Anti Virus?

[Trique Daddi]

Is anyone running Kaspersky Antivirus on a Vista 64bit system? I am considering using it when my computer arrives in a few days.

Trique Daddi

[OdiN1701]

I've heard good things about Kaspersky and NOD32 but I don't use a virus scanner so haven't myself tried either one.

I would stay away from the things like Norton (the consumer versions at least - the corporate version is good) or McAffee and any sort of "security suite" which will probably just load your system down with annoying and unnecessary software.

[andrepaul]

I have Kaspersky with Vista 32bit. Great anti-virus software.

[12mnkys]

I use trend micro, pcillin....works better than Norton and Mcaffe IMO...

http://store.trendmicro.com/us/tis?gclid=CODmpcGf7pYCFRPyDAodygXIrQ

[tim]

I've had all sorts, and gotten rid of most for various reasons. NOD32 seems to work well.

[MaxxuM]

I use Kaspersky 32bit & 64bit and would recommend them. I don't notice the 'weight' of AV/firewall on the four computers I use them on. There was an issue with the 32bit version crashing Vista early on, but an upgrade from Kaspersky looks to have taken care of it. Compared with Avast which gives a lot of false-positives Kaspersky in 'beginner' mode seems to catch everything. It currently warns me about Vuse and has blocked everything I've bumped into with my workbench computer that I use to fix other peoples computers which are infected with all sorts of viruses/trojans. Kaspersky also ranks pretty high on most sites tests.

[mkohman]

Guys,

I am using AVG 8, seems to be good.. would you reccomend kaspersky instead? thanks..

[MaxxuM]

Guys,

I am using AVG 8, seems to be good.. would you reccomend kaspersky instead? thanks..

Unless you have dangerous surfing habits then AVG is probably fine.

[geoffpowell]

I'm a fan of Kaspersky too. Norton products want to take over, Kaspersky just gets on with the job with minimal overhead.

IMHO You're a very brave man if you run your PC without anti-virus.

[Trique Daddi]

Thanks for all of the input guys. I really appreciate it.

Trique Daddi

[OdiN1701]

IMHO You're a very brave man if you run your PC without anti-virus.

Or just knowledgeable with careful browsing habbits ;)

[MaxxuM]

Or just knowledgeable with careful browsing habbits ;)

Kind of reminds me of a friend of mine with an active dating life. You can go years without incident, then one day something pops up unexpectedly from a place you always visited (and thought was safe) and suddenly your equipment just isn't working like it should be causing all types of anguish. :oops:

Like my friend, I cannot force anyone to use protection, just warn of the many various ways one's equipment can become infected - even with careful habits.

[OdiN1701]

Kind of reminds me of a friend of mine with an active dating life. You can go years without incident, then one day something pops up unexpectedly from a place you always visited (and thought was safe) and suddenly your equipment just isn't working like it should be causing all types of anguish. :oops:

Like my friend, I cannot force anyone to use protection, just warn of the many various ways one's equipment can become infected - even with careful habits.

Ran every version of windows (not counting NT) on my system since DOS 6.22, no virus scanner - never got a virus.

[VisualXplosion]

avg and kaspersky where most used when i asked people what they were using. I used to work at Tiger Direct an they sold CA which i have on my pc and o man does it suck!!!
lol

[MaxxuM]

Ran every version of windows (not counting NT) on my system since DOS 6.22, no virus scanner - never got a virus.

Yes Odin, like I said, you're not the average user. With your kind of luck you should play the lottery if you don't already.

[OdiN1701]

Yes Odin, like I said, you're not the average user. With your kind of luck you should play the lottery if you don't already.

It's not luck.

[MaxxuM]

It's not luck.

Yes, it is. Control is an illusion and anyone that thinks they can control their environment is naive. And besides Odin, anti virus programs are protecting you every day regardless if think you are using them or not – so, in the end you do use them. Plus, the more people that use them the safer the environment will be; anyone advocating different is just not very responsible.

[OdiN1701]

Yes, it is. Control is an illusion and anyone that thinks they can control their environment is naive. And besides Odin, anti virus programs are protecting you every day regardless if think you are using them or not – so, in the end you do use them. Plus, the more people that use them the safer the environment will be; anyone advocating different is just not very responsible.

