What's the Best Anti-virus?

[newpgm]

Check out AV-Test a major testing firm.

AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: Jan/Feb 2014

MSE has really slipped.

Jim

Hey - that's great. I love sites with bar graphs
& BitDefenders bar graph looks super!

thanks

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I switched to BitDefender (free) and could not be happier. No nags, very little system usage and excellent protection. I now recommend it to my friends and family with no reservations.

Hmm...BitDefender wasn't even on my radar, free is good. Will definitely check it out.

Looks like there are some exclusions need to be set for MBAM & BD. Are you running MBAM?

Well I agree with both Indie and David and as I always think the best AV is siting in front of the keybaord becase none of them are infallible even the Kspersky I use which ranks really well I still get stuff picked up by MBAM SAS and ADW,

The Bitdefender I did test out and it is a tad naggy but on the whole a good choice for a freebie but there again why insist on a freebie when as I do pay $0.13 a day for a paid for Kaspersky?? and still use on call freebies

 

[newpgm]

why insist on a freebie when as I do pay $0.13 a day for a paid for Kaspersky?? and still use on call freebies

Yes - agree on the whole free business I suppose. Seems a little silly to worry about $50 or whatever for PC security when I just dropped over $100 today on colored MTB tyres & Crocs.

So Kaspersky? Will check it out too.

thanks

Edit: which by the way also has a great bar graph on AV-TEST.

 

[Phone Man]

I see a lot of sales on security software all the time and most now offer protection for 3 PCs which is how many I have.

Jim

 

[newpgm]

Well Phone Man think might leaning in your & ICit2lol's direction & perhaps buying a package is the way to go. From Malwarebytes forum:
I tried it (BD free) out myself, but quickly ditched it for one major reason - I cannot add any exclusions into BitDefender Free.

Looks like the free version does NOT use the same scanning engine either - from PC Mag article:
Q - Do you know if this product uses the exact engine as the paid version or a modified version? It also would be nice to have test from Av-test and Av-comparatives it's too bad.
A - no it does not.
This Free edition is based on the previous v16/2013 engine. The Photon technology is not in the Free version. Only Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Internet Security and Total Security received the 2014 upgrade, with the Photon technology

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I see a lot of sales on security software all the time and most now offer protection for 3 PCs which is how many I have.

Jim

Yep Jim Kaspersky are at it all the time 3PC one year 1PC for two or even three years. What I like about it is that they update the system every year (GUI and stuff) and the licence just carries over just means downloading and saving the new version uninstall the old reinstall and configure. The only gripe have with the is the GUI like the current 2014 isn't always so used friendly as say the 2013 version was.

 

[Layback Bear]

This has some very interesting information.
What anti virus is used the most.

https://www.readability.com/articles/20mkkfna

 

[newpgm]

I didn't realize MSE was so popular, can't be that bad. Or North Americans just like free MS AV.

 

[zapp22]

I just took in and repaired an Acer desktop.
this was used by very careful, responsible adults that don't fool with the pc all day.
it had the latest/greatest Paid Kaspersky suite... whatever its called. Pure, I think.

horribly infected. these things are always a toss of the coin - do I try to disinfect it or simply nuke and startover? sometimes, sheer luck, a couple of doses of remediation and you're done. not so with this one but you don't know that until some tools start surfacing the blackhats.

at any rate: I'm sure its coincidence, but you can pretty well trace the onslaught back to just after the time of the Kaspersky switchover. I don't know what all was used before that. I see a lot of older folks sticking with avg, which is a horror as far as I'm concerned, unless the user is savvy enough to strip it down.

I expressed my view about Kaspersky when I handed the system back over. what they do from here is their biz, until I see it again and charge them again.

 

[ThrashZone]

I didn't realize MSE was so popular, can't be that bad. Or North Americans just like free MS AV.

I use MSE because it's windows friendly,
I've used many in the past and this is the first one that doesn't nag me and let basic viruses infect me,
Proof is in the pudding not because I'm cheap at all I spent up to 99.00 u.s a year for antivirus protection for one suite = did little good,
I do pay for products MABM and SAS because they work
Just because you might pay for an antivirus doesn't mean you get your monies worth, (use what works)
Cheers.

