Anti-virus software

[granny]

Hi people.

Seems I've picked up a virus or two on my machines. Again. Sigh. Now I've had virus infection maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 10 years or so. EVERY SINGLE TIME they've been missed initially by my AV software.

Over the course of this time I have run variously; Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, Sophos. I have always kept their database definitions up to date. They seem to simply not work when it comes to preventing infection.

Can anyone recommend a GOOD anti-virus package? One that you know personally stops infections. One that you have *actually seen working* to prevent an infection.

Someone said the other day that AV software was snake-oil. I'm really starting to believe this.

 

[Embattle]

Well you're fucked since you just slated all the big ones

Plus I find Norton AV does work and so do many of the people I know who have it, although having said that no AV software is perfect.

You can give AVG a go, they do a free edition too

http://www.grisoft.com/

 

[(Shovel)]

I'll plug Norton too tbh.

I tweaked my settings yesterday and the blasted thing shared my Shared Documents folder with read/write permissions behind my back. Within twn minutes I had Norton pop up informing me that it had denied access to "Britney Suxx" (and two others).

I did have to manually quarentine them to delete them though, which was a little clunky. It did however work very well. I mean, I had gone nowhere near the shared folder.

It does the same with infected .js scripts in internet exploer.

 

[Custodian]

I would have said McAfee.
I have been using it for 5 years on this PC, regularly updating the engine and the DAT files, and I have never (blown it now I expect) been infected by any virus. I have seen it intercept stuff a number of times, so I know it does actually work.

Course, my mail/net habits are pretty good too so I tend not to get much risky stuff coming my way anyway, which is more than half the battle.

I would have thought that if McAfee, Norton and Sophos ain't good enough for you then you is stuffed, I don't think there is any more reliable.

Perhaps you should just stop sharing all them dodgey files

 

[Jonty]

Originally posted by Custodian
Course, my mail/net habits are pretty good too so I tend not to get much risky stuff coming my way anyway, which is more than half the battle.

Very true

To be honest, I can only repeat what everyone else has said. I've used both Norton and McAfee utilities in my time, and I've always been impressed by both, even though I've never had to actually use them to sort out a problem. If it's of any relevance, the university I attend provide the latest McAfee software for free to protect their systems and that of their students and staff. As universities go, they are extremely reliant on their IT infrastructure, and, thankfully, McAfee helps keep everything virus and trojan (etc.) free, which is quite a feet considering the number of users and size of the networks involved.

Kind Regards