Which AntiVirus Software Is Installed On Your Computer? And...

[arwalden]

Poll question: Which AntiVirus Software Is Installed On Your Computer? And...

how often do you use it?

-- Allen

P.S. Is anything better than Norton? I tried McAffee... but I truly disliked the "console" thingy (or whatever it's called) that was constantly telling me which other McAffee applications that I *didn't* have installed.

After being infected once, I now run my virus scanner constantly. Now I get occasional messages letting me know that a virus or script was intercepted... but I never get a message letting me know that I'm infected.

(I wonder if antivirus software companies also release viruses for their software to be the first one to "discover". Perhaps I'm just paranoid... but I think about things like this.)

[trof]

1. AVG...it's FREE!

My neighborhood retired USAF computer systems manager friend told me about it. He's a pro and it's what he uses.
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

[GOPisEvil]

3. I use AVG too.

It works just fine. I run it once a month or so.

[Jerseycoa]

17. I LOVE AVG

I haven't had a single virus get past it in two years.

[ret5hd]

2. none for me...

linux kicks norton's or mcaffee's butt every time.

[bratcatinok]

4. I use the free version of AVG

and I love it. I had Norton and McAfee at one time but I still got infected with the Klez virus.

I like AVG because you can set it to automaticall do a system scan every day at an hour of your choosing and you can also have it scan every email. I use Outlook Express with hotmail as my main email address and I haven't had a virus since I installed AVG. I've been using it for at least a couple of years now.

http://www.grisoft.com and I receive no monetary or otherwise benefit from posting their link.

[trotsky]

7. The only thing I didn't like about AVG

was that you can't have Outlook open when it does an auto-update. I leave my home machine on 24 hrs a day, so that was a problem for me.

Otherwise a solid free alternative for virus protection. (I use McAfee now - corporate version, which is free of those annoyances.)

[bratcatinok]

10. I've never had a problem

with Outlook being open when receiving an auto-update. I have cable-modem and so I never turn my machine off on purpose. Of course, living in the small town I do, the electricity goes off at least once a week and more often twice or more. That's when I end up restarting my machine and I've had no problems. I set my preview pane in Outlook at 60 seconds because that gives AVG enough time to scan it and alert me if it contains a virus.

AVG has alerted me several times when an email contains a virus and it asks me what I want to do with it. So far, so good!

I also have the auto-notification from Microsoft where I can be alerted when there are critical updates to be installed.

[trotsky]

12. Outlook or Outlook Express?

Different programs. I think in your previous post you said Outlook Express. I use Outlook so I can synchronize with my PDA, and AVG doesn't like Outlook being open for whatever reason.

[bratcatinok]

15. Ah ha! Outlook Express

is what I use. I misunderstood when you responded to me and thought you were abbreviating Outlook Express to Outlook.

That's interesting to know that AVG doesn't like Outlook. I wonder why that is.

[DemNoir]

5. NOD32

The best virus program there is in my opinion. Small, efficent, and the best at finding viruses in many tests.

Everything else is just a scam.

www.nod32.com

[velocity]

6. Thursday Night at 2:00am

Norton checks my system :evilgrin:... Plus it does the emails as they come in.

[0007]

8. I have Norton - I hope it isn't a scam.

[frylock]

9. weekly scan + all downloads..

I download a lot of stuff.

[liberalmike27]

11. Norton

I've used Norten since McAfee killed my system a couple of months after I got my computer. It works great, you can auto-update, and it constantly scans the computer during lag times, and you get a year of free updates on definitions, which I suspect was the problem with the other virus problem, someone didn't update the signatures, like the new viruses, so the program didn't recognize it as such.

The last two versions seemed to have more buggy updates, I had one that wouldn't install for the longest time, then finally it worked out, now there is another one that is not installing properly.

Norton is commonly considered the best. McAfee is on mom's computer, and I really don't like it much, though it has improved much since my first disaster.

Norton works well with ZoneAlarm, a free firewall too.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

13. Other - Linux

What's a virus?

[Robb]

16. I hear ya

My father-in-law said once "Yeah, I installed this great anti-virus software, called Mac OS. No problems ever since." ;)

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. Two separate products to clean infected machines

When I try to clean a client's machine, I start by using McAfee's command line scanner, which is included in their Enterprise package. Then I use Norton Antivirus Professional (included in their Internet Security package, which I always install on fresh machines).

An interesting bit about Norton-- one of the Internet Security live update patches (6.04) seems to be broken, and can completely trash a Norton install, creating a virus-like crash of the program itself. After repairing more than a few systems, it appears that Dell computers are the ones most likely to be affected. But then, Dell is one hell of a quirky machine in any case!

My personal machaines are scanned constantly, and updated daily.