Best Anti-Virus and Anti-spyware?

Like many new laptop owners, I've got the Norton Internet Security trial period up and running. To my knowledge, it's done a good job of keeping me safe in the past (and I tend to avoid dodgy websites anyway!) but I'm wondering if there are any 'better' solutions out there. I guess key factors might be:

- Processor usage (I hear Norton is baaaaaaaad...? Is this true? Are there any better?)

- General reputation - is it actually as good at Norton at stopping the bad guys ?

- Automatic updates etc.

- Firewall protection

- Price?

I'm running Windows Vista by the way, and use Windows Defender to sweep now and then. I'm also looking for a neat little anti-spy program. I currently use BT Yahoo Anti-Spy just out of habit, but it doesn't work well with Windows Vista Home Premium. Are there any good (free) options out there? What about Ad-Aware?

Thanks guys!

 

ad-aware is a really good anti-spyware program..

i use windows xp though... i'm not sure about windows vista.
i use:

-zonealarm security suite (anti-spyware/virus/firewall/The Lot!
-spyware blaster
-ad-aware
-spybot search & destroy

i found this combination to be excellent.

 

AVG, Avast are both excellent programs.

Norton uses a huge amount of your background processes.

 

Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy are good free antispyware programs (better to use both...there is always something left when you only use one)

Antivir, AVG and Avast are good free antivirus programs (light on resources...vs Mcafee and Norton that make a computer slow)

 

Best isn't actually a good term to classify AV/AS software.

If you want to pay for a product then by all means buy ESET's Smart Security. Its based on their NOD32 AV, and has a very low memory footprint and resource use overall. ( link)

If you don't want to spend money you still have great options: AVGFree or Avast! wil both do a good job, although I prefer AVG because of its lower memory footprint.

Regarding spyware, I rather prevent spyware from installing in the first place, so I don't have to run spyware removers at all. That's the reason why I use Firefox and Spyware Blaster.

Never experienced any problems with this combo for a long time now.

 

ESET or Kaspersky? Which one is better, if I wanted to pay for my AV?

 

imo after being a eset nod32 user for almost 5 years i will not recc ess. to many issues resource usage is up more than ever .. its not a bad program but way to many bugs still being worked out. they are releasing new versions all the time right now to fix everything if you want to go with that id wait a bit till they are all ironed out.

be careful with kaspersky. kaspersky adds its own "markers" to each file on your system. this can not be disabled for every day use. this is known to cause issues with windows chkdsk utility. they are working on version 8 which is supposed to fix this issue but its still in beta now.

i like avira suite if you want a suite. its super light lighter than even eset smart security right now. i see much less of an impact then even eset and trust me im picky. it has some quirks but its a great program and easy to use.

nortons is not anywhere near as bad as it used to be but after numerous issues and system problems in the past from norton's products i can not recc it at this point i do know people using it 2008 version and they simply love it. so if you are happy with it use it. it does not nearly affect system performance as much as people say it does.

f-secure is another great suite but it does tend to be a bit heavy on resources.

 

zfactor,

sorry to hear that. I never really experienced any trouble with NOD32, and the 3.0 version they released a couple of weeks ago, improved it even more imo. (we use it at work, I run AVGFree at home)

But I guess, everyone has their own story to tell.

 

I recommend Avira for both pay and free, as well as NOD32 for pay. I do not recommend AVG at all. See: www.av-comparatives.org. AVG Anti-Malware is their pay product that has everything their AV has and more. Same with some other programs. The TWO most recent tests are the most relevant, but it's still worth looking at the most recent 3-4 because sometimes things only do well occasionally.

Norton does well for detection as you will see but it DOES use tons of system resources, which is unfortunately not something measured on that site.

 

I've never had a problem with AVG, and I've yet to have a virus in the past two years I've used it over two different computers.

 

BitDefender is really really good.

 

Between these three suites....

NOD32/Kaspersky/BitDefender

Which one?

Seems these three are the top of the line. I have tried NOD/Kasp, and I am leaning towards NOD. Not sure about BitDfender though.

 

The best anti-virus and anti-spyware are smart browsing habits and a safe browser with the proper add-ons.

 

NOD32 3.0 is buggy, causing 100% CPU usage in many cases. I've been trying to get my boss to switch from Symantec to it at work and I've been having this problem. So with that said, I will recommend Avira followed by Kaspersky at the moment.

 

AVG 7.5, Avast, Antivir, A-squared free, Spybot search and destroy, ad-aware 2007

- Processor usage: All the programs i've listed barely use any processor power except for when scanning.

- General reputation: Everyone knows about them, almost everyone uses them. They are the best of the best, update fast, thorough.

- Automatic updates: You can configure it for all of them

- Firewall protection: They aren't firewalls but i recommend comodo pro 3.0 when it comes out fully.

- Price: Every single last thing i've listed here is free.

 

AVG? The best? Er... No.

 

As I say every week when this question is asked, I use AVG Antivirus, AVG Antispyware, Spybot, and Adaware.

 

Hard to beat the prices of those apps.

I don't now, but have at one time or another used all those and Spyware Blaster. They're all excellent, but probably not quite on par with the best of the paid programs like NOD and Kaspersky. Toss in a good firewall (I like Comodo, but there are others, as well) and Firefox, and free ends up being pretty damn good!

Another approach might be to dual boot a Linux distro (any will do) and do your surfing with it, and your work/games/whatever else NOT online, with Windows.

 

Yeah, free works great for me. At least until I win the lottery.

 

I love how AVG users are never willing to read about how much it sucks, even compared to other free stuff. If you wanna use it, that's fine, but using it and it being good are not the same thing and it should not be recommended.

 

I use kaspersky on my laptop and bitdefender on my desktop, and I am satisfied with both products, but kaspersky seems a little better (it's just my opinion).

 

Another vote for Avira. Does the job with a very light footprint.

Aside from the splash screen at startup, you'd be hard-pressed to tell if it was running in the background - which I think is the way it should be.

Regards,
Paolo

 

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

 

As a die hard avast fan I must say it let me down big time yesterday. I was infected with a trojan from a torrent and I used avast on thorough to scan my entire comp and it found nothing. AVG found it along with another virus and poof my crazy problems were gone. I'm going to give avira a test since I've heard such good things about it.

 

What kind of problems were you experiencing while the trojan was on your system? I downloaded the same file of a number of different torrents and AVG kept flagging one of the files as a trojan. I scanned the same file with Norton Internet Security and Kaspersky 7.0 and they marked it as being fine. It could possibly be that it is a trojan and only AVG is picking it up or it may just be that AVG thinks it's a trojan because of it being a "suspicious" type executable. I don't know.

 

Hi,
Lots of good discussion here about the best a/v, spyware, spam, etc.

If I am interested in full coverage for my laptop (and who isnt?)

AND
I dont mind paying for it (but free is always nice)
AND
I am interesting in reducing the resource footprint that Norton and McAffe are notorious for eating up..

what are some of the setups that are recommended that cover all hazards but use less system resources?
In other words, If you pick up Kasperky or NOD32 but still need a suite for full firewall, adware, malware protection, etc. Would you be back where you started from (as far as system resources) than if you just stayed with Norton?

 

I am using AVG anti virus from grisoft and Comodo firewall. I think it will also work in Vista as well.