The definitive "Best Virus Scanner"

dmpoole said:
According to another bit of your statement my PC must be crawling with viruses since Norton is so crap.
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*sigh* another over the top post from dmpoole... at which point did I say that your system must be "crawling with viruses"? Correct I didn't, I just said its detection rate is not up to par, which it isn't according to industry-standard, professional tests. Norton WILL miss some things that other apps such as Kaspersky and NOD32 will catch, but if you don't surf dodgy sites and your PC use is relatively clean and tidy, and you don't click on unknown files/attachments then you shouldn't be in much danger.
 
Richdog said:
but if you don't surf dodgy sites and your PC use is relatively clean and tidy, and you don't click on unknown files/attachments then you shouldn't be in much danger.
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Dodgy sites take up 99% of my surfing (no porn though) and I never click on attachments.
 
dmpoole said:
Dodgy sites take up 99% of my surfing (no porn though) and I never click on attachments.
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Mate i'm not here to argue the point with you, just presenting facts that are accepted throughout the industry. If it works for you then fine, but the majority of people who know their stuff wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
 
The main problem with Norton is the time it takes to load / scan on boot, especially on the 2006/7 versions.
 
Richdog said:
Mate i'm not here to argue the point with you, just presenting facts that are accepted throughout the industry. If it works for you then fine, but the majority of people who know their stuff wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
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But then again a lot of people on here 'know their stuff' and wouldn't touch the likes of Intel, Creative, Apple and Microsoft products.
It works for me and has never let me or my customers down.

Back to topic - stay away from Zone Alarm.
If people think Norton slows systems down then Zone Alarm is a 1000 times worse.
 
dmpoole said:
But then again a lot of people on here 'know their stuff' and wouldn't touch the likes of Intel, Creative, Apple and Microsoft products.
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That's different... not really an applicable example in this situation. Norton has been tested exhaustively by leading security professional publications and has been found wanting in nearly all aspects. You can't compare that to "not touching creative, microsoft" etc, that's a silly example. We're talking about the effectiveness of a specific product in a very narrow field, there is no debating about it, the facts are plain to see for anyone researching the subject.

The thing about Norton is that it just "works" so users presume everything is a-ok because they get no warnings. Often that's not the case.
 
If you want a real life demonstration of how resource hungry Norton is just come and do a days work on my office PC. We were recently "upgraded" from version 9 to 10 and it now takes 10mins for my computer to boot whereas in the past it would take 2-3mins. I can't have Outlook AND AutoCAD AND explorer open at the same time. Its terrible!!

I've tried to shepherd our IT boss away from Norton and towards alternatives like Kaspersky but he's happy to continue with the subscription because he knows it works and its a hassle to change AV programs. What will be a hassle is all the new machines that people are requesting because they now can't work on them.

At home I use NOD32 and don't really notice its there :)
 
I vote for PC Cillin, although I have to say I'm very fond of Bitdefender too. They are both excellent. I agree about Norton. It is prerry average, but one thing I am totally sure of, McAfee is bloddy awful! Honestly, I don't know how they are so popular. It comes pre-installed with Dell's for some reason (it's got to be cost) and it's useless.

I was using NTL/Virgin Media's free one for a while but browsing the net was very slow with it as it was contiuously scanning everything. It's fine for a free anti-virus/anti-spyware and firewall though. :cool:
 
I've used Kaspersky for like a year now and no problems so far. I think I may just download me a virus as my kaspersky has been doing nought for so long.
 
since I started installing NOD32 on systems I've found virues on systems that I thought where clean AND up to date/firewalled etc
just goes to show!
 
lol @ needless bump when there is one of these wholly annoying anti-virus threads made literally every other day.
 
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VeNT said:
since I started installing NOD32 on systems I've found virues on systems that I thought where clean AND up to date/firewalled etc
just goes to show!
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Found a similar thing when i replaced Norton with Kaspersky tbh. A full system scan showed up four - yes, four - viruses on my PC which Norton had missed. And one of them had been on there since 2001!! :eek:
Thank goodness for Kaspersky scanning the Outlook mailbox, something Norton doesn't do!

(Now, if only it scanned every user accounts mailboxes, and not just the user running the scan, I'd give it 10 out of 10, otherwise I give it 9.5 :) )

Saying goodbye to Norton forever now....
 
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