What is the best antivirus program?

[el_omega]

[list=1]
Norton Antivirus any edition
McAfee virus scan
Pccillin
Panda
[/list=1]

From what I heard Norton and Mcaffe take the best ranks.
I personally have Norton Antivirus 2002, but somebody is trying to convince me to use the corporate edition, supposedly it takes a lot less resources on your computer than regular Norton does.

I have also heard good things about McAffe, never had it so I can not comment about it.

And have also seen sites promoting Pccillin, Panda and a bunch of others.

What is your best solution when it comes to antivirus software, and please do not include firewall applications.

[kevoid]

If I used an anti-virus program, I would use AVG.

[PornMaster]

Norton Anti-Virus 2003 is the best, It doesn't use much resources and it catches any virus on your computer as long as you keep it up to date!

[DETROIT]

They all do a real good job but I noticed for my self that McAfee virus scan 7 Corp. performed a better job for me. Mcafee found things that Norton's did not.:black

[MusikBeatz23]

Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition - Low on resources - Pretty good.
McAfee Virus Scan - High On Resources - Pretty good
Pc-cillin 2003 - Medium on resourcse, comes with a firewall but has holes in it, not that many features in both the firewall and VS.
AVG Standard Edition - Low on resources has all the common features.

I would go with AVG Standard Edition I would also add Sygate Personal Firewall Pro to my system to make it very secure.

[backmann]

The best antivirus is Panda, but Norton has the most up to date virus database.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

[RJ5500]

I use Norton Corporate right now and it works well for me. The "real time" virus alerts are useful against email viruses.

I also like Panda. I visit Panda's web page every now and then and download their free "activescan" applet onto my machine and let it run. It's cool.

[Spencer45317]

I use Norton Corporate Edition. On fast track, the file for Norton Corporate should be 27,188 KB. At least that's the copy I use. It must be the best since its by far more expensive than consumer editions.

[Wings_of_Azrael]

I voted Panda, as I had better experiences with it than Norton and McAfee. It was low on system resources, did its job, and has a nice interface. I've tried many anti-virus programs on a WinME system, and Norton Professional was the slowest and used the most resources. I have yet to try it on Win2K. Does Corporate run more efficently? I've never seen a Norton Anti-Virus program that was any lighter on system resources than any other anti-virus program; including Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda, AVG, Dr. Web, and probably some other unworthy mentions. Actually, it's been a while since I've tried McAfee. It's probably much heavier now. Anyway, I'm using AVG now... it's not all that great, as it doesn't update often enough to be great. But it's free, light on system resources, and better than nothing. Also, I'm tired of worrying about auto-updates biting me in the ass with "downloaded" anti-virus programs like Panda and Dr. Web. I'm tired. Tuck me in, mommy.

[DETROIT]

Originally posted by Wings_of_Azrael
I voted Panda, as I had better experiences with it than Norton and McAfee. It was low on system resources, did its job, and has a nice interface. I've tried many anti-virus programs on a WinME system, and Norton Professional was the slowest and used the most resources. I have yet to try it on Win2K. Does Corporate run more efficently? I've never seen a Norton Anti-Virus program that was any lighter on system resources than any other anti-virus program; including Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda, AVG, Dr. Web, and probably some other unworthy mentions. Actually, it's been a while since I've tried McAfee. It's probably much heavier now. Anyway, I'm using AVG now... it's not all that great, as it doesn't update often enough to be great. But it's free, light on system resources, and better than nothing. Also, I'm tired of worrying about auto-updates biting me in the ass with "downloaded" anti-virus programs like Panda and Dr. Web. I'm tired. Tuck me in, mommy.

Every other critter has got by using panda, norton, avg except Mcafee antivirus 7 corp. Ha but free is good to. It has a great ISP traser trust me I get my use out of it.:devil

[el_omega]

Well, let me see I am right most of these softwares do wonders, the difference is in the resources they use to operate.
So far I think the best performer is Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, I know there are two versions the server one and the client one.
Server is if you're running a network so it would be a good selection to protect your network.
Client for the alone stand computer most of us use at home.

[Galileo]

None of those listed are the best.

That's like saying, what's the best music:
1. Britney Spears
2. Eminem
3. Limp Bizkit
4. Backstreet boyz

They're all bad.

