Anti virus program - Page 3

Stephen Chandler · 06-09-2013, 01:28 PM

I did use AVG free, but have now changed to AVAST free. There does not seem to be a lot of difference between them. My wife still uses AVG free on her laptop and she is happy with it.

Joseph R · 06-09-2013, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmilica

What would be a good antivirus for Mac?

Comparation between various Mac AV software

Spoiler: Avast, AVIRA and Zeobit come on top.

As elcreative pointed out, Mac are generally immune from VIRUSES but not from Malware; eg. "FlashBack", a Java-based Trojan caused some issues on Mac OS X 2 years ago.

49Kat · 06-09-2013, 04:46 PM

Hmmm...

Over the years I've used Norton security suite products because they've come preinstalled on newly purchased Windows XP PC's. I've used ZoneAlarm security suites until it just started to be a hassle to use, changed over to AVG free for a while (with Windows firewall behind a hardware firewall in a router), then finally to Microsoft Security Essentials with the same firewall setup. I used Outpost's free firewall on an XP laptop that traveled outside our home network and needed a firewall with a little more "oomph" than XP's had. The XP rigs also had Malwarebytes Pro running in real time, and SuperAntispyware free as an on demand scanner. These days, general "malware" seems to be the issue, which takes in not just viruses, but other nasties like things that get into your computers and use them as part of botnets, or steal your personal and financial information, or disable your system until you provide a credit card number ("ransomeware"), bad stuff like that...To me it looks like the bad guys would rather hijack your computer and your info to use them, rather than simply disable your computer.

Since Microsoft will stop supporting XP next spring, our XP rigs will be taken offline in favor of a Windows 7 netbook and a Windows 8 laptop. I've been changing our security over to ESET Smart Security. I haven't tried running Malwarebytes Pro in combination with ESET yet and I'm not sure I will. I've heard they may conflict, although they get along ok if I'm running an on demand scan with Malwarebytes. I disabled Malwarebytes Pro on the netbook when I installed ESET on it. I also discovered Windows Defender had been running in the background all along, much to my surprise, so I disabled that as well, and now the netbook seems more responsive. I had found that with Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes Pro, and the Windows firewall the netbook had been terribly sluggish, but that may have been Defender in combination with the other two security software--all three of them simultaneously checking every process. Talk about overkill.

Sorry, this is getting long winded. Ultimately what I will end up with in the way of security is:

ESET Smart Security (firewall and antivirus)
WOT (Web of Trust) extension on all browsers
Malwarebytes as an on demand scanner
SuperAntispyware free version as an on demand scanner

The closest we've ever come to having our rigs infected has occurred from landing on malicious websites. No one in this household engages in risky internet behavior, the issues happened from links found in google searches. Our security software thus far has stopped malicious processes in their tracks.

jmilica · 06-09-2013, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joseph R

Comparation between various Mac AV software

Spoiler: Avast, AVIRA and Zeobit come on top.

As elcreative pointed out, Mac are generally immune from VIRUSES but not from Malware; eg. "FlashBack", a Java-based Trojan caused some issues on Mac OS X 2 years ago.

Spoiler: Avast, AVIRA and Zeobit come on top.

Thanks a lot! I'll check this out.

theducks · 06-09-2013, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darqref

A couple of months ago, I discovered that AVG (free version) was writing to a log file on my C: drive, and it was up to about 50GB. Deleting that, and the file was immediately re-created, and started building again, reaching MB within minutes.

I've since changed to AVAST, but I'm not really happy (just lazy enough that I haven't found yet something else.

A quick google, and it turned out the log was part of the AVG safe search and there were guides on how to disable that

feature

No more log

BWinmill · 06-09-2013, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadievan

Thanks. I'm running Windows 7

Another approach that I've seen is periodically running ClamAV from Linux. It has no impact on Windows' performance, and it less likely to be compromised.

Incidentally, ClamAV is also available for Windows.

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06-09-2013, 01:28 PM	#31
Stephen Chandler Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 22222 Join Date: Jun 2013 Device: none	I did use AVG free, but have now changed to AVAST free. There does not seem to be a lot of difference between them. My wife still uses AVG free on her laptop and she is happy with it.

06-09-2013, 04:46 PM	#33
49Kat Fanatic Posts: 580 Karma: 1309104 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: BC,Canada/NV, USA Device: iPad 9th Gen, iPhone 11, Paperwhite 10th Gen.	Hmmm... Over the years I've used Norton security suite products because they've come preinstalled on newly purchased Windows XP PC's. I've used ZoneAlarm security suites until it just started to be a hassle to use, changed over to AVG free for a while (with Windows firewall behind a hardware firewall in a router), then finally to Microsoft Security Essentials with the same firewall setup. I used Outpost's free firewall on an XP laptop that traveled outside our home network and needed a firewall with a little more "oomph" than XP's had. The XP rigs also had Malwarebytes Pro running in real time, and SuperAntispyware free as an on demand scanner. These days, general "malware" seems to be the issue, which takes in not just viruses, but other nasties like things that get into your computers and use them as part of botnets, or steal your personal and financial information, or disable your system until you provide a credit card number ("ransomeware"), bad stuff like that...To me it looks like the bad guys would rather hijack your computer and your info to use them, rather than simply disable your computer. Since Microsoft will stop supporting XP next spring, our XP rigs will be taken offline in favor of a Windows 7 netbook and a Windows 8 laptop. I've been changing our security over to ESET Smart Security. I haven't tried running Malwarebytes Pro in combination with ESET yet and I'm not sure I will. I've heard they may conflict, although they get along ok if I'm running an on demand scan with Malwarebytes. I disabled Malwarebytes Pro on the netbook when I installed ESET on it. I also discovered Windows Defender had been running in the background all along, much to my surprise, so I disabled that as well, and now the netbook seems more responsive. I had found that with Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes Pro, and the Windows firewall the netbook had been terribly sluggish, but that may have been Defender in combination with the other two security software--all three of them simultaneously checking every process. Talk about overkill. Sorry, this is getting long winded. Ultimately what I will end up with in the way of security is: ESET Smart Security (firewall and antivirus) WOT (Web of Trust) extension on all browsers Malwarebytes as an on demand scanner SuperAntispyware free version as an on demand scanner The closest we've ever come to having our rigs infected has occurred from landing on malicious websites. No one in this household engages in risky internet behavior, the issues happened from links found in google searches. Our security software thus far has stopped malicious processes in their tracks.

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