Fejimush
asked on
Confused, conflicting information... So what is the best Antivirus software out there?
I am sure this has been asked before but if someone can point me to reliable information about antivirus software or personal testimonials. I would appreciate it. Is there a website/magazine (or?) that can be trusted? You never know who is on whose payroll.
I have been doing review searches and reading magazine articles and I can't seem to figure out which antivirus software is the "best" and I don't have the money or time to try them all.
This website www.virus.gr has a list of virus programs that caught the most viruses. The top five are:
1) F-Secure version 5.41 - 99.63%
2) Kaspersky version 4.5.0.49 - 99.35%
3) AVK version 12.0.4 - 98.67%
4) McAfee version 7.03.6000 - 97.24%
5) RAV version 8.6.105 - 94.26%
... (Others worth mentioning)
7) Norton 2004 Pro - 92.35%
...
10) Bitdefender version 7.1.110 - 88.28%
...
13) PC-Cillin 2003 version 10.03.1072 - 86.94%
I have had trouble with McAffee in the past (about a year ago and prior) making a perfectly stable system unstable so I gave up on them. I am currently using Norton AV 2002 (w/ Windows XP Pro) but it seems to be a system hog and I am pretty sure it is the cause of the few instabilities I have (based on installing and uninstalling it).
What gets me is that one review will say that Norton is the "best", the next will say BitDefender is the "best", and the next will say PC-Cillin is the "best" and etc. Even some that are the "best" according to one review might be one of the worst on another review. What gives?
The main items I am looking for is:
1) Stability, I don't want it to interfere with my system,
2) Effectiveness at blocking viruses with realtime scanning (i.e. automatically checking email as it comes in and etc.)
3) Ease of use with scheduling system scans, retrieving updates, and advanced options to tailor the software to your needs.
One thing I like about Norton AV 2002 is that it will quarantine viruses in bad emails but you can still view them. I have heard a few horor stories about some antivirus software deleting emails making them unretrievable, even emails that didn't have real viruses (false positives).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Fej
I have been doing review searches and reading magazine articles and I can't seem to figure out which antivirus software is the "best" and I don't have the money or time to try them all.
This website www.virus.gr has a list of virus programs that caught the most viruses. The top five are:
1) F-Secure version 5.41 - 99.63%
2) Kaspersky version 4.5.0.49 - 99.35%
3) AVK version 12.0.4 - 98.67%
4) McAfee version 7.03.6000 - 97.24%
5) RAV version 8.6.105 - 94.26%
... (Others worth mentioning)
7) Norton 2004 Pro - 92.35%
...
10) Bitdefender version 7.1.110 - 88.28%
...
13) PC-Cillin 2003 version 10.03.1072 - 86.94%
I have had trouble with McAffee in the past (about a year ago and prior) making a perfectly stable system unstable so I gave up on them. I am currently using Norton AV 2002 (w/ Windows XP Pro) but it seems to be a system hog and I am pretty sure it is the cause of the few instabilities I have (based on installing and uninstalling it).
What gets me is that one review will say that Norton is the "best", the next will say BitDefender is the "best", and the next will say PC-Cillin is the "best" and etc. Even some that are the "best" according to one review might be one of the worst on another review. What gives?
The main items I am looking for is:
1) Stability, I don't want it to interfere with my system,
2) Effectiveness at blocking viruses with realtime scanning (i.e. automatically checking email as it comes in and etc.)
3) Ease of use with scheduling system scans, retrieving updates, and advanced options to tailor the software to your needs.
One thing I like about Norton AV 2002 is that it will quarantine viruses in bad emails but you can still view them. I have heard a few horor stories about some antivirus software deleting emails making them unretrievable, even emails that didn't have real viruses (false positives).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Fej
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I would agree with parkerig that most antivirus scanners are more or less the same. however, I believe that the most important feature of an antivirus software is its auto update. it is basically useless if the virus definitions are out of date.
from my experience, and I tried most antivirus software you mentioned above both at work and home, I found Norton's Live Update to be the best. Its solid and easy to setup. I also like the outgoing mail scan feature in Norton.
hope this helps.
lehan
from my experience, and I tried most antivirus software you mentioned above both at work and home, I found Norton's Live Update to be the best. Its solid and easy to setup. I also like the outgoing mail scan feature in Norton.
hope this helps.
lehan
1) the best is the one you use, and use well
2) comparisons are often biased - to they test for virus we really get? Or just some theoretical one no one has seen.
