Good antivirus in current year.

[divengrabber]

hi all,

i am searching for good antivirus. which help me to protect from online Trojans and unwanted cookies. Because our business fully base on internet surfing. So everyday bulk of virus infected our pc. We tired of them.

Please suggest me which of the antivirus protect our computer?

Thanks

[LoRd_MuldeR]

You are not allowed to ask "what's best" on this forum, because there is no clear answer. Best is what works best for you. So please edit the title and rephrase your post.

I personally use Avira AntiVir. I'm using it since the mid 90's (when updates still came on Floppy disc) and I can say that I'm quite satisfied. There is a free version (http://free-av.com/) available.

If you just need to scan a single suspicious file with multiple A/V engines, I'd use http://www.virustotal.com/ for that purpose ;)

[rack04]

Personally I don't use any Antivirus. I don't download any suspect content so I don't tend to worry much.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Personally I don't use any Antivirus. I don't download any suspect content so I don't tend to worry much.

Uhm, you know that your OS, your web-browser or any other software used to play/view files from "external" sources may contain security vulnerabilities, right? So if your computer ever gets infected, this probably isn't because you explicitly downloaded/executed a specific file, but because the attacker exploited a vulnerability in a software already installed/running on your computer. This may not require any user interaction at all! So unless you are running on some "exotic" OS, running without an up-to-date A/V software is highly careless! Good A/V software is available for free and doesn't slow down you computer noteworthy...

But it's your computer after all. You decide ;)

[clsid]

Read this site and make your own conclusion about which one is the best:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

[Blue_MiSfit]

One comment about Avira - it's a great antivirus, one of my favorites! Unfortunately, the freeware version is extremely nagging, and displays popups frequently.

I switched to Avast free recently, and it's quite good. It has a clunky UI, but that's not such a big deal because it's always minimized to my tray. It has frequent updates, and has saved my butt several times :)

~MiSfit

[LoRd_MuldeR]

One comment about Avira - it's a great antivirus, one of my favorites! Unfortunately, the freeware version is extremely nagging, and displays popups frequently.

You can disable the "advertising" popup that appears when updating Avira Free Antivirus quite easily:

Just run "Local Security Policy" from the "Administrative Tools" and then goto "Software Restriction Policies" -> "Additional Rules".

Finally add a new "Path Rule", set the Path to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\avnotify.exe" and change the "Security Level" to "Disallowed".

Done :D

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'm familiar with that trick, but it always seemed to reset after awhile.

/shrug

~MiSfit

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I'm familiar with that trick, but it always seemed to reset after awhile.

Didn't reset for me after months. Maybe you did something else on your system which caused the "Path Rule" to be reset :confused:

[Shinigami-Sama]

eset's nod32 baby
full AV protection at about 25MB of memory consumption, maybe 50 while scanning
and fast fast fast :D

[Dark Eiri]

I'm actually quite satisfied with Microsoft Security Essentials. It didn't let me down once, since I started using it (early betas).

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I'm actually quite satisfied with Microsoft Security Essentials. It didn't let me down once, since I started using it (early betas).

I have it installed too. Couldn't resist to give it a try ;)

But I had to disable the "real-time protection" feature, because it slows down application start significantly :scared:

[littleD]

OK heres what i use:
First wall: Firefox+NoScript+AdBlock free
Second wall: Avira Free Antivirus
Third wall: Ad-Aware free, occasional scans
Fourth wall: My little brain ;) free

No viruses from a long time. I have to deal only with ones from pendrives; most popular these days.

BTW.ThX for avira trick.

[Nematocyst]

i am searching for good antivirus. which help me to protect from online Trojans and unwanted cookies. Because our business fully base on internet surfing. So everyday bulk of virus infected our pc. We tired of them.

Please suggest me which of the antivirus protect our computer

If browsing is the bulk of your problems, perhaps you'd be better off with something like Sandboxie (http://www.sandboxie.com/) to deal with that sort of malware.

One other piece of advice: get a good backup plan and do it regularly.

[divengrabber]

hey guys thanks for sharing your comment and advice.

[gizzin]

I would say Avira is the best simply because it has the best detection rates, and its free. You just have to deal with a popup, that tells you to upgrade from time to time. It you want something good you have to pay for Kaspersky would be my choice.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I would say Avira is the best simply because it has the best detection rates, and its free. You just have to deal with a popup, that tells you to upgrade from time to time.

