What is best Antivirus program that will not slow or conflict

I am fixing to maybe do something about my antivirus program-turned off because it was causing problems (PC-cillin). Which program does everyone like & have the least conflict with that does not slow your computer. It seems PC-cillin not user friendly, but I am not good in that area anyway. I heard that Norton slows you down (which is program on another computer of mine). Have not tried out yet. Any thoughts appreciated!

I'd avoid Norton like the plague. I use NOD32 which is very effective and easy going on system resources, I know its a popular choice among IT geeks

nothing tbh besides commen sense
i run a anti virus and some other tools once every week or 2

I've been using McAfee for years without any issues or conflicts. The only bad thing about it is that it doesn't wait for inactivity to download and isntall updates, but it's only a minor annoyance. I'd also avoid Norton like the plague.

I have been using AVG Free, by Grisoft, for 4 years or more after dumping Nortons and McAffee. AVG does not have the overhead that comes with Nortons and McAffees and has been really incredible and stopping or cleaning unwanted intrusions.

What you are asking for, does not exist. PERIOD.

The best defense against viruses without soem annoying resource hogging application is to be smart and not click on every link or email that is displayed to you.

I've been running without virus software for many many years, and never had a virus.

Ive been using CA eTrust for years and no problems.

That you know of.

I used to think that too. Careful as hell. Then on a lark I installed AVG. Found one.

My computer came with McAfee and it seemed to work OK, right up until the point when the temp license expired. I tried to uninstall McAfee and, for some reason, couldn't do it because it said some part of the program files were missing. After that, I had all sorts of connection problems until I managed to find instructions buried somewhere online on how to bypass that mysteriously missing file. Then again, I don't know how the problem arose...whether it was the antivirus program itself, or something I or the original installer did wrong.

In any case, I use Kaspersky now. We use it at work with no issues, so I did a test run at home and, while I don't actually notice much difference in SL, my framerate and latency for WoW improved dramatically over what I'd had with McAfee (when it still worked correctly).

Definitely avoid Norton, it has become bloatware since it became popular. I sure a suit of free utilities and common sense to keep my multiple systems clean.

Avast! 4 Home - Antivirus - www.avast.com

You have to register it but it is free to use and register. It seems to pick up just about any virus out there before it can do any harm, and updates itself very frequently. The only downside it that it does not wait for your computer to be idle to download new virus definitions, though it does prompt you if you want to install program updates. Also some may find the "Your virus database has been updated." voice prompt annoying, though I find it gives me peace of mind.

Ad-aware SE Personal - Spyware and Adware scanner - www.lavasoft.com or www.download.com

A good stand alone spyware and adware scanning and removal tool. It has to be manually updated and run though.

Spybot Search & Destroy - Spyware and Adware scanner - www.download.com

A good spyware and adware scanner and removal tool, this one provided active Internet Explorer settings protection as well as the ability to "Immunize" your system against common adware and spyware infections. Again it has to be manually updated.

I run these three together as in my experiance first as a computer geek for many years, and in my last 3 years as a computer technician I have found no one program gets everything. Every one has a slightly different way of doing things, and thus the three programs above. Avast! looks primarily for Viruses and does little against Adware and Spyware as is the case with most if not all antivirus programs out there. Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy both focus on Adware, Spyware, Trojan, Keyloggers, Hijacks ect, and both go about it in a different way and thus each will typically pick up what others miss.

I recently dumped Norton for NOD32 and am loving it so far. Norton is just plain evil.

http://www.nod32usa.com/

Kaspersky Anti-virus (I use the Kaspersky Internet Security version, firewall, anti-spam etc). One of the best (if not the best) detection rates for virii and malware going. Its reasonably priced and doesn't bog down your system. The firewall even has a special mode for gamers.

LOL, when I saw the subject of this thread, I was going to recommend what I use, since it's never bothered SL at all, unlike the other highly rated ones: PC-cillin!

Now I see you didn't say problems with SL, which I shouldn't have presumed...

I also never run anti-virus programs constantly/automatically in the background, as they conflict with resource intensive programs such as games or SL.

I have ten computers in the house (eight people in our household, and half of those systems are usually online at any particular moment). Since switching to firefox & SP2 with much improved windows firewall, its been many many YEARS since we have had a single virus or spyware issue -- quite an accomplishment with four teenage kids ^_^ and almost a dozen computers online as much as we are. I suspect the improvements in the basic windows firewall are the biggest reason. That, and everyone in our house is grilled not to click random links in emails/IMs etc.

I do periodically scan each system on a regular basis, and the programs we use include AVG, Avast!, Ad-Aware & Spybot. Those do not run at startup, only when I do periodic system checks. You could not pay me to put Nortons on any system we own, the "guarddog" ends up eating more sheep than the wolves he is supposedly keeping at bay ^_^

Kaspersky anti virus. Does pretty much all you need if you just want a trusty program to take care of it for you. Nice and low profile too, does hog the system

Kapersky.com

On rare occasions I run a scan and have never had a virus. Trust me, it is possible. Viruses don't just install themselves. There's always some user interaction of some sort to cause it.

