What is best Antivirus program that will not slow or conflict

I use ClamWin. Free, Open Source, Updates often. I used AVG before and i just plain hated it... It was slow, ugly interface, and when i uninstalled it and installed something else, the new antivirus found a ton of things that AVG didn't see.

How would you know you don't have a virus if you don't have anti virus software? some of them lay dormant or don't do anything suspicious till it's too late.

Well, I am not an expert on the matter... but I do know that visiting very legal and good websites already can cause problems through the adds they have.
Some years Stratics had this problem that malware (rather innocent though) was installed through an add on their page.
Now you can say, don't go to page with adds... but that is my opinion practically impossible, because often you will not know on forehand if a page has adds or not.

My friend, who maintains my computer, told me to look carefully with sites are addressed when you load a website. I was very surprised.

@OP: My provider does run anti-virus and anti-spam software, which seem to be pretty good. To that I run McAfee on my computers (under company license of the company where I work). My router has a firewall, but I run Zonealarm Pro to that. I was told you should not compare a router in a firewall with a firewall as Zonealarm, they have both their own purpose.

Morwen.

Frankly i use to think this.....But its better then you think........

I run AVG on my two older computers, and have been satisfied with it. The only way I know it's there is once in a while I catch a pop-up saying it has been updated. It has also alerted me now and then when a virus has been detected.

On my newer computer, I run McAfee (factory installed). I guess it has done a good job at security (I haven't experienced any virus problems), and I haven't noticed any performance degradation either (perhaps because of the 2GB RAM and Core Duo processor). But it has absolutely been the most annoying piece of software I've ever used.

First, it came with both a free 30-day trial and a one-year license. After the trial period was over, I was told I had to renew my subscription. After consulting with customer support, I found I had to uninstall and reinstall McAfee to invoke the one-year subscription already bought and paid for and installed. Second, the anti-spam stuff took ages to go through all my back e-mail checking for viruses and spam. Third, once or twice a week McAfee claims it needs to be "verified." This means on boot-up I have to log-in at McAfee's web site (thought after that things always proceeded smoothly). Fourth, when a newer version of McAfee came out, I started getting frequent system-tray-popup spam telling me my McAfee was out of date and I could upgrade for money. I contacted customer support again, and learned there was no way to turn this off except by upgrading. I gritted my teeth, but a month or so later the pop-ups went away. Fifth, every now and then the virus scanner just turns itself off, with no explanation. Fortunately the icon in the system tray communicates this, and I'm able to re-enable it.

My McAfee subscription just expired. I have no intention of renewing it or upgrading. Instead, I'll be installing AVG on this machine as well.

I swear by AVG!!

Did a test with a friend of mine. He had Nortons. I have just AVG.

I asked him to create a text file with TWO extensions: filename.txt.exe

Nortons didnt detect anything. AVG notified me immediately about a hidden extension.

This comes in real handy for things like MP3s.

Besides- Free and it works!! Can't beat it!

look, you nerds may really get off on configuring your modem, researching ports and protocols, manually permitting every process and so on. but it bores me tears. i leave it default and run zone alarm. i have never suffered as a result of a virus or trojan; zone alarm quarantined them. no malware/spyware running (same hl cdkey since 98- despite regular warez trawling) zone alarm shuts them down. software trying to phone home? zone alarm warns me.
in keeping with the spirit of the op, i dont think they are well advised to shun anti-virus software, hand write dsl firewall rules, and 'just work smart' to deal with virii. really, what kind of moron would suggest such a thing?

that is awesome. great antivirus prog for anyone needing one.

Having a servere virus incident,
is like having a bad car accident,
it is unlikely to happen,
but if it happens,
you do not want to be involved.

There is a certain hype,
created around the *virus thread*
by the media and companies marketing departments,
that surely exaggerate the overall danger.

Most viruses create simple annoyances,
that the normal user
would probably only perceive as his system
becomming slow and unstable.
Many more even just sit there and
become never active.

The core problem most often is,
that users who do not care for virus protection,
generally also do not follow good practise in other IT related aspects,
like doing regular backups, a.s.o.

So, a lot of damage is not done directly by the viruses,
but by the normal user trying to cope with the impact,
the viruses have on his system.

I worked for while in the support department
of a company providing anti-virus software
beside other network security solutions.

A good example of the above,
was a small business client
who tried to disinfect his infected outlook .pst
using third party software.

As a result he destroyed the files integrity beyond hope,
had to pay for most expensive forensic reconstruction
and still lost years of accumulated outlook data,
contacts, calendar, notices, emails, attachments...,

He never had made a single backup of this file.. ever...


Please, simply believe me,
that *car accidents* happen
and that a normal user
should not take the risk to be involved.

Do it safe

Well, on contrary... I don't have too much knowledge of this kind of things. That is why I asked someone to look after it who can. She states very simple that running anti-virus software, a firewall and alike is very needed, but you may have locked only firmly the frontdoor, but the backdoor or window may still be open.
Point is the security of a computer is very difficult these days and nothing that a computer no-no as I can do on herself... that is why I asked for help. Something more people should do.... A lot of people may have infections of virusses, spyware, keyloggers, toolkits or even have turned their the computer into zombie without even knowing it (it is good to listen to these so-called nerds... they can learn you a lot).

