THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Avast free home edition paired with either AVG or Microsoft for once a week scanning.

If you live near a Fry’s, check the ads for rebates - I got the full edition of Kapsersky’s AV for free after a mail-in rebate.  Usually when you go there is at least one of the major AV suites on sale for free after a mail-in…

Lifehacker provides the top five:
http://lifehacker.com/395046/five-best-antivirus-applications

Pairing is good like Ryan suggested. Avria and Avg works too.

AVG Free was always the preferred free virus scanner when I was forced to use Windows: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

I work as a sysadmin and get asked about this all the time. I used to steer people toward AVG, but I’ve had several people run into problems with it recently and have begun recommending Avira. If you’re willing to pay, I personally still think you won’t do better than Symantec. And whatever you do, stay away from Sophos.

* or just buy a Mac! *

Depite the hype, Macs need AV software too. Once Snow Leopard disabled my Norton AV, I went looking and tried Avast! but now have installed ClamXAV, which found a couple of things that both Avast and NAV had overlooked. But I’m really not sure this is the last word. If anybody has other suggestions, I’d appreciate them.

I have been using AVG Free Edition since 2005 and have never been infected with a virus.  The only complaint I have seen about AVG is that its weekly scan does slow down my computer, but I just schedule that for a time that I won’t be using my computer.

I like AVG more than Norton and McAfee, regardless of price point.

This is one of my favorite forums: http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1046.  Avira is constantly rated the best free anti-virus in terms of its detection rate.  The only downside is that you have to deal with a pop up ad on occasion but this can be disabled if you do a quick google search.

I know just enough about computers to be dangerous.  I’ve dabbled in the torrent/kazaa/napster type of programs, do risky things to my hard drive in order to play a few classic video games (edit registry, etc).  I haven’t needed an antivirus program since college.  If I’ve gotten a virus since then, it’s news to me.

They all seem to suck memory like a leech and, since I’ve gotten along fine without them, I don’t see the value they add.

Not to overhype Google, but… if I you use Gmail, your dangerous email will be put into the Spam folder with tremendous accuracy.  And for web browsing, if you use Google Chrome and click on a link that leads to a questionable website, the entire window will turn red and a big WARNING will appear on the Chrome window that says it detects possible malicious software on the site you’re trying to access.  You can then hit your back button (or click on a button to go backwards), or click a small button to continue on to the possibly harmful site.  I think Chrome even scans advertising units on pages and warns you if the advertisers on those sites are known for trojans, etc.

Bottom line, I’ve found anti-virus programs to just not be worth it for me.

Microsoft Essentials is excellent - and this comes from a big Microsoft skeptic. I feel much the same way about Windows 7 if you’re so inclined to try it out.

I’m a big fan of AVG Free - I’ve had basically the same experience as #8.

I agree with Mike.  I am on my computer all day, and I haven’t used antivirus software in over 10 years.  The antivirus software industry is based entirely on fear.  If you are worried about viruses, you can always just reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows.  If you have partitioned your drive so that all your data is on a different partition than the OS, you don’t even have to back anything up (except for program specific files like saved games, bookmarks, preference files, etc). 

I definitely don’t think antivirus software is worth it.

I would pass on the anti-virus as well. Your best bet is to educate yourself.

Switch to Firefox (with noscript if you feel up to it), keep Windows up to date, don’t download anything from shady websites and ignore any spam emails.

AV software can cause problems of it’s own and does give users a false sense of security.

You can give up on AV software only if you have firewall with strict settings and you don’t use USB devices for file transfer. I have never dl’d virus from web or activated it from mail message, and my AV program still had to protect me several times a year from viruses transmitted through LAN from other infected computers or viruses on USB sticks.
As for AV programs, Symantec is very good, but last I heard from people who use it, it requires more resources than other AV programs. People who bought NOD and Kaspersky are very satisfied with them. AVG is very good free AV, I run Avira and I am satisfied. I just have to close pop-up window offering me better Avira products every time I update.
As for Sophos, I know many people who had it and everybody agrees that it’s one of the best virus information programs around - it will always tell you everything about the virus your computer is infected with. Unfortunately, it won’t protect your computer from being infected. Oh, and it is most resource-intensive AV program that I know.
I heard from one source that Microsoft AV also slows your computer down.

Tango--this may be a good time to remind you of the excellent resource you linked a while ago in this thread:
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/best_in_freeware/

I’ve used Avira with no problems after going there(and also +1 for googling the get-rid-of-popup-solution)

Firefox is not safe any more.  Got nailed with a virus for it recently.  I have to use chrome now as part of some work I do takes me to pretty suspect sites.

Heck, one of the worst virus’s I ever got was from Bill James’s site when it got hacked a while back.  Actually about lost my job over it.

u r kidding?

I have to say, it really has nothing to do with BJOL, and it’s likely an issue with his web host, which seems to be hostmysite dot com.

#18 Nope, I picked up the virus.  Company had a tight email policy, but need access because most help was web based.  They tracked down where the virus was from and was Bill’s site.  He admitted there was a problem once.