BTW, I'm a software developer, and actually wrote a couple worms back in my very very early coding days of the early to mid 90s

Or you can avoid the virus problem entirely with the best and, unfortunately, least practical solution: run Linux instead of Windows (sorry, obligatory in an virus related thread)

Norton antivirus is the spawn of the devil. Once it is on your system, you will need an exorcist to get rid of it if you ever decide to switch to another program.

I was using McAfee, but then I received a notice that they would no longer support the version I had (which was only a few years old) and that I must pay $40 to upgrade to a newer version. No way.

I have been using NOD32 lately and have not experienced any problems.

Getting any kind of malware on your puter is the result of bad practices and judgement, not the lack of or use of any kind of software.

Don't open files from people you don't know, don't blindly open files from people you do know either, stay away from porn, pirated software and related sites, don't click "Yes" to everything that pops up on the screen, keep everything updated, all the common sense things. And definitely do not use your puter on an administrative account, it's not needed for day-to-day use and if you have to install anything that does need your admin account, "Run As" works just fine.

Having anti-virus, and adware scanners are better than not having them, but being sane and careful will always put you ahead of the "sure, install that, stop bugging me!" mentality even if they do have "protection".

*happily using and preferring IE since IE 4 without any bad thing ever "magically" installing itself*

I absolutely HATE Norton/Symantec and McAffee, and will never ever use either one again even though both are free for me.

Norton just bites ass big-time, and I don't think I've ever seen a more intrusive and ineffectual program anywhere. McAffee not only caused me headaches with my development machine, but to add insult to injury their tech support personnel are the absolute worst I've ever encountered.

I use AVG on a couple of my public-facing machines, and have found it to be the least intrusive antivirus I've ever had to use. Generally speaking, I don't use antivirus on most of my machines (preferring to trust my least-privilege and low-trust practices instead), and the only time in 15 years that I've ever gotten a virus was when I intentionally downloaded one to test some antivirus software

When people ask me which one I recommend, my answer is always "If you feel you must have antivirus, get AVG".

.

I've never had a problem with Norton, MacAfee, or AVG. I've used them all, and for Good measure i use Trend Micro at least twice a Month for additional Clean up.
What i Have Found is Each of these Antivirus's with the exception of trend will wok Fine on their own, But there Are certain programs that Each of this will develope Conflicts with, and that will effect How it reacts to All the Programs on your system. On my Current system for example, i Cannot use AVG because it Conflicts with my Sound Card Software, and the Over all effect disrupts both my Internet Download capability, and my Photo editing software. When i remove either my Sound Card software (Disabling all my system sound, everything runs fine, when i remove AVG and Leave in my Sound Card software, everything runs fine).
The effects that these conflicts don't make Immediate logical sense But standing alone i've never had a Conflict between any of them, and Second Life.

The FIRST thing i would do is Check the security Levels you have set. By Taking them Down a Notch and see how well SL runs then. In MOST cases of Conflict with Net related programs, having the security settings too high is the Issue.

Angel.

I really appreciate everyone's great responces! One thing that alot of you have mentioned is disliking Norton. It is not on my desktop which is where I normally run SL, but on my brand new Sony laptop which I have only used the free version (only used computer maybe two days)-so I will definately install something else. The main concern was on my desktop & what an annoyance PC-cillin has been. Thanks again.

I also use NOD32 and switched to it after using AVG Free for a long time. I like that NOD32 is very efficient, so it uses very little memory and CPU.

I also found that it does some type of startup scan - NOD32 found a nasty virus when the system was starting up one day and promptly cleaned it. The virus went through a lot of effort to hide itself but NOD32 caught it on system startup - very cool. The yearly subscription is cheap and the level of protection is great.

I also practice 'safe computing' (open attachments from known senders, avoid certain downloads, etc) and still picked up some viruses. Virus protection has become a necessity.

I recently started using ZoneAlarm (free) and found a couple of other viruses as a result. ZoneAlarm blocked them from accessing the Internet and then NOD32 kicked in and removed the virus. Very effective teamwork! I think it worked in that way as a result of NOD32's On-Access protection - whatever it was, my system is *clean* now.

I find that ZoneAlarm does not affect SL, but I run SL on a high-end laptop so your mileage may vary.

-2fast

It can still happen even if you're careful. I turned up a keylogger not too long ago and I haven't a clue where it came from. Even if you think your level of computer savvy is all the protection you need, it's still a very good idea to run a good spyware scanner every now and then. I currently use Spyware Doctor, but I don't use the real-time protection as it causes too much system slowdown.

I love ZoneAlarm..so surprised more people haven't mentioned it. Norton is really bad software IMHO. I won't bore you with the pain it caused me.

ZoneAlarm has a great free firewall and their security system (which I use) is wonderful and includes anti-spyware and anti-virus.

But I'm a fiddler and it lets me set a lot of parameters, It also asks for a lot of permissions if you set it that way. It is always surprising what programs seek internet connection ...a lot.