Preferred Antivirus Software

[Martyn]

Please keep on topic now. The rules have been revised and the minimum age for membership of the forums is 16 for obvious reasons.

 

[coco3_man]

I use Vipre by GFI. Have been using it since 2005. Originally, it was called Counterspy and looked a lot like the original Microsoft Anti-spyware app. Sunbelt Software and Microsoft got it from the same company. Microsoft bought the 3rd party company and part of the deal was they would provide updates to Sunbelt for a set period of time, then, they would be on their own.

They bought Kerio which was personal firewall software and had it as a separate product. Then, over time, added antivirus support, incorporated Kerio, renamed it to Vipre, then were bought out by GFI a year or 2 ago. It has always been a good product and value for money and is the paid product I recommended to all my clients.

Tom
E&OE

 

[edmjr]

I've used AVG in the past but I like Avast the most. Since using Avast I've never had an issue with viruses. My favorite feature about Avast is that when I'm about to visit a site that has malware Avast immediately prevents the site from opening and tells me the site has malware. I'm not sure what other antivirus software does that.

 

[krtechsolutions]

I've used AVG in the past but I like Avast the most. Since using Avast I've never had an issue with viruses. My favorite feature about Avast is that when I'm about to visit a site that has malware Avast immediately prevents the site from opening and tells me the site has malware. I'm not sure what other antivirus software does that.

I know vipre does this

 

[Parkwaytech]

I use Vipre by GFI. Have been using it since 2005. Originally, it was called Counterspy and looked a lot like the original Microsoft Anti-spyware app. Sunbelt Software and Microsoft got it from the same company. Microsoft bought the 3rd party company and part of the deal was they would provide updates to Sunbelt for a set period of time, then, they would be on their own.

They bought Kerio which was personal firewall software and had it as a separate product. Then, over time, added antivirus support, incorporated Kerio, renamed it to Vipre, then were bought out by GFI a year or 2 ago. It has always been a good product and value for money and is the paid product I recommended to all my clients.

Tom
E&OE

Thanks for the info, Tom! It is always helpful to know the background. We just recently switched our business clients over to Vipre. So far, so good.

 

[Larry Sabo]

av-comparative.org give GFI Vipre pretty poor ratings in their March 2012 tests, e.g. just "Standard" in detection, which reflects low detection and high false positives in that test.

 

[bigdessert]

av-comparative.org give GFI Vipre pretty poor ratings in their March 2012 tests, e.g. just "Standard" in detection, which reflects low detection and high false positives in that test.

Gotta take these comparatives with a grain of salt. AV vendors change drastically from report to report and some of them are paying big $$ to be on these reports.

 

[gazza]

It has to be Sophos for me.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I use Vipre by GFI. Have been using it since 2005. Originally, it was called Counterspy and looked a lot like the original Microsoft Anti-spyware app. Sunbelt Software and Microsoft got it from the same company. Microsoft bought the 3rd party company and part of the deal was they would provide updates to Sunbelt for a set period of time, then, they would be on their own.

That 3rd party software company that Microsoft purchased was called "Giant"..they had their product Giant AntiSpyware which looked like a red and orange "bullseye". Was a decent little utility.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Gotta take these comparatives with a grain of salt. AV vendors change drastically from report to report and some of them are paying big $$ to be on these reports.

What do you suggest as a more reliable basis for selecting an A-V product? Surely not anecdotal evidence that this TN collection of opinions represents?

 

[Tech in SC]

I had AVAST on a test box that I knew had some spyware/malware files on it & AVAST didn't catch it. I installed VIPRE and it screamed at me within a minute of the install. I haven't had any problems with VIPRE and I use it personally as well.

Having said that, if I had to recommend a FREE option, of those out there I still prefer AVAST Free Edition.

 

[FoolishTech]

Gotta take these comparatives with a grain of salt. AV vendors change drastically from report to report and some of them are paying big $$ to be on these reports.

Agreed.

That 3rd party software company that Microsoft purchased was called "Giant"..they had their product Giant AntiSpyware which looked like a red and orange "bullseye". Was a decent little utility.

I remember them I thought that became Windows Defender. Maybe I'm mistaken.