No, you don't have to, if you know how to set up a simple Software Restriction Policy rule :p
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1332428&postcount=7

[Dark Eiri]

I have it installed too. Couldn't resist to give it a try ;)

But I had to disable the "real-time protection" feature, because it slows down application start significantly :scared:

Hmm, I didn't have that problem. It does slows down installs significantly, though.

[IgorC]

+1 for Avira free AV. Great antivirus with light weight, no problem during many years.

It's also very important to have all OS's service packs and patches. I remeber I got a lot of trouble with viruses and malware with Windows XP SP1 no matter what AV I ran. When I installed the latest sevice pack + all security patches I've never get back to infect OS.

[dstln]

I'm fairly happy with MSE except for the whole spynet thing >_<

Too bad most people probably won't ever know about it and keep buying their mcafee.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Hmm, I didn't have that problem. It does slows down installs significantly, though.

May depend on the size of the executable and if the EXE is packed or not.

With one of my own projects, namely LameXP, I do notice a significant difference in startup time for sure...

[Shinigami-Sama]

May depend on the size of the executable and if the EXE is packed or not.

With one of my own projects, namely LameXP, I do notice a significant difference in startup time for sure...

this is what exceptions are for though

[LoRd_MuldeR]

this is what exceptions are for though

Excluding applications you use frequently from the virus scanner contradicts the concept of "real-time protection", doesn't it? ^^

Using the exclusion list for anything but known false positives is inherently unsafe...

[Shinigami-Sama]

Using the exclusion list for anything but known false positives is inherently unsafe...

or applications that are known to be safe yet have a significant performance penalty from antivirus software

and if you have an antivirus worth is salt it scans http(80,8080,squid) anyways so it'd get picked up before you can even run it anways

[LoRd_MuldeR]

or applications that are known to be safe yet have a significant performance penalty from antivirus software

Even applications that are known to be safe can be infected by virus and thus stop being safe :p

[Irakli]

Even applications that are known to be safe can be infected by virus and thus stop being safe :p

Shouldn't good antivirus detect the change of executable and disable the exclusion from real time protection? For example, Kaspersky behaves that way on my PC. If I add an appication to Trusted Zone, and the application executable changes due to e.g. update, the executable no longer considered to be Trusted (i.e. you have to add it to Trusted Zone again).

[Przemek_Sperling]

I have to say that I love Microsoft Security Essentials because of many reasons - true "set and forget" policy, almost no false positives (what a nightmare in case of other antiviral solutions!), and cloud processing (aka "spynet", btw cloud processing is also implemented in Panda Cloud Antivirus and the newest Avast betas - both freeware). Moreover, it does not slow my machine down. I do not like Microsoft but I have to say that MSE impressed me. Well done Microsoft!

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Shouldn't good antivirus detect the change of executable and disable the exclusion from real time protection? For example, Kaspersky behaves that way on my PC. If I add an appication to Trusted Zone, and the application executable changes due to e.g. update, the executable no longer considered to be Trusted (i.e. you have to add it to Trusted Zone again).

That should work, if you exclude a file by SHA1-Hash or something, instead of by a file name pattern.

But then the A/V software needs to calculate the Hash every single time to decide whether the file has been modified or not. Only if it has changed, it would be scanned.

This is much more secure than a simple file name filter, indeed. But of course it will be much slower at the same time.

So obviously this is a typical performance -vs- security trade-off. You can't say one solution is better or worse than the other in general...

[Irakli]

Thanks for your explanation, Lord_Mulder. You are absolutely right about performance-security trade-off. In fact, I was so tired of Kasperky slowing down my system, that I uninstalled it and installed Microsoft's Security Essentials. So far (after 3 days of using MSE), I'm quite impressed with it. It doesn't slow down my system much, it updates frequently and, from what I've read in various reviews, it's malware/virus detection rates are very impressive (plus, few to no false positives).

However, while MSE is great, I find windows firewall inadequate. A leak test using this (http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm) utility determined that Windows firewall was unable to properly block a connection (despite the fact that I spent some time configuring it).

So, can anyone suggest a good alternative to Windows firewall?

[Astrophizz]

Comodo makes an excellent free firewall in my opinion.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

So, can anyone suggest a good alternative to Windows firewall?

Use a router :D

If you are behind a router, any incoming port is blocked automatically - unless you explicitly forward it to a local machine ("virtual server").

And blocking outgoing connections is kind of useless anyway, because a software already running on the local system can circumvent a software firewall anyway.

Also if you don't trust some software, instead of blocking its outgoing connections, better don't install it ;)

However when you really need a free software firewall for Windows, then ZoneAlaram (http://download.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10039884.html) seems to be a pretty popular alternative to Windows Firewall...