3) Do they clean virus? Or just detect? Hopefully they can isolate it.
4) How helpful are they in identifying, removing, or teaching you to remove the more difficult ones. How well do they explain
5) How well do they support, how hard is it to get the upgrade when you really need it? How Timely? Any FAQ of value? Knowledgebase? Integration?
6) How often do they interfere or collide with other user applications, uses?
2) comparisons are often biased - to they test for virus we really get? Or just some theoretical one no one has seen.
3) Do they clean virus? Or just detect? Hopefully they can isolate it.
4) How helpful are they in identifying, removing, or teaching you to remove the more difficult ones. How well do they explain
5) How well do they support, how hard is it to get the upgrade when you really need it? How Timely? Any FAQ of value? Knowledgebase? Integration?
6) How often do they interfere or collide with other user applications, uses?
> Norton AV 2002 (w/ Windows XP Pro) but it seems to be a system hog and I am pretty sure it is the cause of the few instabilities I have (based on installing and uninstalling it).
Of course. Why run it when you are not adding strange files or accessing internet, and why scan files that do not need scanning? I normally have none running, and normally have less problems that way. Some interfere with other needs such as Directx, CD and DVD, not to mention the good old game now and then.
Of course. Why run it when you are not adding strange files or accessing internet, and why scan files that do not need scanning? I normally have none running, and normally have less problems that way. Some interfere with other needs such as Directx, CD and DVD, not to mention the good old game now and then.
Everyone will have a different opinion, when it comes to favorite or ease of use... But overall and through years of working with it, I say McAfee. We've purchsed companies that use Norton, and some others, and when we make them throw mcafee on the pc's and servers, we find a crazy amount of viri that went un-notieced with Norton and trend-micro...
That has been my experience. It meets your criteria with ease, and although it does have the same quarantine feature you spoke of earlier, you can tell it not not quarnantine, and just delete, which is probably the same as the other program, I hate to think that McAfee thought that up and no one else caught on to it.
Remember that plain ol McAfee won't do well on an exchange server, as it is not specialized for the email portion... they don't offer a product for that kind of scale, Trend-micro does and a few others, email gateway software is different than personal AV.
McAfee 4.x was unstable on some Hardware... but stable on others... it was wierd for me to. Well that's the only mcafee I had trouble with. McAfee has a great feature left out of most of nortons offerings, the ability to find what it calls "joke or unwanted programs" these are key-loggers spy-ware and many other unwanteds, norton definatly doesn't catch these as McAfee does...
-rich
That has been my experience. It meets your criteria with ease, and although it does have the same quarantine feature you spoke of earlier, you can tell it not not quarnantine, and just delete, which is probably the same as the other program, I hate to think that McAfee thought that up and no one else caught on to it.
Remember that plain ol McAfee won't do well on an exchange server, as it is not specialized for the email portion... they don't offer a product for that kind of scale, Trend-micro does and a few others, email gateway software is different than personal AV.
McAfee 4.x was unstable on some Hardware... but stable on others... it was wierd for me to. Well that's the only mcafee I had trouble with. McAfee has a great feature left out of most of nortons offerings, the ability to find what it calls "joke or unwanted programs" these are key-loggers spy-ware and many other unwanteds, norton definatly doesn't catch these as McAfee does...
-rich
I've had really good luck with AVG I've tried almost all of them and you can't beat free. It seems better able to handle viruses once detected than norton and mcaffee and I like the heuristics analysis.
