Anti virus....Free for a reason

I've had some attempted and actual malware infections lately, one I know for sure was from a compromised ad network and the trojan agent dropper was probably a drive-by download infection. MSE caught the first but not the second nor did AdAware free AV spot it either. It was only me that noticed the suspicious behaviour and only Malwarebytes Anti-Malware detected and removed it.

Both infections occured while using IE 10 or 11, I normally have ad block and no script with Firefox and never have any trouble with that. It's gotten to the point where I've blocked IE from accessing the 'net entirely.

edscdk said:
i don't use any PC is far too slow even without AV, but then again i consider 1 second an unacceptable wait for something that should be fast.. make me want to cry when I am trying to quickly browse and I have to wait 2 seconds for a page to fully render.
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I've put Panda AV on a couple of slow laptops recently its cloud based so doesn't slow things down too much. Have you done a scan lately? Sounds like you may be compromised.
 
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mrbell1984 said:
Sales people for a reason.
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You win sir! Epic reply!

Ive had my build running on MSE for 3 years and no issues yet *touch wood*!

Other than MSE I do use PSI Secunia which is great for keeping stuff up to date but im not sure how big an effect that would have on security.
 
These days the "anti-virus" aspect is free anyway. What you're normally paying for on premium versions is the extra features such as firewall, email scanning, the site legitimacy check, and vpns, sandboxes etc etc.
 
I would personally never use a free AV, I've used Norton for years and never had a problem and NIS is a lot better on your system than it used to be.

One thing worth remembering is that some Banks (Barclays for certain - as one of their advisors informed me last year) will not cover you for online fraud etc. if you do not have a subscription based security on your pc or other online device.
 
Wouldn't personally touch norton/mcafee even if they paid me.

MSE might be free but its pretty decent. a lot better than the above paid alternatives.

May also be worth pointing out that MSE isn't really free, you do have to have a genuine windows to use it.
 
Blackjack Davy said:
I've had some attempted and actual malware infections lately, one I know for sure was from a compromised ad network and the trojan agent dropper was probably a drive-by download infection.
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You need to keep everything patched.

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

Lynndinky said:
One thing worth remembering is that some Banks (Barclays for certain - as one of their advisors informed me last year) will not cover you for online fraud etc. if you do not have a subscription based security on your pc or other online device.
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Proof?
 
~Dockie said:
Wouldn't personally touch norton/mcafee even if they paid me.

MSE might be free but its pretty decent. a lot better than the above paid alternatives.
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The former statement may have been accurate some years ago. They perform much better these days and rank in the top few when I ever scan reviewer scores.

The latter statement is just completely false. I would not listen to this advice if you could call it that. :o
 
Th0nt said:
The former statement may have been accurate some years ago. They perform much better these days and rank in the top few when I ever scan reviewer scores.

The latter statement is just completely false. I would not listen to this advice if you could call it that. :o
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Sorry, i should have added 'in my experience' to the end of that.

not that i've ever had a virus anyway, but norton/mcafee used to have the added bonus of 'slowing your pc to a crawl'.

things might have changed now. its been some years since i even looked at norton or mcafee.
 
~Dockie said:
Sorry, i should have added 'in my experience' to the end of that.

not that i've ever had a virus anyway, but norton/mcafee used to have the added bonus of 'slowing your pc to a crawl'.

things might have changed now. its been some years since i even looked at norton or mcafee.
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I used to get Norton each year but in the end MSE seemed much better and didn't slow my PC down to a grinding halt.

Also your reflection on the text in your signature is 1px to the left... :p
 
~Dockie said:
not that i've ever had a virus anyway, but norton/mcafee used to have the added bonus of 'slowing your pc to a crawl'.

things might have changed now. its been some years since i even looked at norton or mcafee.
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ThaReaperGuy said:
I used to get Norton each year but in the end MSE seemed much better and didn't slow my PC down to a grinding halt.
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I used to think in the same way, then I used some of the products on offer and also tested them when in possession of clients machines.

If you know how to set them up and use the features to their potential they are pretty good. I must say though I would never pay the retail price some command (~£30+).

I picked up a three user license of Norton for £12 by checking out the offers. My old favourite used to be ESET as it was so fast at scanning and light on resources. They had their foibles so moved away some years ago.

Been using AV products since 1998, best trying the product out on your own system instead of trusting someone else's opinion.
 
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