[Galileo]

Ok, here's the deal:

McAfee expires and after 30-days it will start to spew ads at you, and cease to update, and nag you to pay. McAfee slows your pc down, so much so that I have seen clients who could not even move their mouse properly when the scanning was engaged. Other customers had popup ads coming up, nag screens, etc. Yet other customers had McAfee conflicts which kept their machine from booting correctly and getting stuck at the windows logo screen. McAfee comes in 3rd on some of their OWN tests. McAfee is probably one of the Worst overall programs. The one good thing that McAfee has though, is their virus information database: http://vil.nai.com (McAfee is a subsidiary of Network Associates Inc. NAI)

Norton will expire on you as well, and stop updating. ( See this! http://pcworld.shopping.yahoo.com/yahoo/article/0,aid,81150,00.asp ) Even if you get Norton supposedly FREE licensed along with a new pc or something, after a year, sometimes 90 days, your subscription to updates will run out, and now you have to pay. You will no longer be protected. Also, it is well known that Norton has one of the WORST detection rates. Only like 80% in some instances. It has failed many virus certification tests.

See here: http://www.mcafeeb2b.com/products/literature/independent-tests/tests-102001.asp

You'll see above, that Norton has many test results in which no score is given. No score is given to those products that failed to detect 99% of viruses. Symantec requires a lot of extra removal tools because Norton cannot remove certain viruses by itself: Go look: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/tools.list.html

Everyone passed the most recent TruSecure tests, but in the past, Norton and panda have failed:
http://www.icsalabs.com/html/communities/antivirus/notes/tr_0499.shtml

Article: "The name Norton conjures up images of security and reliablity. I too visualized Norton as the best anti-virus solution.....until a few months ago. I have had three personal instances where, Norton failed to catch viruses on the system...this despite the virus signature files and engine being up to date. I only came to know of this...as I just loaded a trial version of Mcafee to check it out. And boy was I taken back when it found couple of viruses!! The same occured at my friend’s place and at his college!! "

AVK is good. German. AntiViren Kit. Good at 100% detection scores. AVK's demo expires after 15-days. But then again you are used to obtaining these for free via p2p anyway, so...whatever. AVK beat McAfee on some of their own tests. lol.

AntiVIR is another good German one. I have not seen anyone that is aware of it here, but it is quite prominent here in Europe. http://www.hbedv.com/download/download.htm

KAV is ok. Kaspersky. It can bog down your system a bit, but not bad at all. Lots of features. It's among the top 3 in detection.

Panda is ok as long as you can figure out which one of their 50 million versions to get... platinum, titanium, silver, gold, bronze, small business, small business pro, enterprise edition, perimeter edition, appliance edition, invent pack, Enterprise for Fileservers, Enterprise for exchange, Firewall edition, email edition, Senmail edition, postfix edition, proxy edition, commandline edition, ActiveScan, Lotus Notes / Domino Edition, pro, lite, limited, full, plus, pro plus, pro plus platinum, blah blah blah... sheesh. (you think I'm kidding, go look at their site.) Again, it expires. One thing cool that panda has, is a realtime INFECTION MAP, showing which countries are the most infected in the world: http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/flash/mapa_popup.asp?idioma=2&color=F1F855 (Although they've colored china when it has 0%, and they are a bit confused as to where DENMARK is.)

Trend Micro makes PC-Cillin, and it is one of the better ones. Few conflicts. Good detection. One cool thing that TREND/PCCILLIN has is their ONLINE virus scan. Called Housecall. It's here: http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp


AVG is also a good program. www.grisoft.com . It's free, and is up there high in the ratings. And runs really light. Doesn't bog down your system like McAfee. Probably the best one so far. http://www.grisoft.com

NOD32 is a good one. The demo expires after 1 month, requiring you to pay. But it has won the VirusBulletin 100% detection award 21 times in a ROW. http://www.nod32.com

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/products.xml?table


The reason why AVG is cool is that it is completely free. Including unlimited updates, unlike Norton or McAfee.
Sure, you can download these programs off of p2p systems, but then you have a cracked copy. Of course, you can almost hear the ironical laugh of a virus spreader from here as he goes "tee hee" and laces a copy of an anti-virus program meant to get RID of viruses with something that will infect people yet keep it hidden and make people *think* they are protected, and uploads it onto a p2p system. So you can download it for free I guess, but it will be a pirated copy.

