Anti-Virus Software

[Marc]

Strider brought up a good topic subject in the SI getting infected with a virus (lol) thread; recommended anti-virus software.

I have come to use Anti-Vir. It is free anti-virus software, made in Germany. I use it because it seems less taxing on the system than other I've tried. My opinion may however be outdated, as I've been using it for a few years now and haven't tried anything else since. It isn't a real high priority for me though, since I don't readily get infected with a virus but once every couple of years or so. It is free, but every time you update, it'll tell popup and you the Pro version can remove spyware too. Not really annoying, to me anyway.

[Speedy]

I use NOD32, considering it's the most reliable one. When inactive, it uses about 2kb of memory, though the scanning kernel takes in about 24kb.

All in all, you hardly notice it, and when it updates it shows a small pop-up that's semi-transparent.

It has about 2-3 updates A DAY, keeping the virus definitions updated perfectly.

Only downside? The 30-day trial ends after 30 days. While it'll keep running after 30 days, it wont be getting rid of them virii. You'll have to *cough*.. buy it.

[Krieg]

I use avast, it's awesome, and it's free.

it operates mostly by getting money from businesses, operating under the assumption that "Most viruses make their way into businesses from un-secured home PCs"
therefore it's free to home users.

[Serio]

also nod32 here. i'm using a kind of outdated version though (2.7), the newer ones require at least a dual core to work correctly. otherwise it's like you're back in time and still have a 486 cpu.

[Namine]

I use NOD32 on the laptop(dual-core) and I use it on my desktop(single core) and both run fine, using 4.0 on the laptop and 3.something on my desktop.

[hunter-zero]

i use NOD32 too, pretty light, updates automatically 3 times a day, and gets the job done when scan an external hard or flash , cleans shit up

[Serio]

I use NOD32 on the laptop(dual-core) and I use it on my desktop(single core) and both run fine, using 4.0 on the laptop and 3.something on my desktop.

is your desktop a crappy sempron that only clocks at 1.8 ghz?

when i tried 4.0 the fucker was slowing everything down to a crawl every time i tried to run something to scan it beforehand. music player, games, even explorer.exe.

[Namine]

It's a 5 year old gaming machine, pentium 4 4.0 gHZ, 2gb ram, 256mb Vid card. Not bad, but it still runs pretty shitty.

[bahamut0013]

I just use Norton because that's what came with the laptop. Every time my six-month subscription runs out, I just un- and re-install it.

[Speedy]

Norton leeches your resources though.

I guess that it doesn't really matter for you, but it's no fun when your system built for gaming suddenly starts lagging in Duke Nukem 3D.

[Serio]

lol. my system wasn't made for gaming, but duke works just fine even with all the hr packs, 3d models and realtime lighting turned on. that's why i chose nod32 2.7, it doesn't slow even my antique pc.

[Marc]

Norton leeches your resources though.

All anti-virus does.

[Speedy]

NOD32 is suprisingly resource-leech free.

It does take some resources when it's actually scanning, but it's not killing off over half of your resources by simply running.. like Norton and McAfee do.

[Serio]

or avg. that one was originally pretty fast, but recently started becoming just as bad as the others, requiring at least a dual core just to let your system function normally.

[bahamut0013]

I'm not having much of an issue with Norton 2006. I still get great framerates out of most of my games, but then again, I'm running a laptop I bought in 2006... it was my first dual-core. I'm not expecting x32 anti-aliasing out of a 2009 game anyway.