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/freefile/story/0,24330,3382067,00.html
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/computers/applications/avg_antivirus_free_edition/_review/72344/
http://www.sofotex.com/reviews/r21.html
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews12679.html
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews8682.html
Hope this helps
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/freefile/story/0,24330,3382067,00.html
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/computers/applications/avg_antivirus_free_edition/_review/72344/
http://www.sofotex.com/reviews/r21.html
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews12679.html
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews8682.html
Hope this helps
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ASKER
Sunbow:
>Of course. Why run it when you are not adding strange files or accessing internet, and why scan files that do not need scanning? I normally >have none running, and normally have less problems that way. Some interfere with other needs such as Directx, CD and DVD, not to >mention the good old game now and then.
I have broadband so I am always connected to the internet I and surf often. Bu I agree with you in general. I use spybot and zone alarm for surrfing, along with a hardware firewall.
tcmv:
>This conversation really stifles me .... I'm completely surprised no one has said anything about the Mercedes of the antivirus industry: >Trend Micro.
I will check into Trend Micro. I assume they have a home version? They were not listed on the www.virus.gr site.
>Sophos antivirus ( www.sophos.com ) is the most lightweight client, & its definitions are released more often than any other solution I have >ever found.
Sophos antivirus ranked #14 only catching 86.55% of the virus thrown at it. So figure a number like 500,000 virus variants and Sophos will miss 117,250 of them assuming the data taken by www.virus.gr is statistically signifacant, unbiased and accurately tested. That's a pretty big number of missed viruses.
As far as AI goes I am a software engineer athough I don't do much "real" AI, mostly RTOS (i.e. VxWorks development). I have had an AI class in college, "Artificial Initelligence a Modern Approach," Russel and Norvig and have read the book "Object Oriented Neural Networks in C++" by Rogers. I noticed consistently high scores for F-Secure in the area of identifying new viruses (i.e. before updates). I didn't know they employed a neural network for their heuristics. That's interesting. Thanks.
>I believe strongly that an intelligent solution from a smaller, less popular vendor decreases the likelihood of your machines' antivirus being >targetted by virus authors. Sophos is the premier choice for those responsible for larger scale networks, as its central reporting piece and >pricepoint scale nicely, while F-Prot is the premier choice for smaller networks and individuals.
I think you are right one with this one. Being an old, "retired", hacker myself. Those days are long gone. Thank goodness.
>And, by the way, spyware is still malware-- the broader category for viruses/worms. Spyware removal tools cannot be trusted. They often >remove their competitor's spyware and replace it with their own. Be careful where you surf. Don't surf using Internet Explorer while having >Administrative privileges. Spyware/malware is still a security risk, and as such must be treated equally with viruses. Don't use some >crackpot spyware tool or you won't own your systems anymore.
How do you feel about SpyBot?
Well, thanks for all the info folks. I would like to are more because besides tcmv's comments are the only "concrete" suggestion I have had yet.
Thanks again And hopefully I will get more good stuff.
Fej
>Of course. Why run it when you are not adding strange files or accessing internet, and why scan files that do not need scanning? I normally >have none running, and normally have less problems that way. Some interfere with other needs such as Directx, CD and DVD, not to >mention the good old game now and then.
I have broadband so I am always connected to the internet I and surf often. Bu I agree with you in general. I use spybot and zone alarm for surrfing, along with a hardware firewall.
tcmv:
>This conversation really stifles me .... I'm completely surprised no one has said anything about the Mercedes of the antivirus industry: >Trend Micro.
I will check into Trend Micro. I assume they have a home version? They were not listed on the www.virus.gr site.
>Sophos antivirus ( www.sophos.com ) is the most lightweight client, & its definitions are released more often than any other solution I have >ever found.
Sophos antivirus ranked #14 only catching 86.55% of the virus thrown at it. So figure a number like 500,000 virus variants and Sophos will miss 117,250 of them assuming the data taken by www.virus.gr is statistically signifacant, unbiased and accurately tested. That's a pretty big number of missed viruses.
