What's the Best Anti-virus?

[poorguy]

yes they can and are. poorguy

 

[poorguy]

guess it just comes down as to how well one pays attention to what is being downloaded. i have also been tricked by hidden add ons. seems everyone has there on tool bar they want you to load. the adwcleaner wanted to down load a tool bar and stated that it would not worl properly if i didn't however i did have the option to disable it once i ran the program. poorguy

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes mate they never used to have that crap on that site and I am going to have a look at another venue and if necessary translate from the French LOL!!

 

[A Guy]

I always download from Bleepingcomputer myself. But what happens in general is you have updated certain software for what seems like forever, and suddenly there is a klingon inside that was never there. Now you are reseting search engines in browsers, and removing toolbars, etc. My layered security will usually catch it at some level. Often Scotty barks at me about some new startup. I am careful of course. A Guy

 

[COMPUTIAC]

I always download from Bleepingcomputer myself. But what happens in general is you have updated certain software for what seems like forever, and suddenly there is a klingon inside that was never there. Now you are reseting search engines in browsers, and removing toolbars, etc. My layered security will usually catch it at some level. Often Scotty barks at me about some new startup. I am careful of course. A Guy

Yes, Scotty can be vocal at times.
I usually feed him some unwanted cookies so he will be quiet.

 

[zapp22]

the discussion tells me that this is about learned-behavior. still using these packages because they gave us warm fuzzies in the past, the elusion of security. I work on a lot of systems, and have used avast a lot in the past [no more] - I have gone back into such 2 years later to disinfect from things that slipped past avast [as well as the other popular packages]. 'tis true that the human is the best and worst part of the security apparatus. "AV" is a misnomer, as we all know. classical 'viruses' are not much of a threat. the most malicious types of code out in the wild will get past all these defenses, as recent events have shown again. but, the most sophisticated code is not really aimed at causing mayhem for the underlings - they are aimed at the corporates. for the average small business or SOHO user of pc's [a shrinking universe now... imploding] the more aggravating "infections" are gray... adware, marketingware, interference-ware, redirect-ware, browser-ware, etc. we can't save people from themselves... if they go installing weather-apps and toolbars, they're going to pay me to cleanup. none of these packages will prevent that [except scotty, in a way, but that too is a learning curve and apt to just annoy the disinterested]

with win8 and win7, there is just no point in these aftermarket utilities and I do not trust the motives of the humans that are left holding the bag on those outdated products. they are susceptible to being "turned" by hefty cash payouts for blackhat meddlers. and I reiterate: you do NOT know what those packages are doing in the background.

there are comments all through this very long thread of this type: "I've used xyz av package for years and 'never had an issue' ". that's hardly a ringing endorsement. the one useful feature of any that has been effective many times has been Avast's look-ahead link detection. I wish all browsers would incorporate this type of technique. best I can tell, only Chrome does so effectively. but the price of Avasts intereference /spamming is too high. its just not a good end user util anymore. I expect many of these will either become marketingware over the next few years, or disappear, and poorly maintained.
think about it: would you put your best/brightest talent on these products, or where the action is in handsets?

 

[poorguy]

the discussion tells me that this is about learned-behavior. still using these packages because they gave us warm fuzzies in the past, the elusion of security. I work on a lot of systems, and have used avast a lot in the past [no more] - I have gone back into such 2 years later to disinfect from things that slipped past avast [as well as the other popular packages]. 'tis true that the human is the best and worst part of the security apparatus. "AV" is a misnomer, as we all know. classical 'viruses' are not much of a threat. the most malicious types of code out in the wild will get past all these defenses, as recent events have shown again. but, the most sophisticated code is not really aimed at causing mayhem for the underlings - they are aimed at the corporates. for the average small business or SOHO user of pc's [a shrinking universe now... imploding] the more aggravating "infections" are gray... adware, marketingware, interference-ware, redirect-ware, browser-ware, etc. we can't save people from themselves... if they go installing weather-apps and toolbars, they're going to pay me to cleanup. none of these packages will prevent that [except scotty, in a way, but that too is a learning curve and apt to just annoy the disinterested]

with win8 and win7, there is just no point in these aftermarket utilities and I do not trust the motives of the humans that are left holding the bag on those outdated products. they are susceptible to being "turned" by hefty cash payouts for blackhat meddlers. and I reiterate: you do NOT know what those packages are doing in the background.

there are comments all through this very long thread of this type: "I've used xyz av package for years and 'never had an issue' ". that's hardly a ringing endorsement. the one useful feature of any that has been effective many times has been Avast's look-ahead link detection. I wish all browsers would incorporate this type of technique. best I can tell, only Chrome does so effectively. but the price of Avasts intereference /spamming is too high. its just not a good end user util anymore. I expect many of these will either become marketingware over the next few years, or disappear, and poorly maintained.
think about it: would you put your best/brightest talent on these products, or where the action is in handsets?

sounds as though you have invested interest. cut and dry pick an antivirus that works for you and use it. they are free and no complaints. they are all the same. they provide basic protection. that is all. i have had things slip by the great MSE to they are all the same none are any better than the rest. COMMON SENSE is the best antivirus that you can get. however no download can be found for it. only my opinion. thanks for the space. poorguy

 

[UsernameIssues]

~~~
there are comments all through this very long thread of this type: "I've used xyz av package for years and 'never had an issue' ". that's hardly a ringing endorsement. the one useful feature of any that has been effective many times has been Avast's look-ahead link detection.
~~~

When something flags a website, do you count that as a problem averted because you did not visit that website? How many of these websites were harmless - but flagged in error? If you found out that the false positive error rate was 85% - would you still consider it a good feature?

