PC Virus Scanners/Any other protection

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I was just curious what virus protection programs you guys run.

I run 3 free (yes thats right free, but they are highly recommended) programs:

Avast Antivirus is my main firewall/virus scanner.  Its very good at detecting viruses, trojans, etc. 
Spybot Search and Destroy keeps tabs on Keyloggers, Hackers and other such programs. It allows you to immunize against them, very useful.
Ad-aware SE.  Does everything that the two above don't do. 

This doesn't include anything Windows puts into the XP, or the internet firewalls, etc.

King Linksr

[billybob476]

AVG Free Edition. Windows Defender for active spyware protection. Spybot and AdAware when I think defender missed something.

I've been virus/spyware free for a looooong time.

[jedijeff]

Also I find running behind a Cable/DSL router that acts as a firewall helps a lot as well. Even if you have one PC, I think it is better then hooking directly to the internet.

[psikeyhackr]

I have AVG Free on my main machine but I don't use it for randomly cruising the net.

Cheap powerful computers are available on eBay.  I have a junk machine for roaming around. If it gets seriously infected I just blow away the partition and copy over a mirror image. 

psik

[Blackride]

I use Symantec AntiVirus Corp Edition which I find to be the most solid product. That is not to say it's cheap though.....

[markinro]

Norton 2007 along with  MS popup blocker (IE7).  My ISP takes care of most of spam.   Last month, I had about 2% spam mail.  I even challenged norton by opening an attachment - but first setting a restore point.  Norton found it and shut it down without issue.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Norton 2007 along with  MS popup blocker (IE7).  My ISP takes care of most of spam.   Last month, I had about 2% spam mail.  I even challenged norton by opening an attachment - but first setting a restore point.  Norton found it and shut it down without issue.

We had Norton and Symantec...they failed miserably.  We had a computer guru check our computer (not this one) and he said that they aren't good enough.  In fact, the reviews against them lately are getting worse from what I've seen.  Anyway, we actually had a few viruses and other nasty bugs in our computer.  Both programs failed to detect them.  From what I've seen of the new Norton (through my Grandmother) I haven't been impressed. 

Anyway.

King Linksr

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Oh, I might also mention, that the restore point on Norton's system failed to work (it had made a month's worth of restore points btw).  So, we essentially got screwed over when the system quit working.  We had to get the entire hard drive wiped.  It wasn't cool.  We quit using those name brands after the week long repair it took.

We stuck with the above programs and have been very impressed.


King Linksr

[Rico]

I won't use Norton anymore.  The newer versions really mess with your system and are near to impossible to remove.  I use AVG Free for virus protection and Spyware Doctor for spyware.  Neither ever really finds much on my system, just the occasional ad cookie.

[billybob476]

Norton is the devil. Evil, evil software.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I won't use Norton anymore.  The newer versions really mess with your system and are near to impossible to remove.  I use AVG Free for virus protection and Spyware Doctor for spyware.  Neither ever really finds much on my system, just the occasional ad cookie.

I also agree with that.  It didn't do anything...so it made it hard to believe that it was even partially good.  Then the restore-point system failed and we gave up paying the $$$ for the darn thing. 

Also, the drain on the system was enormous, its rediculous.

King Linksr