As far as AI goes I am a software engineer athough I don't do much "real" AI, mostly RTOS (i.e. VxWorks development). I have had an AI class in college, "Artificial Initelligence a Modern Approach," Russel and Norvig and have read the book "Object Oriented Neural Networks in C++" by Rogers. I noticed consistently high scores for F-Secure in the area of identifying new viruses (i.e. before updates). I didn't know they employed a neural network for their heuristics. That's interesting. Thanks.
>I believe strongly that an intelligent solution from a smaller, less popular vendor decreases the likelihood of your machines' antivirus being >targetted by virus authors. Sophos is the premier choice for those responsible for larger scale networks, as its central reporting piece and >pricepoint scale nicely, while F-Prot is the premier choice for smaller networks and individuals.
I think you are right one with this one. Being an old, "retired", hacker myself. Those days are long gone. Thank goodness.
>And, by the way, spyware is still malware-- the broader category for viruses/worms. Spyware removal tools cannot be trusted. They often >remove their competitor's spyware and replace it with their own. Be careful where you surf. Don't surf using Internet Explorer while having >Administrative privileges. Spyware/malware is still a security risk, and as such must be treated equally with viruses. Don't use some >crackpot spyware tool or you won't own your systems anymore.
How do you feel about SpyBot?
Well, thanks for all the info folks. I would like to are more because besides tcmv's comments are the only "concrete" suggestion I have had yet.
Thanks again And hopefully I will get more good stuff.
Fej
What I have found is that F-Prot has often found the spyware on systems I have scanned with it, labelling the spyware as a 'security risk'. So, I find myself shying away from the recent trend to cling to any spyware removal tools. Like I said before, the best way to remediate spyware is to not let users surf the web with admin priviliges. Including yourself. That way, none of that garbage gets grabbed and installed. But, after the fact, a good virus tool ( www.f-prot.com ) will eliminate it.
I'm still stifled by the reports on sophos. At my current employment, we use sophos on 3000 workstations/servers with 5000 users. We use it in our mail gateway appliance as well. Maybe that report could say that sophos won't catch unidentified viruses ... because sophos doesn't spend much time developing heuristics like F-Prot does, however there are new signatures released nearly hourly as new viruses come out. Our central management piece fetches updates hourly, and clients update themselves against the central manager on similare intervals. That setup works very well. If you want to know how often sophos release virus signatures, get on their free mailing list at their website ( www.sophos.com ), and your inbox will get flooded several times a day!
-tcmv
www.mvix.net
I'm still stifled by the reports on sophos. At my current employment, we use sophos on 3000 workstations/servers with 5000 users. We use it in our mail gateway appliance as well. Maybe that report could say that sophos won't catch unidentified viruses ... because sophos doesn't spend much time developing heuristics like F-Prot does, however there are new signatures released nearly hourly as new viruses come out. Our central management piece fetches updates hourly, and clients update themselves against the central manager on similare intervals. That setup works very well. If you want to know how often sophos release virus signatures, get on their free mailing list at their website ( www.sophos.com ), and your inbox will get flooded several times a day!
-tcmv
www.mvix.net
ASKER
Thanks. I don't know how I am going to divy these points. I am really hoping for more information like links to reliable reviews with statistics and etc.
But I did try this I dowloaded a verstion of F-Secure and it found a fair number of viruses that Norton 2002 missed. But I also noticed that F-Secure doesn't seem to work with Zone Alarm Pro. I am not sure why. Also, my wife has Norton Corporate Edition (latest and greatest, she gets it for free) on her Laptop and I installed F-Secure on there and sure enough it found viruses that Norton Corporate Edition missed. So thus far the only thing I know for certain is that F-Secure is better than Norton 2002 at finding viruses.
Kindly,
Fej
Everyone has opinions... and they are based on facts and experiences that they've had, even reviewers aren't totally objective. I wish there were an objective, definitive review for ton's of products... but again, you'll get fluctuations very often, As you've found out, not all software plays well together... I've never encountered a problem with ZA working with other software... ZA's privacy controls may conflict with F-secures (if it has any I don't know)
My company has uses McAfee for a long time now, I've administered it for even longer, and I love their product. Again I've had experience with many Norton, and have been disappointed in comparision.
