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Do you use an ANTI Virus program?

Do you or do you not use an antivirus program

  • Yes, I use a 3rd party free antivirus progra

    Votes: 41 44.6%
  • Yes, I use a paid/prescription based anti virus program

    Votes: 24 26.1%
  • Yes, I use a web based anti virus program

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes, I use a OS based anti virus program

    Votes: 8 8.7%
  • No, I do not need to use an anti virus program

    Votes: 19 20.7%
  • No, I am not sure what anti virus program to use (I will post why)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I really haven't given the use of AVP much thought

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    92
  • Poll closed .
how many times have they reviewed VIPRE
and unless you have used it don't talk your bullshit
 
in some1's sig on here i read a quote...it was something like "surfing the internet without an antivirus is like having sex with a hooker without a condom" haha

that said i use avast on my machine, but for my next rig(hopefully next year, i7 or i9) i will try the MSE
 
The only good defense against malicious software is protective hardware. An example of this is XD bit and hardware firewalls. If the virus makes it past those security guards (e.g. user allowed it to happen), no anti-virus would have helped. As long as the foundations of your system (up to the operating system) are secure, an anti-virus is pretty much useless.
 
can u explain that in a bit more laymans terms?
 
i use avira PE. have used it for around 3.5yrs now and it works great for my needs. Though when i had a retail anti-virus software it was nod32 which i also liked but yea reformatted n it lincense isn't renewable.
 
The only good defense against malicious software is protective hardware. An example of this is XD bit and hardware firewalls. If the virus makes it past those security guards (e.g. user allowed it to happen), no anti-virus would have helped. As long as the foundations of your system (up to the operating system) are secure, an anti-virus is pretty much useless.

Thats not really true at all man. Example: Your computer ignorant buddy gives you a disk with something he needs printed out ASAP. On this disk unknowing to him is a nice fat virus. Firewall aint going to help ya if it comes from a CD or USB stick.

Nothing is a "solve all". You have to use hardware, software and common sense to protect yourself. However saying any one of those things are useless just makes you a softer target.

Edit: I sure hope you do not rely on X-Bit.

can u explain that in a bit more laymans terms?

Basicly what FordGT90Concept is saying is that as long as your computer is behind a hardware firewall like a router or DSL modem you are safe from outside attacks and for everything internal you should rely on XD-Bit which is suicide in real world use.
 
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oh ok. yeah i def do not agree with what he's sayin lol
 
I don't use any antivirus or antispyware on my computer. Namely, because I use Ubuntu for 90% of my tasks. The remaining 10% are HD-DVD/Blu-Ray viewing, watching ATSC on my TV Tuner, using web apps from my school where the programmers think 100% of students use IE and so it doesn't work with anything else, or playing games. Those are the tasks I boot into windows for.
 
can u explain that in a bit more laymans terms?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NX_bit

The processor basically quarentines segments of memory that will not let any process touch (like BIOS information).


Thats not really true at all man. Example: Your computer ignorant buddy gives you a disk with something he needs printed out ASAP. On this disk unknowing to him is a nice fat virus. Firewall aint going to help ya if it comes from a CD or USB stick.
Disable autorun and it is impossible for the computer to run anything on the disk without user authorization.


Nothing is a "solve all". You have to use hardware, software and common sense to protect yourself. However saying any one of those things are useless just makes you a softer target.
As I said, the key is hardware security and it ends at the operating system. The operating system sits at the top of the stack below all user tasks. The operating system, therefore, needs to know what's fishy and what isn't. For instance, any executable that tries to alter operating system files without being certified safe shouldn't be allowed. Applications requesting a delete operations in the user portion of the file system must also be treated with scrutiny. The list goes on. A well engineered operating system is its own anti-virus.


