If it's a completely free AV you need though, I'd actually recommend you to download AOL's Active Virus Shield. Despite the name, it's actually just a slightly slimmed down version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6, which is one of the very best AV's you can get. Some of the best detection rates, lightweight & as secure as you'll ever get for free. Just remember to untick the option to install AOL's toolbar at the end of the installation.
limed for the truth.
I used Antivir for a long time, but not only does AOL Kaspersky detect more, but I often forget that its even running, because it does everything silently, and it uses so little of the CPU power or RAM.
My experience with the full Norton Systemworks is that it fucks up your system so bad, you won't care when you get a virus.
Norton and Symantec just make payed Malware. the end result is as bad as a worm or trojan... It makes you machine slower, unstable, more prone to crashing, lose data, screws up windows. And your PAYING for it. Every year.
I'd guess that the server side symantec stuff is cool, but the end user client programs... those are all crap.
I use Avast!, Spybot, and Ad-Aware...am I overdoing things?
No, but you're just wasting resources with Ad-Aware. It no longer serves any real purpose as it detects far to little to be of any use. What you should install instead is the free and excellent Spyware Terminator :^:
Can anyone else recommend Spyware Terminator? I'm replacing AVG/Avast! with Active Virus Shield, wouldn't mind a spyware program as well to replace Spybot.
I use Avast!, Spybot, and Ad-Aware...am I overdoing things?
No, but you're just wasting resources with Ad-Aware. It no longer serves any real purpose as it detects far to little to be of any use. What you should install instead is the free and excellent Spyware Terminator :^:
Can anyone else recommend Spyware Terminator? I'm replacing AVG/Avast! with Active Virus Shield, wouldn't mind a spyware program as well to replace Spybot.
I've never heard of it, but Softpedia says its clean of crapware.
I use Windows Defender for an always-on spyware program, and Spybot/Ad-Aware for scanning, plus SpywareBlaster, which helps prevent some specific malware from being installed.
sometimes, I'll run the latest IE-SPYAD, which puts in place a blocklist of spyware sites for Internet Explorer.
Do you really need all that?! I use only AVG and I haven´t had any problems with virus and spywares, except the occasional email infected with some crap that gets easily detected, in quite some time.
Multiple anti-spyware apps are a very good idea. Not necessarily running all at once, but used occasionally for thorough scans. NoScript is awesome, a must for anyone running Firefox.
The trouble with waiting for the traditional signs of a virus infection is, hijackers and the dirtbags who run botnets don't want you to know you've been hit. So their stuff doesn't necessarily give away its presence with outward signs.
What about NOD32? It caught a few that Avast and AntiVir couldn't before the trial expired.
NOD32 is one of the very best, but it is in no way freeware, so I would guess that's out of the picture... I used to have NOD32 installed, but after my license expired recently, I moved over to the premium version of Avira Antivir, which recently have moved up to be another of the best AV's available. I would have bought a Kaspersky license, but it just wasn't worth the asking price. I mean, I got 3 years of updates with Avira for the same price that Kaspersky charges for 1.
If it's a completely free AV you need though, I'd actually recommend you to download AOL's Active Virus Shield. Despite the name, it's actually just a slightly slimmed down version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6, which is one of the very best AV's you can get. Some of the best detection rates, lightweight & as secure as you'll ever get for free. Just remember to untick the option to install AOL's toolbar at the end of the installation.
limed for the truth.
I used Antivir for a long time, but not only does AOL Kaspersky detect more, but I often forget that its even running, because it does everything silently, and it uses so little of the CPU power or RAM.
Looking at that site, I saw a link to the AOL Active Security Monitor. Is this a part of Kapersky too? Will it actually give an accurate reading showing if my comp is safe or not?
I didn't have a lot of remaining confidence in AVG, but so far Active Virus Shield isn't turning up any overlooked viruses. Then again, I don't really do anything high-risk from a virus infection standpoint.
