Best Anti-virus 2014?

[bononos]

If money is tight, just pick a free one. They're largely snakeoil anyway.

Why are they snakeoil? Its easy to get infected from hacked websites and downloadable software.

 

[bononos]

Money is a bit tight, plus I don't know that Nod32 is the best.
Things change so much from year to year.

Looking at those sites, some are hard to decipher. They don't make it easy and none ever comes out and says "X anti-virus is the best"

Avast has lost a step lately, you could try avira free. I don't think it has the adware toolbar thing any more.

 

[wallet]

Im running Qihoo 360

 

[lxskllr]

Why are they snakeoil? Its easy to get infected from hacked websites and downloadable software.

Because they largely don't work... Aside from the ones that work too well; they stop internet connectivity entirely :^D

The best approach is layered. Block ads, use NoScript, and most of all, use your brain. A/V activation is the hail Mary pass made once you've already failed; it shouldn't have gotten that far in the first place. An unobtrusive A/V is alright. One shouldn't even know they're running it, but as soon as it takes money or hassle, I wouldn't bother. The last A/V I used was Immunet. It was acceptable in most regards, and gratis for commercial use. If gratis A/V became unavailable, I wouldn't use A/V(on Windows).

 

[John Connor]

Avast has lost a step lately, you could try avira free. I don't think it has the adware toolbar thing any more.

Uninstalling Avira is a PITA! You have to use their registry uninstaller and safe mode. I don't recommend it. I uninstalled it and there's still an icon for Avira in my control panel. Have yet to research on how to remove it. I use to recommend Avira, not any more. It's Bitdefender Free for me.

 

[John Connor]

Because they largely don't work... Aside from the ones that work too well; they stop internet connectivity entirely :^D

The best approach is layered. Block ads, use NoScript, and most of all, use your brain. A/V activation is the hail Mary pass made once you've already failed; it shouldn't have gotten that far in the first place. An unobtrusive A/V is alright. One shouldn't even know they're running it, but as soon as it takes money or hassle, I wouldn't bother. The last A/V I used was Immunet. It was acceptable in most regards, and gratis for commercial use. If gratis A/V became unavailable, I wouldn't use A/V(on Windows).

I installed Bitdefender Free on my aunts computer and my uncle who is VERY computer illiterate got 19 viruses and Bitdefender caught them all except some adware crap I had to remove with adwcleaner. Now I have them use Sandboxie with Bitdefender Free.

 

[lxskllr]

I installed Bitdefender Free on my aunts computer and my uncle who is VERY computer illiterate got 19 viruses and Bitdefender caught them all except some adware crap I had to remove with adwcleaner. Now I have them use Sandboxie with Bitdefender Free.

They all catch some and lose some. From the most expensive product to the lowest level gratis one. It comes down to luck whether or not it works for a particular case. I prefer not to hinge my security on the fates.

I installed Ubuntu on my mother's computer, and she's gotten no viruses whatsoever(same as the Vista install that was there previously). It also foiled the MS "tech support" from India, which *NO* a/v will protect against ;^)

 

[bononos]

Because they largely don't work... Aside from the ones that work too well; they stop internet connectivity entirely :^D

The best approach is layered. Block ads, use NoScript, and most of all, use your brain. A/V activation is the hail Mary pass made once you've already failed; it shouldn't have gotten that far in the first place. An unobtrusive A/V is alright. One shouldn't even know they're running it, but as soon as it takes money or hassle, I wouldn't bother. The last A/V I used was Immunet. It was acceptable in most regards, and gratis for commercial use. If gratis A/V became unavailable, I wouldn't use A/V(on Windows).

They largely do work as we can see by the performance in the retrospective tests.

Having a AV together with firewall/HIPs installed is a must for my non-tech older folks who would otherwise be installing adware/pua by accident or clicking on malicious links sent by their equally malware prone friends. You cannot assume everyone knows how to recognize a malicious ad from a genuine antivirus warning for example.

I could get by without an AV or sandbox in windows but I do install stuff from torrent on occassion so having an AV is still very useful.

 

[bononos]

Uninstalling Avira is a PITA! You have to use their registry uninstaller and safe mode. I don't recommend it. I uninstalled it and there's still an icon for Avira in my control panel. Have yet to research on how to remove it. I use to recommend Avira, not any more. It's Bitdefender Free for me.

I shouldn't have recommended it then. Its just that I saw Avast slipping in the rankings (mainly for the too high false positives) and thought Avira would be worth a try when I read that they did away with the adware toolbar thing which people didn't like.

 

[TheGardener]

Deleted as duplicate

 

[TheGardener]

Having a AV together with firewall/HIPs installed is a must for my non-tech older folks who...

I guess this describes me to the core.

No one mentions Norton Internet Security, so I suspect that this community doesn't recommend it. I've been using for 4 years. It appears to work well, fast and doesn't annoy me with a lot of information that I don't know what to do with. Prior to that I was using the paid version of ZoneAlarm for my firewall, and it continuously annoyed me. Used that along side with McAfee antivirus.

 

[SlickR12345]

If you have the money go for Bitdefender. Its the most hand off suite out there and one of the best protection as well.

You pretty much get no popups at all with Bitdefender, though for power users that actually might be a problem, since you want to be in control of your security.

As far as free suites go, Avira is pretty good. It has a firewall, web shield and active virus protection, it also has very small footprint.

Avast is also pretty good, but it doesn't have its own firewall.

Tiranium is a new product that has one of the best could based detection systems, but its a bit slow right now.

Comodo is also another free suite, features firewall, antivirus and many other features that can be found usually only in paid products.

 

[KeithP]

Fry's has a good deal on ESET Smart Security 2015 (3 PCs). $60-$50 rebate=$10 after rebate
http://www.frys.com/product/8270766?...%20date:112414

-KeithP

 

[claprhym3]

Currently using Avira for my Windows 7 because it's free! Well it works fine together with Malwarebytes. I somehow feel protected even if I think I am not considering how viruses nowadays can enter your computer unnoticeable and can affect your files.

 

[pontifex]

Found eset smart security for $10

 

[UnderPantKnome]

Not sure how reliable Bitdefender Free self-protection are.
Someone done a couple of test, and Bitdender was disabled by Malware and had to be reinstalled. Also allowed a rouge malware installed. I read this on another security forum.
Anyone experienced the same issue ?

I'm thinking about dumping Microsoft Security Essential.
Can't decide between Bitdender, AVAST, AVG, Avira or Panda.

 

[John Connor]

Anyone experienced the same issue ?

No. Although I do run NoScript. I have Bitdefender Free on my aunts computer and it caught 19 viruses and that is do to my uncle not being very computer smart.

 

[rockfella79]

This!

If money is tight, just pick a free one. They're largely snakeoil anyway.

 

[rockfella79]

I used Avira for 3/4 years, now in windows 8.1 i don't even bother with AVs.

If money is tight, just pick a free one. They're largely snakeoil anyway.

Currently using Avira for my Windows 7 because it's free! Well it works fine together with Malwarebytes. I somehow feel protected even if I think I am not considering how viruses nowadays can enter your computer unnoticeable and can affect your files.

 

[rockfella79]

Use this:

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

This is not 100% huckleberry. So combine it with this:

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

Uninstalling Avira is a PITA! You have to use their registry uninstaller and safe mode. I don't recommend it. I uninstalled it and there's still an icon for Avira in my control panel. Have yet to research on how to remove it. I use to recommend Avira, not any more. It's Bitdefender Free for me.

 

[Shamrock]

I like going by this list.

http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge-64/results.php

 

[John Connor]

Use this:

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

This is not 100% huckleberry. So combine it with this:

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

I use revouninstaller all the time, but Avira requires its own registry cleaner and it left its icon in the control panel. After looking for Avira entries in the registry even after running their registry cleaner I found a path to an Avira system file and deleted the little ah heck. No more icon in the control panel. I also deleted any and all registry keys that came up with the name Avira. Other people on the Internet were having the same problem doing my search on how to get rid of the Avira icon in the control panel.

 

[ussfletcher]

They largely do work as we can see by the performance in the retrospective tests.

Having a AV together with firewall/HIPs installed is a must for my non-tech older folks who would otherwise be installing adware/pua by accident or clicking on malicious links sent by their equally malware prone friends. You cannot assume everyone knows how to recognize a malicious ad from a genuine antivirus warning for example.

I could get by without an AV or sandbox in windows but I do install stuff from torrent on occassion so having an AV is still very useful.

They largely don't work. The malware that these catch is by and large only the most trivial crap malware out there, or malware that has been around for months or years.

Its absolutely trivial for a malware author to avoid antivirus detection.

Now, you are correct that its probably good that its catching some of the things, but it tends to lull users into a false sense of security.

 

[Captante]

I guess this describes me to the core.

No one mentions Norton Internet Security, so I suspect that this community doesn't recommend it. I've been using for 4 years. It appears to work well, fast and doesn't annoy me with a lot of information that I don't know what to do with. Prior to that I was using the paid version of ZoneAlarm for my firewall, and it continuously annoyed me. Used that along side with McAfee antivirus.

Norton does work well, is very effective and for the most part is both unobtrusive and light weight in terms of performance.

You will however find a considerable bias against it here and on other tech sites based on bad experience with older versions.

 

[Ketchup]

Norton does work well, is very effective and for the most part is both unobtrusive and light weight in terms of performance.

You will however find a considerable bias against it here and on other tech sites based on bad experience with older versions.

The only problem with Norton right now is itself. As one of the biggest names in AV, the main purpose of many exploits is to disable it. I can't tell you how many times I have manually removed one exploit only to see Norton (and other big name AV's) start finding viruses left and right.

Norton over the past 5 years has been a good program.I wouldn't tell anyone not to buy it. Just don't let posts like this make you think you can click on whatever you want and be fully protected.