Basicly what FordGT90Concept is saying is that as long as your computer is behind a hardware firewall like a router or DSL modem you are safe from outside attacks and for everything internal you should rely on XD-Bit which is suicide in real world use.
Firewalls stop worms (the executable launching the attack is on the inter- or intra-net). Operating system should stop spyware (software that constantly sends data but receives little), trojans (software that is constantly running with little processing overhead), and viruses (software that behaves in a manner that isn't normal/safe).
 
As Ive mentioned in several previous threads, our computers here are very system specific, for running stage shows and large video displays. Most of em dont get online unless they are getting a software or driver update or routine maintainence so most of em are AVP butt naked.;)

However, since I also do a ton of computer repairs and have seen most if not all of em, and tried a few myself, i thought I would offer an opinion.

Remember, I said OPINION, this one is mine, cause I know what I have seen and what works.

For the hardy websurfer with no other life if i had to pick one it would be one of three.

AVG full paid, cause theres too many things the free version will not get. Still one of the most stable and best for the money.

Norton. its a pain in the A$$ and if you have to remove it theres no clean way to do it without having SOME OS side effects when its done, but when its fully updated and fully paid, its still one of the best there is.

Kapersky. Ive never seen a system running with it, that had a virus problem.

For the knowledgable and careful I would reccomend what i use.

The paid version of Malwarebytes anti malware. I first used it about 2 years back while fighting the coolkidwebsearch virus thing. Its not fully automatic, but it dont ask a ton of questions everytime i do something either which is something I personally cannot stand.

I also try a lot of software from sometimes questionable (ahem) sources, and if i want to run something thats a bit below the board, it will let me if i choose to. and it will not eat the source as i download it.

Ive watched it evolve for two years now, its one of the most cost efficiant non invasive AVP's on the market and one of the least known and newest. Also one of the easiest to configure if you are sending a computer to a non techie type. I put it on my 68 year old aunt's computer and this woman will click on anything that catches her eye, and have had no problems, SHE understands it, which is a shock cause this is a woman that can and has burnt water while cooking, and thinks a screwdriver is best served in a tall glass-:toast:

Ive had WAYYYY too many issues with computers running McAfee, and spent a lot of time doing fresh installs to systems that ran it. Once again- this is an opinion.

There are others out there, but the REAL issue here comes down to one thing.

If you run a paid AVP, and dont keep your lic up to date and paid, then dont expect it to work.

If you run a FREE avp, and catch a rootkit virurs, remember that most free AVPs are only for viruses , not rootkits and theres a big difference in the two. You get what you pay for, if its free, theres usually a reason.

If it came with your new laptop , and you dont do anything with it, and all of a sudden you have a virus then do not be suprised. Remember, the companies that supply software to the manufacturers do it to get new customers, so you cannot ignore it and hope it goes away, you will keep getting the nags no matter what. either uninstall it, and get something else , or just buy it. I get so many customers that 6 months after they buy a computer will walk in my shop and say " But it came with Brand X anti virus when I bought it" and just cant understand why some trojan just ate your only unbacked up pix of the babys birth or daughters wedding. If you dont activate it or buy it then dont expect it to do anything. Just cause its in your computer does not mean its working.

If you run ANY avp, and its asking for an update but your too damn busy at that moment to let it do so, then dont come B!^ch'n to the local computer shop when you get an adware trojan and dont know what to do cause it locked you out of your own computer.

If you run ANY avp, and schedule your scans for your peak usage hours, and keep putting off the daily scans, cause it interupts what you are doing at the time, the dont expect miracles from its performance.

If you run MULTIPLE avps along with various firewall enhancements, and a bunch of anti spyware, and your computer barely runs cause its so busy analyzing everything that it cannot do anything else, get off the porn sites, re install your os, go wash your hands (please), and find something better to do with your life. and get something that just works and quit being so paranoid. they are not coming to take you awayyyyyyy.:p

An AVP only runs as well as its owner and or operator configures it, and allows it to do its job, regardless of what brand it is or what OS you run it on.

like I said earlier; MY opinion.:rockout:
 
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omg that was hilarious!
 
well said madmanjohn, i agree with what you said whole heartly. n your name serves you well as i don't think i've ever posted or seen a post that covered avp use so well lol
 
I'm with FordGT90Concept on this one.
"No eXecute bit" enabled on BIOS (on a CPU that supports it) + Windows Default Firewall + Firefox with NoScript (and AddBlock Plus) installed and some "sense" from the user side is more than enough to be secure on a personal/home computer (at least to me it does, for at least 2 years that I've been running the same OS install and my computer stays as clean as after format).