Forgot to mention a couple apps, though. I also run Rootkit Unhooker occasionally, and I use Snoopfree. The latter may be a bit paranoid on my part, since I don't have the kind of financial assets that would make it worth a crook's while to target my banking info, but it doesn't take a lot of resources.
Okay, apolagies in advance if this sounds trollish. Keep in mind these are honest questions, not trying to incite a flame war or anything of the sort.
What do you need all this for?
I used to do PC repair for a living, so I know how bad a machine can get screwed up by a clueless user who downloads anything that says "you've won" or "Bonzai buddy lives on your desktop and will cook you breakfast every day" etc.
But my experience here has been that most PAers are somewhat computer saavy.
My antivirus is common sense.
I don't run antivirus, I don't run antispyware. I've never had a problem. I disabled MS Personal firewall from even installing on my XP DVD, and I disabled the Windows Defender service on my Vista drive.
Over the years, out of curiosity, I'd occasionally run one of the diag CDs I used to use for work and see if it could find anything. I never got anything but false posatives (no, WildTangent is not spyware just because it phones home, please leave it alone *click*).
I don't run IE, so that eliminates a big vector of infection right there. I don't execute arbitrary code. If I were to scan my system right now, any good AV would probably puke by finding a few hundred deleted emails with attachments in my Outlook Express folder, but who cares? Code that goes unexecuted can't hurt you. It might as well be a text file until I click run. So don't do that. Simple.
I don't download from l33tcrakzd00dz.cz or any such nonsense. And that's basicly it. I *am* behind a hardware firewall, so I'm safe from some of the worms out there that rely on open windows ports and running IIS services, and similar vunerabilities.
I just don't get the need for all this software running in the background hogging up resources.
If you do insist on AV / Antispyware, get one of each that performs active scans. Without that, you might as well just not have it. An active scan AV will protect your PC from infection. One that you choose to run on demand will only let you know after the fact that you've been, as the kids say "pawned".
One funny note, I'm no computer genius or anything. I'm just a guy who's a little knowlegable. Much like a lot of people here. For irony's sake, I'll let you know the only infection I've ever had.
The Ramen worm. Yeah, that's right. My linux based web server got infected, but in 15 years of windows boxes, I've had no problems.
So from a general question to everyone, why all the antivirus stuff? Are you having a problem? If so, where are you getting all this malware from (if you know)? And if not, why do you think you need it?
I'll agree that this software serves it's purpose. It's a great crutch for users who don't nessisarily know what they're doing all the time. But if you've never had a problem, why bother?
I just don't get the need for all this software running in the background hogging up resources.
I don't think they really "hog" resources though - although under Vista the AVG resident shield seems to use up ~20MB I believe that it used something like 5MB under XP. Seeing as 1GB is standard 5-10MB isn't much for something that will automatically warn you of dangerous files.
So from a general question to everyone, why all the antivirus stuff? Are you having a problem? If so, where are you getting all this malware from (if you know)? And if not, why do you think you need it?
Internet isn't only WWW - there's quite a lot of stuff you might want to download that's executable, and although if you do know that the source can be trusted then there's little chance of infection that still leaves many more sites that you do not know that might offer some specialized application that you might need ATM - an AV will make sure that it won't sabotage your system.
Also: LANs - downloading some program, newest demo or perhaps a MMOG client software locally can save you a lot of time but the risk that it will be infected is quite high as even if the owner of that system is competent someone he lives with, that has access to it, might not be.
But if you've never had a problem, why bother?
If you don't really have anything to loose then yes, I suppose it's not that important, but if you use electronic banking or have data that can be worth something then you might want to use something that will actually check if you have any trojans running rather than just assume that, just because you had no problems in the past.
Oh, and a hardware firewall won't notify you if some suspicious process wants to "surf the web" for no good reason.
robaal on
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra when suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come."
The only purpose a hardware firewall serves is to protect you from things getting in, which today with spyware all over the place, doesn't really do you any good. You also need outbound protection. Not necessarily a software firewall, but at least some form of HIPS (I'd recommend the freeware Dynamic Security Agent, and of course some form of AV like I've previously recommended).
