Virus & Malware protection - what would you advise using?
Again, as per last post, I'm setting up the new netbook. Having had to replace the laptop... As before, I'm after people's opinions as to what's good, and what's not:
Poll Virus & Malware Protection
If you've got any others you'd advise using, please feel free to let me know by comments...
As a bit of history, I have an aversion to paying for AVG: The laptop got infected through their paid version (infested would be more accurate - rootkits and heaven only knows what else, really unusable with chronic slow performance, shutdowns when rootkit searches were done, etc). When I went through their so-called on-line help, I finally managed to get a message to them about 2 months before my subscription expired (it's not easy to do when you get shut-downs on their messaging service page...). It took them (repeatedly) between a week & a half and two weeks to respond, and then it was crap: I've had them send me 2 or 3 other bits of software to run, which either shut the machine down or found nothing. And then they asked me to uninstall and re-install AVG (knowing that by then the subscription had expired). This obviously uninstalled but didn't re-install as the licence had expired. Since then they've basically said, despite the infection happening when I had paid subscription, that I have to pay again for them to fix the problem that happened "on their watch". Like fuck will I do that, unless I know they actually have some form of customer service... Past performance indicates they will just wash their hands of it, and can't fix it anyway...
I can also get my ISP (Virgin Media) to install a protection programme free (it's included with my broadband) which seems OK, but I can't find any way to compare it with other - or find out whether its any good...
Oh, and I know not to have 2 different programmes running on the same computer...
I've done some reading & research to come down to this list, but it seems that results are very variable, from review to review. Norton seems to be either very good or terrible, McAfee seems to rarely inhabit the top end (but I thought was one of the "big boys", and the others have been spotted in the reviews & links below:
Top 10 review at all-internet-security.com. No idea if this is independant, but as it has a lot of links on the front page, I'd guess it is...
This chart from virus bullitin, which seems to be a respected independant magazine...
PC Mag review of AVG
PC Mag review of Norton
PC Mag review of Webroot
Poll Virus & Malware Protection
If you've got any others you'd advise using, please feel free to let me know by comments...
As a bit of history, I have an aversion to paying for AVG: The laptop got infected through their paid version (infested would be more accurate - rootkits and heaven only knows what else, really unusable with chronic slow performance, shutdowns when rootkit searches were done, etc). When I went through their so-called on-line help, I finally managed to get a message to them about 2 months before my subscription expired (it's not easy to do when you get shut-downs on their messaging service page...). It took them (repeatedly) between a week & a half and two weeks to respond, and then it was crap: I've had them send me 2 or 3 other bits of software to run, which either shut the machine down or found nothing. And then they asked me to uninstall and re-install AVG (knowing that by then the subscription had expired). This obviously uninstalled but didn't re-install as the licence had expired. Since then they've basically said, despite the infection happening when I had paid subscription, that I have to pay again for them to fix the problem that happened "on their watch". Like fuck will I do that, unless I know they actually have some form of customer service... Past performance indicates they will just wash their hands of it, and can't fix it anyway...
I can also get my ISP (Virgin Media) to install a protection programme free (it's included with my broadband) which seems OK, but I can't find any way to compare it with other - or find out whether its any good...
Oh, and I know not to have 2 different programmes running on the same computer...
I've done some reading & research to come down to this list, but it seems that results are very variable, from review to review. Norton seems to be either very good or terrible, McAfee seems to rarely inhabit the top end (but I thought was one of the "big boys", and the others have been spotted in the reviews & links below:
Top 10 review at all-internet-security.com. No idea if this is independant, but as it has a lot of links on the front page, I'd guess it is...
This chart from virus bullitin, which seems to be a respected independant magazine...
PC Mag review of AVG
PC Mag review of Norton
PC Mag review of Webroot