Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: PFactorDave on January 12, 2010, 07:47:19 AM
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Decided to set my teenage daughter up with a computer of her own, so she'll stay away from my gaming machine... Anyway, I'm looking for opinions and suggestions concerning anti virus/anti malware software. I don't want to have to spend time fixing her machine when she screws it up... :D
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Avoid McAfee and Norton like they are viruses. They are!
ESET's NOD32 seems to be winning the battle. www.eset.com
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I concur either ESET's NOD32 or go full tilt and Install ESET's Smart Security 4 Home Edition for everything ( Anti-Virus Anti-Spyware/Malware, Firewall, Email Client Protection )
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Install ESET's Smart Security 4 Home Edition for everything ( Anti-Virus Anti-Spyware/Malware, Firewall, Email Client Protection )
+1
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I concur either ESET's NOD32 or go full tilt and Install ESET's Smart Security 4 Home Edition for everything ( Anti-Virus Anti-Spyware/Malware, Firewall, Email Client Protection )
ESET SS4 here. Look no further.
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I concur either ESET's NOD32 or go full tilt and Install ESET's Smart Security 4 Home Edition for everything ( Anti-Virus Anti-Spyware/Malware, Firewall, Email Client Protection )
+1 low resource utilization, easy to use, regular updates
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Decided to set my teenage daughter up with a computer of her own, so she'll stay away from my gaming machine... Anyway, I'm looking for opinions and suggestions concerning anti virus/anti malware software. I don't want to have to spend time fixing her machine when she screws it up... :D
I speak from experience here - a 17 year old can manage to infect a system no matter how good the AV on it is. So make sure that you have a good fall-back plan for dealing with an infection that can't be (easily) removed. (i.e. backups, etc.)
<S>
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Avoid McAfee and Norton like they are viruses. They are!
I'm curious why you keep saying that Norton and McAfee are viruses. Please explain.
Definitions of computer virus on the Web:
virus: a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer ...
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
: A program which can be transmitted between computers via networks (especially the Internet) or removable storage such as CDs, USB drives, floppy disks, etc., generally without the knowledge or consent of the recipient. ...
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/computer_virus
A dangerous computer program with the characteristic feature of being able to generate copies of itself, and thereby spreading. Additionally most computer viruses have a destructive payload that is activated under certain conditions. ...
www.datarecoverydoctor.co.uk/data-recovery-dictionary.html
A computer virus is a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data. Often viruses are hidden in other programs or documents and when opened, the virus is let loose.
https://www.fnb.co.za/legallinks/securitycentre/terms.html
is a self-replicating computer program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. ...
atlantean.wordpress.com/computerinternet-terms/
A program that can infect other programs by modifying them to include a possibly evolved copy of itself.
www.geodiswilson.com/en/Global_tools/Logistics_Dictionary/C/
Programming code created as a prank or as a malicious action that secretly affects other programs and causes unwanted consequences.
my.uen.org/mydocuments/downloadfile
A virus is a software program designed to infect, destroy or interfere with a computer or software program.
www.spywareremoversreviews.or g/guide/ch10/chapter10.html
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I'm curious why you keep saying that Norton and McAfee are viruses. Please explain.
Maybe because they make a false sense of security while hogging down major system resources? Not being able to fully uninstall them once theyre installed on the system?
Maybe because at least Norton used to be so buggy that virus makers actually targeted it as route to infect computers? I'm sure there are many other reasons aswell.
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If you knew exactly what Norton and McAfee were doing you would understand why I call them viruses. They replace system files with thier own files which effects every single application on the computer, and not in a good way.
The regular uninstaller will not undo the damage they do. The only way to truly revert back to what your computer was before those programs are installed is to re-install the operating system.
Do they warn you of the harm they are going to do to your computer when you install them? Do they tell you the un-installer really does not undo what damage was done at install time? McAfee used to require ActiveX to be enabled, which is one of the primary delivery mechanisms for viruses.
Most viruses are easier to remove than McAfee or Norton is.
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I'm curious why you keep saying that Norton and McAfee are viruses. Please explain.
Definitions of computer virus on the Web:
virus: a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer ...
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
: A program which can be transmitted between computers via networks (especially the Internet) or removable storage such as CDs, USB drives, floppy disks, etc., generally without the knowledge or consent of the recipient. ...
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/computer_virus
A dangerous computer program with the characteristic feature of being able to generate copies of itself, and thereby spreading. Additionally most computer viruses have a destructive payload that is activated under certain conditions. ...
www.datarecoverydoctor.co.uk/data-recovery-dictionary.html
A computer virus is a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data. Often viruses are hidden in other programs or documents and when opened, the virus is let loose.
https://www.fnb.co.za/legallinks/securitycentre/terms.html
is a self-replicating computer program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. ...
atlantean.wordpress.com/computerinternet-terms/
A program that can infect other programs by modifying them to include a possibly evolved copy of itself.
www.geodiswilson.com/en/Global_tools/Logistics_Dictionary/C/
Programming code created as a prank or as a malicious action that secretly affects other programs and causes unwanted consequences.
my.uen.org/mydocuments/downloadfile
A virus is a software program designed to infect, destroy or interfere with a computer or software program.
www.spywareremoversreviews.or g/guide/ch10/chapter10.html
A Virus does not have to be malicious. As time goes by new "words" are used in place of virus such as "spyware" "adware" etc etc. Norton and McAfee, once installed on a system can not be fully removed by the average computer user without a full OS re-install, this is similar to a Virus although not malicious but full removal is very hard for the normal system user.