Sure, with some safe surfing habits you'll be quite safe but there have been cases where software from reputable sources have been infected. Hell, wasn't it Apple that released some iPods that was infected?
If you have any important data on your PC, it doesn't matter if you "only" get infected once. That is often all it takes, depending on the nature of said infection. Just recently there were a bunch of people over here that got their bank accounts drained due to a virus infection. If they ever were thinking like pyromosh, I think it would be safe to assume that they don't anymore.
If might also be a good idea to keep in mind that many of us lets friends & family use our computers from time to time. Not all of them have any idea about security, and will press "yes" on just about any dialogue just to play some flash game or whatever...
I've had more success with www.bitdefender.com than housecall.trendmicro.com. But ultimately I agree with pyromosh. Personally I don't even have an antivirus or antispyware program. I use avant browser and am behind a hardware firewall.
Norton and Mcafee are crap by the way.
Word5mith on
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It's not like everybody on here gets virii every couple weeks, it's just better to be safe than sorry. I mean if you're not paying attention you can open one email and wham, you've got a problem. I've been using a combination of Avast and Thunderbird so that rarely happens to me.
That being said, I spend a large portion of my day fixing people's computers because they were just surfing the web and managed to get some form of malicious spyware. Hell even I got stuck with some mean spyware the other day, and I don't do anything outside of my normal 10 websites.
So yeah, you can keep a computer bug-free without antispyware and antivirus, but you can't take it back whenever you get overrun with infections.
Right soooo I installed Anti Virus Shield, and now my floppy drive keeps being accessed every so often (may not necessarily be AVS's doing, but I'm pretty damn sure it is since it's only happened after I installed). This worries me as I kept thinking it was my hard drive being broken
Right soooo I installed Anti Virus Shield, and now my floppy drive keeps being accessed every so often (may not necessarily be AVS's doing, but I'm pretty damn sure it is since it's only happened after I installed). This worries me as I kept thinking it was my hard drive being broken
Any way to stop this?
Sure, just click your way to the same place where I am in the screenshot and enable/disable which drives to keep protected
Also, many of us fix computers for friends and family, and want to have a good idea of what works and doesn't, and which programs are simple and intuitive as opposed to those which simply nag someone too much to be practical in this role.
Also, many of us fix computers for friends and family, and want to have a good idea of what works and doesn't, and which programs are simple and intuitive as opposed to those which simply nag someone too much to be practical in this role.
exactly.
for example, Comodo Firewall is probably the best free firewall you can get, but if the user isn't particularly great with software, then it's just too confusing.
the windows SP2 firewall is usually enough for less experienced users; maybe zonealarm free, although that can be daunting to some as well.
finding the right firewall is a lot trickier than the right anti-virus, because firewalls need constant input or tweaking.
Right soooo I installed Anti Virus Shield, and now my floppy drive keeps being accessed every so often (may not necessarily be AVS's doing, but I'm pretty damn sure it is since it's only happened after I installed). This worries me as I kept thinking it was my hard drive being broken
Any way to stop this?
Sure, just click your way to the same place where I am in the screenshot and enable/disable which drives to keep protected
Alright thanks. it appears to have stopped doing later on but I'll still customize it anyway. I think I'll have to reformat this bloody comp sometime, or maybe build a new one altogether....
I use AVS, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware and Spyware Blaster
And Zone Alarm firewall, and No script in me firefox browser
As for the best Virus program I think the tests these guys do pretty much settles it, Kaspersky and AVS cover as much, and they are the best.
AVS is free
I am personally not entirely happy with my Zone alarm firewall, it keeps blocking shit, and generally makes the internet go alot slower, wondering if there is some solid replacement?
fjafjan on
Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
I use AVS, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware and Spyware Blaster
And Zone Alarm firewall, and No script in me firefox browser
As for the best Virus program I think the tests these guys do pretty much settles it, Kaspersky and AVS cover as much, and they are the best.