AVG is free to download. The program doesn't expire. The updates don't expire. And you'll be fully legal. And have an official copy of it from the mfg.

but do whatever you like.

[Galileo]

Wingz of Azrael go open your AVG control center, click the tab that says Update Manager, Look for the item that says "Update if database is older than |___| days.

You probably have 14 in there! Change it to 1.

And also change repeat to 1.

There you go. It will now update immediately.

-G

[isus]

norton has been great... liveupdate, all that. never failed me once. i wanna get systemworks now... for my next computer...

[Ken17625]

AVG Free Edition combined with an online scan. I'm good to go.

[littleboo789]

I see Norton Antivirus 2003, then I see Norton Antivirus 2003 Professional..are they the same thing? Is the Norton Corporate Edition the best what does it have then Norton 2003 Pro?

[maartendc]

Originally posted by PornMaster
Norton Anti-Virus 2003 is the best, It doesn't use much resources and it catches any virus on your computer as long as you keep it up to date!

Does it use less recources than the 2002 edition? Caus thats the one I've got... Should I bother upgrading? What are the differences between 2002 and 2003?

[nasrules]

right ive tried

nod32
norton 2002 + 2003
panda
avg

and my favourite is nod32. unfortunately i cant find a way to get it to work for more than 30 days without buying it. i find that norton uses a lot of resources and if u wanna uninstall it it can fuk up loadsa stuff on ur comp, i like avg quite a lot, an im currently usin panda. probably the best gui of all of em.

[Azo-999]

Originally posted by littleboo789
I see Norton Antivirus 2003, then I see Norton Antivirus 2003 Professional..are they the same thing? Is the Norton Corporate Edition the best what does it have then Norton 2003 Pro?

I think that symantec just tries to make money giving out too many versions NAV2k2-2k3-2k3pro-Corp...
If U must have norton, just use NAV2k3 pro, it has additional tools like Norton's Protected recycle Bin and Unerase that works even for files deleted by applications automatic uninstall...
(and it can be loaded full ver. from p2p, no links here...)

I use that one and RAV8 (it was Romanian AntiVirus before, now they call it Reliable AntiVirus, that's more international ;-)

I have to say that these 2 fit together well both with autoprotected filescanning and E-Mail Scanning. Rav also have plugins for Netscape 6 & 7 and opera 6 & 7...to watch their downloads / mails...

And one thing I have to say : in last 30 days period RAV has warned and deleted 5 sure viruses from my XP (even from Recycler & System Volume Information folders) while norton has been quiet nor knowing anything...

Both of them have good "almost" daily updaters

Have also used McAfee, It's fast in scanning and reports clearly the findings.

When I scan my whole computer every now and then, I use first NAV, then RAV, sometimes McAfee to get things clear. After that Trojan Remover, Anti-Trojan, Ad-Aware Prof. 6.0 and finally SpyBot's Search & Destroy. At XP they can be set at lower priority background and keep on working with P2P or whatsoever...

:sw :sw :sw

[Krell]

At XP they can be set at lower priority background and keep on working with P2P or whatsoever...

I dont recomend that AZO, it implies that you can read\write to a drive constantly with P2P apps, and run the scan in the background, and have instances of Explorer open, which refreshes as files are modified, etc etc etc, . . and not have any hickups.

Most of these people alredy have a ton of Services running they dont need, and screensavers, power mnt, task scheduler . . . plus they need firewalls, next they will complain about slow performance, or lockups, just so we can try to sort it all out again.

K.I.S.S. . . . . just stop once every so often, run your antivirus, or any time you get a new file, scan it. A few of the Anti Virus programs, and System Suites, like Norton and Ontrack, give you Right Click ability to scan a file.


Also, this is free, web based, ALWAYS has updated virus definitions.
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

Her is Pandas free online version
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/

.

[Azo-999]

Originally posted by Krell
I dont recomend that AZO, it implies that you can read\write to a drive constantly with P2P apps, and run the scan in the background, and have instances of Explorer open, which refreshes as files are modified, etc etc etc, . . and not have any hickups.

Yes Mr. TeleSpec - I was mostly kiddin' in my last sentence of backgrounding to get You awake.
In a real world I like to watch when the rows go passing by listing my 70,000+ files and i like to use heuristing scanning and inside archives scanning.

