Hi all. I wanted to know if any of you could recommend me a good antivirus software? I tried some free ones years ago but ended up with viruses. Currently with Norton, but interested in other (cheaper) options. Any help appreciated. Thanks!
I use Web root. it cost about $45 for a year but that covers up to 5 computers. it also updates all the time and lets me know when it is safe to open a web page.
Trend is pretty good. Runs about 50 bucks, and can try their best coverage for a month free to see if it lives up to it's name.
I've used Avast free edition for a long time and not had any problems... maybe you should avoid the food p0rn sites!
I use Avast! Free on my desktop and Bitdefender Free on my laptop, both without problems, both using Windows XP.
Get the free version of AVG and don't look back. It's free, received well by the experts, and did I say it was free?
DON'T USE AN ANTIVIRUS!! 90% of infections in modern computers are not "viruses" as it's defined, and the vast majority of anti-viruses are ill equipped to deal with them. Unless you're running a server, or handling tons of credit cards, or running a giant financial institution, the people who make those viruses aren't targeting you, and their software won't even work on your computer. More than that an anti-virus will get into your system and hijack the processes so it's nearly impossible to remove (much like a virus). If you're a power user, or don't like to use your system conventionally, an anti-virus is going to seriously get in your way. You need to worry about malware, bots and worms. Norton, AVG, MacCaffee, these are completely ineffectual with these risks for the most part. You want malwarebytes https://www.malwarebytes.org/business/business-db-var/ The free version requires you to run it manually. I usually do it once a week. It stops exploits that malware uses to get into your computer and shuts it down. It can also remove pretty much everything, and can be loaded on a thumb drive if you need to.
Since you didn't mention your OS, I'll assume Windows, mainly because if you're using a Mac, I can't help. Windows 10 has antivirus built in. I've never needed anything else.
You definitely need something else. Microsoft is notoriously about six months behind on their security, unless it involves a specific Window vulnerability. Malware doesn't even show up on their radar.
I've tried BitDefender's free version, and while their protection is one of the best the app is so limited in functionality that I just couldn't stand it. Since it doesn't come with a firewall I had to find separate software for that, too... I used Panda Internet Security on my laptop for a year, but it was terribly bad (only started 50% of the time, froze when I tried to open it, I couldn't enable the firewall, and I couldn't even uninstall it without going through a heap of trouble). Though that may be the installation that was corrupted or my laptop that is bad. I've used a few others (e.g. AVG and Avira) but they haven't been that satisfying. The one I always come back to is ESET Internet Security. It's always been a stable program with good security, a non-intrusive real-time protection, a strong firewall and a modern user interface.
I hate all anti-virus software. It is either ineffectual or insidious (sometimes both). I have a theory that the most prolific writers of malware and spyware are the companies that sell the solutions. Paranoid? Maybe. Every single virus software I have ever used has been virtually impossible to delete. It is like it's own virus on your computer.
Viruses are created by criminals who want to earn money by encrypting your data and ask money for the decryption key, stealing your credit card information and use it to buy things or get your personal data that can be used for various crimes. As you see a virus can cause big trouble so it worth spending some money on an anti-virus solution. Norton, Avast, Eset, BitDefender or Kaspersky are good ones. Have a look at this PDF for a comparison of some solutions : http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/avc_factsheet2016_07.pdf
For years I used AVG, http://www.avg.com/gb-en/homepage, anti-virus software on all my XP machines without any problems. I also downloaded Spybot, http://spybot-search-destroy.en.softonic.com/download, and Ccleaner (aka. Crap Cleaner), https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner, and ran them every month or whenever I thought things were slowing down. Both Spybot and Ccleaner have options to run in the background, but I never bothered with that due to memory limitations. Nowadays I rely on Windows Defender on my Win10 machine. Want quick access to everything you can configure in Win10? Make sure your system account has administrative privileges. Right-click on the Windows 10 desktop and choose New > Folder. Name the folder: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} and hit enter/return to make it stick. (in truth you can call it anything you like, but the alphanumeric stuff is important) Tweak away to your heart's content.
I agree and it's always been like that. I once had to reinstall my OS just to get Norton off my computer. That's why I stick to the ones supplied by Microsoft. They come with the OS, I'm stuck with them anyway, so screw it. And last night, after venturing (accidentally, I swear!) onto a bad-boy website, I was suddenly confronted with something akin to the self-destruct warning at the end of Aliens and Defender saved my ass. So, even though I don't have a choice, I'm okay with this particular anti-virus virus.
For the Mac, I don't run an active program at all. I occasionally scan (with Malwarebytes, mostly), when I have the suspicion I need. Never got anything Mac-specific, though, only encountered a lot of Windows malware. I AM careful with my surfing habits, though, and do all my work in a non-admin account (though this may be overkill, since I have to provide my admin password at exactly the same instances whether I'm in the admin or my normal work account). If you feel the need to run a normal Virus-/Internet-protection software, the usual suspects do offer a lot of options (some free, some test, some pay). I have some experiences with the free/test versions of Avast and Sophos, of which I would recommend Sophos. Both find, according to tests by pros not me, about the same amount of malware, but Avast is a bit, shall we say, alert happy. It gives a lot of false positives. It's not really bad, but it tends to call everything a threat even when there's only a hint of suspicion (it labelled a backup of an iOS app from my iPad as threat, because one of files in the iOS app had the ending ".exe", which I suspect was a joke by the developer. Not that this app could have infected a Windows, anyway). On my mom's Windows 10 laptop, we just run the Microsoft standard (what's it called -- Defender??). Since she's only getting a bit of email (but I routinely check her account from the Mac, too, being the family's IT expert), and surfs only to a handful of standard web sites that are not particular heavy targets (she's not on Facebook, twitter or any other social service) it seems sufficient.
There's only one way to be 100% certain about avoiding viruses and that's to disconnect completely from the Internet. But who wants to do that?
I Used Quick heal and Avast Antivirus . I think Its really very nice Antivirus and its Prices is Not high .
No anti-virus software can fully keep you safe, but so long as you use common sense and don’t download and run silly programs, you’ll be all right. Norton is pretty resource-intensive. I agree with @Jack Asher in that you should not use Norton or MacAfee. In fact, I'd label both as adware. Malwarebytes is decent but it’s usually a program you’d pair with another anti-virus program such as Avast or AVG, and they even say that on their own website. I recommend one of the following combinations: Kaspersky + Malwarebytes ESET NOD32 + Malwarebytes Comodo Firewall (Sufficient on its own but more sophisticated to use. It will catch almost all malware, though.)
I've used so many that I've lost count. I can say that Kasperky is head-and-shoulders above them all. Some of the software here bloat up your computer, but Kaspersky is all business.
