[Question] AV what are you using?

[irneb]

I was using AVG, the free one on my laptop and the Enterprise version at the office. It was quite good for a few years, caught nearly everything and didn't bug me too much. However, since the end of last year it's been hogging the PC so much that I had to uninstall it from my laptop ... other programs simply couldn't get enough RAM. The laptop's rather old - has only 1GB RAM and XP32bit ... AVG was using between 100 & 300MB of that - not during a scan. And each time a program opened AVG was using 50% of the dual core, the program loading about 1% ... for several minutes. So I installed ClamWin, not sure how "good" it is ... but at least it doesn't hog the system so much.

Now the office is also starting to complain. Even with the much newer & "better" hardware & OS's we have there it kills performance drastically. We did a test, opening our major software (AutoCAD) took 6:32 with AVG running. With it uninstalled it took 0:23. All tested from a fresh cold-boot to ensure no DLL caching would muck up the times.

Anyhow, the final nail in the coffin was when AVG's renewal for the Enterprise license came up: R29,000 for the year on 60 PC's. Now we're dropping that particular viral program. Switching to ClamWin combined with M$ Security Essentials.

Anyone had experience about these, or know of something equal / better?

[tec0]

Wow! Are you sure? Ok my desktop computer runs at 44% with all programs going that also include 3D modelling software. And AVG is eating almost nothing. Honestly I had a look and I don’t know if I am reading it wrong but no... AVG is not killing my computer and I am running Vista! “On my desktop computer”

Here is a tip, have a look at your available hard drive space. I know that a lot of small files can keep AVG very busy but my HDD is about 80% of its full capacity. My computer is NOT a top line computer and I have no trouble with AVG.

After you killed AVG and did a cold boot what was your over all CPU usage? I think you might have a worm.

[daveob]

Am using AVG Internet Security ( AV, F.Wall, etc ) and don't even notice it running. Using for about 6 years a not a single day's trouble. Was a breath of fresh air after using Nortons "hog it all".

[tec0]

Agreed, Norton basically killed your computer. Norton with Vista was like using a F1 car to tow a 2 ton caravan. 1 ton Norton and 1 ton Vista. AVG is a bloody good product and as long as it is a trouble free antivirus I will use it.

When I was able to buy AVG from Incredible connection I was the happiest nerd alive!

[BusFact]

I've tried AVG in the past and it seemed ok to me. Can't remember having any serious issues with it which couldn't be blamed on the old PC it was on.

For whatever reason (I've since forgotten) I chose Bitdefender and Nortons for a 6 computer network.

Bitdefender I found slowed things down and it made me reinstall the damn thing about 3 times over a period of about a year.

Despite being warned against it, I went for the Nortons option and have been quite happy with them for the last 2-3 years. I'm no techie, so found their interface easy to use. No noticable speed issues.

Only issue with them was their auto renewal feature using my credit card details to renew the product at the end of the year. They said I could turn it off, but I gave up trying to sort that out after 15min. I just use a card that will expire in the next year.

Used Norton 360 on a mixture of PC's with XP, Vista and 7.

Just my 2c worth

[Dave A]

Anyhow, the final nail in the coffin was when AVG's renewal for the Enterprise license came up: R29,000 for the year on 60 PC's.

I've just renewed on three licences at an average of R207.00 each...

[wynn]

I started with AVG and then even bought a copy still slowed my PC to snail mail.
Changed to AVAST free and am A for away

[AndyD]

Anti virus is something I'v never felt the need to pay for, there's so many free offerings around that use exactly the same signatures databases the paid versions. The only features you miss are scheduling etc and I wouldn't use this anyway.

If you really want to be bullet proof then use a behavioral based AV like threatfire, a signature based solution like AVG or Avira and a sandbox like Sandboxie for your mail and web browsing. Bob will be your uncle.

I go for a more minimalist approach, AVG and spybotsd which I only use for a manual scan once a month, no heueristic or background activity. Also a sandbox for browsing and mail as well as for executing any unknown files.

[garthu]

Also dumped our AVG and norton, both for performance. Using Avast and spybot SD and all good!

[Dave S]

AV, Oh No!

AV's are typically only good for about a year or two.

The reason for this is a new AV is developed to cope with what is known at the time and what can be predicted, however, there seems to be some "Hackers" out there whose sole purpose in life is to ensure the unreliability of your computer and to see if they can get hold of your bank details, and some just want to be the guy that broke your AV.

These hackers never sleep and soon find ways to fool the AV programs and F-Walls. I have been through everything from Avast to X-raze and find that all of them eventually let a worm, trojan, spy, etc. get through the net, the result is I also use freeware versions of AV and I change regularly (every year) to something different. Invariebly, when I install a new one it finds something that shouldn't have been on my system. X-raze was one of the first generation that came out and is no longer available, but it now works on preventing some of the newer viruses (only runs on machines with Win 95, 98 and ME). What I'm saying is don't throw away your old AV's, sometimes they're still good.

[irneb]

After you killed AVG and did a cold boot what was your over all CPU usage? I think you might have a worm.

Just did the test again. Win XP SP3 32bit (we can't use Vista / Win7 cause it simply doesn't work with our large format Oce printer ), Intel Core(TM)2 6600 @ 2.40GHz, 2GB RAM, 150GB HDD (60GB free). ClamWin & M$ Essentials as AV.

Shut down, waited for about 1min and pressed the power button. After logging in allowed a further 1min for all the background stuff to load. Pressed Ctrl+Shift+Del & clicked the "Task Manager" button. Noted CPU hovered between 0% and 2% ... seems one of the the svchost processes are still doing "something". RAM usage is around 160MB.

Decided that should be fine. Double-clicked the AutoCAD icon from desktop & hit my watch's stopwatch button. The MsMpEng.exe process immediately started using the CPU - hovers around 3% to 15%. After about 3sec the acad.exe process appears in the Task manager and runs at 20% to 50%. When ACad's splash screen opens (about 10sec after double click) acad.exe is using about 40MB and overall CPU usage is still up-and-down from 20% to 60% - with acad using most, MsMpEng the rest (it seems - would be nice if there was a log).

ACad's window appears on around 20sec, but is still a white blank window up to 38sec. When it starts showing menus, toolbars, palettes. Finally available and responsive to input at 53sec. Not as good as it was without any AV, but a S#1T load better than with AVG Corporate.

[popayetwo]

I started with AVG and then even bought a copy still slowed my PC to snail mail.
Changed to AVAST free and am A for away

I have been using AVAST HOME EDITION for years now. The virus database updates twice a day and the program updates every few weeks. Takes a few seconds only and catches a HUGE amount of alien stuff (Just check your log after a while) It's free, you just need to re-register annually and it does an excellent job.

[Dave S]

What are your thoughts on NOD32 (Firewalled Edition), one of the newer AV's around?

[IanF]

What are your thoughts on NOD32 (Firewalled Edition), one of the newer AV's around?

We use NOD 32 business edition took out a 2 year licence and find that microsoft security essentials picks up the viruses on the usb sticks much better. On the plus side never had a scare since using NOD

[Cpt Chaos]

An AV that I found to be rather impressive for me is Comodo Internet Security. Not only is it free, but its one of only a few AV that gives you an free Internet Security Anti Virus. Been using it for a while now and with me working with clients and virus invested Flash drives, I've never had a problem since installing it