The deep truth is that I leave my PC open auto-scanning (first stopping / killing all possible Services / Taskbar routines to get most files unlocked) and take a good nap. After wakin 'up I read the logs and am happy again with a "clean" machine...

I have also used those on-line scanners before (Trend is a good one), but now I rely for my "own" 3 virus apps that do not expire (that's nothing to be proud of - just said it)

Happy evening 4 all & Peace to World (&PC's)

Azo

:sw :sw :sw

==================================
~~~Useful Site of Today~~~
* http://www.thanki.tk/ *
==================================

[maartendc]

Originally posted by Azo-999
Yes Mr. TeleSpec - I was mostly kiddin' in my last sentence of backgrounding to get You awake.


Hehe, Yeah right!
They all say that. It's the oldest one in teh book pall.

[BloodStraw]

F-Secure antivirus is the best, it detects almost everything...

[Azo-999]

Originally posted by maartendc
Hehe, Yeah right!
They all say that. It's the oldest one in teh book pall.

Hehe, and still going strong after all these years...
:fire :fire :fire

:sw :sw

[el_omega]

Well, guess what I have been using Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition Client edition and works wonders.
It updates silently without interrupting your surfing.
It takes about 25% less resources on your system.
It loads almost instantly from the system tray.
I really like the idea of having changed from regular NAV 2002 to this corporate edition.
I also know that NAV2003 is as good as this one.
But who knows if I decided to change antivirus in the future.

[Ken17625]

Also, this is free, web based, ALWAYS has updated virus definitions.
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp


I recommend that. I use that in combination with AVG Free Edition.

[jolton]

from my own expririence i can say that for me at least norton 2003 pro took up more resources than mcafee 7,0 pro which i'm using now....
seems to work so far and hasn't slowed down my computer at all. At first i was very skeptical to try it out cause i was using norton for so long. It just got to the point of saying fuck it. But must say am very impressed because the difference in resources it uses is significant.
Never tried the norton corp version though...anyone know how that compares to the mcafee 7,0 pro?

[Malakai1911]

Kapersky Anti-Virus

http://www.kaspersky.com/

[phalkon30]

McAfee was crap IMO, it locked my dads computer from even reaching safe mode after an update, we had to reload windows after we were able to get in far enough to save some stuff to disk

NAV2003 works great, 2002 caught many many virus's for me, and I haven't gotten any since then

I'm working on buying corp edition

[Azo-999]

Originally posted by phalkon30
McAfee was crap IMO, it locked my dads computer from even reaching safe mode after an update, we had to reload windows after we were able to get in far enough to save some stuff to disk


I had a several problem once, because I had Installed NAV2k2 in autoscanning mode and after that I installed McAfee with autoshield on (by accident).

This is a combination that really locks the computer for "loop-4-ever" and it won't start windows explorer anymore (cannot even get the task-manager by pressing ctrl/alt/delete) [ in XP ].

Had to go to safe mode and do some regediting, then the situation was clear.

Nav can be used autoscanning on at same time with RAV-Antivirus - they make together a good combination - what NAV does not see, RAV does and vice versa...

You can try RAV8 for free 30 days at :
http://www.ravantivirus.com/index.php


Peace !!!

:sw :sw :sw

[SexySpammer]

I've had good results with Panda . . . but AVG does it for me now

btw I've tried accessing the housecall antivirus site many times, but have been unable to . . . other people have told me the same thing . . . any suggestions?

[Krell]

The reason you are seeing a post from back on the 8th is due to a deletion.

Click the links in my sig and let me know if you need more help.

Oh . . . and meet me at the other place . . . shhhhhhh

[SexySpammer]

Originally posted by Krell
The reason you are seeing a post from back on the 8th is due to a deletion.

Click the links in my sig and let me know if you need more help.

Oh . . . and meet me at the other place . . . shhhhhhh

I just tried accessing the site again . . . this time from your link . . . but the results were the same . . .

It's not really that important; I was mostly just curious about it and wanted to check it out . . .

Maybe someday . . .

: )

[Krell]

Your security setting prohibit the java applets, no biggy. You can set it back to Medium. or not.

[a604cutie]

I have always used Norton Antivirus. Norton SystemWorks & Internet Security are pretty good too.

[The Hunter]

Right now I am using norton with 98se, and avg with XP pro. So far both are working well. I will keep track of any problems, and post them here.

