Anti virus software question

gr8cooks · 07-12-2010, 04:39 PM

Lately I’ve gotten a few viruses, even though I had Norton antivirus software on my system and Eset – both were installed on my system at work.

I am looking at a paid antivirus software program because the free ones aren’t working for me. Some forums I looked at talk a lot about PC Tools. A friend also recomended Cyberdefender.

I liked that Cyberdefender seems to be a more complete package, covering antivirus, trojans, spyware, id theft protection. PC Tools, also had a nice user interface.

PC Tools doesn’t seem as good to me, but lots of people seemed to like it.

I checked CNET for reviews, and they rated AVG very high, but my experience was not so good so I don’t know how much to trust them...

PC-Tools review is here (Editor 4 stars -only 3 stars from users):

PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Cyberdefender is here (got 4 stars from users):

CyberDefender AntiSpyware - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

I am leaning toward Cyberdefender which is cheaper for the paid version.

I have heard of PC Tools all the time, and Cyberdefender is not mentioned much but seems better program.

Which should I get?

JaJae · 10-15-2010, 07:44 AM

Wow, thread bump

I concur with your assessment on MSE. There is no reason you should feel compelled to purchase anti-virus software. Also, having two anti-virus programs running at the same time is never a good idea. Pick one and stick with it. Another good one-time scanner is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

The best anti-virus is placed on the user though. Don't click things you shouldn't be clicking or going to sites you shouldn't be on and the chances of you getting a virus are extremely slim.

motivez · 10-16-2010, 01:40 PM

I recommend ESET Nod32.. of all of the stuff I've tried, it's by far the best. It has detected stuff that McAfee and Norton have overlooked on my friends computers when they've been having problems.

six6ftr · 10-21-2010, 11:20 AM

Originally Posted by Dumpy Dooby

I bumped it because it was never approved, so I hadn't seen it before. Motz gave me privs to approve posts outside of my subforum. So I approved and then responded.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a great product. I keep it on my pen drive, but I've found that Super Antispyware has been able to get things that Anti-Malware missed. It seems to be especially good at catching those rogue anti-virus products.

I concur, I normally tell users that running Norton and Mcafee is fine but it will definitely not do the job alone. Malwarebytes or Super AntiSpyware should catch the majority of the rogue stuff out there.

gr8cooks · 10-27-2010, 01:43 PM

Thanx for the feedback guys.

I found this great blog post about Cyberdefender with lots of reference links (near the middle) and details about the company:

Cyberdefender releases their EDC 3.0 Cyberdefender AntiVirus Software with earlyNETWORK technology that offers customers Zero Day Gap updates. From the Frogs Mouth

Also they have a video about showing a test of Cyberdefender on false positives (they got none).

I think why they have so many users, is that the software is easy to use, they advertise it on TV and their 24x7 computer help line is attractive to people who don't know much about computers.

Simius · 10-27-2010, 03:10 PM

Thanks for the heads up about Super Antispyware. My previous anti-virus program seemed to constantly find false positives, which was okay... but it also seemed to be extremely processor intensive when running daily scans and they took forever. I haven't had those problems with Super Antispyware so yay.

JaJae · 10-27-2010, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by Simius

Thanks for the heads up about Super Antispyware. My previous anti-virus program seemed to constantly find false positives, which was okay... but it also seemed to be extremely processor intensive when running daily scans and they took forever. I haven't had those problems with Super Antispyware so yay.

SUPERAntiSpyware provides no realtime protection. It won't prevent you from getting a virus. It can only try to help you after you have gotten one and you run the scan. I would recommend using it with Microsoft Security Essentials.

Simius · 10-27-2010, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by JaJae

SUPERAntiSpyware provides no realtime protection. It won't prevent you from getting a virus. It can only try to help you after you have gotten one and you run the scan. I would recommend using it with Microsoft Security Essentials.

Done and done.

So... Super AntiVirus was able to get rid of the remnants of a virus that I had previously manually gotten rid of because my other program wouldn't even detect it. My question is, can I get away with just using Super Anti-Virus for my computer scans and let MSE do the real time shit... or should I have MSE do complete scans as well? (I'd rather just have SAV do the computer scans as it doesn't seem to bog down my computer like all the other anti-virus programs I've ever tried seem to do)

JaJae · 10-27-2010, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by Simius

Done and done.

So... Super AntiVirus was able to get rid of the remnants of a virus that I had previously manually gotten rid of because my other program wouldn't even detect it. My question is, can I get away with just using Super Anti-Virus for my computer scans and let MSE do the real time shit... or should I have MSE do complete scans as well? (I'd rather just have SAV do the computer scans as it doesn't seem to bog down my computer like all the other anti-virus programs I've ever tried seem to do)

MSE shouldn't really bog you down, you can set it to run at odd hours. Try running it and see what happens. Random scans aren't really as important unless you are prone to getting viruses. So to answer your question the scheduled scans aren't really all that important in my opinion, but if you can run them I would recommend it. SUPERAntiSpyware does a decent job, but no single antivirus software catches everything.