Have we been sold down the river on this? I wonder. I used to buy Kaspersky AV, then latterly Kaspersky Internet Security. And for what? To protect my hardware from viruses and other malicious things that may seep into my hardware from the Internet. Thing is, I don't need stuff that clogs up my system and slows down most operations, because AVG (completely free) appears to do the job perfectly without any cost and without hogging my computer's resources. Coupled with CCleaner, who needs more?

I'm tempted to call foul on the whole AV thing. Let's face it, it's in the interests of these software outfits to ensure there's plenty of virus traffic out there, hence the (almost) daily updates. Hmmm... Someone really cynical might say they're creating the viruses in order to stay in business

Kaspersky is a Russian biz and yes in all likelihood they do
In fact, there's strong evidence that Kaspersky are into some dodgy stuff... www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/07/ff_kaspersky/all/

Anyways, AVG is better than nothing but complete and utter shite tbh (better than Symantec though who actually have the temerity to charge people for it), ESET NOD32 is the best thing I've tested and I've used quite a range.

I have no probs AVG its free so who cares

And as for the so call Trojans Spyware etc, and other viruses and whom makes them, I wonder just who

I run avg and zone alarm. No hogging and no problems.

Eset have a free online scanner its worth a try, might surprise you

andyh wrote:
https://www.eset.co.uk/Antivirus-Utilities/Online-Scanner




I've used all sorts over the years.
AVG is ok but I preferred avast

By far. the worst I've used is Norton followed closely by McAfee, heavy, clogging, ponderous, shite, which left enough debris behind to build digital pyramids.

At the moment I'm using a freebie thing supplied by Virgin, (Which you can see from the above result is doing ok), but Virgin are pulling it in December and cobbling some offer together with f-secure. We'll see what that results in.

Having looked at the prices of the eset software I couldn't justify that expense for a wee home unit, (which I do no financial transactions on), when there's decent free alternatives.

I also use iobit's Advance System Care 7 (free edition) for general care and maintenance.

Bottom line is that no matter what you use something might always get by it.

haha you Windows lickers

im laughing at you from my ivory encrusted ubuntu tower.

i have a xp pc, i dont use it much but it runs comodo

Linux infections are possible, not just theoretically either, even macs have been infected and believe it or not OpenBSD which is practically fort knox as far as operating systems go...

The prime reason why infection is rare on systems other than windows is simply because there are far fewer of them in popular use and those that are in use are managed by people who know what they are doing therefore windows is an easier (and jucier) target.

IMHO even if winblows became open source, it'll still get attacked from now til doomsday because a motive exists to do so, its the motive that needs looking at rather than AV software which itself ofc exists due to profit motive

I always use a collection of specific programs for removals rather than the all-in-ones. Make sure you have a proper read though if you have a 64 bit OS.

Some good ones are RKill (process killer) AdwCleaner (for browsers) HitmanPro (can make this into a USB boot) HiJackThis (need to know wtf you are doing with this one) ComboFix, MalwareBytes, and RogueKiller - with the cherry on top being CleanUp by Steven Gould.

back in the day I was involved in ahem "marketing" malware, at that time, kaspersky was the gold standard, if you could encrypt the code to get past that, then it would defeat everything else. Whether that was because it was the best, or it was because they had more "knowledge" of the malware out there, I dont know (but at the time most of the companies paying you for spreading trojans were based in Russia.

Nowadays I use linux on my main PC, but have a windows laptop, which uses the free microsoft protection, which seems Ok as far as freebies go. But from time to time I use online scanners and some other freebies for a good clear out. Really effective real time virus protection really slows things down I find.

I use Avast AV + Malwarebytes + CCleaner.

Costs me not a penny - and works fine.