Anti-Virus Recommendations

[Nioca]

Alright, so here's the thing. Right now, I'm kinda unsatisfied with the anti-virus I'm using (Microsoft Security Essentials), mainly because it tends to be a massive CPU hog; enough so that it can actually bring everything else to a screeching halt until it finishes updating, passive scanning, tidying rosebushes, or whatever the heck it decides to do at the moment. I switched to MSE after Avast! thoroughly screwed my system and almost turned it into a smoldering wreck.

 

The SW community is rather tech-saavy, and my track record at searching for things online is not great. Thus, I thought I'd ask you guys: Which anti-virus software would you recommend I use? I'm looking for something that's low maintenance, works quietly in the background without eating up a ton of resources, is effective, and is free.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated here.

[Lilith]

If your computer is old enough that MSE makes it chug, probably any other free antivirus with real-time protection will give you similar problems. The best advice I can give you is to turn off your antivirus, run a scan with MalwareBytes every couple of weeks, use an adblocker like Adblock Plus to avoid loading advertisements (a major source of infection on otherwise trustworthy sites), and don't visit dubious websites.

[Erebus the Black]

Yeah, I have the exact same problem as yours. I run AVG8 (and I don't want to update because I know it will become a much larger resource hog) and every time I need to scan, I have to shut everything else down or the scan will take up to 3 times longer (to scan ~800k files unabated it takes around 5 hours) and the scan can sometimes cut my internet connection. On the other hand, if I don't mind the wait I can run things on dosbox and other old machine emulators or play solitare while I'm waiting.

[Enraged Slith]

Originally Posted By: Nioca

Alright, so here's the thing. Right now, I'm kinda unsatisfied with the anti-virus I'm using (Microsoft Security Essentials), mainly because it tends to be a massive CPU hog; enough so that it can actually bring everything else to a screeching halt until it finishes updating, passive scanning, tidying rosebushes, or whatever the heck it decides to do at the moment. I switched to MSE after Avast! thoroughly screwed my system and almost turned it into a smoldering wreck.

The SW community is rather tech-saavy, and my track record at searching for things online is not great. Thus, I thought I'd ask you guys: Which anti-virus software would you recommend I use? I'm looking for something that's low maintenance, works quietly in the background without eating up a ton of resources, is effective, and is free.

Any help would be greatly appreciated here.

Why would something that amazing ever be free?

[keira]

What Lilith said. ABP is the way to go. Not only does it stop those questionable ad domains from infecting you, you also don't have to see the ads or wait for the ads to load. I have MSE on my Windows machines just in case, but the combination of Adblock and not visiting obvious scam sites means it has never picked up anything.

 

Also, depending on how loose your connection is, you might want to consider disabling or firewalling stuff. I've never had any problems like that because my internet is practically impossible to deal with, but it's something to look into if dial-up (have you upgraded yet?) is a bit less NATey.

[Prince of Kitties]

Nioca: unfortunately your "low-maintenance" antivirus does not exist, free or otherwise. Windows security is difficult, and no solutions are truly low-maintenance. When you're using the same family of OS as 90% of computer users, you're simply going to be a bigger target.

 

Lilith's advice is generally sound, but attack vectors are many, malware is nasty, and weekly scanning can be too little too late (e.g. if you pick up a keylogger). You can get infected from a drive-by install, a PDF or Office document, a malicious or hacked website...

 

IMO the most important rule on Windows is caution, with or without an antivirus. Don't open emails that might be spam. Don't go to websites that you're not sure are trustworthy. Don't install software you've never heard of. Don't open files from unknown sources - and be aware that antiviruses might declare them clean when they're not.

 

Also you probably want to disable USB autorun. See here.

 

(And if you make payments online, you might want to think about making them from a live CD such as Knoppix if possible. This will ensure that your keystrokes are not logged by any local malware. Likewise for unsafe browsing - the live CD makes it harder to get to your Windows installation.)