:lol:

[DDCSD]

Ran every version of windows (not counting NT) on my system since DOS 6.22, no virus scanner - never got a virus.

How would you know if you've never run a virus scanner? :rolleyes:

[MaxxuM]

:lol:

Oh, unless you use a Mac, then your chance of contracting something is extremely lessened - but I still use Little Snitch jic.

[OdiN1701]

How would you know if you've never run a virus scanner? :rolleyes:

Because I'm very experienced with systems - I know what processes should and shouldn't be running - if there was a virus then odd things would happen. I did a ton of virus trackdown and removal and such when working at a PC shop. Stuff that didn't always have removal instructions online yet - it was actually quite fun to try to defeat the virus and track down where it was coming from and hiding, be able to stop it from re-creating itself, etc. It was challenging and each different one presented a different type of challenge. I sent quite a few in to various virus companies. Found a few they weren't aware of yet. They are easier to remove once removal tools/instructions are available but until then it can be fun to try to track everything down. Ran into some quite ingenious work.

[Faolan]

Kaspersky, NOD 32 and also Avast are the best ones on the market. AVG has been going downhill and the latest update flagged user32.dll as a trojan killing Windows... Not a good way to behave. Sophos is a major resource hog and Norton is even worse.

[MaxxuM]

Because I'm very experienced with systems - I know what processes should and shouldn't be running -

So, how often do you check all your running services, background applications and TSR's? There are also processes that start with Vista then can terminate, never to have been seen by the task manager. There are also plenty of infections that cannot be detected because they are actually legal or known programs. Add to this the fact that some even imbed themselves never to be actually infecting, just waiting to be passed along to a system that can/will execute them.

if there was a virus then odd things would happen.

Not necessarily. Some even 'cure' your computer of other viruses/trojans/worms so they can be the only one on your system. Viruses, worms, trojans and malware are extremely pervasive. It is very likely your system either has one or has been probed by one.

I did a ton of virus trackdown and removal and such when working at a PC shop. Stuff that didn't always have removal instructions online yet -

If you are infected then you may have passed it on – you're part of the problem regardless of how much fun it may have been. A simple virus protection tool would have likely stopped it and no added work would have been necessary.

it was actually quite fun to try to defeat the virus and track down where it was coming from and hiding, be able to stop it from re-creating itself, etc. It was challenging and each different one presented a different type of challenge. I sent quite a few in to various virus companies. Found a few they weren't aware of yet. They are easier to remove once removal tools/instructions are available but until then it can be fun to try to track everything down. Ran into some quite ingenious work.

:rolleyes:

[OdiN1701]

So, how often do you check all your running services, background applications and TSR's? There are also processes that start with Vista then can terminate, never to have been seen by the task manager. There are also plenty of infections that cannot be detected because they are actually legal or known programs. Add to this the fact that some even imbed themselves never to be actually infecting, just waiting to be passed along to a system that can/will execute them.

I check things from time to time. If something is there, I'd find it. But I avoid doing anything that would result in an infection anyway so I don't have to worry about it. If something is dormant, it's going to have to run at some point in order to spread. I wouldn't install a malicious program - legal or not, so that's not a concern.

Not necessarily. Some even 'cure' your computer of other viruses/trojans/worms so they can be the only one on your system. Viruses, worms, trojans and malware are extremely pervasive. It is very likely your system either has one or has been probed by one.Not really...I'm positive I don't have a virus. Probed? I don't think so. I have careful browsing habbits - and I don't use IE - I don't install crapware/freeware that wants to load "toolbars" and other such crap.

If you are infected then you may have passed it on – you're part of the problem regardless of how much fun it may have been. A simple virus protection tool would have likely stopped it and no added work would have been necessary.What added work is there when there is no virus to remove, etc.?

:rolleyes:

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: :rolleyes::rolleyes:

[MaxxuM]

I check things from time to time. If something is there, I'd find it. But I avoid doing anything that would result in an infection anyway so I don't have to worry about it. If something is dormant, it's going to have to run at some point in order to spread. I wouldn't install a malicious program - legal or not, so that's not a concern.

Not really...I'm positive I don't have a virus. Probed? I don't think so. I have careful browsing habbits - and I don't use IE - I don't install crapware/freeware that wants to load "toolbars" and other such crap.

