have no complaints. The trouble with any AV software is that you never really know how good it is. Avast usually tells you when it's blocking something. It caugth a dodgy email this morning but I would have caught that myself without Avast. It has missed other dodgy email attachments but again I catach them myself. What you never know about is the website nasties that it fails to catch. Hence you are fairly reliant on expert reviews.

Note: Ghostery can sometimes block some links you actually want to use. Even on the Barclays bank site. Just exemot these on a case by case basis.

Is there not a site somewhere that has all sorts of harmless nasties that you can see how well your AV product is performing?