 

Edit: A disclaimer... I'm a bit of a security nut and I don't use Windows much, so do take my advice with a grain of salt.

[Trenton.]

Bashing your computer with a hammer is a good way to get rid of viruses. But then again it is also a good way to get rid of it ever working again...

[Tyranicus]

As Lilith mentioned, MSE is very lightweight. If that slows down your computer, pretty much anything will. You already mentioned Avast; the other free AV staple is AVG Free, but I really wouldn't expect much better PC performance with that.

[Dintiradan]

There are ads on the Internet??

 

I recommend against Avast; it plays a siren when it detects something, and will probably give you a heart attack the first time you hear it. I use AVG Free on my Windows partition.

[ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε]

i use both AVG free and MSE i find that they work well in concert and often one will catch what the other doesn't.

 

on the resource question i just upped the ram to 6 gig and that seems to have it covered

[Dire Hobbit]

I use MSE (with real time protection turned off). - It's the "real-time" or "active" components of antivirus software that slows things down scanning every file.

 

Together with noscript + adblock plus,

 

and spybot (immunization) and malwarebytes.

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted By: ĐªŔŦĦ ËRNIË

i use both AVG free and MSE i find that they work well in concert and often one will catch what the other doesn't.

on the resource question i just upped the ram to 6 gig and that seems to have it covered

It is a very bad idea to run two active-scan antivirus programs on your computer at once. It can cause serious issues.

[Rowen]

My school gives out free copies of Sophos to the students. It seems to be okay.

[Prince of Kitties]

Noscript is great. Not very user friendly, even with fairly lax configurations, but I would not use Firefox without it.

[Mod.]

AVG free

[Aran]

Originally Posted By: Nioca

I'm looking for something that's low maintenance, works quietly in the background without eating up a ton of resources, is effective, and is free.

(The problem with finding free and good antivirus tools: The best free programs are open-source projects, which are written by programmers using them themselves, who tend to use platforms that don't need anti-virus.)

The closest you can get is likely an ad- or upgrade-nagging-supported free edition of a commercial package. I used to run Avira, and it was reasonably nice to handle and caught some stuff. (It's hard to tell what it didn't catch, of course.)

[nikki.]

I use Avira on my Windows partition (which, really, is the one I use most of the time, so I may as well just say "on my computer", but whatever), as well as AdBlock Plus, and my computer has yet to be stricken with an obvious malady.

 

(I also scan with MalwareBytes too, maybe once a month, in the hopes that I have another barrier if anything gets through the anti-virus.)

[Dire Hobbit]

If you do choose to go "commando" then these sites might be useful.

 

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

 

http://virusscan.jotti.org/en-gb

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Dire Hobbit

If you do choose to go "commando" then these sites might be useful.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

http://virusscan.jotti.org/en-gb

Isn't the McAfee thing integrated with Chrome now? Or is that just because I have their other programs on the computer already?

[The Mystic]

I use AVG free and Norton 360. Yes, I know you're not really supposed to use more than one antivirus program, but they work pretty good together for me. The only trouble I've ever had was when I installed Norton 360; I installed it first, then had to disable it temporarily so it wouldn't prevent me from installing AVG.

[Nioca]

Okay, thanks, I'll look into some of this. I had forgotten about Avira; I had it before, but switched to Avast! because I had heard it was better. I recall it ran pretty well the last time I had it, and will look into it.

 

I'll also be looking into MalwareBytes as well.

[Tycho Maudd]

I run MSE myself, but I will add that the people saying to use ABP and noscript are right. I would also go into the advanced settings under my computer properties and turn on data execute protection for all programs. It's protected me more than any anti-virus program has when downloading questionable items. It'll normally stop something from running before I get a notice that the item is infected.

[macdude22]

I use Vipre on my Windows PCs, it's very lightweight and works well. We run Vipre at work as well (technically Faronics AVE but it's powered by Vipre).

