Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Which antivirus utility protects your computer?

Jan 14, 2005 4:01AM PST

Which antivirus utility protects your computer?

AVG Anti-Virus (love or hate it?)
Kaspersky Anti-Virus (love or hate it?)
McAfee VirusScan (love or hate it?)
Norton AntiVirus (love or hate it?)
Panda Titanium Antivirus (love or hate it?)
Trend Micro PC-cillin (love or hate it?)
Other (what is it?)
I don't need no stinkin' antivirus app. (really, why not?)

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
AVG
Jan 18, 2005 11:46AM PST

I used norton since 2000, but the new version required more and more resources and it was impossible to me and the support team of symantec make the 2004 version work at my XP pro system, so I switched to AVG free, the best I could find, and the antivirus the less resources takes.

- Collapse -
AVG7.0 free ed. takes too long
Jan 18, 2005 12:28PM PST

I have recently had to update my AVG from 6 to 7 and can not understand why the newer free version is seven times slower than the old one which took eight mins. I would like to find an alternative which is quicker and does not tie up the machine for so long.

- Collapse -
Anti-antivirus
Jan 18, 2005 12:30PM PST

I used McAfee for many years but switched to Norton when my McAfee subscription expired and Norton was on sale. It took up too many resources, was hard to configure, and, as a final insult, didn't want to uninstall. I went back to McAfee. We had 4 out of 5 computers running McAfee. College student (IT major) used an AV program distributed by the college until recently, he switched to McAfee but I don't know what drove his decision, so we have 5 out of 5. Cable modem puts us at risk, and firewall is set to minimal protection to allow online interactive game playing so we depend on anti-virus (and spyware detector).

McAfee would clean or delete viruses from disks I picked up while working in the Mideast (pirated programs were frequently buggy). Real good bugs but if all else failed, the infected file was deleted before it caused damage.

- Collapse -
best Antivirus
Jan 18, 2005 12:50PM PST

My vote is AVG cause its free.

- Collapse -
Optix Faceoff weeds out the antivirus wannabees
Oct 22, 2005 10:51AM PDT
- Collapse -
antivirus
Jan 18, 2005 1:03PM PST

Norton antivirus destroyed my computer - TWICE.

I now use avast and have had excellent results without having any problems whatsoever.

- Collapse -
NORTON RULES SO FAR (1997 - 2005)
Jan 18, 2005 1:05PM PST

I might add that my OS is Windows XP,2.2 Ghz, Linksys router (wireless),Best Data cable modem and yes, all three of my computers are Dell. (Dells outsourcing customer support is horrible!) but, as an home user I've become resourceful in solving any probs with my computers. Trial and error seem to be the norm for the past nine years I've owned different computers. As an average home user, I don't want the hassle of too many applications for PC protection. I also run Ad-Aware as much as Norton. I also discovered that in Windows XP Internet Properties, deleting cookies and/or Settings/View Files and deleting all those files (cookies), will produce zero detected "problems" in Norton and Ad-Aware. There are many different programs and individual user methods to prevent and get rid of Virus/worms/and all those "bad" wares. Anyone of these programs including Norton,is going to find something the other didn't. Every year, I wait for the Norton rebate special and practically get the AV/SystemWorks/Personal Firewall for a lot less than what others are reporting they paid for it.

- Collapse -
Antivirus
Jan 18, 2005 1:29PM PST

I used two recent versions of Kasperski and always had problems (system lock-ups, not enough RAM - although I have 1GB - slow-downs, incompatibilities with other programs... you name them, I had them!) and they were pricy.
I switched to AVG and am delighted. And it's free.

- Collapse -
I use Panda Titanium Anti-Virus
Jan 18, 2005 1:51PM PST

Panda Titanium has Norton beat hands down...Norton is too big of a system resourses hog....Panda's Tru Prevent technology is a great idea....I have tried them both and Panda is a winner in my book.....thanks

- Collapse -
RE: Panda
Jan 18, 2005 9:17PM PST

i heard so much about panda .. so i looked into buying a year with them .. so i did .. 90$ for 2 keys good deal .. now when i went to install it .. both computers crashed on me .hmmmm. also called there 24hr help line .. the guy i spoke with was not trained on the program.. wouldnt you think if you were a 24hr hotline you would know the product?? or beable to troubleshoot problems .. now im a true beleiver in there online virus scaner.. atleast that works !!

- Collapse -
Panda Titanium crashed XP
Jul 8, 2005 6:38AM PDT

I had the same experience. Installed Panda, the PC crashed and wouldn't reboot. Had to go into Safe Mode to uninstall it, after which, no problems.

