question Anti Virus Software

[Adrian Scott]

Can I pick your brains please in regard to anti virus software ,the question sort of relates to the military hobby as it is to do with the computer that I look at HMVF on !!!

I have McAfee anti virus software on my computer that i pay for yearly I think but I keep getting told that Norton anti virus software is better !! What do you guys in the know think ?? Any advice will be greatly received as im really only a computer novice ,

 

Thanks Adrian.

[ArtistsRifles]

McAfee is good, one of the originals. in the business. We used to use it when I worked in Ford Motor Co's IT division.

Norton is as good - but an awful system resource hog. Install this and odds are your PC will get slow immediately afterwards - I wouldn't recommend it.

If you are looking for an alternative to McAfee - or in addition to - then I suggest taking a look at AVG's product. They used to do a free and a paid for version - not sure if they still do the free one or not but all the machines here at home have it and we've never had a virus go undetected. Have a look here - www.avg.com/gb-en/download

[Degsy]

AVG still do the free edition, I've used it for years and never had a problem.

[Tony B]

I agree with Degsey. AVG Free is perfectly useable for basic protection. The payed version is first class and so is the PC tune up, I've used Norton and Macafee in the past, and had all sorts of issues with both.

[Starfire]

+1 for AVG.

 

I work as a systems administrator and have a lot of experience with this sort of stuff; it's not great for corporate environments, mostly due to the lack of centralised management and reporting, but for home use, it's pretty good and you really can't beat the price.

 

The free edition doesnt tend to offer the best protection out there and doesn't have a full internet security suite built in, so you will still need to excercise some caution online (mostly don't open unexpected email attachments or install software from untrusted sources) but it should be good enough, without making your computer unusable. If you want to throw down a little money, the paid version offers a more complete suite.

 

Cheers,

Terry

[John Comber]

Well Mate, you even have a worldwide opinion before you go to work .Here to no more :computerrage: !!!

[radiomike7]

Anyone using Barclays online banking has free access to Kaspersky internet Security which we have used with no problems for a couple of years.

[gritineye]

I'm back to using Avast free version now after a brief sortie into free MS security essentials last year, which let a virus and some other stuff in, resulting in me having to reinstall windows then reinstall all my usual programs...:computerrage: I did have a complete backup of everything else :sweat:

 

I'd never had any problems at all using Avast free for many years before that so I'm sticking with it now..

[Tony B]

Do note though: The best system in the world cannot cope with you doing something silly!

[rog8811]

I will echo all that has been said about AVG but I do use an additional program called Spybot (search and destroy) which will scan for adverts and popups that have attached themselves to downloads on occasion, again free to download and use.

[Diana and Jackie]

Avast knocks spots off the rest

 

Diana

 

 

I'm back to using Avast free version now after a brief sortie into free MS security essentials last year, which let a virus and some other stuff in, resulting in me having to reinstall windows then reinstall all my usual programs...:computerrage: I did have a complete backup of everything else :sweat:

 

I'd never had any problems at all using Avast free for many years before that so I'm sticking with it now..

[flywheel]

AVG paid version for me works really well doesn't slow your computer down

[Degsy]

I will echo all that has been said about AVG but I do use an additional program called Spybot (search and destroy) which will scan for adverts and popups that have attached themselves to downloads on occasion, again free to download and use.

 

Likewise:-D

[Adrian Scott]

Thank you all very much for your thoughts on this subject , I think I'm going down the road to getting a new computer as mine is on a very much go slow if not going backwards , so will change anti virus soft ware at that time , it's seems from your replies that AVG or Avast is the way to go .

Next question , Windows 7 or 8 ?? My local computer shop recommends 7 as 8 has had a few problems !! What do you think??

[fv1609]

Something most of us will have to decide as support for XP ends in 48 days time!

 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/endofsupport.aspx

 

I have W7 on one machine & don't like it. XP was more straightforward. But I find things like multifunction mice aren't supported on W7 so when the crunch comes I suppose it will be W8. To go for W7 would mean the support plug gets pulled that much sooner. :-(

[radiomike7]

I work for Waitrose and strange though it may seem we converted to W7 just a few months ago at vast expense.

[ArtistsRifles]

I'm still running on - dare I say it - 64 bit Vista! Or Solaris 8 depending on which I/O button my finger lands on!!

[Starfire]

I would suggest Windows 8.1; The interface is a little hard to get used to at the start, but once you do, it's much better than earlier versions of Windows. If you're after a new computer, I highly recommend the Microsoft Surface Pro.

 

Cheers,

Terry

[Degsy]

Windows 8 came with my new computer and I hate it. It would seem that it was designed for tablets etc and doesn't really suit PC's. Of the 2 laptops on the farm the one using Windows 7 is, in my opinion, much more user friendly.

[AlienFTM]

Something most of us will have to decide as support for XP ends in 48 days time!

 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/endofsupport.aspx

 

I have W7 on one machine & don't like it. XP was more straightforward. But I find things like multifunction mice aren't supported on W7 so when the crunch comes I suppose it will be W8. To go for W7 would mean the support plug gets pulled that much sooner. :-(

 

Well that's interesting. 11 months ago I started getting pestered because I had a server on my desk running XP and Distiller 5 to create PDFs of Program Directories (installation instructions) for the software we produce.