 

It's not free but with your paid subscription you get free malware removal on the off chance you pick up something. I doubt it's any more light weight than MSE however. I picked up a lifetime home site license during a black Friday sale a while back.

[Prince of Kitties]

There are also some other routes you can go...

 

- SandBoxie is like a UNIX chroot sandbox - it creates a fake filesystem that malware can write to, only to be deleted later. It can also block internet access, access to certain hardware, and other stuff. The free version is limited to one sandbox, and is good for browser security; the paid version lets you create sandboxes as needed, and can be used for testing applications and stuff.

 

Pros: Currently impenetrable to the vast majority of malware.

 

Cons: Requires a fair amount of user interaction. Also, some malware may be able to log activity and phone home from within a sandbox, depending on settings.

 

- Host Intrusion Prevention System. The best free one I know of is Online Armor. These are aimed at experienced users; they can be a royal pain to set up, especially if you use execution control. But they're pretty light on resources, and offer better security than an antivirus if you know what you're doing...

 

Pros: Lets you manage all kind of policies for all kinds of applications. Theoretically better security than an AV.

 

Cons: Lots of user interaction during initial setup. Inconvenient if you compile stuff. Can break applications if you don't know what you're doing. Mistakes or lapses in attention on the user's part can result in infection, and are more likely the more paranoid the security setup!

 

- Software Restriction policy. You run as a limited user, and only allow applications that are installed by the administrator user. See MechBGone's SRP guide. The best way to do this is with the Parental Controls on Windows Vista/7, but it's easy enough to set up on XP Pro as well. If you're using XP Home, though, then you're unfortunately out of luck.

 

Pros: Makes almost all malware inoperable. Easy to set up, and requires almost no maintenance.

 

Cons: Requires a limited user account. Inconvenient if you compile stuff, or run applications from your home directory. May prevent some games from working properly. DLL-based malware,or any malware that injects itself into a trusted process, will probably slip right through this security setup.

 

...

 

Like I've said, all of these have their disadvantages, and IMO none of them are really adequate. Nonetheless I this helps you out.

[Skwish-E]

I use AVAST!It hasn't let me get into trouble yet.

[keira]

Originally Posted By: macdude22

with your paid subscription you get free malware removal

i dont like your definition of free

[BMA]

I had used Kaspersky on my PC. It made everything so slow (to be fair, I only had 256MB of RAM), that I uninstall-ed it and decided not to use antiviruses.

 

That was around four years ago. All executables on my PC are now either corrupt or infected, to the extent that I wasn't even able to re-install Windows XP until after I boot-disked from Linux and went on a massive deleting spree.

[Prince of Kitties]

Also, a bit of advice... Never, ever assume that your security setup is working at its theoretical best. If something can go wrong, it will.

 

(Which is why I'm now trying to track down a rootkit infection on a Windows machine that I thought was pretty well secured. It seems to be some kind of awful TDSS variant... Yay.)

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Miramor

Also, a bit of advice... Never, ever assume that your security setup is working at its theoretical best. If something can go wrong, it will.

Hence the saying: Murphy was an optimist.

Originally Posted By: Miramor

(Which is why I'm now trying to track down a rootkit infection on a Windows machine that I thought was pretty well secured. It seems to be some kind of awful TDSS variant... Yay.)

Been there, done that. I once had a virus get itself lodged in an "uninfectable" file in a "protected" system folder, and both AVG and Norton refused to believe that anything was wrong. After several unsuccessful attempts to remove it, I ended up having to do a seven-pass erasure of the entire hard drive, and start over from scratch.

[Rowen]

I am very sure that my computer has herpes but it just hasn't manifested itself yet.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: The Mystic

After several unsuccessful attempts to remove it, I ended up having to do a seven-pass erasure of the entire hard drive, and start over from scratch.

the only thing a multi-pass overwrite will do is wear out your hard drive faster. data on modern drives cannot be accessed in any way if the entire drive has been overwritten. no, i don't care what papers you can pull up that seem to say otherwise: they're not applicable to modern data storage formats, and mostly applicable only in theory even to older ones.

the only exception is if there's data preserved in damaged sectors of the drive, in which case no number of overwrites will help you because the firmware transparently maps those sectors as off-limits and refuses to read or write to them. but that's more a data privacy issue than a malware one, since obviously a virus won't do anything if it's in sectors that can't be accessed.