 

[newpgm]

at any rate: I'm sure its coincidence, but you can pretty well trace the onslaught back to just after the time of the Kaspersky switchover. I don't know what all was used before that. I see a lot of older folks sticking with avg, which is a horror as far as I'm concerned, unless the user is savvy enough to strip it down.

I expressed my view about Kaspersky when I handed the system back over. what they do from here is their biz, until I see it again and charge them again.

Another vote against Kaspersky, some of the comments I read on Amazon were harsh. I assume some of the Amazon shoppers are pretty savvy PC users. Dug into this for a day this past weekend & decided what I have now is working well for me = MSE & MBAM. This is one instance where if it aint broke I'm not going to fix it. Couldn't be happier with the way the PC performs.

thank you

I use MSE because it's windows friendly,
I've used many in the past and this is the first one that doesn't nag me and let basic viruses infect me,
Proof is in the pudding not because I'm cheap at all I spent up to 99.00 u.s a year for antivirus protection for one suite = did little good,
I do pay for products MABM and SAS because they work

Yes, I agree MSE is no fuss, no hassle & as far as I know doing a good job. In three years with the MSE/MBAM combo have had no infections - maybe I'm just a boring web surfer :sarc:

Some help from the forum @ Malwarebytes too & thought for sure many posters there would be all about the BitDefender's, Kaspersky's & NOD's but happily found some still using MSE.
Upgraded to MBAM 2.0 Premium yesterday, Seamless. Like the new interface.

Another thanks

 

[Seffrid]

I think the problem with using the one that's top of the latest table is that the tables constantly change. It's like switching to the cheapest energy supplier, it never remains the cheapest for long. At the end of the day life is too short to be constantly comparing these things and switching between them. Uninstalling one program and installing another only to uninstall it later when the next "best" one comes along probably isn't doing your registry any favours!

Over the years I've used Zone Alarm, AVG, Avast, Spyware Doctor, and doubtless one or two others. They've all had problems at one time or another with slowing down the machines as well as throwing up false positives. A couple of years ago I had one of my machines in for repair and took soundings from a couple of the engineers who both said they recommended a combination of MSE for AV and the free version of MBAM for malware. I've followed their advice and have been perfectly happy with the results since then. I also use Windows Firewall and have a Linksys router with its own firewall. Primarily from the security point of view (but also to maximise online gaming performance) I have disabled the wireless aspect of the router and use only wired connections on all my hardware.

I do think it's important that people realise they can't rely just on an AV program but also need an anti-malware program, and also that they know not to have more than one AV program active. Which packages they go for probably doesn't really matter that much, a combination of any of the recognised ones with a safe surfing policy will generally see you ok.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I just took in and repaired an Acer desktop.
this was used by very careful, responsible adults that don't fool with the pc all day.
it had the latest/greatest Paid Kaspersky suite... whatever its called. Pure, I think.

horribly infected. these things are always a toss of the coin - do I try to disinfect it or simply nuke and startover? sometimes, sheer luck, a couple of doses of remediation and you're done. not so with this one but you don't know that until some tools start surfacing the blackhats.

at any rate: I'm sure its coincidence, but you can pretty well trace the onslaught back to just after the time of the Kaspersky switchover. I don't know what all was used before that. I see a lot of older folks sticking with avg, which is a horror as far as I'm concerned, unless the user is savvy enough to strip it down.

I expressed my view about Kaspersky when I handed the system back over. what they do from here is their biz, until I see it again and charge them again.

Yep well it was Pure and not the straight AV net security and I used Pure once before and it is so convoluted as to be unusable. My machines are all Kaspersky 2014 and have been Kaspersky for the last fours years and I have had no problems.
But like any of them it misses stuff that MBAM, SAS and ADW etc etc will pick and of course just how reckless one wants to be on the keyboard is a point that irks me.
There is no way known to man or scene in my mind that there will ever be a totally infallible AV and it does fall down to my last point - the end user. I find this discussion is the endless loop theory and doesn't or will not have any set or proper answer because if those who invade us want to they will always devise another route or technique.
In my mind backing up on a regular basis and reinstalling if one has to is best practice.

