antivirus recommendation

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 6:54 am

Ok, this is a lame subject, but I am totally sick of Norton.

It's good practice to disable virus scanners when doing music, and I always do that. But this dumb thing keeps interrupting me with virus definition updates and other things, even though it's disabled. Seriously, it's like the Office paperclip.

I'm looking for a replacement that behaves itself. Really the only reason this is needed is for scanning new plugins and demos that I download.

Has anybody used ClamWin -- the open source antivirus?

-craig

Kill Me Sarah · Post by **Kill Me Sarah** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 8:28 am

I use AVG Free.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:15 pm

UNT gives students McAfee, which was effective and well-behaved.

cochise · Post by **cochise** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 7:19 pm

I'll second the Norton thing. I can't deny that it's quality, but it's a bit intrusive. We use it at work and it's always on. Cox gives you a security suite, but I haven't tried it out yet. Maybe your ISP does the same?

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 7:28 pm

everybody shut up

<a href="http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1" target="resource window">AVG free version</a> I know somebody else said this..but this is where you get it.

thats all you need for that

<a href="http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Per ... l&tag=top5" target="resource window">Adware</a> for everything else.

Install these programs...your computer life will be much better. AVG offers a scheuler...set it for when you are asleep. Run the Adware program right before you head out the door. Finish whenever you get back. They are so totally worth the price. By that I mean...they are free and are just as good as most pay versions of their counter parts.

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 10:17 pm

spybot

another free, awesome utility.

Frankly, I find adaware doesn't do much anymore, but after a run of spybot, the computer will be often seem to speed up.

I use AVG free, adaware and spybot. Works great.

cochise · Post by **cochise** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:43 am

I've been using Microsoft Antispyware (formerly Giant) and adaware never gets to clean anything anymore. So sad. I'm using AVG now and it's good except that Outlook Express doesn't like it so much. Much leaner though.

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:12 am

YOU WILL USE NORTON!

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:28 am

I got rid of norton, and I feel lighter than air.
Right now, I"m using that GPL one, ClamWin, but maytry AVG Free, since this one doesn't have a resident monitor thing.

I took the money I would have spent to renew my virus signature subscription and bought the WinASO Registry Optimizer, which is much like a subset of Norton's WinDoctor functionality. Everything seems to be running great now.

-craig

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 1:07 pm

I use NOD32, which is ALMOST free, (30 bucks for a year I think?) has a small footprint, and excellent heuristic virus recognition. I haven't had any problems.

/knocks on wood

Tiny personal firewall (which IS free) and NOD32 make for a good combo. Don't know anything about AVG, but I do know that Norton is a resource hog, and I have found that some versions o' Norton resist uninstalling.

Good luck!

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:44 pm

(i work at Symantec)

not that i'm particularly defending norton, but i think the AV guys are stuck between trying to please the corp clients and the avg consumer. in the corp environment, you don't want to stuff to be uninstallable, and it has to update itself. for regular users, it needs to be more flexible.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:02 pm

blue wrote:(i work at Symantec)

DOH!

(Spits foot out of mouth)

Sorry 'bout that!

(I think the last time I wrote a working program it was in lego logo... so what the heck do I know, anyway?

)

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:43 pm

oh, i don't give much of a damn about the norton stuff. NAV's a pain in my ass just as much as it is in everyone else's. at work we have the full suite installed by default, so you have to spend like an hour turning crap off just to get internet access working normally.

i guess pretty much all commercial software is designed by compromise, and sucks because of it.