Avast Av Versus Mcafee

[skeezix]

I really really hate McAfee (and Norton; how once-great names went down the shitter..)

A few peopel recommended Avast to me, on the grounds its actually very good, and better performing (lower memory footprint and less CPU hit), and free so easy to trial out.

Any experience with it? IT caught anything live for you, or work better or wose than the big boys for you?

jeff

 

[craigix]

My question would be why someone as computer literate as you needs a virus checker?

Sometimes I feel virus checkers give you some of the characteristics of a virus in the way they run (and slow down your computer in numerous ways).

 

[skeezix]

I'll insert my usual rant then

AV are like insurnae.. basicly worthless, and cost a lot (in $$ and cpu) .. but on the rare rare occasion they're useful, they're useful.

(hmm, gp32x.de fornt page that dispenses virii, thats not an incentive

I know a lot of people who run fine without them, no problem, for years..

For myself my needs are pretty rare, but there are a few weakpoints, such as.. while workng on contracts a guy will come over with USB key and drop some files off; they often have virii on them (like 2 weeks ago; virii attacking my dev machines annoys me to no end!). Same for emailed over gunk, etc. I have family that pop by with their laptops and hop onto my wireless and they sometimes have virrii attacking my machines (most annoying!) .. my wive's laptop got infected once amnd it was annoying, attacking via network shares and so forth. (Shes a developer too, so that was a pissoff

In my old house, neighbourhod kids were actively trying to crack everyone elses wireless and do nutty things, out of boredom. They were almost cool, and kept me busy

Anyway, I could probably go without, but on occasion I do find them useful, as long as the 'cost' (CPU mostly) isn't too high. But I really really hate AV proggies

jeff

 

[Pickle]

Ive personally always used AVG, ive never really wanted to throw money for a checker. I think its gives enough protection while being a 'smart' internet user. i.e not clicking every link sent you by email

 

[Chip]

I've used AVG on all my machines for the past several years and it's caught the few viruses that have made it past my general good practices. I can definitely recommend it for good, free protection.

free.grisoft.com

 

[raven]

I really really hate McAfee (and Norton; how once-great names went down the shitter..)

A few peopel recommended Avast to me, on the grounds its actually very good, and better performing (lower memory footprint and less CPU hit), and free so easy to trial out.

Any experience with it? IT caught anything live for you, or work better or wose than the big boys for you?

jeff

I've been using Avast for a couple of years (after bad experiences with McAfee), it's pretty lightweight, no nag-screens and you basically don't notice it's there until it finds a virus. It does have pretty decent detection, it caught a few for me, but it does not check for spyware.

I have never had any virus related problems except for an IE-toolbar which used a security-hole MS hadn't fixed yet (which made me switch to Firefox). Free virus-scanners have kept me virus-free for years.

I have AVG on another machine (not my choice) but I don't like it as much. When I scan something manually the entire interface pops up. Avast just pops up a small window with a process indicator.

Personally I like Avast very much, if they ever drop the free version I'll probably buy it.

 

[grif]

If you need a brilliant lightweight antivirus, i think ESET NOD32 is just about the best thing there is.

Although saying that, you only need it when on windows.... as i am now =/.

 

[TaG]

I have tried a few over the years. Norton and McAfee are infuriating. AVG was on my old m/c and it occasionally became very demanding. I'm currently using Kaspersky Internet Security 8, which cost £29.99 for a 3-pc licence. Only once has it slowed the pc down when I booted for the first time after a week of non-use. It seems pretty effective too.

 

[peelie]

i use avira antivir, freeware for home users, lowish footprint, and regular updates; okay for me so far

 

[laurens]

i use avira antivir, freeware for home users, lowish footprint, and regular updates; okay for me so far

I second that; I recently did an extensive search for a low-resource virusscanner, and antivir scored quite high there, esp. considering that it's considered the best atm; NOD32 seems to have slipped in the last year;

The Avira Anti-vir is currently the best anti-virus software on the market, with very low resource requirements.

- Download here
- Some good reviews & testvirii can e found here
- av-comparatives has a comparative test between different scanners

 

[kevcal]

I use AVG (grisoft) on all my windows PCs now - the best (free one) I've tried.
Does spyware as well and quite configurable.

 

[gruso]

I've always been a NOD32 fan, but I don't think it's keeping up like it used to. There isn't a free one I like, so I just don't run real time AV any more. I use MalwareBytes AntiMalware for occasional scans, it's at the top of the heap at the moment, and it's free. You can also buy the upgrade for real time protection.

Other than that, a decent firewall (Comodo - free, and extremely good), and sensible surfing is enough for me.

 

[andyB911]

Use Avira on one of my PCs and Avast on the other. Much of a much-ness to be honest. I personally moved off AVG a couple of years ago when had problems with one of the new versions. Avast has a funky / very annoying depending on viewpoint voice update each time the database is updated, other than that, in real use, not too much to tell between them.

But there again, I haven't had a virus for years, and as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and I haven't had a tasting, so its a bit hard to say.

I have also used Trend Micro's free on-line scanner on other people's PCs that have had a virus attack and its been pretty useful in identifying / cleaning without needing to install anything and dealing with the issue after the problem has hit.

I also have one of the spy-ware apps running (possibly spybot) - which is pretty good as warns you before any registry change. Can't remember which though which I know isn't much use.

 

[eksasol]

i use avira antivir, freeware for home users, lowish footprint, and regular updates; okay for me so far

I was using Avast, but I actaully find it to be alittle of a resource hog and slow down boot time. I did some research and also moved to Avira which seem to be working really well, it detected one virus among my files. I love the fact that the software take up no resources. It's not something I pay attention to but it's better safe than sorry.

I think Spybot's immunization has been the most useful thing.

QUOTE
I also have one of the spy-ware apps running (possibly spybot) - which is pretty good as warns you before any registry change. Can't remember which though which I know isn't much use.

I think you mean teatime, I hate that thing because it prevents me to installing softwares so I uncheck it from installation.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Avast is very good; however I was running it with protection turned off and Avast itself got infected and I can't uninstall it.

As a second choice, I recommend NOD32, which works very quickly and very well.