Poll: **********The All New Official OcUK Anti-Virus Program Thread - KEEP ALL AV QUESTIONS IN HERE*******

What AV do you use the most?

  • Total voters
    1,941
Avast Free in permanent silent/gaming mode, with everything turned off except for the file system shield.

After much deliberation, I decided not to switch to Microsoft Security Essentials because of Avast's ability to pause scanning from the system tray. This is important for some operations.
 
It’s great that a lot of people have commented on how effective they think whichever virus scanner they use is, but unless you’re being exposed to viruses and other nasty content it’s a little bit like saying I never get a speeding ticket when you always drive under the speed limit.

What we need is comments from people who are visiting the less family friendly places on the net, mainly adult sites and peer-to-peer activities. Nobody ever got a virus from visiting the BBC news website did they?

I’ve read most of the thread and there are only a couple of people who have actually said that their scanner of choice has picked up a detection, these are the people we need to hear from as they have actually seen how the products work in anger. Telling me that you have MSE installed and never had a virus detection doesn’t really help.
 
Five_Star said:
Nobody ever got a virus from visiting the BBC news website did they?
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Not sure if srs...

(Hacked BBC Streaming Websites Serve Up Malware)

I’ve read most of the thread and there are only a couple of people who have actually said that their scanner of choice has picked up a detection, these are the people we need to hear from as they have actually seen how the products work in anger. Telling me that you have MSE installed and never had a virus detection doesn’t really help.
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Let's just say I'm experienced in this arena, and there's no such thing as 100% protection. A product that might protect you one day might miss the next thing. Layered security is important. Personally I've found MSE's protection (and MS's attitude to users) severely lacking even on some old, well-known malware.

Personally I like Comodo Internet Security as it incorporates an auto-sandbox, default deny and Defense+ HIPS. That means even if the signatures don't catch something (or signatures don't exist for it), even if the malware runs it'll be automatically placed inside the sandbox (which should be set to Restricted) when it runs. Effectively you can over-run your machine with zero-day malware and after a reboot your machine's clean again. Simples.
 
Good point Rainmaker on being protected from 0-Day exploits, especially targeted exploits against unpatched browsers. As a whole I suspect that this is fairly small percentage of attacks out there, especially if you ensure your patched up to date as soon as you can.

My point mainly was that its hard from threads like this to get a overall feel for the genuine effectiveness of the AV software in the real world.

I know a lot of users will be very interested in how the AV software works with games for compatibility but its the out and out detection and quarantine of nasties I'm specifically interested in getting real world statistics on.

Out of interest does Comodo Internet Security work out of the box as you described or did you have to tweak the config? How are items automatically placed into the sandbox environment?
 
Five_Star said:
Out of interest does Comodo Internet Security work out of the box as you described or did you have to tweak the config? How are items automatically placed into the sandbox environment?
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There's no tweaking required and if a application isn't known (trusted to be more accurate) then it is sent straight to the sandbox.
 
I've been having trouble playing BC2 in the evenings. The only thing I can think of that might be causing the problem would be my firewall (currently using MSE). Is there a decent, free, gamer friendly alternative?
 
Symnatic Endpoint protection on desktop
Microsoft security essesentials on netbook.

Done a scan a couple of days ago on the desktop, found a couple of trojans.
Started a full scan on the netbook, but it never completed/took for ages so I don't know.

Hopefully both are set to continiously scan in the background so I have no idea how it escaped through Symnatics.

Think I should add an other programme to either machine?
 
ash_scotland88 said:
Hopefully both are set to continiously scan in the background so I have no idea how it escaped through Symnatics.

Think I should add an other programme to either machine?
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No solution is 100% effective, regardless of what the advertising blurb says. Run a MalwareBytes scan and Hitman Pro scan (both free) on the machines to be safe.
 
NorthstaNder said:
Avira Antivir Premium here.

Have used it for a couple of years now and find it light on resources and effective. Previously I used NOD32 for several years until they released V4.0 which was horrid.
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Use Avira now after using AVG for years. Went on AV comparison sites and found that was the best.

Used to swear by SuperAntiSpyware and Spybot but after both caused massive problems for me i have not used them since.
 
Fillado said:
:eek:

Bet your netbook has slowed down a treat...
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I havn't noticed it.***
But I agree, I would like to change, but also admit I am stuck in the mind set that windows stuff like that is pretty naff.

***Also it's on loan now to my partner and I only had a couple of days using it before handing it over.
 
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My last Anti-Virus was Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, I installed 2011 but found that it made my CPU usage goto 100% running in the background! so reverted back to 2010 and all was fine.

I decided to try out Microsoft Essential Security tonight, found 2 malware and 5 Java type trojans/exploits, the full system scan took around 3 hours but I am happy with it, switched back to using Windows Firewall again as well.

I also use Malwarebytes and Spybot - Search & Destroy. :)
 
beachBOYken said:
you cant beat nod32 , had it for about 3 years , its the best if you dont mind paying or if you want something free ms essential is also very good!
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This PC was running NOD32, fully updated and set up with BlackSpear's paranoid security settings for full effect.

paul-viruses.png


Just sayin'. :p There's no such thing as a perfect AV solution, common sense + layered security are the best approach. Anti-malware, HIPS, sandbox etc all add up layers of protection. There's no point saying 'Oh but I don't click dodgy stuff' or 'I'm careful and know what I'm doing' these days as there are so many drive-by attacks, exploits etc these days; even the BBC was serving malware through its website recently. :p

One of the reasons I moved to Mac and Linux for all but one of my machines.
 
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