Help with PC Virus Protection

[nd5056]

... I've had several incidents of trojan horses getting through (on my computer and others), and a few weeks ago, AVG mysteriously uninstalled itself from my computer. Apprently something got though to allow it to do that.

If you ask me, the process starts with something “FREE” and has nothing to do with your Free Antivirus.

Usually, you have to click “OK” to something, like download a Free game or (my all time favorite) Free Screen Saver, or it find its way into security holes in applications, like in Widows or Flash Player. This comes with Malaware (not a Trojan) that plugs itself to the Registry file.

From there, first thing they do is to Turns OFF (changes the value in Registry to prevent starting) your Antivirus program along with the Firewall.

Then, they do whatever they want to do, starting from displaying bunch of warnings that you have crap load of viruses and they recommend to download a software to remove them (with or without pay), or by simply installing “back door” Trojan that the only purpose of it is to let “other” Trojans in.

BTW, I haven’t seen Antivirus software get uninstalled yet, it’s deactivated and hidden.

And Malaware is not a virus; Antivirus will not detect it on download since mostly it happens with your permission. For example, from simple “please vote to…” , “click OK to download” and “to see this nude picture please confirm that you’re over the age of 18 years old” …

My vote goes to Avast Antivirus software, I use it and recommend all the time. And set Windows updates to Automatic.

.

 

[Shutterbug]

I've heard good things about eset NOD.

I have that on my laptop and it has a very small footprint BUT
the user interface is not the most user friendly. I had to use an online guide on how to get the thing set up. It did use the least amount of resources though so thats why I got it.

 

[jsmith]

and dont expect any anti virus to be perfect-companies have to pay developers to develop detection and removal tools-they do forcasting to determine where to point those resources-sometimes that forcasting is faulty.. all of the will fail a certain portion of the time-just as all computer hardware will fail a certain portion of the time. As fire Dancer said-user behavior has a great deal more to do with protecting your computer than anti virus software. I tend to disagree with people who adovacate for the free wares by the simple fact that developers do not give tools away for free-thats how they make their living-so resources go into products that produce revenue first.

 

[tasha99]

We use Eset Nod at work and I have it on my home computer. It works very well. On my laptop, I have Kasperky, which seems to work just as well so far.

I do NOT recommend AVG. I used to have it on my computer downstairs, and I the nightmare of spending a weekend removing a rootkit virus that had disabled AVG. That's when I switched to Nod, and it found other viruses on the computer that AVG hadn't picked up.

 

[nd5056]

...I tend to disagree with people who adovacate for the free wares by the simple fact that developers do not give tools away for free-thats how they make their living-so resources go into products that produce revenue first.

Think whatever you choose, but the facts for Avast are:

About ALWIL Software a.s.

ALWIL Software is a Czech-based company from Prague, established in April 1991. It develops and is a vendor of the award-winning avast! antivirus. As a global company, we have partners all around the world who contribute to the continuous development and improvement of our products and provide technical support to our clients in their native language. Due to our global expansion, ALWIL Software has become the number one rated product in a number of key markets with a continously growing market share since its first international release.
What we do

The company specializes in security software, with avast! antivirus being the flagship product line. The avast! antivirus range offers complete protection against viruses and spyware for both home users and businesses. All the avast! products are developed entirely in-house by the ALWIL Software team at its head office in Prague, the Czech Republic. Currently our company offers avast! antivirus in over 30 language versions and technical support via our web site in 9 language versions.

ALWIL Software delivers a top quality solution providing complete protection for all types of platforms, from U3 devices, PDAs and desktops to servers. Also our developers continue to improve avast! products for compatibilty with OS products or hardware such as Linux and Mac desktops. The mission of the ALWIL team of talented security specialists is to deliver the best solution across the whole range of products to protect your data and programs from viruses in the wild.

Our products have been available in the former Czechoslovakia since 1988, though during that time only in the Czech language. Since then, our operations have expanded globally to include such countries such as France, Spain, Poland, Germany, Portugal, and many other European countries, but also to more remote countries such as Brazil, the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Korea, China and Australia. During that time, avast! products have received a number of awards for their quality.

And:

avast! antivirus Home Edition is available free of charge for non-commercial home use ONLY. If you are not a home user or if you use your computer for business purposes, please download the avast! Professional Edition.

So they do make their honest money. But rather then loading their software with their own Adaware to call “home” notifying them of every single install and trying to distinguish if someone purchased it or is it an illegal copy, they let home users to use it for Free.

That’s why their software doesn’t occupy big chunk of computer resources.

.

 

[Dan Murphy]

ESET, several years now, flawless.

http://www.eset.com/