AVS is free
I am personally not entirely happy with my Zone alarm firewall, it keeps blocking shit, and generally makes the internet go alot slower, wondering if there is some solid replacement?
If you don't mind paying for such an application, Look'n'stop is pretty much the most light-weight firewall I've ever tested. At average, it uses ~6-7 MB of RAM, and is fast & secure. It's quite different from ZA so it might take a while to get used to, but it's well worth it as it can be very powerful should you so wish
A good free alternative would have to be Comodo Firewall Pro. It's great if it works for you, and is constantly under development.
Right soooo I installed Anti Virus Shield, and now my floppy drive keeps being accessed every so often (may not necessarily be AVS's doing, but I'm pretty damn sure it is since it's only happened after I installed). This worries me as I kept thinking it was my hard drive being broken
Any way to stop this?
Sure, just click your way to the same place where I am in the screenshot and enable/disable which drives to keep protected
The part that says "All Netword Drives". Would that be something I'd have to temporarily disable if I wanted to use the NWC USB Connector?
For antiviruses, I haven't found one that I could stand yet. AVG doubles the boot time of my computer, and no matter what completely refuses to automatically update itself for some reason (works fine on new installs, but I turned off autoupdate since I didn't want it wasting bandwidth at one point over a slow connection, and even though I checked it again it still doesn't autoupdate). Avast seemed slow and awful and spontaneously ceased to function for no apparent reason.
Actually, the symantec corporate edition that my university offers seems fairly effective and unintrusive, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it's actually doing if it actually finds a virus.
The best free virus scan, according to the veterans in the computer center where I work, is pc-cillin house calls. Allegedly they've had that come up with stuff that nothing else will pick up.
I don't know if it's any good, but they also recommend the 30-day trial of "Spysweeper" for tenacious malware.
The biggest problem I have with antivirus software is that it's just a resource hog and stability-killer. All I frigging want is to be able to right click on something and choose "scan for viruses", but they all install five million processes to run at startup and other bullshit that slows my computer down, makes it take longer to boot, and in the case of AVG, take a million years to download a few emails.
Also, I don't get all the love for "NoScript". I use Firefox all the time, and when I was running that one out of two websites would be completely broken, or would look a little funny to the point that I wondered if I was missing any important functionality. A lot of the time I was. So IMHO, it's just too much trouble. I've had far less trouble from actual scripts than from NoScript.
Is AOL Antivirus really worth it? I might switch over to it from avast after what happened a few hours ago. It managed to catch a virus but didn't stop another part of it from adding host files and trying to permanently connect IE to keep downloading the virus it seemed like.
Also, I don't get all the love for "NoScript". I use Firefox all the time, and when I was running that one out of two websites would be completely broken, or would look a little funny to the point that I wondered if I was missing any important functionality. A lot of the time I was. So IMHO, it's just too much trouble. I've had far less trouble from actual scripts than from NoScript.
I don't know of any other firewalls that do this, but Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro can filter web traffic in interesting ways - you can set it to prompt you if some website wants to use any active content* and then whitelist/blacklist the page/site or allow/block it once. It can also filter out ads, though I can't say it's better than adblock as blocking flash ads is a bother.
It was rather big though - >30MB of memory - and not free (the old version that is free doesn't include the filter plug-ins). It also doesn't run under Vista yet, though AFAIK only the Trend Micro internet security firewall/AV does ATM.
* ActiveX, Java, JavaScript with different options based on what they try to do.
robaal on
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra when suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come."
0
Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
edited January 2007
With the AOL scanner, does it do a full system scan weekly? How can you adjust how often it does it?
I've had far less trouble from actual scripts than from NoScript.
I expected to have to set permissions for a bunch of sites, but so far, I've only had to do so with a handful. And for silly reasons that they could probably fix in a matter of minutes, like the Log Off button not working. Can sign into a site without scripts, but not sign out? Um, oookay...
Is AOL Antivirus really worth it? I might switch over to it from avast after what happened a few hours ago. It managed to catch a virus but didn't stop another part of it from adding host files and trying to permanently connect IE to keep downloading the virus it seemed like.