What do you suggest as a more reliable basis for selecting an A-V product? Surely not anecdotal evidence that this TN collection of opinions represents?

Experience and real world testing. But even those results are subject to change on a monthly basis!

I can't believe there is yet-another-thread on this topic. Honestly I didn't even read it because IMHO everyone who pushes hard for one A/V over another is a fanboy. I AM one myself but I'll keep it TO myself this time.

Among the popular tier of A/V software there isn't much difference that I personally see, they all do well sometimes and suck at other times, depends on what month it is and what threat they are facing. The only real differences between them I see is the footprint they leave on system resources and the how much or how little they hassle the user.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Gotta take these comparatives with a grain of salt. AV vendors change drastically from report to report and some of them are paying big $$ to be on these reports.

However....many of us long in the IT field know that AV-Comparatives is a trustworthy and VERY solid AV review site. Which is the comparison site that Larry tried to link (misspelled..it's plural..not singular.... www.av-comparatives.org)

Andreas does not accept money to bias his reviews...and his reviews are the most "real world" reviews seen in the antivirus testing field..especially his "Dynamics" test.

His reviews are widely held valid and trusted by IT professionals that have a keen interest in antivirus software and do a bit of research on them.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I remember them I thought that became Windows Defender. Maybe I'm mistaken.

You are correct in your thought. Giant allowed Counterspy to use their technology/engine in Counterspys product. A little bit down the road Microsoft purchased the software company Giant...and quickly re-labeled the product and released Microsoft AntiSpyware. (as well as quietly purchased several other antivirus and antimalware software companies..such as Sybari, some GeCad tech..and a 3rd one that I cannot remember at this time). After a period of time, Microsoft did re-engineer the product that Giant had...and since doing a complete overhaul of it, renamed it Defender. As well as a side fork...MRT.

 

[bigdessert]

What do you suggest as a more reliable basis for selecting an A-V product? Surely not anecdotal evidence that this TN collection of opinions represents?

Not suggesting anything. I think a company should pick a desktop AV that meets the below requirements:

1. Easy to administer.
2. good catch rate/cost ratio
3. makes you some profit

What I was trying to say is some like say kaspersky is known to be very good, but from one comparative to another they sway as far as 5 positions compared to the rest.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I hear what you're saying about variabilty of results. I suggest looking at their Summary Reports to get a sense of products' variability over the years, then picking one that gets consistently good overall ratings. Also look at results of detection tests (on-demand, false positives and pro-active) throughout the current year as the primary selection factors, then cost, system resource demand/performance, ease-of-use/freedom from intervention or decision-making by the user, compatibility with other programs, and my potential margin.

Some of these later factors are based on anecdotal evidence and personal experience, e.g. MSE and AVG being resource hogs on XP, Norton (historically) not playing nice with other programs or breaking internet access, Kaspersky (particularly its Proactive Defense or whatever it's called) frustrating desired changes to the system, not installing program updates automatically, and manual product update debacles, and so on. I also hate programs that routinely perform critical or complete system scans on start-up, as that adds zero additional security but virtually denies the use of the system for several minutes. Not an easy decision to make, I agree.

Edit: One should totally ignore tests performed by sites or in magazines that carry advertising for the products reviewed. There is no way they are unbiased. Anti-Malware Test Lab, Virus Bulletin and AV-Test.org are ostensibly independent but have no recent test results or provide no supporting test details. In the latest available VB100 results, Vipre scored slightly less effective than AVG, but not significantly so.

 

[Lefty]

I prefer ESET for my clientele.

 

[Synergy Computer Repair]

I wrote a post on my blog about it recently.

I always use MSE. My reasoning is that with the ever increasing popularity of Apple and the perception that it doesn't get viruses. Microsoft has to protect itself from viruses and it's hugely in its interests to keep Windows virus free.

Whereas a company that provides anti-virus software, with the option to "upgrade" to the pay/subscription version survives by having viruses to defend against.

MSE is free, lightweight, trustworthy, unintrusive and performs well on all computers I have installed it on - which is a lot.

 

[Ricky]

Antivirus ratings

What would be the best website for antivirus ratings? Thanks

 

[brandont]

Av-test.org is a good one