Best virus protection for computers

[marz68]

So I just bought my self a new lap top and am getting ready to hook up the NET.
What would be the best virus protection program available.
The IT guy at work told me to use AVAST and our old IT guy recomended LIVE CARE ONE.

I will be running a small buisiness and there will be credit cards involed here so what do you guys recommend?

Thanks

[Ranchero50]

MCaffee and Norton are just about viruses themselves anymore.  AVG is getting bloated to the point it just about stopped my puter and I don't run it anymore.  Avast is supposed to be good but quite honestly I don't run any anymore and haven't had problems.  I do run Malewarebytes every other week if I remember and it was finding stuff AVG was missing.  The puter is much faster without AVG too.  I leave the windows firewall and pop up blocker run and of course, don't keep sensitive info on the puter.  I'm almost to the point that the virus programs run on peoples fears more than any actual puter problems.

That being said I do go on questionable sites (music downloads, p_orn, etc)

Jamie

[marz68]

Thanks ranchero! see who elese chimes in

[fordman]

i had avg and it quit on me. for doing the daily virus scans. and i coul dnot do it manually either. so i dumped it. and reloaded avg 9 today. i was told avast is better by my it guy.

[george worley]

I had avg and it missed a lot of viruses. My friend who fixed my problem works for ATT as a internet trouble shooter told me avast was the best in his mind that I could get for free. I have had avast for at least a year and have had no problems . He said its a good to do a manuel scan every week or two.

[Redcap]

I haven't had an antivirus program for years.  Yes, I'm on a PC.  I also download lots of stuff; music, apps, games, other.  No problems either.

Just be smart with your usage.

[marks69]

i use avast on one computer and the new windows live antivirus on another.  both work well, minimal junk included.  i've run the avast for about 5 years with never a problem.
stay away from norton, avg, and mcafee.  they will slow the comp down alot.
gl
mark

[FLATBEDFORD]

We have had good luck with Norton 360 on the four windows machines in my family. No problems and excellent customer service if I do need it. It is not free, but not crazy expensive either. I just don't remember what the yearly fee is.

[binder56jd]

for business purposes, you would be well ahead to "buy", as in pay money, for a program from a local dealer that includes support(something to use--a loaner-in the case of infection)---commercial accounts have a much greater risk of attack from viruses than personal users


just a friendly heads up

[70_F100]

The company I work for (global company) uses McAfee on all of our machines.  I'm sure it's an "Enterprise" version, which is MUCH more complete and expensive.

I've been using Norton for the last 17 years, and I've NEVER had a virus (knock on wood, my head works well for that   ).

One point, though, is that I'm VERY careful, as Redcap suggested...

[MadJeff]

As an IT network and security guy, for the free offerings I use Avast or the new Microsoft Security Essentials. Another excellent free AV program is Avira, it's actually one of the best free ones but has a nag screen that is sometimes annoying. All of these have excellent detection rates as well as low memory/cpu footprint.

Norton used to be junk but has got better over the past year or so. McAffee is junk, stay away. =)

another commercial one is Eset's NOD32, but the first three are as good and free.

Avast Home Edition
http://www.avast.com

Microsoft's Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Avira
http://www.avira.com

[fordman]

eset has an online scanner also. http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

[1971ford]

we just got norton, its like $35 a year and it is amazing

[Redcap]

we just got norton, its like $35 a year and it is amazing

Trust me, it really isn't.

If you must use one, NOD32 is the one.  After that, Avast is okay...but bloated and slow.  AVG sucks, McAfee sucks, Norton REALLY sucks and absolutely DO NOT trust any of your machine's security to Microsnot.

[Ranchero50]

Ryan, open your email and a bunch of other stuff at once and watch performance go by the board...  Open task manager click 'processes' and look at 'memory usage' and 'page faults' per process.  The bloated self congratulatory virus programs will suck up memory and page faults causing other things slow down or not work correctly.

Jamie