I ditched Avast because I just hated the interface with a passion. And because the real-time scanning seemed to slow things down more than AVG or now the AOL Kaspersky, and viruses are outnumbered so hugely by other forms of malware that I can't justify the performance hit.
I don't know of any other firewalls that do this, but Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro can filter web traffic in interesting ways - you can set it to prompt you if some website wants to use any active content* and then whitelist/blacklist the page/site or allow/block it once. It can also filter out ads, though I can't say it's better than adblock as blocking flash ads is a bother.
Cool, if nothing else, that sounds like it'd be fun to experiment with. :P Thanks for the heads-up.
Another vote for AntiVir here, been using it for almost 2 years now.
Very very small resource footprint, very non-intrusive interface, and catches everything (so far) that's come my way.
Another vote for AntiVir here, been using it for almost 2 years now.
Very very small resource footprint, very non-intrusive interface, and catches everything (so far) that's come my way.
Yet another AntiVir vote, I've used BitDefender, Avast!, and AVG but none of them seem to compare. AVG is probably my second choice, but its too bloated for my old computer here and doesnt seem to work as well as AVG. For a one-time clean, I would recommend McAfee's Stinger, it saved a computer from over 1000 infections by the mostly harmless, but very annoying, Pate virus.
wasted life on
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Don't know if it's been said yet but I really like the Trent Micro free online scan, it came up with fourteen items that AVG missed on my comp, only problem being that it sometimes can only identify not delete so you have to delete yourself. Does come with instructions how to with those ones though.
Posts
limed for the truth.
I used Antivir for a long time, but not only does AOL Kaspersky detect more, but I often forget that its even running, because it does everything silently, and it uses so little of the CPU power or RAM.
Norton and Symantec just make payed Malware. the end result is as bad as a worm or trojan... It makes you machine slower, unstable, more prone to crashing, lose data, screws up windows. And your PAYING for it. Every year.
I'd guess that the server side symantec stuff is cool, but the end user client programs... those are all crap.
I've never heard of it, but Softpedia says its clean of crapware.
I use Windows Defender for an always-on spyware program, and Spybot/Ad-Aware for scanning, plus SpywareBlaster, which helps prevent some specific malware from being installed.
sometimes, I'll run the latest IE-SPYAD, which puts in place a blocklist of spyware sites for Internet Explorer.
Multiple anti-spyware apps are a very good idea. Not necessarily running all at once, but used occasionally for thorough scans. NoScript is awesome, a must for anyone running Firefox.
The trouble with waiting for the traditional signs of a virus infection is, hijackers and the dirtbags who run botnets don't want you to know you've been hit. So their stuff doesn't necessarily give away its presence with outward signs.
Edit: Ahh, right I need more sleep -_-.
This should be the next best thing.
NOD32 is one of the very best, but it is in no way freeware, so I would guess that's out of the picture... I used to have NOD32 installed, but after my license expired recently, I moved over to the premium version of Avira Antivir, which recently have moved up to be another of the best AV's available. I would have bought a Kaspersky license, but it just wasn't worth the asking price. I mean, I got 3 years of updates with Avira for the same price that Kaspersky charges for 1.
Forgot to mention a couple apps, though. I also run Rootkit Unhooker occasionally, and I use Snoopfree. The latter may be a bit paranoid on my part, since I don't have the kind of financial assets that would make it worth a crook's while to target my banking info,
What do you need all this for?
I used to do PC repair for a living, so I know how bad a machine can get screwed up by a clueless user who downloads anything that says "you've won" or "Bonzai buddy lives on your desktop and will cook you breakfast every day" etc.
But my experience here has been that most PAers are somewhat computer saavy.
My antivirus is common sense.
I don't run antivirus, I don't run antispyware. I've never had a problem. I disabled MS Personal firewall from even installing on my XP DVD, and I disabled the Windows Defender service on my Vista drive.
Over the years, out of curiosity, I'd occasionally run one of the diag CDs I used to use for work and see if it could find anything. I never got anything but false posatives (no, WildTangent is not spyware just because it phones home, please leave it alone *click*).