[Rahwgwar]

I am using for a PAID Norton Systemworks 2002.

A couple of times, it was a pain in the ass to register again when my comp went down under.

For a while now, it gets to my HP folder under Program Files, and it takes hours to scan that. It used to scan through it like a regular folder, but now seems to take up to 3 seconds scanning each file. Taking into account how many files are in that folder, one can see why it takes so long.

The last full scan I did of my computer with Norton was a full six months ago and it took 25 hours. No other services or programs were running.

I seriously have no understanding of what happened to it. Scannning used to be quick while still thorough. I've made a thread regarding this topic and it was so rare that no one had any explanation. I have expressed that I have no indication to believe that it is conflicting with Ontrack in any way.

Then my Live Update ceased to work.......so I resorted to IntelliUpdate. I can't even find a logical explanation for this. No big deal really........I just download the definitions every Wednesday when possible. No big deal really.......the scanning bit above is what really ticks me off.

So now........while still updating Norton, I use Ontrack to fully scan my 40 gig hard drive, which only 11 gigs are used.

I've tried AVG in the past, but it was buggy. It would not scan my entire hard drive. I may give it another shot since I'm contemplating uninstalling Norton.

Right now, Ontrack's virus scanner with frequent updates is keeping me well protected IMHO. Plus, it does a number of other things such as IntelliCluster. The whole suite is nothing less than superb.

I just want to be fully protected with the best overall antivirus program. Speed is not much of a factor to me. The toll on system resources must be reasonable. I think at least, I will prolly drop Norton and just go with Ontrack. It's a shame too.....I paid money for Norton. I find it ironic that they are the one of the most expensive antivirus software companies out there (if not THE most expensive), and yet some free or cheap antivirus software meets or even exceeds its standards.

For those interested, I have Win Xp Home Edition, 1.3 Ghz AMD-Athlon-PECM, and 384 MB SDRAM..........

[FrozenShadow23]

Norton Antivirus has been nothing but great for me. I have tried McAffee, but too many false positives. I've never tried Panda, but it seems to be pretty popular, I might check it out. I really don't like AVG, it doesn't have a big enough database of virus definitions.

[mojo-ris-in]

:devil I'm on the Norton bandwagon here. I used AVG fo a long time but Norton seems to catch things that AVG doesn't. However for a free program AVG is great. Never could stand Crapafee and that goes back to my Win 98 days so it may be better but I wouldn't know because I never used it again.

[MoonMan]

I use McAfee at the moment and I haven't had any problems with it. Not bad really imo.

[nasrules]

used all norton products for a loooooong time, but theyre such resource hogs! since then ive been swapping between nod32, avg and panda but have finally settled on rav.

[KurtCocain]

Norten has saved my system MANY times. It uses too much resources though. I hate such programs.

Thats why I have been using AVG for the past year. It is EXCELLENT.

Krell, thanx for the link, doing the scan right now. Just wanted to check it out. however, online scanning is not the best for ppl w/ limited internet or on a dial-up. That is really not their choice....

Here at work we got busted by the W32.HLLW.Lovgate.G@mm virus :))) And the company uses Norton. It is clear that Norton is not perfect, but I still support it. If a system is totally infected and you cannot run any exe, and cannot go online, and cannot install any anti-virus program, only NORTON takes care of business. It does the job for totally scewed machines when nothig but format c: is the healing :))

[phalkon30]

If anything, Symantec has the most comprehensive and easy to follow instructions for virus removal

[metale]

Norton Antivirus, any edition, is the best avaliable in market.
Norton rules.

Just keep it updated.

The thing that i really love from norton is their Online encyclopedia... it's great!!!

[Kyle06]

Please do not get McAfee it is a peace of shit please if you do get a virus and it will not let you do nothing about it ...........................

[Rahwgwar]

From benchmark tests and ease of use, I believe that Nod32 is the best. If you HAVE to go freeware, I guess AVG is your best choice.

[CTC Command]

An anti-virus software to avoid: Extendia. Wiped out a huge chunk of my shared folder alphabetically between f and p when I shitcanned it for locking my system up one too many times. After reading through all this I think I'll go check out one of the web-based aintvirals mentioned earlier, thanks for all the info y'all.

At least my virus problems have never gotten this big...