ZA has some good help staff, perhpas you could write them...
-rich
My company has uses McAfee for a long time now, I've administered it for even longer, and I love their product. Again I've had experience with many Norton, and have been disappointed in comparision.
ZA has some good help staff, perhpas you could write them...
-rich
Here are some links of un-objective, yet interesting comparisons:
http://img.com.com//i/tr/contentHTML/r00620040113bxr01_01.htm
http://www.antivirusebook.com/antiviruscomparison.htm
ICSA Labs is a 'vendor-neutral' organization which certifies products for technical merit in the world of InfoSec ...
http://www.icsalabs.com/html/communities/antivirus/certifiedproducts.shtml
And yet another 'independent' antivirus review source:
http://www.virusbulletin.com/
Just don't use Norton or McAffee and you'll more than likely be just fine. (jib)
-tcmv
www.mvix.net
http://img.com.com//i/tr/contentHTML/r00620040113bxr01_01.htm
http://www.antivirusebook.com/antiviruscomparison.htm
ICSA Labs is a 'vendor-neutral' organization which certifies products for technical merit in the world of InfoSec ...
http://www.icsalabs.com/html/communities/antivirus/certifiedproducts.shtml
And yet another 'independent' antivirus review source:
http://www.virusbulletin.com/
Just don't use Norton or McAffee and you'll more than likely be just fine. (jib)
-tcmv
www.mvix.net
Oh ... one important retracting point ...
F-Secure is ***NOT*** the same company that makes F-Prot. F-Prot AntiVirus (which has my endorsement) is written/released be Frisk Software International ... the F's had me going. My apologies.
-tcmv
www.mvix.net
F-Secure is ***NOT*** the same company that makes F-Prot. F-Prot AntiVirus (which has my endorsement) is written/released be Frisk Software International ... the F's had me going. My apologies.
-tcmv
www.mvix.net
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No comment has been added to this question in more than 21 days, so it is now classified as abandoned..
I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
Split: parkerig{http:#10802734} & tcmv{http:#10810352}
Any objections should be posted here in the next 4 days. After that time, the question will be closed.
Tolomir
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I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
Split: parkerig{http:#10802734} & tcmv{http:#10810352}
Any objections should be posted here in the next 4 days. After that time, the question will be closed.
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hopefully sunray can also assist here.
Comment from sunray_2003
Date: 04/10/2004 10:46AM NZST
Comment
Check for spywares and virus in the system
Use spybot ,ad-ware ,CWshredder and post the log from Hijackthis here
After installing them, First Update them and then run
Spyware/Adware removal tools:
--------------------------
What is spyware : http://www.spychecker.com/spyware.html
SpyBot-S&D : http://www.webattack.com/download/dlspybot.shtml
Ad-aware : http://www.webattack.com/download/dladaware.shtml
CWShredder: http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/10/17/10-17-150.shtml
HijackThis : http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html
Pest Patrol : http://www.pestpatrol.com/
Trojan Remover :http://www.simplysup.com/
KL-Detector :http://www.webattack.com/download/dlkldetector.shtml
X-Cleaner Free :http://www.webattack.com/download/dlxcleaner.shtml
SpywareBlaster :http://www.webattack.com/download/dlspywareblaster.shtml
SpywareGuard :http://www.webattack.com/download/dlspywareguard.shtml
SpySites :http://www.webattack.com/download/dlspysites.shtml
Keylogger Hunter :http://www.webattack.com/download/dlklhunter.shtml
BHODemon : http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/bhod/
Browser Hijack Blaster : http://www.wilderssecurity.net/bhblaster.html
Other spyware removal instructions: http://www.pchell.com/support/click2findnow.shtml
online virus scanner:
---------------------
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
http://security.symantec.com/
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm
http://www.pcpitstop.com/antivirus/default.asp