[mickyching]

Hi dude,

I suggest you to use Bit defender antivirus for your PC security. Currently I have the same.

[LaTo]

I use ESET Nod32 + Outpost Firewall ;)

[RickB]

I was using Avira antivirus, the free edition for 2 years but have now removed it as it could not update. It appears that this has become quite common. I have put the Microsoft Anti Virus on my PC which seems okay.

[khat17]

One comment about Avira - it's a great antivirus, one of my favorites! Unfortunately, the freeware version is extremely nagging, and displays popups frequently.

I switched to Avast free recently, and it's quite good. It has a clunky UI, but that's not such a big deal because it's always minimized to my tray. It has frequent updates, and has saved my butt several times :)

~MiSfit

eset's nod32 baby
full AV protection at about 25MB of memory consumption, maybe 50 while scanning
and fast fast fast :D

I'm actually quite satisfied with Microsoft Security Essentials. It didn't let me down once, since I started using it (early betas).

OK heres what i use:
First wall: Firefox+NoScript+AdBlock free
Second wall: Avira Free Antivirus
Third wall: Ad-Aware free, occasional scans
Fourth wall: My little brain ;) free

No viruses from a long time. I have to deal only with ones from pendrives; most popular these days.

BTW.ThX for avira trick.

I use ESET Nod32 + Outpost Firewall ;)

I was using Avira antivirus, the free edition for 2 years but have now removed it as it could not update. It appears that this has become quite common. I have put the Microsoft Anti Virus on my PC which seems okay.

It depends on what you want. Check out the comparisons for yourself. For me - personally - for something free I'd go with AVIRA or AVG or PANDA. For paid, I currently have ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite - and if not that, I'd have purchased BitDefender.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Just for info: Here's a handy tool that will automatically configure Windows to suppress the AntiVir notifier:
http://www.german-unattended.de/wbb/index.php?page=Attachment&attachmentID=2890

[stax76]

This may not require any user interaction at all! So unless you are running on some "exotic" OS, running without an up-to-date A/V software is highly careless!

Careless like not having 15 insurances? 2 open eyes were always everything I ever needed.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Careless like not having 15 insurances? 2 open eyes were always everything I ever needed.

Good that a "Do you really want to download and install the malware?" dialog will pop up as soon as an attacker is injecting malicious code into your system by exploiting a not-yet-fixed security vulnerability in your web-browser. This way you can use your eyes and simply click to "No" button in order to defend the attack :p </sarcasm>

And now don't tell me that your web-browser is 100% safe from exploits! All the major browser engines (IE/Gecko/WebKit/Opera) had security vulnerabilities in the past which potentially allowed remote code injection and execution. It would be naive to assume that this won't happen again. Also don't tell me that you don't visit any "dangerous" web-sites or don't click any "dubious" hyperlinks. Numerous reputable web-sites have been hacked and infected with malicious code in the past. Again it would be naive to assume that this cannot happen in the future. And this was only one example. The same kind of security vulnerability can be present in Image/PDF Viewers, Operating Systems and so on. Keeping your eyes open is important. But there are many attacks that simply cannot be noticed by the user until it's too late...

[mariush]

I'm using NOD32 and I find it fast enough to almost not notice it. It does get a bit crazy when downloading 2 MB x264.exe that's packed - it takes NOD32 about 3-5 seconds to unpack it and scan it in the virtual machine or whatever it does - anyway I definitely notice it.

However it's very good, and it's true what is said about not being safe from exploits and viruses even if you're the most careful person. For example, there were some exploits recently found in Acrobat Reader that would get you simply by launching a popup ad that uses Javascript to open a PDF file in the window - by default Acrobat will open them in the browser. Had to go to options and disable this "feature" after I read the articles on news sites.

It's true about the router thing, better than any firewall. I had some fun for about two weeks taking down the firewall on one of my dedicated servers - had 370 thousand failed connections to the mysql server in these two weeks - there are tons of bots scanning computers for ports and trying to guess passwords so make sure you use long and complex passwords.

[stax76]

@LoRd_MuldeR

I use Windows since 15 years without anti virus software and never noticed a infection, last time I visited a cracker site was months ago and I used VirtualBox. Even when catching some malware usually it can be cleaned up in a few minutes, I did that often for friends and relatives. I've also disabled auto updating of Windows and didn't update it since month. I totally fail to see what bad things could happen, passwords and things on my PC are encrypted with a small application of my own.