I pretty much was done web surfing for a while.

Here is what I use:
FireFox w/ these add-ons:
*McAfee Site Advisor
*NoScript
*AdBlock Plus
*FlagFox

McAfee
*SecurityCenter
*VirusScan
*Personal Firewall

Spybot Search & Destroy (once a month)
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (once a month)
Trend Micro HijackThis (as needed)

I chose McAfee because of the firewall, as it worked in both directions and allows me a great amount of control. I do not like the one-way firewalls or the “choose for you if a program should connect to the internet” feature some offer.

Spybot S&D and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware I run monthly or if I see a reason to do so.

I included FlagFox just because I like to know where the server is at that I have been connected to.

I use Kaspersky’s online virus scan on occasion too.

On friends computers, I have seen Norton fail to stop viruses and Microsoft’s package result in a need to reformat the hard drive.  So I avoid those two.

Mostly just personal preference and reading up on recommendations from professionals.

Malwarebytes free version is good if you want to run occasional scans or kill the occasional bug which gets past your other defenses.  But their subscription product updates just about every day, is not expensive, and I’ve heard of NOTHING getting past it.  It has a very light footprint, and was recommended by my talented tech team, so now I don’t need anything else (no other AV, no software firewall, nothing), so my machine’s performance has kicked it up a notch also.  See here:
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

I’m a fan of Kaspersky (where I buy 100-day trial licenses for $3 on eBay) if you’re paying.  But for my parents and other friends I install Microsoft Security Essentials.  It doesn’t bother them with pop-ups about whether Program X should be allowed access to the DNS cache.

Spybot is definitely the best freeware antivirus/spyware program. Avast is another good freeware program. You have to watch out for false positives with Avast, or you might lose some important files. The advantage Avast has over Spypot is that it can scan your entire hard drive. Spybot only scans what is currently loaded in the memory.

Of course, no combination of programs will find and get rid of everything. I always have to manually delete some files when my computer gets infected. Malware is almost always stored in the System32 folder and/or Temporary Folder located under documents and settings. To manually delete malware, you usually have to use a program that unlocks files. So here are my recommendations:

http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download
http://www.malwarebytes.org/fileassassin.php

Spybot is still the best. I’m pretty thorough when it comes to maintaining my computer. So I was pretty sure that I didn’t have any viruses or spyware on my new 3 month old computer. Sure enough when I ran Spybot, it found some spyware and malware that I never would of found on my own. It even located and removed spyware entries in the registry. I can’t believe this great program is free. It’s unbelievable.

This is completely off-topic, but I wanted to mention it. I just went over Comcast’s 250 GB monthly bandwith cap this month. Two years ago, Comcast began capping home internet bandwith at 250 GB a month. Business accounts do not have a cap. Anyway, the 250 GB cap is for all broadband usage. So all downloads, uploads, streaming video, remote storage, etc… count towards the 250 GB cap. I upload a lot of torrents. Most of it is legal. Bootlegs and unreleased recordings are legal to trade and share. I also downloaded a lot of stuff this month (again, most of it was legal), so I am not suprised that I went over the limit. Comcast users, I’ll let you know if there are any reprecussions to going over the monthly bandwith limit.

The bandwith police (Comcast) just called. I didn’t answer the phone. I figured that it would be at least a few days before I got the dreaded phone call. Do they really have nothing better to do? I know what they are going to say. They are going to give me a warning and tell me that if I go over the bandwith cap again my service will be terminated. This is the first time and it will be the only time I ever go over their arbitrary cap. I’m only over by 2 GB.

I don’t believe terpsfan101. You’re making it up. No one called you about your bandwidth. Take off the tinfoil hat and relax, no one’s after you.

.. or are they?

While I do lie and exaggerate sometimes, I’m not lying this time. Comcast just called. And it has only been one or two days since I went over the bandwith cap. Why else would they be calling? If you don’t believe that Comcast tracks your bandwith usage take a look at this pic:

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B_zWnFsJW1lhMTBhOTAzYzgtYWQ1YS00MjllLWI4YzktNTdmNjVlZjllYjlh&hl=en&authkey=CMjB7P4K

I’m actually 10 GB over the limit now. I’m not going to run uTorrent again or watch any streaming video for the next 2 days, so I should end up around 11 GB over for the month.

terpsfan101- That screenshot looks as real as the moon landing.

The account is in my dad’s name too. If he finds out he will be pissed off. I’m going to have to check the voicemail to see if they left a message from when they called earlier and delete it. I’m also going to have the phone near me at all times this weekend in case they call again.

terpsfan101 - Just stop downloading so much porn.

Wells,

My last name is Carter (hence carters4 for the email), and the internet account is in my dad’s name, which is Ronald. Ask MGL. He can at least confirm that my last name is Carter since he was writing my name on the checks he sent for the work I did on his flyball project. Yes the pic is grainy. I had to use a video capture tool to capture the screen. I don’t have a screen capture program that saves to a picture format.