gmc,

I use and recommend AVAST to my customers, but if they insist on spending money on an AV i sugest kapersky, but I have had a couple of cases where kaperskey was killed by trojans/rootkits/viruses, but it did stop the internet at the same time, so I can not save it was TOTALLY useless,

and as far as the POS norton/macaffee/computer associates JUNK, my first recomendation is disconnect the cables to the modem/phone line switch the modem off, then uninstall the products,install avast, update with an update that was downloaded on a clean computer, then schedule a boottime scan of all files AND DELETE ALL infected files, which could number into the hundreds if not thousands, and after completeing the boot I then install spybot S&D  iobits advanced system care and their internet 360 and do complete sweeps with all three, and also run a hijackthis and remove any startup items that I ahave not seen before if it is not something that the customer knowes about.

sofar this method of attack usually results in a cleaner faster computer that does not have any significant hangups

harpo

I presently use Norton Internet Security 2010. and i find it works spectacular, i used to use norton up until about 3 years ago, then it got too bloated and a huge resource hog, but last winter i needed a new security prog, so i did my homework, and Norton Internet Security was what i purchased, and have no regrets, they completely re did the program, now you dont even know its running in the background, where i was using Avg, Avast, and Mcafee, and norton is the best by far

I had an argument the other day with Kaspersky.

It seemed that a definition update decided my NoCD 'crack' to GTR2 was a trojan.... and cleverly deleted it.

And the backup.

I kept dragging it back from the dead and Kaspersky kept deleting it.  Nothing would convince it that the file was 'OK'.

In the end I gave up.....perhaps the file really WAS dodgey....so I looked it up again....and got another GTR2.exe [strangely quite a bit smaller]...that Kaspersky was/is happy with.

I run all my games from the HD as full installs.... and use the No-CDs as the simple solution to the pain-in-the-bum swapping of CDs when you want to fire up a game.  When Kaspersky knobbled my GTR2 I was in a panic....that's my fave game....I've expended quite a bit of time modding it [adding mods and tracks]....and unlike GTR it doesn't have Starforce to bugger up your CDRoms....

I've been checking out Comodo ....seems promising [and free]...AV and FW.

Fuuny - I use AVG and have it set to manual update. It takes seconds to update and does not bog down the system.

Yeah but after 60 days you have to register Avast and some of my customers get all confused about this and take Avast off the computer. AVG is a better choice.

Just started using Comodo instead of AVG. Good start, it managed to identify some nVidia files as threats...

I used to use Comodo as my firewall, not the antivirus. When I switched to Win 7 64 though there was noticable slows downs while surfing so I ditched it.

Really though, it's not that the free versions are actually bad, it's that a lot of them are not user friendly or designed for the people that call me up every once in awhile and tell me they have porn popping up on their computer and wondering if I can come over and fix it for them. There is only so much security software can do. I moderate a couple of yahoo lists, and sure enough someone through their own wicked wants or infected themselves will send a link to a trojan. Avast, AVG, Windows Essentials, I've seen them all catch them so far.

Tell them to stop going to porn sites, and the porn popping up will stop.

I never have had that happen. I guess because I don't 'peek' at those sites. (or related types of sites, like online dating and such)

Really. You only get nailed by those types of things by your own browsing habits. If you click a link in an e-mail, you could be infected. If you click OK to something questionable, you could be infected. And the virus SW may not block it if you click OK, or if the malware is too new for the scanner to recognize it.

It is all about 'safe computing' - which is a concept that seems beyond most users.

I used to use Eset Nod32 and Online Armor; both are excellent products.

Currently I am using Microsoft Security Essentials (free) and the Windows Firewall. I am testing them out because I switched to Win 7 64 bit and there were no 64 bit versions of the two above products (yet). Plus I did not want to have to purchase new software for them.

I have to say that the Microsoft Security Essentials has gotten excellent reviews and so far in my personal experience it has been working very well.

One of the reasons why I use Nod is because it is 64bit

http://www.eset.com/products/MSWin7/index.php