And that is the case for the prosecution, your honour.

- Collapse -
Norton blown away by the winds of Change
Jul 4, 2005 7:40PM PDT

Panda blows the doors off Norton anyday. Norton is slow on the uptake nowadays. Their definitions arent as sophisticated anymore. An example is i was running my 2005 Norton for the past 4 months and though aside from the lag it gave me it was doing its job it even caught a few incoming with that worm scanner - but after a few torrent DL's (that i Norton scanned before opening btw) i found myself headlong into one of the worst attacks on my PC ive ever had - it started with a handfull of hole-punchers, macros, embeddeds, and general "stealth viruses" that started taking my cpu down in short order

- i wont get into how catastrophic it really was but it was malicious and from what i found out by opening a few .dll's in PE editor they were from China - well i was fast snowballed past the point of no return at that point so i already conceeded to a reformat the long story summarized is i only knew which DLL's to inspect because of the Norton i ditched and the Panda i managed to force install while going down in flames - it found all 12 of these things and most of them ended up being embedded code (one had started a hidden process that was overclocking my motherboard!!! i had to use the F-Secure Blacklight Beta to find it) But morale of the story is Panda found all of these things in various file types shapes and sizes and Norton stopped a grand total of Nada.

These guys are out there cooking these scripts up with Norton evasion in mind. Panda is the way to go hands down. Even though i still had to reformat, i immediately bough Panda and ahvent had a single incident since then.

- Collapse -
Which Anti Virus
Jan 18, 2005 1:54PM PST

I found that Anti Vir (German origin)which uses a red umbrella as its icon not only identified viruses missed by other reputable brands but unlike AVG it removed them also!
My problem with AVG is it identifies infections ok but its another matter removing them,where this program has successfully coped with every infection usually at the first time of asking ,once upon a rerrun,but still miles ahead of any other Ive seen.

- Collapse -
antivirus utilities
Jan 18, 2005 2:50PM PST

I have used Kaspersky antivirus for years. I can't remember how I came to start using it but I have never regretted it. I pay a yearly subscription of about

- Collapse -
AVG gets my vote
Jan 18, 2005 4:50PM PST

I junked Norton a couple of years ago as it was causing too many conflicts with WindowsME & MS Applications. I used the free version of AVG for a few months & then upgraded to AVG Professional. Absolutely no problems since then.

- Collapse -
RE: Which antivirus utility protects your computer?
Jan 18, 2005 7:01PM PST

I used to have NAV because, at the time, I thought it was the best available. 5 years ago that may have been true, when not many alternatives were available, but that's all changed. I now use Avast AntiVirus Pro (downloadable only). It's cheaper, far less resource-hungry, and has never failed to spot a virus lurking on my PC. It lacks nothing as far as I'm concerned. It will perform a full scan before Windows starts if you want it to, updates are several times a week (that alone beats Norton's 'LiveUpdate' frequency), and the updates take only a couple of minutes even on dial-up. By contrast, NAV updates would take forever because there were so many components, and more often than not I had to run LiveUpdate several times to get all the component updates through. A real pain in the proverbial! I'm totally happy with Avast and I will be sticking with it!

- Collapse -
Nod 32
Jan 18, 2005 7:22PM PST

I am using this one, very light, and it seems to work very well

- Collapse -
antivirus
Jan 18, 2005 9:28PM PST

After having a major problem with my pc, Time computers suggested I remove AVG as it was useless (their words) and install Norton Internet Security 2004 which cost

- Collapse -
Time Computers!
Jan 18, 2005 10:19PM PST

In my limited dealings with prefabricated computer vendors, I've rarely come across anyone who was particularly technically competent. They might just as well have been selling washing machines or refrigerators. To them it's just boxes of electrical goods off the shelves and out through the door. A question involving anything more complicated than changing the battery in a flashlight might be a waste of time.

- Collapse -
Which Antivirus utility protects your computer
Jan 18, 2005 9:55PM PST

I have had so much trouble (both with installation and with my system once I installed it) with the McAfee antivirus I purchased that I deleted all McAfee files from my computer and have installed !Avast from Alwil. I installed it without any problems and it runs without any. I sent message after message to McAfee and even made use of their online chat, and while they were always very good about replying, their solutions never worked even though I followed their instructions to the letter. Hopefully !Avast will give me no problem.

- Collapse -
antivirus utilities
Jan 18, 2005 10:02PM PST

I used to love PC-Cillin until some spyware moved in and took over the controls and PC-Cillin was totally impotent to do anything about it. All it could do was list the dozens and dozens of Trojans that it was unable to delete.
I currently have AVG. So far, so good.