 

Corporate standards demanded that we ditch XP on this server (for our personal machines the corporate standard is RHEL for anyone in any significant position to reduce the threat of malware) for Win7 before 31 Dec 13. We found we couldn't use Distiller with Win7 (it was also out of service but nobody had ever bothered us) so we sought an alternative solution. I raised a work item and by early Dec 13 there was much panic and sweating because things were not working. Last day before Christmas I switched off the server and ceremonially ripped the ethernet cable out. It's now in doorstop mode at the end of the desk with a sign NOT to connect to the network.

 

First day back, the guy I work closely with on issues such as these showed me a link to Microsoft which stated that XP had been extended to 2015. Oh how we both laughed long and loud (but we left the machine off because it would have to go sometime and we had a solution in place.

 

Interesting to see that Microsoft have moved their goalposts yet again.

 

Anyway back to the topic in hand.

 

In these days of broadband coming out of a router, the Network Address Translation function of the router makes for a de facto hardware firewall. Last time I looked, the only route to/from the world from a system behind an NAT firewall was outgoing. So your free firewall software, which protects outgoing traffic, is all you need. Your AV software requirements are basically similar. You do not need bloated AV software and I am firmly pointing my finger at Norton here. Because it's what we are provided at work, I used it at home, until I realised that every year my licence renewal was precessing because they'd demand the licence renewal a month in advance, make the computer essentially unusable on the web until you renewed, then they start your new year's licence immediately, forfeiting your last month's licence from the previous year. The complaint I wrote to Norton was savage. they ignored it. I ripped Norton off my machine and have ever since absolutely refused to allow anyone to pass favourable comment.

 

Btw, having RHEL on our ThinkPads, we have Norton for Linux running. That's a corporate licence thing and I have no control. Actually a decade or so back we dropped Norton because they made a change and rendered their software unsuitable for our corporate use. A couple of years later, they sorted it and we are back (but now, as I say, those of us who matter are all on Linux, RHEL by default).

 

At home I have used AVG AV and Zone Alarm firewall (which the corporation used in the Norton gap years). They both do the job to my satisfaction.

 

BUT.

 

Be aware that products like Zone Alarm and Adobe Reader will try and force you to accept one-month free trials of paid-for software (Adobe try to force AVG upon you; Zone Alarm will take over your home page and search engine unless you can find the devious small print that stops it). You do NOT need to accept any of these offers but they will but every obstacle in your way to make you do so.

[Jack]

McAfee is good, one of the originals. in the business. We used to use it when I worked in Ford Motor Co's IT division.

Norton is as good - but an awful system resource hog. Install this and odds are your PC will get slow immediately afterwards - I wouldn't recommend it.

If you are looking for an alternative to McAfee - or in addition to - then I suggest taking a look at AVG's product. They used to do a free and a paid for version - not sure if they still do the free one or not but all the machines here at home have it and we've never had a virus go undetected. Have a look here - www.avg.com/gb-en/download

 

100% agree and have used it for ten years!

[mike65]

Windows 8 came with my new computer and I hate it. It would seem that it was designed for tablets etc and doesn't really suit PC's. Of the 2 laptops on the farm the one using Windows 7 is, in my opinion, much more user friendly.

 

You can change Windows 8 to classic mode so it is like 7

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/software-and-web-apps/how-to-make-windows-8-look-like-windows-7-50009546/

 

On antivirus I use AVG (paid for) and have no issues with it.

Used to have Norton on a laptop but after a few updates it would take half an hoir to start or 5 minutes with AVG.

 

Mike

[Degsy]

You can change Windows 8 to classic mode so it is like 7

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/software-and-web-apps/how-to-make-windows-8-look-like-windows-7-50009546/

 

On antivirus I use AVG (paid for) and have no issues with it.

Used to have Norton on a laptop but after a few updates it would take half an hoir to start or 5 minutes with AVG.

 

Mike

 

Thanks for that Mike , I will look into it when I get time.

[ArtistsRifles]

Windows 8 "can" be good - primary issue is it was written for touch screen applications such as tablets, phones and the latest generation monitors. I get the feeling from what I've read on it the classic input methods were very much an after-thought!

We have two laptops here running Windows 7 and- touch wood - we've never had any issues with them other than a slowing down when old software is used in compatibility mode.

If I were to switch OS's on a machine only used for business applications then I would be seriously thinking of going to Linux and the Open Office suite. Solves a lot of the virus problems in one swoop!! :-D :-D

[Starfire]

I feel that I have to point out that while most home routers do make use of NAT, they have absolutely no firewall capabilities and should not be relied on for security. Unless you have a dedicated firewall or enhanced security device, you should treat any connection from them as a direct internet connection. Even those DSL routers that claim to have a built in firewall generally only have a very basic UPnP setup, which is better than nothing, but only just.

 

As for Windows 8, the first thing you should do is install the 8.1 update; this makes it much more liveable on a computer without a touch screen. Rather than trying to get it to look like Windows 7, I would suggest that you put up with it for a couple of weeks - you'll soon wonder what all the fuss was about.

 

Cheers,

Terry

[earlymb]

I use both AVG and Avast, together with Malwarebytes (all free versions). All do independent sweeps of my PC, and I figure that together they should be able to detect most issues.

 

As for the Windows version, when my computer-illiterate dad bought a new PC it came with W8. It took me 2 days to make the interface look a bit like XP with adding buttons to the taskbar etc. so that he could use it. That was before they updated it so you could make it look like W7. I hate W8, but I do like the W7 on my own PC.