There have been numerous threads on the topic of anti-virus software, so figured it'd be a good idea to have a thread with most of the main options and their benefits and flaws for reference.
First up, apparently everyone's favourite one.
AVG Free Edition
Well, for starters it is free, which is always a good start. It's control centre gui isn't the easiest to get to grips with, but once set up you hardly need to touch it. It can be configured to automatically block certain attachments through e-mail and has a rescue diskette function in case your system is attacked by a trojan and leaves you unable to start windows.
It's not really effective against malware though, so you'll need to get yourself some extra software for that, as you already should have.
Only problem with it as far as I can see is that if you are using the free version you get no technical support.
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Now on to
McAfee VirusScan 2006
This is a pretty easy to use bit of anti-virus software and also doubles as malware protection. Can protect you from malicious e-mail and scripts while browsing. But as always, McAfee tends to be an overly bloated resource hog on your system and has no log of removed problems and has shockingly annoying continual warnings if malware crops up on your system.
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I'm going to ignore Norton 2006 Home Edition, as no-one should
ever use it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stew  Reasons why Norton Home is shit: - System resource intensive.
- Buggy with some well known software such as AOL.
- Trojan detection is poor, at the best of times.
- Spyware options are a complete waste of time.
- Firewall tends to leave ports semi-naked, which is not good.
- Inaccurate virus detection and inability to remove because of this.
I'd go on, but seriously shouldn't need to. It's well documented on here and on sites where it's available for purchase which have user recommendations. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zooropa Did you mention that to get new virus definition updates you need to pay an annual subscription? |
Zooropa is right here. With
Home editions you are required to pay a yearly subscription to pick up the data and definition updates via the supplied update software. Another reason why it's a poorer piece of software compared to the top-notch free alternatives.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghostsuit Whats the difference between Enterprise and Corporate. |
Quote:
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The AntiVirus Enterprise Edition is a suite that includes the AntiVirus Corporate Edition as well as the following products: Symantec Mail Security for SMTP, Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange, Symantec Mail Security for Domino and Symantec Web Security.
|
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So next we have
avast!
It has a nice UI for people who aren't entirely knowledgeable on anti-virus software and it's real-time scanner is pretty decent and detects files incoming from email, instant messenger programs, newsgroups etc which is a must these days -- also has a neat function in that it can notify you in more than a pop up if a virus is detected.
It can be configured to scan while windows is booting before it loads, but it doesn't let you schedule virus scans and you do need to activate the full report option as it's off by default.
Oh, and it's free!
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Right, the last one for now is
Kaspersky Personal Security Suite
This is one of those horrible
suites that covers anti-virus, firewall and anti-malware all under one big title. Strangely, though, the three different parts of the software kit aren't integrated -- even going so far as to have different system tray icons.
In short, the anti-virus is not half bad, but the firewall and anti-malware suck. The anti-virus has heuristical analysis like the big boys in this field which allows it to block newer viruses (allegedly..). The anti-malware is pretty poor in general and doesn't even stop most spam from your e-mail account and the firewall rules configuration pop-ups are eye-burningly poor.
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[If anyone else wants to summarise any anti-virus software for this then post below and I'll add it in. I'll likely add more later/tomorrow.]