To Zonealarm... I use Zonealarm Pro and as far as I can tell it does its job very good. But the anti-spyware of Zonealarm is nice.... but not perfect. My friend told me once per week (or more often when I had alerts) to run Webroot Spysweeper (registered version)... it always find things Zonealarm didn't notice, mostly not to serious things... but still.

Morwen.

mate you missed my point. telling ppl to ditch lowly software and instead config chains on linux and create rulesets for dsl modems is smug, self-important and highly annoying. just as annoying are people that assume because i dont get wet thing about security i am obviously a noob. i assure you i am not.

Well, I am a noob "mate"... and I know even less about Linux or what. But I also know that this whole security thing isn't simple anymore... and too difficult for noobs as me to handle alone.
And as people telling about their expertise (even when it is not after your liking)? What is wrong with that? I do that too.. even when it only about home decoration....

Morwen.

i am referring to tripe such as:

We'll return to "I know much more about computers than you" after these words from Microsoft, Dell, and The 4 Queens Online Casino.


I use McAfee, the XP Firewall, Spybot and AdAware. I've never had any problems. Even if I did, I'd just reinstall Windows. I don't stay connected when I'm not using the computer. I'm quite happy in my ignorance. I love IE, too.

It's not tripe. Things that try to communicate externally without your permission will only do so because they INSTALLED themselves due to YOU doing something wrong. There is very little that will actually try to communicate externally (mainly keyloggers, private data stealers and DoS stuff) but they all will do so after installing through some poor practice on your behalf.


Basically if ZA catches something then the rest of your practices AND software has failed. A Virus checker or Malware checker should both catch such a product before it even hits ZA.

I have 5 people who could use my computer, including 3 kids, and usually don't have a virus checker or firewall running ( I do have a linux box acting as a hardware firewall ). When I did install a virus checker/adware nothing was found ( other than the normal IE junk that adware finds ).

FACT hardware or seperate Linux(style) firewall is the best choice for firewalling a PC. ZA etc. all sit above your PC's networking layer, any attack will already have access to your PC before ZA can do it's job and as such can be vulnerable to vulnerabitlities.

Do you see companies running firewalls on their PC's? No because they rely on an external firewall to do the protection.

Oh... prepare for some noob information here

At the company I work I don't have a firewall on my workstation.... but anti-virus software and anti-spyware (I hate it when it gets updated).

But to the company connection to the Internet there are two things.

There is this box from Cisco that should be comparable with the firewall in my modem.

And there is this program that checks all Internet connectivity. It is from Microsoft. I believe the name was ASI, ASI... or something like that. It is a big version of Zonealarm...

So no I don't have a firewall there.... but within the company there is a big firewall.

Tell me (and with my noob experience I sure you can) what is this external firewall you are referring too comparable with the two I mentioned at our company above?

For I see at my home see the the firewall at my home as the Cisco-thing... and Zonealarm as the ASI, ASI, whatever program.

Morwen.

Installing Windows.... that means one big HELLLPPPPPPPPP from my side

Morwen.

I can understand your dilemma.

ok, so i download some legit prog and elect to install it, but it wants to call home. za blocks it, i continue to install the program. its not about 'failure' on my part. i chose to install the program. you are making an incredibly large brushstroke here and that comes off very condescending. also note that your linux box is hardly in the spirit of the op.

"ZA etc. all sit above your PC's networking layer, any attack will already have access to your PC before ZA can do it's job and as such can be vulnerable to vulnerabitlities."
i am certain this is not the case, but i cannot be bothered researching it. i do not believe a program has access to my computer when the ports are blocked or it gets quarantined or the protocol is disabled or whatnot.

I don't install programs... at work, I cannot. At home I let it to someone who knows what she is talking about. As said before, security is too big for me.

Morwen

ZA is a program which sits above the networking stack which means if your PC is discovered it is plausible that an attack could get through and lot easier than with a seperate firewall. The reason windows get's constant 'vulnerability' updates is because people have worked out how to exploit weaknesses in Windows and commonly used programs ( which would include ZA as it's popular ) to either plant viruses, malware, steal information or disrupt your system.

Now most vulnerbilities still need you to do something wrong, whether it's click on an inadvisable link or open an unknown attachment etc., however the fact is windows is vulnerable and as such the best protection is decent anti-virus/malware software and sensible operating practices in combination with an external firewall.

The biggest advantage of an external firewall is it totally prevents someone gaining access to your PC from the internet. The reason for this is that the attacker needs to have a mechanism to actually 'jump' from the firewall onto your PC and hardware firewalls don't have the facilities to allow that (for example a means to install a program on the firewall to then attack your PC).

Only the SL Forums crowd could turn an anti-virus thread into a flame fest....

hehe *stays in the distance and eats cookies*

Heh. You've lived a sheltered life.

good point

theres hundreds of forums on sites on the internet that could turn anti-virus conversation into a flame fest.

But here at Second Life we don't disappoint either.