What is the best antivirus program?

**el_omega** · February 20th, 2003, 08:45 PM

[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** · February 20th, 2003, 08:57 PM

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

**PornMaster** · February 20th, 2003, 09:17 PM

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** · February 20th, 2003, 09:21 PM

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** · February 20th, 2003, 09:31 PM

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** · February 20th, 2003, 10:16 PM

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** · February 20th, 2003, 11:32 PM

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** · February 21st, 2003, 12:00 AM

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** · February 21st, 2003, 12:28 AM

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** · February 21st, 2003, 12:37 AM

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** · February 21st, 2003, 04:58 AM

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** · February 21st, 2003, 05:27 AM

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** · February 21st, 2003, 05:50 AM

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/ya...d,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/li...sts-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/communi.../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_i...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/archiv...ucts.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** · February 21st, 2003, 06:18 AM

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