Antivirus

[psp83]

Its that time of year again, my NOD32 is due for renewal, so I'm looking around at others.

The list I have is the following:-

BitDefender Internet Security 2012
Norton Internet Security 2012
KASPERSKY Internet Security 2012
F-Secure Internet Security 2012

Has anyone used any of the above and what do you think about them?

[talos]

Tried them all and IMHO they are all expensive bloatware, I now use Avast, its free and its never let me down in the 4 years Ive used it 

[J!ll]

I use Avast, does the trick 

[JB]

Avast +1

[Technical Ben]

Get a free one. I've only seen horror stories from paid for options sadly.

I use Microsoft Security Essentials. But It's down to what works best on your system and with your usage habits.

[David]

I use Webroot Paul

[pctech]

Prevx, very light as most of it runs on their servers.

[Simon]

BitDefender Internet Security 2012
Norton Internet Security 2012
KASPERSKY Internet Security 2012
F-Secure Internet Security 2012

I've used all of the above, except Norton, Paul.  F-Secure is great, and I used it for 6 years without too many issues, but for some reason, after an iTunes update, it stopped iTunes from working properly, and also caused connection problems, following the use of iTunes, so there was obviously an F-Secure / iTunes conflict somewhere.  I went backwards and forwards with F-Secure support for quite a few weeks, and they provided many fixes, all of which worked for a while, but as soon as F-Secure updated, the iTunes problem resurfaced.  I have to stress, this could have been just something with my machine, as I know someone else who has no problems with F-Secure and iTunes, but it did, in the end, force me to ditch F-Secure, for Bitdefender.

Bitdefender 2012 was OK.  It produced quite a few false positives, but the detection rating is supposedly one of, if not THE best.  It did have some annoyances, such as blocking apps, with only a 2-3 second pop up telling you it's done so, which, if you miss, means you may not be aware of the block.  You can go into the 'Events' module, which will tell you what the program has done, but there's no desktop notification of new 'events', so it's a question of checking for yourself.  You can leave the suite in Auto Pilot mode, which means you'll get no pop ups, and it makes all of it's own decisions, but I didn't like the sound of that. There is also no way of importing an email address book into the Anti-Spam module whitelist, which I found quite inconvenient.  Further, the uninstallation is messy, and may well leave you with no internet connection, but a reboot cures this.  However, the biggest problem with BD2012 is the 2013 upgrade, which is truly terrible.  It crashed several times on my PC, is not nearly so user friendly as the 2012 version, and when I uninstalled it, it again wiped out my internet connection, which was only restored by a DNS flush.

I went from BD to Kaspersky, which I have used before, about 6 years ago.  The 2012 version seems fine to me.  Easy to install, unobtrusive, yet informative of what it's doing / done.  It's perhaps a little slower to start up than the others, and this occasionally triggers the "Your computer may be at risk..." warning bubble, but that disappears when KIS starts fully.  I think the reason for this is that I've set it to postpone reboots when there's a program update, until the next computer restart.  Of the ones listed that I've tried, I would recommend Kaspersky, and it's also available quite cheaply on Amazon / eBay.  I paid £9.99 for a 1 year, 3 machine licence, which I didn't think was bad.

Hope that helps.   

[Baz]

That sounds like one of my posts Paul 

been in a similar position earlier this year I just renewed my NOD license as its all ways been ok for me, just sits there and works.

tried the free ones over the years as have most people then took the plunge with NOD ages ago, renewal is of course a tad cheaper if you have been with them previous years.

[Lance]

I use MSE on all my machines, never had a problem with it.

[Gary]

I use MSE on the laptop, works fine so far  Kaspersky had the 'your computer may be at risk' issue years back, I found their suites a bit bloated back then and caused issues with other programs to often and they tagged every file on your hardrive with their iswift technology which I believe is still in the 2012 suite, the only way to remove the tags is a complete wipe and reinstall of the system. I myself would not install any in that list.

[.Griff.]

I use Webroot Paul

Same here.

[Simon]

I believe you can turn Iswift off, Gary, but I'm not sure if that removes the tags. Actually I'm not even sure if it's on by default, and I have a funny feeling that it isn't.

[psp83]

Cheers for the posts,

Of course, anyone I select, I will be using the trial option first, just to make sure.

I might stick with NOD32, depends what offers I get over the next week or so, but it is a bit pricey for all my pc's & laptops at £25 a licence.

I've tried most free ones and not happy with them and I can't risk anything with my job.

I use Webroot Paul

Good luck with that, I have it on a CD some where, it only has a 56% detection rate 

[Simon]

I don't want to be seen as plugging it too much, Paul, but with Kaspersky, after I'd licensed one machine, I was sent an offer to purchase another two licenses for £5 - so with what I paid for the original retail package, it would have cost me £14.99 to license 5 machines for a year.

[sparky]

Another vote for Kaspersky Internet Security. It has always worked well for me running Windows 7, 32 bit.
I like the Virtual Keyboard and the Safe Run for Websites. Doesn't seem to slow my system down and also runs quite hapilly on a Netbook, which Bit Defender wouldn't.

I also like the fact that as long as you have a valid license you can upgrade to the latest version. My license expires every December, so I buy a new 3-user CD from Amazon, just before the next version comes out (about June) that way you get it cheap, leave it six months, Upgrade my license using the new one when required and then when any bugs are ironed out, upgrade to the latest version. The cycle continues.

Costs me about £17.99 for three PC's each year.

[Simon]

You were robbed!   

[psp83]

I can get KASPERSKY Internet Security 2012, 3 PC for 1 year - £12.20.

[Simon]

That's not bad. 

[sparky]

Actually, I paid £16.99 at the end of May.

OK. Its £12.48 on Amazon now. So I guess this year I didn't leave it late enough 

[gizmo71]

I use ClamWin on some of my servers.

[wiltshirejohn]

I too am thinking of replacing ESET NOD32. The reasons?

1.   At the beginning of this year (2012) I applied an update to NOD32. Switching on my external HDD (used for backups) then caused the pc to lock-up.

Reference: http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,29305.0.html
A further update to NOD32 in July has solved that problem.

2. Now, at random intervals a pop-up window informs me "NOD32 has encountered a problem and will have to close down."
WTF???  After re-starting, the program continues running quite happily - until the next time!

I have submitted a number of the logs to ESET.  Response ?  ...  ZILCH  Not even acknowlegement of receipt.

My current license for two machines expires next January.  I shall be studying the above posts carefully.
Guess who WON'T be getting any more of my money.

Regards to all - wiltshirejohn

[Simon]

I'm still with Kaspersky, and have had no problems.  The only slight niggle is that it seems to be slower starting up than Windows, so I get the pop up warnings that "Your computer may be at risk" at start up, but these go away after a few seconds, so not really an issue. 

[Technical Ben]

The slight benefit of going with free software (usually just as good, as the companies make money from corporate/business sales, and the home version is their advertisement) is that if it does not work, you can change it.
The drawback of a paid for virus scanner is if it crashes, you've shelled out for a program that does not work (no refunds. ).

[psp83]

I'm still with Kaspersky, and have had no problems.  The only slight niggle is that it seems to be slower starting up than Windows, so I get the pop up warnings that "Your computer may be at risk" at start up, but these go away after a few seconds, so not really an issue. 

Have you checked its not on a delayed start up?

Run services.msc, find it in the list, if it has Automatic (Delayed Start) then that's why, you can double click and change that to be Automatic and you shouldn't get the problem.