I don't run IE, so that eliminates a big vector of infection right there. I don't execute arbitrary code. If I were to scan my system right now, any good AV would probably puke by finding a few hundred deleted emails with attachments in my Outlook Express folder, but who cares? Code that goes unexecuted can't hurt you. It might as well be a text file until I click run. So don't do that. Simple.
I don't download from l33tcrakzd00dz.cz or any such nonsense. And that's basicly it. I *am* behind a hardware firewall, so I'm safe from some of the worms out there that rely on open windows ports and running IIS services, and similar vunerabilities.
I just don't get the need for all this software running in the background hogging up resources.
If you do insist on AV / Antispyware, get one of each that performs active scans. Without that, you might as well just not have it. An active scan AV will protect your PC from infection. One that you choose to run on demand will only let you know after the fact that you've been, as the kids say "pawned".
One funny note, I'm no computer genius or anything. I'm just a guy who's a little knowlegable. Much like a lot of people here. For irony's sake, I'll let you know the only infection I've ever had.
The Ramen worm. Yeah, that's right. My linux based web server got infected, but in 15 years of windows boxes, I've had no problems.
So from a general question to everyone, why all the antivirus stuff? Are you having a problem? If so, where are you getting all this malware from (if you know)? And if not, why do you think you need it?
I'll agree that this software serves it's purpose. It's a great crutch for users who don't nessisarily know what they're doing all the time. But if you've never had a problem, why bother?
Internet isn't only WWW - there's quite a lot of stuff you might want to download that's executable, and although if you do know that the source can be trusted then there's little chance of infection that still leaves many more sites that you do not know that might offer some specialized application that you might need ATM - an AV will make sure that it won't sabotage your system.
Also: LANs - downloading some program, newest demo or perhaps a MMOG client software locally can save you a lot of time but the risk that it will be infected is quite high as even if the owner of that system is competent someone he lives with, that has access to it, might not be.
If you don't really have anything to loose then yes, I suppose it's not that important, but if you use electronic banking or have data that can be worth something then you might want to use something that will actually check if you have any trojans running rather than just assume that, just because you had no problems in the past.
Oh, and a hardware firewall won't notify you if some suspicious process wants to "surf the web" for no good reason.
At night, the ice weasels come."
Sure, with some safe surfing habits you'll be quite safe but there have been cases where software from reputable sources have been infected. Hell, wasn't it Apple that released some iPods that was infected?
If you have any important data on your PC, it doesn't matter if you "only" get infected once. That is often all it takes, depending on the nature of said infection. Just recently there were a bunch of people over here that got their bank accounts drained due to a virus infection. If they ever were thinking like pyromosh, I think it would be safe to assume that they don't anymore.
If might also be a good idea to keep in mind that many of us lets friends & family use our computers from time to time. Not all of them have any idea about security, and will press "yes" on just about any dialogue just to play some flash game or whatever...
Norton and Mcafee are crap by the way.
That being said, I spend a large portion of my day fixing people's computers because they were just surfing the web and managed to get some form of malicious spyware. Hell even I got stuck with some mean spyware the other day, and I don't do anything outside of my normal 10 websites.
So yeah, you can keep a computer bug-free without antispyware and antivirus, but you can't take it back whenever you get overrun with infections.
Wii Code: 1040-1320-0724-3613 :!!:
Any way to stop this?
Sure, just click your way to the same place where I am in the screenshot and enable/disable which drives to keep protected
exactly.
for example, Comodo Firewall is probably the best free firewall you can get, but if the user isn't particularly great with software, then it's just too confusing.
the windows SP2 firewall is usually enough for less experienced users; maybe zonealarm free, although that can be daunting to some as well.
finding the right firewall is a lot trickier than the right anti-virus, because firewalls need constant input or tweaking.
Alright thanks. it appears to have stopped doing later on but I'll still customize it anyway. I think I'll have to reformat this bloody comp sometime, or maybe build a new one altogether....
