What's a good paid anti virus now?

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anbu-black-ops

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I've been using Kaspersky for sometime now and earlier this year, I got hit by a virus.

I've been googling around looking for a good one to replace it. So far PC mag says Norton is good (No. 1 on their list). I used to remember that Norton slows down your computer. I haven't used Norton for the longest time.

I'm not yet sure whether to get Norton or Kaspersky. Anybody have experience using both of them before?

or is there a better antivirus than these 2? I'm looking for a good paid antivirus. Thanks in advance.
 
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Thanks for the replies so far.

I just want a paid one, cause it has an effective real time scanning or whatever they call it. I'm always online, it's better to be safe and I'm not much an expert with computers so when I get a virus, it's a pain trying to get rid of it.

So far this was the first time I my computer got infected with a virus using Kaspersky. I'm hesitant to renew my license with them this time.
 
That can happen with any anti-virus software, which is why you should never pay for it. Try AVG. It has real-time protection and a host of other options. Besides, you can pay for it if you want the additional support they offer if you have trouble (although again, it's not necessary, even with little to no computer knowledge). If you want to try it for free first, just make sure to download "AVG Free" and not "AVG Antivirus" (it's the same thing, you just pay for one and not the other). You can always switch it over to the pro version later if you want.
 
I started using Norton. I used to be the biggest hater of Norton, but they really stepped up there antivirus protection. I've used it for about 6 months and i have to say I really like it.
 
I might try out those free antivirus then for a couple of months and see where it goes. My kaspersky is about to expire in 30 days.

So is there a combo on how many free antivirus to use to be effective or is it better to use only one? I remember people using MSE with another free antivirus.



@ sluggo: They're that good now? I too am a Norton Hater. You got me interested now.
 
Yeah Norton made a lot of improvements. It really use to bog down my computer, and it would let some virus get through. I see no slow down with their new one and so far my computer is virus free. (Knock on wood!) I was using free antivirus for a while. If your going free then I would go with AVG or Avast. Everyone has their own opinion on antivirus protection. I guess it's just finding what works best for you.
 
As a tech working for an IT company, I have access to a few options for free, our clients mainly use AVG or Kaspersky, corporate versions. At home, I could use those, but I stick with Free AVG. Also, I wouldn't recommend it, but you can get away with no antivirus if you surf smart. NOTE: I'm not saying this is a good idea, we all browse porn, etc, this is how we get viruses, that and opening links in emails that aren't legit.

If you need help getting rid of a virus, let me know. (seems like that's all I do at work anyway)
 
Thanks again to all.

With the last 2 post, I'm torn again. lol. I'm tempted to switch to Norton, and MrSpecialK mentioned Kaspersky. lol.

Imo even if your careful, you never know when you will be hit by a virus. Most of the time your lucky. Sometimes in rare cases you don't, like me.


---------------long story------------skip it---------
My 5 year old satellite toshiba laptop shuts off (design of heat sink problem) when it gets hot. The heat sink gets alot of dust. So I need to spray compress air every now and then. When it got a virus early this year, a message keeps popping up about explorer.exe or something, I try to scan a couple of times and did system restore.

Nothing happen. This is the first time I got a virus in my 3-4 years of kaspersky. So I reformatted it (Hated it since I have alots of files and programs). Then during the middle of the process, boom it shuts off due to over heating. lol. I swear if I buy a laptop, I'm gonna $#($* this laptop. lol. I tried opening it though... unfortunately 1 screw has a busted head. So i can't even open my laptop. Good think a friend of mine was able to fix it.

After it was fixed, I swear I would change my antivirus or so I thought. I'm still deciding though... kinda ironic.

-----------------------------

Anyways, thanks for the help to you all. Appreciate it!!!
 
I have always been curious, why is it that porn sites hold all the viruses? Is it because the volume of people that visit them? Do the people that run the sites plan the viruses? I always found that interesting.
 
[quote name='Calinks']I have always been curious, why is it that porn sites hold all the viruses? Is it because the volume of people that visit them? Do the people that run the sites plan the viruses? I always found that interesting.[/QUOTE]

The main reason will definitely be the amount of people that visit them. If you want to target the most amount of people online, you're best bet is to go with porn.
 
No, it's not that. It's because people looking for porn will click ANYTHING to get to that porn.

"Install This Totally Harmless Tiny Thing on your Computer to Access this porn?"

Everyone hits yes.
 
So who puts that stuff up there? The people that run the site? Who are the people that eff everybody over basically lol
 
[quote name='Calinks']So who puts that stuff up there? The people that run the site? Who are the people that eff everybody over basically lol[/QUOTE]

Yep. The porn is the just the bait. You click yes and all of the sudden you have a virus. Although sometimes it's just a "legit" toolbar, which isn't all the legit.
 
I used to use AVG, but I found MSE to be more effective from my experience. And it's far better than Norton - we use Symantec Security Essentials at work (basically the corporate version of Norton) and it misses things all the time that MSE catches.