TD
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I was just curious.
As you probably already know I've used McAfee for years and use it now because I get it free from Comcast. The older product was a PITA as were the earlier versions of Norton (I haven't used Norton in over a decade).
I was just checking my system resources on my old 650 Mhz PIII laptop and the McAfee Network Agent occasionally bounced to 2-5% CPU useage. That translates to an occasional 0.4-1.0% CPU useage on my game machine (3.2 Ghz) Memory useage for the entire McAfee suite is 66,256K with the System Shield accounting for 45,232K of that so that accounts for 25% of my total memory (256 Mb). On my game machine with 4 Gb of memory it only represents 1.5% memory useage. That's not bad at all IMO but I don't have anything to compare that against.
I've neven known McAfee to replicate itself or to perform maliciously. The older versions used to cause install problems with some applications but I haven't run into that in years. The newer versions are pretty tweakable in that you can customize them in a variety of ways to minimize footprint if you want to. I just leave the full suite running at all times on all my machines with the exceptions of auto-updates and the reporting viruses to McAfee thing. Even on my gaming machine I never notice any adverse effects while gaming and I've run games including AH with the suite turned on and with it turned off.
I did use AVG for a while. I liked it until they updated it and it became a PITA. I also used Avast for a while and hated it. It was like watching a turtle race when it scanned. I suppose if I actually had to pay for something, based on recommendations I'd go with ESET but for free McAfee works fine.
Anyway... again, just curious.
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I've neven known McAfee to replicate itself or to perform maliciously.
Ever heard of marketing? OEM deals? Same thing :D
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Since the subject is up...how good is PCTools Threatfire and AV? Just curious since I've been using it and had no troubles, buy ya never know...
I do love the fact it only uses 9,400K Memory (average, part of it fluxes between 700-950). :)
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Forget the virus argument, Norton and McAfee simply dont work well. I've since upgraded all of my family's computers to AVG or other "better" AVs than Norton and McAfee (which usually come free on computers so we used to use 'em til they ran out). However, on almost every occasion after "removing" the bloatware and installing something new, 1) the new stuff scans and finds multiple bad things that the old stuff never picked up on, and 2) can fix the file that's been quarantined for a year because Norton can't delete, move, or fix, the file in question.
They're incompetent as far as AV goes, that ALONE is why you should avoid them like the plague. All the viral qualities they posess are just many many other reasons why not to use them.
P.S. Yes eventually all the PCs over the years got reformats, last traces of prior AV gone totally, no worries about that!
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I found AVG to be a "virus as well". Talk about difficult to Uninstall.
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AVG is not all that great, but just about anything is a cut above Norton/McAfee.
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AVG is not all that great, but just about anything is a cut above Norton/McAfee.
I agree with you.
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Since the subject is up...how good is PCTools Threatfire and AV? Just curious since I've been using it and had no troubles, buy ya never know...
I do love the fact it only uses 9,400K Memory (average, part of it fluxes between 700-950). :)
PCTools makes some great products. I don't know much about Threatfire and AV, yet their Spyware Doctor application is great at sniffing out hidden bugs.
I would buy Eset Smart Security 4.
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I found AVG to be a "virus as well". Talk about difficult to Uninstall.
AVG has been steadily growing more and more into bloatware and nag-ware. Back in version 6 and 7, it was okay, but they're adding more and more processes, constant ad banners to get the full software on the program home screen, and once they hit a certain point you can't get new definitions/etc without upgrading to the "new" version... So, you can't keep version 7, for example, because you eventually are forced to upgrade to 7.5, then 8.0, then 8.5...
Quite annoying. Like ICQ and Winamp back in the day, started out quite compact then seriously took a wrong turn.
I've recently moved away from AVG because of these long-escalating issues. Trying Avast, may move to nod32 eventually.
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My McAfee is soon to be replaced with something else. I was not aware of how it affected your computer (until now) but I recently had a bad experience with it. I got a trojan on my computer a few weeks ago and it shut down McAfee, it was completely useless. I was able to get a free program installed and it removed the virus with ease.
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Maybe because they make a false sense of security while hogging down major system resources? Not being able to fully uninstall them once theyre installed on the system?
Maybe because at least Norton used to be so buggy that virus makers actually targeted it as route to infect computers? I'm sure there are many other reasons aswell.
I was reading reviews on pcmag.com of the latest Norton product, it had an excellent review - IIRC it said that the performance issues are basically gone now, and that it had the best detection rate of anything tested (don't quote me on this, though :P).