EDIT: oh and I forgot to add, using aMSN (thats right, with a leading "a") instead of "crappy/filled with adds" Windows Live Messenger (or whatever it's called these days).
 
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i don't pay for mine, i just fix someones pc and get antivirus software for free for fixing it and make them pay for it:laugh:
 
Well 1 thing I found out is that after installing Microsoft Security Essentials, the PC went into an endless boot of that "Stage 3of3 0% complete" crap.
Long story short[yea 16hrs worth] Got booted to another partition and removed "pending.xml" and after a couple sloooooooooooooow boots got back in.
Funny thing after first scan, it "re"found a patch in a recycle bin, so I'll give it some time.

Still best bet is also having Comodo Defense +, it has stopped EVERY item that has tried to acsess the machine, and like having control of what is "asking" for outbound connections.
 
Run MSE on both i7 rigs and Live One Care on the E8500 rig (soon switching to MSE officially). Have had no problems and is very "light weight" on the system.
Have used Norton and Trend before and find MSE to be better all the way around.
 
I use a paid AV (Kaspersky), but it is completely disabled on my machine unless I have a specific file I want to scan, do a full scan every once in a while, or plan to surf my way into the dark corners of the Internet.

It runs 24/7 on on the kids' computer and the fiancee's computer tho.
 
No, i do not.

two reasons.

1 im on a mac 90% of the time.

the other 10% is me on my i7 rig wich isn't a big deal anyway.

Now my mom does, i need her's to be more secure since she banks online and does motherly stuff.
 
interesting responses so far.
 
Never used an A/V program. Not with XP and not now with 7 x64.

Why? I'm very careful with what I download. I only download trusted releases from trusted websites. I hardly go to "risky" websites and I never download files I'm uncertain of. I never accept emails from people I don't know and even then I don't open attachments from people I do know!

I don't fell the need to download more free software that may or may not slow down my machine nor do I feel the need to pay for AV software.

But I do admit I download some warez that risk giving viruses esp from keygens and such. The kick? I don't care. My machine isn't work sensitive. There is no school work on it, no million dollar projects, there is no secret plans for creating an antimatter bomb on it either. In other words there is no sensitive, or valuable information on here. Nor is it the end of the world if I'm out of a computer for a day or two.

Sure I have gotten a few bad viruses in the past. But considering how much I download it really only has been a few times. Once a year perhaps. That said it was mainly from warez and when I got hit and said "oh darn, that's one of the risks I take" and I understand the risk. I really do accept that possibility for my actions.

But hey I would format and reinstall Windows XP, updates and get the latest drivers and be done with it. Sure its a few hours work but fact is I might have done that in that same years time anyway! Getting a fresh system and all the latest drivers once a year is awesome!
 
I do and i dont. usually i only install an AV if im bored..other than that i dont worry. i mean whth my dvd some programs i use to compile..or even the AV software i include on it will be detected as a virus. and i get angry when it auto deleted something so when i do remember i install avast. but i never scan it just protects my connection.
 
Well, today's antiviruses are designed to protect systems in real-time. There is really no point in running scheduled scans like some still do. That was back in the old days where real-time scanners weren't so sophisticated or they weren't even available.
 
If anyone don't have $$ to pay for AV, at least he should use Microsoft Security Essentials + Windows Firewall. It is good enough to keep bad things out, although many commercial AV (Kaspersky, Norton... etc.)are doing better than MSE. Don't forget to update your AV daily (preferably automatic), without which it is totally useless with false sense of security.
 
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