Malwarebytes is great as well, but as its name implies it's more geared towards malware, so it's best to use it along with something else.
 
I also use MSE and Malwarebytes. When I bought my new PC a few months ago, I clicked on a cnet's 1st 7 steps with your new pc, and that's what they recommended.
My IT friend agreed its a good enough set up....but I never click on anything I'm unsure of, even emails from my own family
 
[quote name='sluggo']I started using Norton. I used to be the biggest hater of Norton, but they really stepped up there antivirus protection. I've used it for about 6 months and i have to say I really like it.[/QUOTE]
[quote name='sluggo']Yeah Norton made a lot of improvements. It really use to bog down my computer, and it would let some virus get through. I see no slow down with their new one and so far my computer is virus free. (Knock on wood!) I was using free antivirus for a while. If your going free then I would go with AVG or Avast. Everyone has their own opinion on antivirus protection. I guess it's just finding what works best for you.[/QUOTE]
My experience with Norton has been the same. I remember it really slowing things down and being intrusive and annoying in the past, but when I got a new computer early last year that came with a trial of Norton Internet Security 2010, I decided to stick with it. It uses very little resources, and I barely even notice it's there. You don't even have to schedule virus scans; it just goes ahead and does them when your computer goes idle, and interrupts them if you come back. It also has a page which shows you system performance and what you've installed and downloaded, which is pretty cool.

If you do decide to go with Norton, you can get a good deal on it here: http://store.purplus.net/noinse20.html I've bought both of my Norton yearlong subscriptions through them.
 
Norton is free if you have Comcast internet. Norton is much better than it was in the past.

I actually had a terrible experience with avg. I installed it on a brand new system and it crashed it several times. I eventually had to return the computer because of the damage done.

Malwarebytes is a must have. It catches things others do not even notice without false positives.

I am to cheap to pay for the full version of Malwarebytes, so for real time I have iobit's (new) advanced system care.
 
Like many others, I stick to the free options. I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials these days.

What I WOULD like to add to the discussion is a recommendation that you use Firefox + the excellent NoScript AddOn for your web surfing. NoScript disables ALL scripting on the sites you visit by default unless you specifically allow them (either temporarily or permanently) This effectively shuts down all of the methods websites have to infect your PC through the browser.

Unfortunately, it has the unpleasant side-effect of inhibiting the operation of many websites, some to the point of unusability, by default. You have to spend some time building up your white list, but I think it is well worth it for the added protection it provides against new threats that haven't made it into the virus definition files.
 
You could try McAfee I believe I saw the total protection pack for 3 computers last week on sale for under 10$ on buy.com. It lasts all year and it's worked pretty well for my computer so far.
 
I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials for a couple of years now and I have been virus free. I also run random scans with Malwarebytes as well just to make sure MSE is doing its job. Best combo available IMO, and 100% free.
 
I've been using avast! for a couple years, and I highly recommend it. It's free, updates silently on its own, never pops up during gaming, and is just easy to use. (-:
 
[quote name='confoosious']No, it's not that. It's because people looking for porn will click ANYTHING to get to that porn.

"Install This Totally Harmless Tiny Thing on your Computer to Access this porn?"

Everyone hits yes.[/QUOTE]

Guilty. But not to the last part.

And confoosious knows this from experience. Don't you, you kinky sob.

Back on topic. I just recently upgraded my OS to windows 7, and the Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus that comes with it is phenomenal. If you're a college student, in academia or an alumni, you can get windows 7 for $30 bucks. There is a website for it and you must have a .edu email address.

EDIT: just found out that Microsoft Security Essentials works with XP and Vista as well. I highly recommend that. I originally thought that its a windows 7 exclusive. But from experience, any virus I picked up are immediately detected by MES and deleted. So I recommend that (assuming its free without upgrading to a new OS).

If not then, I suggest Ad-aware and Malwarebytes. With "HijackThis" to complement the two lol. Just in case
 
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I have ever used AVAST, AVIRA, AVG and the last Kaspersky. Kaspersky is really good, but it is heavy...the most sophisticated that can detect all virus and trojan is AVIRA...
 
I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials in combination with MalwareBytes as well and I've been happy with it so far. I think most people would be fine with a free anti-virus and a little common sense.
 
I use avast on my desktop and actually liked it enough to update to the paid version... I forgot why I did so though but i needed some feature it had but probably won't get a license again when it runs out but will keep the free one. I security essentials on my laptop/netbooks its lite and doesn't slow down my system.
 
Great thread, I've been thinking of changing my antivirus for a while (I'm using McAfee) because somehow, my computer gets slower and it suddenly display pop-up window while I'm working on something. I've come across a lot of good reviews on AVG and Avast, personally I don't like AVG very much because it sometimes end up deleting the non-virus .exe file on my computer. Does avast perform better than McAfee? I'd like to get some response from those who have used the two programs. :)
 
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