[Student of Trinity]

I know that Mac viruses exist and that the platform isn't really invulnerable. But in fact I've been using Macs for years and never met a virus, nor have any of my students.

 

I've installed Sophos a couple of times, because the university offered it free, and it never gave any trouble, but never actually did anything, either. My goal in installing it was mainly to avoid passing on Windows stuff, even if it wasn't hurting me. But I don't think it ever found anything at all.

 

Oh, I expect I should probably make a point of putting anti-virus stuff on everything soon. But I'll probably have replaced several of the group machines before this really becomes important, so maybe I'll just worry about it with the new ones.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

Originally Posted By: The Mystic

After several unsuccessful attempts to remove it, I ended up having to do a seven-pass erasure of the entire hard drive, and start over from scratch.

the only thing a multi-pass overwrite will do is wear out your hard drive faster. data on modern drives cannot be accessed in any way if the entire drive has been overwritten. no, i don't care what papers you can pull up that seem to say otherwise: they're not applicable to modern data storage formats, and mostly applicable only in theory even to older ones.

the only exception is if there's data preserved in damaged sectors of the drive, in which case no number of overwrites will help you because the firmware transparently maps those sectors as off-limits and refuses to read or write to them. but that's more a data privacy issue than a malware one, since obviously a virus won't do anything if it's in sectors that can't be accessed.

It's an older drive to begin with, so I wasn't worried too much about extra wear; and there weren't any bad sectors on the drive, I checked. And I had already spent almost a week trying everything I could think of before the overwrite, so it was done basically as a last resort. The short of it is that total erasure was the only solution that worked, with the exception of introducing the drive to the business end of a ball-peen hammer.

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

I know that Mac viruses exist and that the platform isn't really invulnerable.

Not surprising; there's no such thing as a computer that's 100% safe from threats.

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

But in fact I've been using Macs for years and never met a virus, nor have any of my students.

This is what's commonly known as a good thing.

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

I've installed Sophos a couple of times, because the university offered it free, and it never gave any trouble, but never actually did anything, either. My goal in installing it was mainly to avoid passing on Windows stuff, even if it wasn't hurting me. But I don't think it ever found anything at all.

Also a good thing. It's better to have some form of protection that just sits there with nothing to do, than to have no protection at all and think you're safe.

I have a friend who's almost fanatically devoted to his Mac, and he's convinced himself that it's totally immune to any and all viruses, even without antivirus software. This is even after I told him that some of his favorite programs were also favorite malware targets.

[Prince of Kitties]

I personally believe on-access antivirus software is starting to get obsolete anyway. There are too many new malware varieties for signature based detection to keep up, and heuristics are often ineffective (never mind resource-intensive). And there are less intrusive strategies of at least equal efficacy.

 

(The one I usually think of is mandatory access control, which various UNIXes have had for ages. Windows alas is only starting on that.)

[Prince of Kitties]

On the other hand, if you think an antivirus is the way to go, you could try Panda Cloud Antivirus. It does its heuristic stuff on Panda's servers when you're online, which should theoretically reduce the overhead on your machine.

 

(In practice, I found that the shiny DirectX based 3D interface slowed it down considerably. Gods only know what possessed them to make their GUI over like it was some kind of toy... But if you have a nVidia or ATI graphics card with dedicated memory it shouldn't be a problem, ha ha.)

 

And I'd better stop commenting on this thread before my pathological obsession with computer security starts showing.

[Cairo Jim]

I'm using AVG and MSE. Although MSE can hog a bit of the system resources, I found that there's a setting to adjust how much it will use.