What added work is there when there is no virus to remove, etc.?

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Everyone's IP/ports are probed Odin - even yours. Most routers stop them though. Check your routers logs, they're there.

Like I said, you should play the lottery Odin; never a virus in couple of decades (?), no significant issues with Vista save for the occasional hard drive failure.

I'm wiling to bet if I said the sky was azure you would argue that it was blue.

[Colorblinded]

Good grief the two go at it again.

[OdiN1701]

Everyone's IP/ports are probed Odin - even yours. Most routers stop them though. Check your routers logs, they're there.

Like I said, you should play the lottery Odin; never a virus in couple of decades (?), no significant issues with Vista save for the occasional hard drive failure.

I'm wiling to bet if I said the sky was azure you would argue that it was blue.

Actually the sky isn't blue, it just looks that way due to the gas molecules in the atmosphere that scatter shorter light wavelengths (blue) and create the illusion of a blue colored sky, while the longer wavelengths pass through mostly unaffected.

I did have a virus once though. But it was intentional. It wasn't really a virus either - just a malicious program. Someone sent it to me over IRC back when I had a 486. Normally I would have just deleted it or not accepted it, but I had built a new system and was going to scrub and format the hard drive and prep the system for donating anyway, so I ran the program just to see what it did. Nice DOS program that displayed a screen saver. Except while doing that it filled the root of your C: drive with randomly-named directories using ASCII characters so you couldn't easily delete them. The drive had so many directories that it took forever to boot into Windows. I could delete them with a DOS file manager but didn't bother.

[MaxxuM]

I did have a virus once though. But it was intentional. It wasn't really a virus either - just a malicious program. Someone sent it to me over IRC back when I had a 486. Normally I would have just deleted it or not accepted it, but I had built a new system and was going to scrub and format the hard drive and prep the system for donating anyway, so I ran the program just to see what it did. Nice DOS program that displayed a screen saver. Except while doing that it filled the root of your C: drive with randomly-named directories using ASCII characters so you couldn't easily delete them. The drive had so many directories that it took forever to boot into Windows. I could delete them with a DOS file manager but didn't bother.

Now, since you have no way of proving this I'll just have say that I'll take it with a grain of salt and keep advise people to use good common sense and use AV/Firewall's.

[BottomBracket]

Now, since you have no way of proving this I'll just have say that I'll take it with a grain of salt and keep advise people to use good common sense and use AV/Firewall's.

+1. Great sensible advice. With the powerful systems nowadays, one can run a good AV program in the background and not not sacrifice a good chunk of your resources so as to affect running your photo editing software.

[Dan-o]

Been using Nod 32 for 3 years now and have three teenage kids. Zero viruses.

[MaxxuM]

Been using Nod 32 for 3 years now and have three teenage kids. Zero viruses.

That says a lot... I only have 1 teenager atm. I sympathize.

[Dan-o]

That and they all have non admin user accounts. Well one is 12 but she thinks she is 16 :)

[MaxxuM]

That and they all have non admin user accounts. Well one is 12 but she thinks she is 16 :)

90% of computers co-workers and families whom bring me their computers (I usually work on them for free so I get a lot of requests) that have problems also have Limewire or similar program running. The last system I worked on was used by three teenage girls that were downloading music. 213 detected infected files were on their system! They had an outdated Norton AV on their PC that was ALSO infected.

If you have kids I highly recommend Safe Eye's - it keeps my girl out of trouble and she hates it. Don't let your kids use the computer alone in their room w/o supervision if you have an Internet connection either. I give beginning of the year classes for parents and kids about the dangers of Internet and how to keep their kids safe. I go over things like better e-mail alternatives like Gaggle.net, the pitfals of MySpace/YouTube and how to avoid online-preditors without having a degree in technology :)

[OdiN1701]

213? That's nothing. I've worked on systems before that looked like this:

http://www.seomoz.org/img/upload/too-many-toolbars.gif

No kidding.

I think our record, if I recall correctly, was something around 125,000 files.

[MaxxuM]

213? That's nothing. I've worked on systems before that looked like this:

http://www.seomoz.org/img/upload/too-many-toolbars.gif

No kidding.

I think our record, if I recall correctly, was something around 125,000 files.

Holy crap! There isn't even enough room to surf. You win LOL :lol: