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Thread: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

  1. #1

    Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    Hi Avinash,

    I maybe a techie when dealing with Windows and hardware but choosing a good antivirus is just not easy.
    i have dealt with customers using Norton, McAfee, Bit Defender, AVG, Avast. Believe me each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
    Norton seems comparatively good so i have been using NAV (from May 2009) and i recently upgraded to NAV 2010.

    Ok coming to the issue at hand, I want to buy an antivirus for my friend,
    but off late Norton's policies have raised some eyebrows. Especially SONAR, which simply quarantines any file which hasnt been used my other Norton users
    It uses Norton Insight network to check how many Norton users have the same file and if it is too low it is considered a risk.
    Certain compressed files have also come under the scanner. Although when extracted they are clean,it shows the zip or rar file is infected(Weird)
    One of my colleagues has Kaspersky and he says it is fantastic when compared to Norton. He says it is very effective and faster than Norton (and cheaper too)
    I have not used Kaspersky before. I have tried Avast Home and AVG free (not good enough)
    Norton uses a lot of resources too. Can you compare NORTON INTERNET SECURITY and KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY and review them for me (and others, i hope)

    (Sorry about the long post)

    Bye
    Ashwin
    Last edited by Avinash; 29-07-10 at 05:51 PM.

  2. #2
    Avinash Guest

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    @Ashwin

    Regarding long post, its not a issue. You should write as much details as you want and it helps in answering too.

    Regarding Antivirus selection, I wont tell you what my personal favorite is but i Would suggest two options for you.

    Kaspersky or ESET NOD 32.

    Both are almost great in terms of performance and doesnt consume too much resources too.

    If you are still not sure, you can try their trial versions and see for yourself. Both of them are good enough.

    Kaspersky though is cheap if you are buying it in India.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    120

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    Hi Ashwin,

    I repair many computers and I end up removing Norton by request in most cases. I hear people say, "it's a great AV, it never once said I had an infection". That's because it's not detecting the infections. When I uninstall Norton and run other AV, I find many infections that the Norton scan said was clean. The latest is a bit lighter on resources than previous versions but all in all, I feel it's bloatware and only popular due to it's name and that it's pre-installed on OEMs. That's my personal take on Norton.

    I agree with Avinash, Kaspersky is one I would recommend and has been one that keeps up a good detection rate and is lighter on resources than some others. I would be hard pressed to choose between Kaspersky and Avira Anti-vir or ESET NOD32. All great. However I would suggest Avira Anti Vir, but not their security suite, same with some others not listed here and here's why...

    ... there may be a major difference when purchasing a " security suite " as the AV may be great but other aspects my not. This is why I wish vendors would stick to doing one thing well instead of following in Norton's steps and implementing the bloat that does nothing but bring down a good security application in many aspects. Kaspersky and Bitdefender have both been running among the highest for good suites since the beginning of 2009 till current. Norton typically remains in the low 60% range.

    As much as I am against using Comodo, I cannot deny they have been having a great security run and been right up there with the best if not "better", especially for free. PCtools is another that has been climbing the ladder and actually above as well.

    But we all have opinions and what's good for one, may not be what someone else likes so on that note... you may want to browse here

    http://www.matousec.com/projects/proact ... challenge/

    They do very in depth testing and are not biased like numerous testing sites which will say, Norton is the best, buy Norton $$$$$.

    Hope this helps some,

    Paul

  4. #4

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    Hi Avinash and Paul,

    Thanks for replying (to all my posts)

    Paul, i have no choice but to use NAV for another 106 days.
    It is not that i dont like NAV, but very recently NAV failed to detect a virus on a friend's usb drive,
    whereas Kaspersky detected it the moment i plugged it on to another friend's computer.
    I was embarrassed, i had copied some documents from my pc to the pen drive and was dead scared about my pc,
    thankfully nothing was affected. And like i said before Norton detected a few compressed files as threats and removed them.
    I had downloaded those files last summer ,while Norton was still in my pc and i regularly run full system scans and keep Norton updated.
    It is Norton's new policies that worry me, any file unfamiliar to them is a threat and gets quarantined (larger files get removed)?
    But i still have a lot of time to decide on KIS or NIS or NOD32.
    And two of my friends depend on my decision since we bought Norton as a 3 user pack
    Anyway thanks for the feedback guys, really appreciate it

    Best Regards
    Ashwin

  5. #5

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    Hey Paul, here is my experience with firewalls.

    Comodo free firewall is good but it has short term memory, constantly keeps forgetting my preferences.
    Did not try the Comodo Antivirus since i already have Norton, so i cant comment on that
    I used PC tools firewall for a week just out of curiosity, it seems slightly better than Comodo but since i didnt use it for a long period i dont know it's Pros and Cons
    Norton owns PC tools, but it manages its own operations most people dont know this. So it must be pretty good
    Zone alarm firewall consumes a whole lot of resources, so stay away from it unless you bought it.
    Online armor has been very good (thanks to Avinash, of course). But if you are an online Armor++user, i downloaded it from giveawayoftheday for my other desktop, you need to turn off the mail shield if you dont use a mail client like outlook. And if you have problems with your browsing speed, i would suggest turning off web shield. It has to scan the web page thoroughly and block stuff ,so it would take a long time. Just use the firewall, program guard and Antivirus. They are brilliant

    Hope its useful
    Bye

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    120

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    Hi Ashwin,

    Well, when I was a Comodo user, the firewall that is, the memory wasn't so much short term as it was very good at detecting a change in application behavior when accessing the internet. Applications that constantly change it's access methods and kick off a firewall make me suspicious. So I am almost 100% positive that it's more of an app change than it is Comodo forgetting.

    And currently I am running PCtools firewall only which has been very good, no crashes, lockouts, lag, etc... and while it's now part of Norton in a sense, which we can say Norton owns them but at any given time that branch could sell out or move to it's own or another source, plus they still have separate standards. PCtools AV was detecting 90-something percent of viruses while Norton still only goes around mid 60 percent. So regardless of company affiliations, PC tools is obviously doing it's job at least, lol. Maybe Norton could learn from it's baby sister

    ZoneAlarm I wouldn't touch with someone Else's 10 ft stick. They lost me as a user way back when they began letting everything through except my darn connection, gave people's information to foreign sources, and what I mean by foreign is anyone other than the user, plus became so bloated, my kids grew before ZA would allow my pc to boot.

    I can't comment on the current O-A since I can't use it but it has been great to me in the past.

    All in all, I use Avira Anti-vir personal which is free and currently PCtools firewall which has been great as well. I would like to add that Malwarebytes anti malware will detect all the extras that AV's don't and should be used on any system. It can be run with darn near any other security and runs well.

    So yep, it's an interesting market out there and the best we can do is go with what we feel works the best.

    Cheers,

    Paul

  7. #7

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    Hi Paul,

    You were quick to reply there, thanks

    The latest version of Comodo firewall is ok i guess. Well the short term issue i faced was when i was downloading files via free download manager or updating software,
    even if i selected 'remember my decision' and allow, it would forget it soon. I visited their forum and what do you know,
    Comodo forgetting preferences was a known issue, they advised customers to keep their product updated.
    I think it is mentioned in FAQs or help file or somewhere.
    Like that would help, it was anything but user friendly. Thats why i kicked it out.
    And about your comment on zone alarm's booting LOL :-D yes when i used it it took my computer a whole minute to start.
    Online Armor has probably the best user interface i have seen in a firewall, easy to configure and shows your preferences in a nice and clean fashion.
    (I know that you are using a 62 bit pc and you cant use OA, i read your comment on OA giveaway)
    Well too bad they dont support 64 bit, maybe they will soon.

    And i tried the latest Avast Home 5 on my Vista Home Premium, it was good but i installed Norton since i had a subscription. I have read reviews about Avira Free edition on Softonic,Softpedia,Cnet, seems to be excellent from their words and yours. And malwarebytes, hmmm lemme check on my hard disk,
    i have downloaded all the free stuff, i distribute them to friends.

    Buddy, since you are using a free antivirus, why dont you check my post on the European Norton giveaway (yes i know, Norton stinks),
    but it is an Internet security suite not just an antivirus. [Use a proxy sever if you are not in Europe]

    One more thing i have NAV 2010, OA premium, and Zemana Antilogger :-) do you think i should download malwarebytes free version?
    Is it reall the best, ok i will give it a try

    Thanks mate

  8. #8
    Avinash Guest

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    If someone asks me why his system is slow, first question I have asked him generally is : You got Norton Installed and guess what, Most of the time the answer is affirmative. The reason as Paul talked about, It comes pre-installed as OEMs or at least 90 days trials or its still famous .

    Regarding Avast, I have tested the latest version 5 and the best thing which happened with the version is the way they changed their interface and made a new one. But It gave me too many false positives and he false positives were of some well known programs setup files directly downloaded from their respective official sources like Internet download manager setup etc. The performance in terms of memory compared to older versions even though its still a bit of memory hungry.

    One other thing even though not related directly to any AV. I hate vista and advise anyone of you to switch to either windows XP or Windows 7 . Just a thought though :P

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    120

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    On the Comodo issue, I guess it's better forgetting allowances than to allow all, lol. And yes, It began to be anti-user friendly some time ago, I agree. I don't keep up on Comodo too often and if they faded away tomorrow, I would not care just to be honest.

    As far as being a free anti-virus, I have no issues with that. It's the same engine you get in a FULL version. In 13 years, I have never had a virus or major infection and I run what is doing best or close to it for the time but honestly, I run numerous tools "not just what I mention on sites or blogs" I don't browse where I don't know it's safe or install anything that I feel will be a major threat or use a Virtual Machine to test anything prior and browse questionable sites, never open email that I don't know where it came from AND I stay behind a router w\NAT. That to me is what has given me the best protection so far, not even the tools but the habits I use. Sure, it's not going to suit most people, it would be a very boring browsing experience to most but for me, I usually stick to security sites and software sites\blogs, not much more. My kids on the other hand, heh, different story but they are kids.

    Avast is alright but if you use the suite, it can be a hog plus I agree with Avinash on the FP's. It's still better than Norton and honestly, asking me to even think about Norton, I would rather cut my internet cable if that tells you anything. Malwarebytes is something everyone should use and honestly, some think I say that because I created the icon for it but not true. I supported that software long before and it's quality stuff, else I wouldn't have.

  10. #10
    Avinash Guest

    Re: Can you suggest a good premium antivrirus?

    Well, I agree with Paul about the way we browse and use our PC over the net and even the way on system itself, Plays a big role in securing or un-securing you from the bad stuff which includes everything.

    If you start using safe practices while using your system, few of which Paul mentioned above then you will be much more secure.

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