A Suitable Anti Virus for my PC Please

leon · #1 13-10-2016, 04:45 PM

Hi Guys.
Well we have the PC up and running, the internet is set up again, the programs are back on, well the ones that i want that is, so all is looking pretty good.

and all with the help of you good people

However before i get to excited I need some decent security, I had Kaspersky on the PC until it went belly up so that was wiped, is there one that is better than the other, or should i just stick with what i had in the first place.

Many Thanks.

Leon

OICURMT · #2 13-10-2016, 07:54 PM

Anti-virus tends to be a very "personal choice"...

Q: Free or Commercial?

Free - I used AVG for years until they started spamming you with ads all day along... now I use Avira, which spams about one ad every two days...

Commercial - I use Norton on the two computers I setup for my folks... since they are in the USA, I can't always support them so they have the ability to call the support line should something disastrous happen.

OIC!

doppler (Rick) · #3 13-10-2016, 08:17 PM

I have been using Avast free for years on multiple computers without issue. I registered with my yahoo junk mail email address so I don't know if they send spam or not, but the antivirus works great.

Mckechg (Grant) · #4 13-10-2016, 09:21 PM

sophos home is free and very good.

pluto (Hugh) · #5 13-10-2016, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OICURMT

Free - I used AVG for years until they started spamming you with ads all day along... now I use Avira, which spams about one ad every two days...

I started using AVG again recently after a break of a few years for exactly this reason but I think it's much better these days. It hassles a bit for the first couple of days but then it settles down to spam only about once every 2 or 3 days.

w0mbat (Ian) · #6 13-10-2016, 11:15 PM

I followed the advice of the two IT professionals in my family and use nothing but Microsoft Security Essentials, now called Windows Defender in Windows 10. I have five computers in the house including one which is connected to the internet 24/7 and I have never had an issue.
To me the biggest risk these days is clicking on a link in an email. The only real protection here is not clicking any link whose origin you are not certain of.
Save yourself some money.....I reckon most of the AV software out there is a rip off. Just make sure you keep your machine fully updated.
Ian

silv (Annette) · #7 14-10-2016, 04:02 AM

I'd say stick with Kaspersky.
It's good.

AND YOU KNOW IT ALREADY! saves time and frustration.

el_draco (Rom) · #8 14-10-2016, 07:14 AM

Always used Nortons and never had a squeak. Its very powerful and customisable if you want to do that.

PeterM · #9 14-10-2016, 09:35 AM

There are many excellent reviews of Bitdefender. I have used it for years after having had AVG earlier. I see AVG have now made their dashboard "look" something similar, best form of flattery I guess, but I'm staying with Bitdefender. I buy a 2 year licence for 3pcs.
http://au.pcmag.com/bitdefender-inte...-security-2017

cfranks (Charles) · #10 14-10-2016, 09:41 AM

+1 on Bitdefender. I've got it on 5 computers and, touch wood etc.

Shiraz (Ray) · #11 14-10-2016, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w0mbat

i followed the advice of the two it professionals in my family and use nothing but microsoft security essentials, now called windows defender in windows 10. I have five computers in the house including one which is connected to the internet 24/7 and i have never had an issue.
To me the biggest risk these days is clicking on a link in an email. The only real protection here is not clicking any link whose origin you are not certain of.
Save yourself some money.....i reckon most of the av software out there is a rip off. Just make sure you keep your machine fully updated.
Ian

+1

multiweb (Marc) · #12 14-10-2016, 10:39 AM

I've done away a long time ago with individual antivirus clients residing on each machine and now use a mix of hardware and clients when outside home network (e.g unsecure connection). MSE is getting very good but it still has been compromised 30% of the time as early as 2015. I would not rely solely on it yet. Having said that I know a lot of company infrastructures are using it and I don't know the latest implementation in Win10.

leon · #13 14-10-2016, 11:49 AM

Bitdefender, yes i have heard of this one and have done a little research, it dose sound very good.
Anyway, thank you all, I have chosen to stay with what I know and have loaded a 2 year subscription of Kaspersky.
I am sure there are better ones around, but for what I do on the Net (which is not much I might add) this will serve me well.

Thanks.

Leon

RAJAH235 · #14 16-10-2016, 11:53 PM

In case you did not hear...
AVAST has acquired AVG.

& AVAST free is good at protecting your PC.
It does do auto updates as well.
It can be a tad "noisy" with it's adverts though, but it does sort of settle down.

Just check the "Options" when installing & UN-check anything that you do not want, like the Outdated Programs Checker. (Useless crap.)
Always choose the CUSTOM install.

Stay safe..

leon · #15 17-10-2016, 07:03 AM

Thank You for that , I have chosen to install Kapersky, I have had it before and it seems to work for me.

Leon

sil (Steve) · #16 18-10-2016, 12:18 PM

LOL sorry, funny to see all the "never had a problem therefore X is perfect" responses. Ignorance is bliss right? OICURMT has the most accurate response so far... its a personal choice. That's it. Antivirus programs are all just as good or bad as each other they don't do what they used to do or what people assume they do. I've had this argument over the years with many "experts" I've met in person and been able to plug in my thumbdrive and fire up out of date anti virus software and immediately find a bunch of nasties running in memory (laughable these experts let me plug a thumbdrive in at all). Viruses arent around much anyway these days and they rarely damage files either (so you never notice an infection). Definitions of viruses, spyware, malware, zombies etc change it seems depending on context. But the profit for writers of nasties is personal information gathering to onsell in bulk databases. Antivirus programs dont clean anything, they delete files leaving you with loss of data and an increasingly unstable operating system. They get paid by the likes of Adobe to search for patches and keygens allowing people to unlock trial software without paying for it and instead reporting its a trojan or whatever so you feel a bit safer. Dodgy emails are only a small way these malicious programs get onto computers, The way the US and Israeli governments got Stuxnet into nuclear reactors (which are an isolated closed network, unreachable by any means other than physically) took advantage of dumb human nature and complacency over antivirus trust.

g__day (Matthew) · #17 21-10-2016, 07:03 PM

Over a dozen years I have gone from Norton to Zone Alarms to Comodo to AVG Suite. I like Avast most of the time - but once or twice I think it nuked a multi boot set up and made one or two of the Hard Drives boot partitions totally unable to boot or repair with no way I know of fixing things beside a complete re-install (Shudder)!

noeyedeer (Matt) · #18 21-10-2016, 10:20 PM

I don't use anti virus...