[Greylin]

My computer came loaded with Norton and at first I though it was doing a great job until one day when i clicked on any of my icons i got an error message saying .exe not found. So I ended up using TDS to fix the problem. Then I got rid of Norton for good and Went w/ Mcafee Virus Scan Online and it found 3 virii as soon as it was installed which Norton never even recognized. And yes, my databases were upsated on a daily basis.

[nasrules]

RAV, Nod32 and AVG all do a great job.

[g-smooth2k]

I use Norton Anti-Virus Corporate Edition

and luv it and used it for quite a long time

so far no problems and works great

[Winphuk]

I'd say it's Norton hands down.

[ATLien]

Norton and Panda Titanium

[Brycen257]

My favorite the last while is Avast , which is a free antivirus prorgam that can be downloaded at the various download sites including download.com and webattack.com and file forum.
I also have found AVG and PC-Cillin to be very good.

[Kevin06906]

Use AVG anti virus, it is the best free one out there that i have tried and still using. www.grisoft.com

[FreakinWeasel]

Originally posted by kevoid
If I used an anti-virus program, I would use AVG.


I'm with Kevoid, I used to use McAfee and it worked Ok but was kind of a hassle updating manually all the time. And I wouldn't pay for the autoupdate feature. So after a bit of looking, I found AVG and IT'S FREE. For home use IT'S FREE, has auto update (and they usually have weekly updates), checks my email and downloads and doesn't hog resources, has a autoscan feature to let you setup a weekly or daily scan. It really seems to work pretty good for my purposes, especially after those all night sessions on Kazaa! Oh and did I mention IT'S FREE! Anyway can't beat the price.
I guess the only thing I have found is that most of the really nasty stuff it has found can't be removed from the file, so it chucks the file. I don't know if McAfee and Norton would do the same but it's a small price to pay for the rest of the functionality.

[isus]

haha, you wana know what the best antivirus prog is?

it'll be the one microsoft puts out whenever they are gonna be putting it out. yea, that one will kick ass. it'll copy all the features out of mcafee and nav, and the rest. then they will add some classic ms bugs, to make sure you buy all the upgrades. it'll be sooo awesome.

there was (perhaps) too much sarcasm in that post...

[XtraNtnse]

What about BitDefender? Anyone use that one? Is it any good~?

[blackOcean]

According to C'T review (9/2003):

"Best: BitDefender, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Panda Anti-Virus, G-Data AntivirusKit

Good: AVG, F-Secure Anti-Virus, McAfee VirusScan, NOD32, Norman Virus Control, Norton AntiVirus, Dr. Web

Average: AntiVir PE, F-Prot for Windows, PC-Cillin

Bad: Command Anti-Virus, Ikarus Virus Utilities"


Also according to one of the most reliable sources regarding Antivirus programs (Virus Bulletin (http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/)), NOD32 has gotten the most awards.

I'm using BitDefender myself (the Standard Edition) and I'm very happy with its performance...plus it got a VB Award (http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/presscenter.php?menu_id=24&n_id=20) as well. I do recommend it unlike all those overhyped programs like Norton or McAfee...Norton messed up my HD with hundreds of files and many (really many) registry entries...I just hate that.

[que-em]

Panda hands down.

They offer daily updates and the best detection method for viruses are defintions. I personally know the Norton's heuristics aren't worth squat. Norton also isn't very good at detecting trojans.

[notbob]

i have never used one

EVER!

[crackerjacker]

well how come avg is not on the list.
I like avg and it works very good.
well i have use norton before they are good as well.
The issue i have with norton is that every now and again the software becomes corrupted and I have to reinstall it.

For me avg works good. when I have it running.
I hardly use antivirus programs *cougH*.
but i recommend avg
---------------------
go to www.grisoft.com and get the freeware version.
Its absolutely worth it and stable and doesnt crash my computer.

[Jelsoft]

No love for F-Prot (http://www.complex.is/)?

[BlueLieu]

Norton AV Corp. Unlimited v-list updates.

[RACKnRAIL]

I too like NAV and also have Norton system works. It has a great many excellent tools.

My friend has used free AVG for some time now and decided to run a different anti-virus program the other day, only to discover that he had a trojan horse, that AVG had somehow missed. I have never used AVG, though I always heard good things about it, but I guess no one anti-virus is 100 % foolproof...and yes, his AVG software was completely up to date.

[The Hunter]

No antvirus program is perfect, and this online virus scan is always a good backup.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/