- Collapse -
antivirus
Jan 18, 2005 10:21PM PST

Norton and McAfee rob to many resource's and slow down most PC's. AVG has stopped all virus's and even gotten update's before either of these have.Panda is better than these also, but why pay when it's FREE?

- Collapse -
1/18/05 Which antivirus utility
Jan 18, 2005 10:22PM PST

I use mcafee security. I have had excellent results from this utility. I have the full mcafee online security. I use to use Norton but decided to use mcafee it seems to use less resources then Norton. Norton use to crash my system from low resources.

- Collapse -
Anti-Virus
Jan 18, 2005 10:54PM PST

I have Norton Virus with Panda TruePrevent to back it up. I would have gotten the full Panda software if I had not bought Norton first. Norton was recommended to me by my Computer professional. But Panda software is the one that finsally got everything off my computer and with their once a day virus up dates and protection from unknown viruses, I find them far more superior to Norton.I think Norton either has alot of updating to be competitive, or they will be inferior to this new software. Norton would not even install on my computer until all the viruses had been removed. Panda has a great online trial and it is great. Panda rules! Watch out Norton.

- Collapse -
What about AVAST?
Jan 18, 2005 10:55PM PST

I use Avast. It checks all incoming and outgoing email as well as files on you PC and it's free. Virus updates come out faster than for AVG. Check it out at
avast.com.

- Collapse -
Switched to NOD32
Jan 18, 2005 11:33PM PST

Got tired of Norton's use and abuse of system resources, and I'm delighted with the switch. Norton was the best 10 years ago, but I don't think that's true anymore. I believe NOD32 is the only AV product to score 100% against in-the-wild viruses in Virus Bulletin's tests. Fast, tighter than a drum, and it updates virus definitions sometimes twice a day.

- Collapse -
nod32 is wonderful
Jan 20, 2005 6:10AM PST

I switched to nod32 about a six months or a year ago after read the wonderful review in PC Magazine, where they gave it a phenomenal review. It's strength is it's lightening fast scanning speed, minimal use of system resources and frequent updates. In addition, licensing terms for server protection are much more competitive than the "enterprise server" licenses for Norton, etc....
Plus, it uninstalls cleanly. Ever try to uninstall Norton Anti virus? I've had to wipe and reinstall the machine trying to uninstall NAV '02 (or was it '01).
The weakness of nod32 is the vague and unclear naming convention they use for their modules: amon (RAM scanner), DMON (document scanner - think ms word macro viruses), imon (internet monitor - think downloaded files).
Also, one of my colleagues has had difficulty configuring the centralized update server, but we think that may be due to the fact that he didn't have a manual or faulty network connection.

- Collapse -
PC-cillin has worked just fine for years now !
Jan 18, 2005 11:45PM PST

I have been using PC-cillin since release 1.0, if for no other reason than I bought it one day at Costco's. Its two greatest strenght's are it's an excellent virus checker and it's easy to use and maintain.

However, in addition to being an industrial strength virus checker that gets big use on large corporate networks, if I'm not mistaken, Trend Micro has done most of the pioneering of the ideas that all of the other virus checkers (Norton, McAfee, etc.)have copied into their products. They have always "pushed" product updates to users since the very early releases.

One thing I do find is that PC-cillin seems to get the panned in most of the so called "user reviews" such as those found in PC Magazine and the like. I suspect that this is probably more political in nature and due to the fact that their headquarters over the years has changed from the California to Formosa to Japan.

- Collapse -
What Really Works?
Jan 18, 2005 11:48PM PST

I was a strong supporter of Norton's. I found it to be too slow and ties up too many resources. Strong marketing puts them in the fore front but not the most effective unfortunately. I have been testing AVG (Free Version) and it came up with Trojans that Norton's simply failed to catch (keep in mind, I kept Norton's up-to-date on a weekly basis ... religously). AVG runs quicker and requires far less resources. I will be testing PC-cillian and perhaps Panda as well before making any final switch.

It makes no sense to run multiple antivirus softwares and ultimately only one should stand out on any PC. I'm no software/PC guru but have been around computers long enough to say ... NORTON's not the best any longer!

- Collapse -
i use norton antivirus 2005
Jan 19, 2005 12:07AM PST

i use norton antivirus 2005(built in to norton internet security 2005).i would never change even though it is such a big resource hog.sometimes my comp gets so jerky when nav is doing a scan, that i have to do a restart.it realy is that bad.i think symantec should realy think about making nav a less resource full program.