[RunningSkittle]

@LoRd_MuldeR

I use Windows since 15 years without anti virus software and never noticed a infection, last time I visited a cracker site was months ago and I used VirtualBox. Even when catching some malware usually it can be cleaned up in a few minutes, I did that often for friends and relatives. I've also disabled auto updating of Windows and didn't update it since month. I totally fail to see what bad things could happen, passwords and things on my PC are encrypted with a small application of my own.

Then youve never experienced a badly infected XP machine that has a million fake error messages/popups and slows the computer to a crawl ;) (hint: its more common than you suggest)

[lych_necross]

I'll add my 2 cents. I use Microsoft Security Essentials. Its free, non-invasive, highly rated (plus, MS also makes the OS).

[stax76]

Then youve never experienced a badly infected XP machine that has a million fake error messages/popups and slows the computer to a crawl (hint: its more common than you suggest)

I repaired a locked Vista machine for a friend by booting into console doing a system recovery, after 15 minutes the system was running again. His machine was infected every week so I installed the free MS anti virus software, told him to use FireFox instead of IE and told him to take care of exe files because his download history was full of files like pornmovie.exe.

[Blue_MiSfit]

LOL.... people's usage patterns are hilarious...

I personally use Avast, and am very happy with it. This combined with the Windows firewall, and Windows Defender has kept me malware free for many years. I think the last time I got a virus was back in 2003.

It's really all about safe browsing habits. Tell your friend to use reputable porn sites, and stay off Kazaa ;)

~MiSfit

[StainlessS]

I use Comodo Internet Security, free. Quite good realtime antivirus, good firewall and HIPS.
Also
Avira free, on demand. Good, (surely, just renaming the offending popup exe will prevent it running).
Avast free, on demand, Good.
AVG free, on demand Good.
Clamwin free, on demand, fairly good av, fast updates.
A-Squared free, on demand, fast av, a bit of a panic merchant (not such a bad thing to have one), download entire database every time!
WinPatrol free, good, detects changes to system eg new entries in HKLM/RUN, Allows disabling of such etc. Would not be without this.
Spybot free, in non-resident mode, stop background downloads from malicious sites.

Zone Alarm Firewall, did use, is good, AV no longer a contender. Went Comodo.

Take a look at Comodo, some additional stuff on-site, eg Free DNS service.

A couple of days ago in the pub, a bloke was complaining about being virus infected. He told how he did not have any security s/w installed
because he did not need it, nothing of importance on his machine, but he did moan about his un-important machine being unusable.

EDIT:- Oh yeah, lastly, if going anywhere dodgy, use FireFox, one helluva lot safer that ie.

[cavinsmither]

According to me There are lots of Anti virus are available in market like Kasper sky, Quick heal, AVG,e-scan,etc...Among them i would like one of the most is Quick Heal because it will prevent web browser virus and detecting system virus and also it will fired all virus.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Avira AntiVir 10 is out:
http://dlce.antivir.com/package/wks_avira/win32/en/pecl/avira_antivir_personal_en.zip

Revamped GUI, better repair capability and a brand-new behaviour-based detector. The latter is only available in non-free version.

[StainlessS]

I shall have to check out AntiVir 10 your Lordship.

Comodo has released new upgrade to CIS (Comodo
Internet Security), quite a significant one, the
behaviour-based detector (sounds like HIPS to me)
has always been free in CIS, only the 24/7 online
support costs wonga (also comes with a number of
additional facilities eg WiFi Security.)
Current new version has also just had a face lift,
and now has a built in Sandbox, I'de say that
sandbox/AV conflicts, are a thing of the past. :)

[Khaaan!]

Security Essentials still has the Disk I/O/CPU hog bug where it uses 100%~ CPU when viewing a folder which contains a lot of executables. This doesn't happen for any other AV I have tried and this bug is reported often on the Microsoft MSE forums but never admitted as a bug by MS from what I have seen. My folder is my software archive folder which has 19GB of data and loading that folder takes ages.

Video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZMiVMYqRJo

Personally I use AVAST Version 5 FREE which is great and offers more control over MSE.

I've used AVG/AntiVIR/Nod32/Kasperky/BitDefender/MSE Ongoing Beta etc and AVAST always comes out as the most usable and controllable for all my machines (Win7x64 + x86).

[littleD]

Why even antivirus? ;) Chrome won second time in Pown2Own (http://lifehacker.com/5177709/chrome-the-only-browser-standing-in-pwn2own-contest)
But if you dont like Chrome, you can use use your favourite browser through Sandboxie (http://www.sandboxie.com/) with similar to chrome safe sandbox protection.
But anyway, for pendrive viruses, antivirus is still needed.