Do you use an anti-virus program?

[Grimskull]

am I really really banned from voting? I can't vote anywhere?

I get this error "Please vote for this poll on the frontpage."

Anyway I always trust PCCillin and been using it since 2005 (with upgrades and new versions), never had problems.

AVG is ok, but not as good as the paid ones. My wife went to an annoying Indian website and that mf infected my test pc with annoying popups. Can't get rid of it, google toolbar, yahoo, windows built-in popup blocker nothing works and it also messed up Netflix movie loader. I am just going to just format that machine.

try malwarebytes anti malware... i find it good at getting rid of them annoying popsups and adware.

 

[modder]

What about internet security/firewall? What about settings firewall?

 

[suraswami]

vote here http://www.techpowerup.com/

thanks, I finally voted.

 

[lepra24]

Avast 4.8 Home Antivirus (free)
Comodo Firewall Pro (free)
I do not have problems
No Virus

 

[stanhemi]

no antivirus no firewall

 

[paybackdaman]

I love Avast. =D

 

[mdm-adph]

I've used nothing by AVG and the old Sygate Firewall for years. Had false positives but never any viruses.

But then people like us usually don't get them because we don't download crap sent to us in chain letters while using Microsoft Outlook. :shadedshu

 

[Analog_Manner]

As innapropriate as it seems to mention it, I have realized that I only get viruses from bad porn.

 

[niko084]

Funny as it goes I have Kaspersky under XP and Nod32 under Vista.

Normally TBH they are disabled and I turn them on to scan certain types of files or if I'm doing certain things.

 

[jtleon]

Yo ...After finding 700+ viruses on my box, when our hardware firewall died and I was then running IE 5.0, I now run Norton Anti Virus Corporate Edition round the clock - and NEVER EVER run IE - Firefox all the way (or opera..lol) !!!!

 

[niko084]

Yo ...After finding 700+ viruses on my box, when our hardware firewall died and I was then running IE 5.0, I now run Norton Anti Virus Corporate Edition round the clock - and NEVER EVER run IE - Firefox all the way (or opera..lol) !!!!

I would switch off that Norton if you get hit that bad...

Norton has one of the lowest detect rates of any antivirus, plus of course its so dang heavy and slow.

Nod32 = #1 rated antivirus last year
Kaspersky = #2

Curious though, any idea how you fried the firewall? surge?

 

[jtleon]

As far as I know, it was another lightning strike that got it (Yes a surge)! We have record number of strikes here in southern AZ at 3500 ft. (lost my laptop to one as well).

Are you suggesting that Nod32 will offer better protection?

 

[thoughtdisorder]

As inappropriate as it seems to mention it, I have realized that I only get viruses from bad porn.

And we have an honest member here! Woot! Isn't that the truth! (Not that I would know or anything)

I used AVG for awhile but ran into issues with the updater. Tried Avast but didn't care for it. Now I'm just using Zone Alarm for a firewall along with Ccleaner and so far (knock on wood) haven't had any issues.

My biggest computer threat is my son (RM)!

 

[erocker]

I've been using Avast free home edition for over a year now and haven't gotten a single virus. I use SpyBot S&D just for spyware.

*Oh, and of course I have Windows Defender and UAC turned off!

 

[niko084]

As far as I know, it was another lightning strike that got it (Yes a surge)! We have record number of strikes here in southern AZ at 3500 ft. (lost my laptop to one as well).

Are you suggesting that Nod32 will offer better protection?

It has a higher detection rate, I personally love it because I can install it on a P3 running XP with 256mb of ram and it doesn't really slow it down.

Norton's detection rate isn't all that bad, its just such a dog.

 

[jtleon]

I would switch off that Norton if you get hit that bad...

Norton ... its so dang heavy and slow.

Niko, how did you conclude Norton is heavy and slow?

jtleon

 

[niko084]

I've been using Avast free home edition for over a year now and haven't gotten a single virus. I use SpyBot S&D just for spyware.

I prefer Avast to AVG simply because its background scanning is so much more effective, but it is a bit slower. Great free antivirus for certain.

I also like Malwarebytes.

 

[niko084]

Niko, how did you conclude Norton is heavy and slow?

jtleon

Check out the amount of ram it uses, or processor power especially during a scan.

I remove Norton and McAfee off around 50 computers a month and replace it with Nod32 and the customers are extremely happy, I see many less systems that I have loaded with Kaspersky or Nod32 come in with bad virus infections.

Norton is very well known to be slow and dog down computers.

 

[RadeonX2]

I have been using ESET NOD32 internet security for a couple of months boy that suck my pc was infected by a startup trojan or something I guess ESET's internet security sucked but the antivirus works like a charm then I switch to KIS 09 its a better internet security compared to ESET if you want an all-in-one protection I suggest get the KIS

 

[Urbklr]

I use SpyBot, AVG Free, and MalwareBytes. Haven't had a problem yet

 

[jtleon]

Looking at the attached screen cap of task manager, two processes are from Norton, those are rtvscan.exe and defwatch.exe.

Together they consume 41 threads, and 26Mb of memory. But as you can see, in almost 6 hours of system up time, they have only used 12 seconds of CPU.

I cannot perceive their presence, no matter what apps I am running.

Note that I have disabled the tray icon for Norton.

jtleon

 

[niko084]

I have been using ESET NOD32 internet security for a couple of months boy that suck my pc was infected by a startup trojan or something I guess ESET's internet security sucked but the antivirus works like a charm then I switch to KIS 09 its a better internet security compared to ESET if you want an all-in-one protection I suggest get the KIS

I can second that.. I dislike NOD32 internet security...

Although I REALLY HATE KIS 7.0, but that's old so it doesn't really matter anymore.

The internet security though is still the antivirus, what you have to remember is that its a last chance shot to keep clean, the virus comes out then the antivirus catches up. No matter what you run you can get infected..

I just removed McAfee, Norton, Trend and SpySweeper off a computer this morning, yes all of them running at once.... You can imagine how well that worked... Anyways it was caked with viruses, 11596 of them.

 

[niko084]

Looking at the attached screen cap of task manager, two processes are from Norton, those are rtvscan.exe and defwatch.exe.

Together they consume 41 threads, and 26Mb of memory. But as you can see, in almost 6 hours of system up time, they have only used 12 seconds of CPU.

I cannot perceive their presence, no matter what apps I am running.

Note that I have disabled the tray icon for Norton.

jtleon

Maybe their corporate version has improved from what it was a few years back, I haven't seen it in some time. The standard versions suck.

 

[mdm-adph]

Niko, how did you conclude Norton is heavy and slow?

jtleon

I vowed never to use Norton again after I learned that it hooked itself into essential Windows Services (like DHCP), and then after uninstalling it (Norton), it didn't remove itself as a dependency. :shadedshu

Took me a day or so to figure out why DHCP didn't work (hard when you don't have the internet). Maybe it's different now, but I'll never know why they did that.

 

[jtleon]

Maybe their corporate version has improved from what it was a few years back, I haven't seen it in some time. The standard versions suck.

this is version 7.51 - from way back - I've been using this since Windows 9X days.

Would you post your taskmanager screenie for Nod32...I'd like to see it in action.

Many Thanks, jtleon