 

[Dallas 7]

Well I agree with both Indie and David and as I always think the best AV is siting in front of the keybaord becase none of them are infallible even the Kspersky I use which ranks really well I still get stuff picked up by MBAM SAS and ADW,

The Bitdefender I did test out and it is a tad naggy but on the whole a good choice for a freebie but there again why insist on a freebie when as I do pay $0.13 a day for a paid for Kaspersky?? and still use on call freebies

ICit2lol since you and I talked about Kaspersky before, as you know I did purchase Kaspersky and I've been using it ever since then and it's done an excellent job for me. It's one of the best.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well I agree with both Indie and David and as I always think the best AV is siting in front of the keybaord becase none of them are infallible even the Kspersky I use which ranks really well I still get stuff picked up by MBAM SAS and ADW,

The Bitdefender I did test out and it is a tad naggy but on the whole a good choice for a freebie but there again why insist on a freebie when as I do pay $0.13 a day for a paid for Kaspersky?? and still use on call freebies

ICit2lol since you and I talked about Kaspersky before, as you know I did purchase Kaspersky and I've been using it ever since then and it's done an excellent job for me. It's one of the best.

Yep well that is good to hear Dallas I was just making the point though that this thread is a bit of a revolving door in that we keep going over the same old stuff and really like I said previously the bottom line is how one uses a machine - though having said that there are a few AV's I would not use under any circumstance for reasons od unreliability, resource hogging, poor value for money and incompatibility with other programs one might use.
Kaspersky has it's faults and I for one think the way that change the GUI so much is annoying as the 13 version was so much easier to configure whereas the 14 is a tad convoluted for my liking.

What I have found really good is their rescue disk that scans from boot and it might be an idea if you were interested to make one up to use in times that the usual stuff doesn't work.

Another a mate put me onto was the Emsisoft Emergency Kit though I have only had to use it a couple of times now and that only in the Emergency scan and the Command line scanner.
https://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek/

 

[ThrashZone]

at any rate: I'm sure its coincidence, but you can pretty well trace the onslaught back to just after the time of the Kaspersky switchover. I don't know what all was used before that. I see a lot of older folks sticking with avg, which is a horror as far as I'm concerned, unless the user is savvy enough to strip it down.

I expressed my view about Kaspersky when I handed the system back over. what they do from here is their biz, until I see it again and charge them again.

Another vote against Kaspersky, some of the comments I read on Amazon were horrible. I assume some of the Amazon shoppers are pretty savvy PC users. Dug into this for a day this past weekend & decided what I have now is working well for me = MSE & MBAM. This is one instance where if it aint broke I'm not going to fix it. Couldn't be happier with the way the PC performs.

thank you

I use MSE because it's windows friendly,
I've used many in the past and this is the first one that doesn't nag me and let basic viruses infect me,
Proof is in the pudding not because I'm cheap at all I spent up to 99.00 u.s a year for antivirus protection for one suite = did little good,
I do pay for products MABM and SAS because they work

Yes, I agree MSE is no fuss, no hassle & as far as I know doing a good job. In three years with the MSE/MBAM combo have had no infections - maybe I'm just a boring web surfer :sarc:

Another thanks

Not sure I would be one of those boring surfers,
Testing websites/ clicking on every offered link posted by op's asking questions is risky in it's self
Then you get into going to "No question about it" some sites are very questionable
So I test the combination continuously without any problems that were so present with the biggies in the security suite world or so they would have you think they were the best,
The biggies just want your money,
And not if but when you get infected they want you to pay for a special cleaner service which is most likely a MABM or SAS cleaner or some other companies services to clean your machine you tend to take notice but they hope you don't

 

[ICIT2LOL]

at any rate: I'm sure its coincidence, but you can pretty well trace the onslaught back to just after the time of the Kaspersky switchover. I don't know what all was used before that. I see a lot of older folks sticking with avg, which is a horror as far as I'm concerned, unless the user is savvy enough to strip it down.

I expressed my view about Kaspersky when I handed the system back over. what they do from here is their biz, until I see it again and charge them again.