EDIT:
My McAfee is soon to be replaced with something else. I was not aware of how it affected your computer (until now) but I recently had a bad experience with it. I got a trojan on my computer a few weeks ago and it shut down McAfee, it was completely useless. I was able to get a free program installed and it removed the virus with ease.
I'm trying to find a replacement for McAfee too at the moment...
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The newer Norton is indeed better at detecting. It has not, however, cleaned up its act of embedding itself into the system in such a way that it cannot be removed.
Talk to Llama, he actually tested NOD32 against Norton 2009 just last year. He can tell you much more about it.
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for giggles.......an if people want to really see how their anti-virus or all-in-one security programs measure up..... and I am wondering what it cost them to buy the top spot for Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 2010 ?
http://www.av-comparatives.org/home <--- check out all the different summary reports ( if you are in to that sort of thing )
or check out this site:
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/12/av-testorg_releases_real-world.php
heheh, this second weblink did not have ESET included, because ( my opinion ) they already knew it would beat all the others out
edit: and a 3rd test results website:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/results.php if you can believe what you read on the net
anyhows.....this is all just a lil funning around.... I am sticking with my ESS 4 :D :bolt:
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Threatfire is very good in my opinion.
Very small, easy to configure, sits quietly in the background and when a virus trys to do something locks it before it can do it. Then tells you about it. I've run it on 3 systems at default sensitivity for over 2 years now. In that time I only had it let a virus get past it once. And that was probably my fault as I had the auto updates turned off.
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I've been using Avast for a long time.. except for about a year not too long ago I was using Symantec (Norton) Corporate A/V after finding it on a disk I got from back when I was in school...
Symantec Corporate worked great with very low overhead but keep in mind this is completely different than Retail versions of Norton. I had to switch back to Avast though after installing win7 as that old version of Symantec isn't compatible.
The thing about Avast is you have to disable VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) as it is kind of like System Restore... just eats up resources. It's supposed to help you fix things after an infection occurs. Personally if I can't fix an infection then I'm just going to reinstall windows. Anything 'critical' I keep backed up anyway.
To be honest though, I've never had to fix an infection on my systems... but I do fix a lot for friends and family... especially my dad he's king at screwing up his system LOL.
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The thing about Avast is you have to disable VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) as it is kind of like System Restore...
That's a good point. As a new switcher to Avast, I noticed that RIGHT away, and shut if off. Very much like Windows "indexing" for file searches. It's a "must shut off" for me.
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I found Webroot Spysweeper with antivirus works very well and is very low on resource usage. It even has a game mode that not disables the scanner but lets the game access files without it interfering.
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My McAfee is soon to be replaced with something else. I was not aware of how it affected your computer (until now) but I recently had a bad experience with it. I got a trojan on my computer a few weeks ago and it shut down McAfee, it was completely useless. I was able to get a free program installed and it removed the virus with ease.
Didnt happen to be the Malware Defense virus was it?
My nephew called me over the weekend because he got this and the less then two months old Nortons (which I specifically told him not to get to begin with) not only wouldnt remove it. But wouldnt even run to remove it.
After about 10 min on the phone with him I told him he'd just be better off bringing it over here and leave it overnight so that I would have a working computer handy to DL any files I might need to get rid of it for him.
He tried deleting files to get rid of it but only ended up making it more difficult to find
To rid him of it I first had to finally get it to boot up in safe mode
then on my machine I had to DL, on my machine,then tranfer over to his machine and run this. (god I love flash drives)
To end the processes that belong to Malware Defense
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/rkill.com
Then and only then would it let me install and run
Malwarebytes Anti Maleware. Which I ran twice to get rid of everything
Full instructions to help with this and a host of other things at
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-malware-defense.
Very helpful site.
Then uninstalled Nortons and installed NOD32 trial, ran that. Amazing how much smoother his machine ran just from switching the two out. It was a noticeable difference.
Ran that to make sure he was clean. Cleaned up some of the services he had going, mostly just switching from automatic to manual, got rid of the 4 separate toolbars he had going in his browser, Went into MSConfig and cleaned some of that up. AOL, Quicktime, etc all those thing he doesnt need running at startup.
Now his machine probably runs better now then when he brought it home from the store.
When he came to pick it up he thanked me and asked if he could do anything for me to repay the favor.
"Yea, throw Nortons in the garbage And pay for ESET before the trial period ends....Returning my collapsible picnic bench you borrowed 2 years ago would be nice too." LOL
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i installed microsofts security essentials the other weeks after using avg internet security for over a year.
the reviews i read for microsofts were good so i gave it a try. so far is picked up a lot of trojons and stuff (i do a lot of downloading) and picks up on dodgy sites as well.
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/utilities/anti-malware-software/microsoft-security-essentials-640587/review?artc_pg=1 (http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/utilities/anti-malware-software/microsoft-security-essentials-640587/review?artc_pg=1)
but seeing as its microsoft product i still have my doubts about it, so would be nice to get a few other opinions.