Not Exactly A Gamer Question...

Pablo72 · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:15

Hi all.

Before I start, I appreciate this is not exactly a game question, but one that I'm sure gamers have an opnion on, so any help in answering the below would be great...

I'm currently running Norton Internet Security 2006. It's fine, but hogs resources like nothing else, to say nothing of dumping about 12 processes into my task manager! As a gamer, I'm sure you can all appreciate that system resources are at a premium with games such as Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights 2!

Can anyone recommend a better, less hungry Internet Security package?

I've heard that Kaspersky is pretty good, but how hungry is it on resources and processes?

Any suggestions/help would be much appreciated.

Paul

Darkwave · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:17

Whn it comes to antivirus Kaspersky is great, and it doesn't put strain on the system. NOD32 is also very good.

As for firewalls I just use the router and Windows firewall.

Daniel · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:18

ZoneAlarm security suite is a lot less hungry than Norton and it works

Dan

Ace of Spades · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:25

Since a few months past ive gone from AVG and zonealarm to Active virus shield and comodo firewall, use really low amount of resources and free.

http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

VeNT · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:26

NOD32

Biohazard · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:26

I hate norton, randomly drops me from CSS after hours of playing to run a scan. wtf?

Pablo72 · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:28

Biohazard said:
I hate norton, randomly drops me from CSS after hours of playing to run a scan. wtf?

Tell me about it. I had that happening a lot... eventually I found a scheduled task had been created. Perhaps my own ignorance, but I can't remember asking Norton to schedule this task!

Eventually managed to delete it.

Arsey · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:43

Avast is a really good anti virus for me, detects when a virus is coming then stops it. Never interferes with my games aswell. www.avast.com

Street · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:48

Ulfhedjinn said:
Whn it comes to antivirus Kaspersky is great, and it doesn't put strain on the system. NOD32 is also very good.

As for firewalls I just use the router and Windows firewall.

Those are the two virus checkers I would recommend as well. I am personally using Kaspersky at the moment, but have used NOD32 in the past and it is a decent anti virus too.

Drizmod · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:57

I use nod32 as antivirus and windows firewall. very little resources used

Stellios · 4 Nov 2006 at 17:29

AVG anti virus. Ive used it for about 3 years now.

Darkwave · 4 Nov 2006 at 17:53

Arsey said:
Avast is a really good anti virus for me, detects when a virus is coming then stops it. Never interferes with my games aswell. www.avast.com

That one is good too, forgot about that one.

Also forgot to mention Antivir, it's a free one.

P_A_N_I_C · 4 Nov 2006 at 17:57

vote for kaspersky here

may be worth checking out steelsecurity: http://www.steelseries.com/steelsecurity

A security product for gamers

SteelSecurity offers Antivirus, Firewall, Spamfilter and Backup protection. In addition to these well-known security features, SteelSecurity also comes with a Gaming Plugin, which features a range of "Game Profiles".

When a known game is launched, SteelSecurity is able to detect this, and will switch security settings to the corresponding Game Profile. The Game Profile will make sure that the firewall allows traffic on the ports that the specific game needs, and will switch to anti-virus settings which have minimal effect on the computer performance. In addition, pop-ups from SteelSecurity are switched off, as to not interfere with the gaming experience.

2 month free trail to

Northwind · 4 Nov 2006 at 18:09

I used to have similiar problems with some games (trying to run Homeworld 2 on a machine that barely ran Homeworld, not very clever) and my simple answer was to disconnect my modem cable and deactivate my virus checker etc... Obviously no use for online gaming

SiriusB · 4 Nov 2006 at 18:12

NOD32 vote for me. Amazing AV and you will never know it is there.

I don't use any firewall on my PC [turned off Windows F/W - and the rest of Security Centre] and use my Router's firewall. Been doing this for well over a year and not a single virus has gotten through!

SiriusB

m4cc45 · 4 Nov 2006 at 18:16

Avoid Kaspersky at all costs it is a right pile of junk... just removed it off 20 machines which we 'inherited' and it was killing them...

Street · 4 Nov 2006 at 18:22

Killing them in what way?

Darkwave · 4 Nov 2006 at 18:27

Street said:
Killing them in what way?

Softly, with his song.

Cybermyk · 4 Nov 2006 at 18:43

Ace of Spades said:
Since a few months past ive gone from AVG and zonealarm to Active virus shield and comodo firewall, use really low amount of resources and free.

http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

These are what I'm using, along with a hardware firewall and a NAT server. I wouldn't say they were all that different to NIS but they do work.

Boogle · 4 Nov 2006 at 19:09

Use NOD32 at the mo (used to use AVK which has Kaspersky as one of its engines). NOD32 is the only AV to have ever prompted me about an image with an IE exploit in it - as I was downloading the web page.

Whenever going for an AV, check out detection rates

This is the point where if a Norton/AVG user actually bothers to check, will suddenly be mortified. Some show Norton/AVG fairly high (80%) but most have them at something like 60-70%. For reference NOD32/Kaspersky/F-Secure tend to be at 90% or above.