Another vote against Kaspersky, some of the comments I read on Amazon were horrible. I assume some of the Amazon shoppers are pretty savvy PC users. Dug into this for a day this past weekend & decided what I have now is working well for me = MSE & MBAM. This is one instance where if it aint broke I'm not going to fix it. Couldn't be happier with the way the PC performs.

thank you

I use MSE because it's windows friendly,
I've used many in the past and this is the first one that doesn't nag me and let basic viruses infect me,
Proof is in the pudding not because I'm cheap at all I spent up to 99.00 u.s a year for antivirus protection for one suite = did little good,
I do pay for products MABM and SAS because they work

Yes, I agree MSE is no fuss, no hassle & as far as I know doing a good job. In three years with the MSE/MBAM combo have had no infections - maybe I'm just a boring web surfer :sarc:

Another thanks

Not sure I would be one of those boring surfers,
Testing websites/ clicking on every offered link posted by op's asking questions is risky in it's self
Then you get into going to "No question about it" some sites are very questionable
So I test the combination continuously without any problems that were so present with the biggies in the security suite world or so they would have you think they were the best,
The biggies just want your money,
And not if but when you get infected they want you to pay for a special cleaner service which is most likely a MABM or SAS cleaner or some other companies services to clean your machine you tend to take notice but they hope you don't

Yep well I tend to agree TZ I begrudge in a way paying for something but I would rather pay than like you say try all and everything that other suggest.
Like I said this is the mother of all never ending threads because you will never please all of the people all of the time.
But out of all of the paid for's I will always pick Kaspersky as I have never faulted it and with 50000 + new malwares every day how in the name of reason can you keep up with what is put out after all you have to recognize it first before you can prevent or block it. It really does come down to how reckless one is when using the net or any software.

 

[Dallas 7]

Another vote against Kaspersky, some of the comments I read on Amazon were horrible. I assume some of the Amazon shoppers are pretty savvy PC users. Dug into this for a day this past weekend & decided what I have now is working well for me = MSE & MBAM. This is one instance where if it aint broke I'm not going to fix it. Couldn't be happier with the way the PC performs.

thank you



Yes, I agree MSE is no fuss, no hassle & as far as I know doing a good job. In three years with the MSE/MBAM combo have had no infections - maybe I'm just a boring web surfer :sarc:

Another thanks

Not sure I would be one of those boring surfers,
Testing websites/ clicking on every offered link posted by op's asking questions is risky in it's self
Then you get into going to "No question about it" some sites are very questionable
So I test the combination continuously without any problems that were so present with the biggies in the security suite world or so they would have you think they were the best,
The biggies just want your money,
And not if but when you get infected they want you to pay for a special cleaner service which is most likely a MABM or SAS cleaner or some other companies services to clean your machine you tend to take notice but they hope you don't

Yep well I tend to agree TZ I begrudge in a way paying for something but I would rather pay than like you say try all and everything that other suggest.
Like I said this is the mother of all never ending threads because you will never please all of the people all of the time.
But out of all of the paid for's I will always pick Kaspersky as I have never faulted it and with 50000 + new malwares every day how in the name of reason can you keep up with what is put out after all you have to recognize it first before you can prevent or block it. It really does come down to how reckless one is when using the net or any software.

Like I said, I have Kaspersky also, and it's an excellent product. I don't know if I will ALWAYS pick Kaspersky or not, but I WILL always pick an AV product that is rated at or near the top of the list by
groups like AV-Comparatives and similar organizations, and Kaspersky is rated highly by those groups, unlike MSE.

AV-Comparatives is a well respected independent not-for-profit organization, and in their Real Life Protection Tests in Nov 2013, MSE was rated last in a group of 22 AV products.
Coming in last in a long list of products is not the kind of protection I would ever recommend to anyone who is interested in protecting their computer.
AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection Test August-November 2013 » AV-Comparatives

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep well like I said before it really depends on who is operating the machine and no matter how good the AV is none are infallible. I go Kaspersky mainly because it rates well all the time and it is always around half what the other major brands are.
It sort of reminds me of you can please some of the people some of the time and none of the people all of the time

 

[Dallas 7]

Yep well like I said before it really depends on who is operating the machine and no matter how good the AV is none are infallible. I go Kaspersky mainly because it rates well all the time and it is always around half what the other major brands are.
It sort of reminds me of you can please some of the people some of the time and none of the people all of the time

You're perfectly right of course, none are infallible. Not all AV programs are created equal, that's why I advocate using an organization like AV-Comparatives to help make a decision along with personal recommendations. Personal recommendations are very helpful, that's what makes Seven Forums a tremendous source of helpful information.
I'm just a firm believer that information from sources like AV-Comparatives should be factored in as well.