I'm not saying that the error rate is that high - I'm just saying that until you know the error rate and the economic impact of incorrectly flagging a website - then I'm not sure that you can say that this is a good feature. One errant flagging can take a webmaster months of labor to undo and the reputation damage is never totally undone.

 

[poorguy]

hey UsernameIssues, what is your choice for antivirus and what do you use. just curious. i believe that all antivirus paid or free gives false positives. anytime i get a flag i look up what it is to see if it is something to be concerned about. i use avast free and avg free and i can say that avast does give me more false hits than avg does. i would rather have that than not but once i find out what the flag was for then i make the choice to allow or not. i also get flags on both when i download software from certain sites due to there added crap or download manager that they think you need. poorguy

 

[UsernameIssues]

When those running this forum announced that a field had been added in the My System Specs area for antivirus, I added that info

I use a laptop provided by my employer. That employer mandates that Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) be installed. I don't list a version number because it could change at any time without me knowing it. Updates are done silently. I'm pretty sure that the laptop came with SEP11, but now it has SEP12. SEP has not flagged any file as bad during the 3 years that I've had this laptop. Does that mean that SEP is not very good at catching things or does it mean that I'm good at not getting infected?

I have been installing Microsoft Security Essentials on computers that I support (you know: for family, friends and friends of friends). I've not seen any false positives on those computers; but I've seen less protection than I would like from MSE. I've moved one of my "clients" over to Panda Cloud Antivirus... but I really need to spend more time studying PCA before I move others to it or recommenced it. When troubleshooting problems on a computer, MSE is the way to go. I've only seen one app that failed to get along with MSE, but that was years ago. The app and MSE have both changed. They get along now.

I understand about false positives on files. I write/compile scripts (mostly using AutoIt). I have had my scripts flagged just because they are written in AutoIt and/or compressed using UPX. See this post. If you have used an app for years & now it is flagged as bad - you could surf to the vendor's website and see if they know about the issue or if they can explain things to your satisfaction.

If you had been visiting a website (like this one) for years... what would you do if your security app suddenly blocked or flagged it? Where could you go for info about what is going on? There is a real possibility that good websites (like this one) can get compromised and start infecting those that visit. So, you stay away*. You cannot surf to the website to see if there is an explanation. (e.g. is was a false positive or we have cleaned things up).

*okay, normal people stay away. Geeks like us might boot up a virtual machine and surf to the "infected site" anyway.

These negative website ratings are copied to hundreds of other website reputation systems in a matter of minutes. Some of those systems have no human to talk to about getting the reputation changed back to clean. It is a webmaster's nightmare.

 

[poorguy]

hey UsernameIssues, i use panda cloud antivirus free on my laptops and have been fine with it. i agree that mse has some holes in it but i think they all do. i have had websites as you said been going to for years and get blocked. after a search and i find nothing i go ahead and allow it. i have 1 desktop that the only antivirus on it is only if i decide to run a scan. no real time protection at all. never been hit with anything. i go to all sorts of p2p and omg those porn sites that no one visits but have only heard of and i still have come out clean only the normal tracking cookies when i do run on demand antivirus and malware tools. here again "Smart Surfing Habits" or just plain been lucky. as far as venders knowing about what causes problems i doubt it. most people don't even send reports back or even know how to so that an error if so could be fixed or worked around. that is just my guess and i to am guilty of not sending a report sometimes. norton power eraser has been a very useful tool for problems that i have had or have helped others with. i like freeware and i try alot of different stuff. there is alot of good freeware around that does a basic service as far as protection etc. 1 must research before one trusts or 1 may wind up being very unhappy and feel violated. i have used paid antivirus but there are so many good free antivirus choices out there and yeah they all have there own issues but for the most i still think they do what they are suppose to do and that is to provide Basic Protection and that is better for most then to not have any. just my thoughts. poorguy

 

[StormTrooper]

Hey guys is webroot a good anti virus?

 

[poorguy]

hey stormtrooper, never have used it myself and have not heard anything bad about it. i believe it is a paid antivirus solution. i also believe that it is one of the better paid antivirus out there. poorguy

 

[StormTrooper]

hey stormtrooper, never have used it myself and have not heard anything bad about it. i believe it is a paid antivirus solution. i also believe that it is one of the better paid antivirus out there. poorguy

Yes. My friend gave me a code for this webfoot so i was just wondering if this is a good one

 

[UsernameIssues]

hey stormtrooper, never have used it myself and have not heard anything bad about it. i believe it is a paid antivirus solution. i also believe that it is one of the better paid antivirus out there. poorguy

Yes. My friend gave me a code for this webfoot so i was just wondering if this is a good one

Maybe you should comment on this thread: http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/323243-webroot-causing-weird-windows-7-glitches.html

 

[poorguy]

well that is why we check the windows 7 forums. seems someone has always found better info or has tested a software product already. good find usernameissues. poorguy

 

[poorguy]

thats why i stick with what i have and never any issues. poorguy

 

[ICIT2LOL]

hey stormtrooper, never have used it myself and have not heard anything bad about it. i believe it is a paid antivirus solution. i also believe that it is one of the better paid antivirus out there. poorguy

Yes. My friend gave me a code for this webfoot so i was just wondering if this is a good one

Take a look at this test site it doesn't rate that good bt like any AV it really depends on the person tapping the keyboard.
Results and comments - www.matousec.com

I do think some are better than others I have run Kaspersky for years now and still get stuff picked up with Malwarebytes SuperAntiSoftawre and ADW (on call scanners you need)


http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

download from bleeping computer – delete any rubbish these find.

 

[poorguy]

according to www.matousec.com: Security software testing, analyses, research and reviews. none are any good. poorguy

 

[StormTrooper]

I have Webroot SecureAnywhere® AntiVirus . Hit me up if you guys want