Evaluation of Anti-Virus software!

Hi all!

Since most people here need a good AV software including me I have spent the last week evaluating and reading every decent test I could find about av software. It is important to have the best av software if you download a lot of stuff because the precentage of malware a particular av software finds can vary from as low as 70% to as good as 99% which is practically fort Knox security. How often their av databases updates is also important for it to find all new in the wild viruses and malware to.

This is the top 3 list I have managed to come up with:

1. Kaspersky Internet Security suite

hxxp://www*kaspersky*com

Pros: Finds 98% of all viruses and malware and also finds all bad scripts on websites you visit so its web security is excellent to. It also has hourly updates of it's av database so it catches all new in the wild viruses to. This is the number one choice for serious security. Never gives any false positives on legit files that can make an application stop working unnecessarily.

Cons: Can demand a lot of your computer and slow it down a bit but you can always tweak it's settings to make it run smoother if your computer is a little old... If your web browser get really slow after installing this one just go to the heuristics tab under configure for web anti virus and set it to shallow. If you think its to slow when you do thing on your computer like browsing directories and so on you can change the setting for how it should scan files from by content to by extension. This speeds up thing a bit.

2. Eset NOD32 Smart Security

hxxp://www*eset*com

Pros: Finds 94% of all viruses and malware and has excellent web surfing security. It is also low on systems resources and can be used on slower computers.

Cons: ... None I could find except that it is not as secure as Kaspersky and Avira when it comes to finding viruses and malware.

3. Avira Premium Security Suite

hxxp://www*free-av*com/en/index.html

Pros: According to recent tests it manages to find 99% of all viruses and malware and is also excellent at web security. This one is also low on systems resources and can be used on slower computers. If you only want the antivirus software you can download it for free but the premium security suite cost money.

Cons: Gives false positives sometime so it can remove legit files and make one of your apps stop working because of that. It's av part is tons better than the other two famous free av softwares AVG and Avast. According to tests Avast only manages to find around 70% of all viruses and malware so you should stay away from it. AVG was around 95% for viruses and malware and 86% for web security if I remember correctly so it is a decent app but not more.


What about Norton Internet Security Suite then you might ask... Well Norton manages to find 98% of all viruses on you computer but sucks at web security and only has a 57% success rate there so it's decent but not more.

The advantage with Norton is probably that it is handling most things automatically for non computer savvy people but that is also a disadvantage since you will not have as much control over what it does as for example Kaspersky.

Summary:

If you have a computer that can handle the extra demands Kaspersky puts on it it should be your first and only choice. If you have a slower computer buy Eset or Avira.

Cheers!
/The dude

Another security software you should also use is Spybot search and destroy www*spybot*info. It should be run weekly or if you suspect you have malware as a double check since it sometimes manages to find malware other softwares don't find but it is by no means a replacement for a good av security suite, only a companion.

An update on my quest against malware. Besides Kaspersky (97,7% malware detection rate), Eset (94% malware detection rate), Avira (99% malware detection rate) and Norton ISS (97% malware detection rate) I have now also tried Trend Micro IS (95% malware detection rate). After having tried all these top AV suites I finally decided to go with Norton ISS. Why you might ask if Kaspersky is the best? Well my friends it is like this:

1. I have 2 computers on my home network that I need to protect and Norton comes with a 3 PC license.

2. Even if Norton is not as good at finding web threats it is still almost as good as Kaspersky and Avira at finding viruses once they are on your computer, and that is the most important feature. When I installed the purchased version of it today and rebooted it found a malware none of the others found called Infostealer.Gampass that came with the Victor Chandler poker client setup file??? Hmm maybe I'll stop playing there or it might be their way of checking on you so you don't cheat...?!

3. The newest version of Norton is not as resource demanding as previous versions and runs acceptably smooth even on my oldest computer with Win XP Home SP2, P4 2,53 GHz, 512 MB RAM and Kaspersky just slowed down that computer to much, especially when I was downloading files.

Would probably have purchased Avira if I only had one older computer to protect since it was the smoothest running on my old PC and definitely Kaspersky IS 3 PC license if all my computers could handle the demands it puts on your computer because Kaspersky is a very nice piece of AV software.

For Avira I could only try the free version combined with the free zonealarm firewall. They don't have any trials of the full suite but all recent tests says it is among the fastest and most secure suites so we'll assume it's true.

When it comes to Trend Micro it ran fairly well on my older computer but it demanded I uninstalled Spybot search and destroy that is my favorite complementary antispyware software and also came in conflict with FreeRam XP Pro that I have running on my older PC. It took almost 15 minutes for FreeRam to initialize every time I rebooted when I had TM installed. Before TM it took around 3 minutes to initialize on my older PC. Get it here: www*yourwaresolutions*com if you need to free up some ram, it's freeware.

Trend Micro by itself took about 3-4 minutes to initialize every time I rebooted and the 2 combined was probably to much for my old PC to handle at start up. Trend Micro is a decent choice if you have several computers to protect since it also comes with a 3 PC license, is cheaper than Norton, runs farly well even on older PC's and has an acceptable 95% detection rate but it takes a little longer to initialize every time you reboot...

Now you all should have the info you need to decide what suites your needs.

PS! It's risky to run cracked versions of security software... and if you don't want to pay the Free Avira (www*free-av*com) + Free Zonealarm (www*zonealarm*com) combo is a decent choice.

A 3 PC license of Avira would possibly have been then best choice since it is faster than Norton but I got a 25% of deal on Norton ISS and the dollar is so cheap right now so... Im only human I guess!

After two years I still stand behind StopSign, it has never failed me.