And Zone Alarm firewall, and No script in me firefox browser
As for the best Virus program I think the tests these guys do pretty much settles it, Kaspersky and AVS cover as much, and they are the best.
AVS is free
I am personally not entirely happy with my Zone alarm firewall, it keeps blocking shit, and generally makes the internet go alot slower, wondering if there is some solid replacement?
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Were you as surprised as I was at how well most sites work without permission to run scripts?
While i know better than clicking on everything that bleeps in front of me, that's not the case of most people...
If you don't mind paying for such an application, Look'n'stop is pretty much the most light-weight firewall I've ever tested. At average, it uses ~6-7 MB of RAM, and is fast & secure. It's quite different from ZA so it might take a while to get used to, but it's well worth it as it can be very powerful should you so wish
A good free alternative would have to be Comodo Firewall Pro. It's great if it works for you, and is constantly under development.
The part that says "All Netword Drives". Would that be something I'd have to temporarily disable if I wanted to use the NWC USB Connector?
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
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Actually, the symantec corporate edition that my university offers seems fairly effective and unintrusive, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it's actually doing if it actually finds a virus.
The best free virus scan, according to the veterans in the computer center where I work, is pc-cillin house calls. Allegedly they've had that come up with stuff that nothing else will pick up.
I don't know if it's any good, but they also recommend the 30-day trial of "Spysweeper" for tenacious malware.
The biggest problem I have with antivirus software is that it's just a resource hog and stability-killer. All I frigging want is to be able to right click on something and choose "scan for viruses", but they all install five million processes to run at startup and other bullshit that slows my computer down, makes it take longer to boot, and in the case of AVG, take a million years to download a few emails.
Also, I don't get all the love for "NoScript". I use Firefox all the time, and when I was running that one out of two websites would be completely broken, or would look a little funny to the point that I wondered if I was missing any important functionality. A lot of the time I was. So IMHO, it's just too much trouble. I've had far less trouble from actual scripts than from NoScript.
I don't know of any other firewalls that do this, but Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro can filter web traffic in interesting ways - you can set it to prompt you if some website wants to use any active content* and then whitelist/blacklist the page/site or allow/block it once. It can also filter out ads, though I can't say it's better than adblock as blocking flash ads is a bother.
It was rather big though - >30MB of memory - and not free (the old version that is free doesn't include the filter plug-ins). It also doesn't run under Vista yet, though AFAIK only the Trend Micro internet security firewall/AV does ATM.
* ActiveX, Java, JavaScript with different options based on what they try to do.
At night, the ice weasels come."
Satans..... hints.....
I expected to have to set permissions for a bunch of sites, but so far, I've only had to do so with a handful. And for silly reasons that they could probably fix in a matter of minutes, like the Log Off button not working. Can sign into a site without scripts, but not sign out? Um, oookay...
I ditched Avast because I just hated the interface with a passion. And because the real-time scanning seemed to slow things down more than AVG or now the AOL Kaspersky, and viruses are outnumbered so hugely by other forms of malware that I can't justify the performance hit.
Cool, if nothing else, that sounds like it'd be fun to experiment with. :P Thanks for the heads-up.
Another vote for AntiVir here, been using it for almost 2 years now.
Very very small resource footprint, very non-intrusive interface, and catches everything (so far) that's come my way.
the full deep scanning has to be initiated manually, but the File Protection constantly scans in-use files.
you can adjust how often it updates virus definitions (I have mine set to update hourly).
Yet another AntiVir vote, I've used BitDefender, Avast!, and AVG but none of them seem to compare. AVG is probably my second choice, but its too bloated for my old computer here and doesnt seem to work as well as AVG. For a one-time clean, I would recommend McAfee's Stinger, it saved a computer from over 1000 infections by the mostly harmless, but very annoying, Pate virus.
My Backlog
Super Saver Comics!
I installed AVS, and it's too intrusive. I just want it to scan my emails when they arrive and do a manual scan once in a while.
And it's also too freaking heavy.