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Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
#390234 - 03/12/21 09:24 PM
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SEP products have apparently ended support. I liked the non-managed install because it has never given me any issues (except for several Windows 10 updates, that broke it without an upgrade).
Always hated Mcafee products. That's what DoD PCs use nowadays though. Yet... past rough experiences with it and still ranks low on every list I try to Google...
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Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
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Tafoid |
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I keep on testing.. testing.. testing... into the future!
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: URherenow]
#390236 - 03/12/21 09:43 PM
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> SEP products have apparently ended support. I liked the non-managed install because
> it has never given me any issues (except for several Windows 10 updates, that broke
> it without an upgrade).
>
> Always hated Mcafee products. That's what DoD PCs use nowadays though. Yet... past
> rough experiences with it and still ranks low on every list I try to Google...
I haven't used a front line antivirus tool for many years since I do so little and don't venture far outside my yard I haven't had occasion to let any suck my cycles. So, in my case, Common Sense is the best antivirus you can have.
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: Tafoid]
#390238 - 03/12/21 10:10 PM
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> > SEP products have apparently ended support. I liked the non-managed install because
> > it has never given me any issues (except for several Windows 10 updates, that broke
> > it without an upgrade).
> >
> > Always hated Mcafee products. That's what DoD PCs use nowadays though. Yet... past
> > rough experiences with it and still ranks low on every list I try to Google...
>
> I haven't used a front line antivirus tool for many years since I do so little and
> don't venture far outside my yard I haven't had occasion to let any suck my cycles.
> So, in my case, Common Sense is the best antivirus you can have.
Indeed, common sense and a good adblocker / script blocker, where you only whitelist what you trust.
Anti-virus software became worse than the thing it was meant to be curing a good decade ago.
Malicious scripts are, for your average user, the most common attack vector, and even with those most paid Anti-virus software is only ever playing catch-up.
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: Haze]
#390290 - 03/13/21 04:16 AM
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There are plenty of free ones though. Are you not using any antivirus at all? What about Windows Defender?
It's on top of anti-virus, but I do have a lifetime license for malwarebytes antimalware on my desktop... but you can't find a lifetime license anymore and I really hate subscriptions for ANY software. MBAM does a good job (sometimes too good) at blocking browser nasties...
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Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: URherenow]
#390293 - 03/13/21 06:09 AM
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> There are plenty of free ones though. Are you not using any antivirus at all? What
> about Windows Defender?
Windows Defender is what it is. I leave it running, but that's about it.
What Haze pointed out, which you may have missed, is that websites are so thoroughly capable of more or less directly infecting your machine that having antivirus software is not going to do much for you.
As stated, your best option is a good ad-blocker and script-blocker. uBlock Origin has been, and still is, the top of the stack if you're looking for a plugin that will kill not just the vast majority of ads on any given site, but tracking cookies, tracking scripts, redirect scripts, and all manner of other awful, entirely web-based, methods that enterprising shitheads have come up with over the past 10-15 years to compromise your machine without you even having to download anything.
It's not bulletproof - you'd have to run uBlock Origin in a mode that blocks literally all JavaScript from running unless you specifically approve it, if you wanted to get to that point - but doing so has a drastic effect on your average browsing experience, and I wouldn't advise it for that added half-percent of safety unless you're absolutely clear on what a pain in the ass you're going to be subjecting yourself to.
In the long run, if you stick to sites you know, and download things only from trustworthy sites, and are self-aware enough to ensure that you're not clicking on the "Please Install McShittee Free 2.0" button instead of clicking on the smaller, more obscure "Please download the shit I actually asked to download in the first fucking place" button that so many download sites try to do nowadays, then the odds of you being passively infected just by browsing, without even electing to download anything, by not using a script blocker are much greater than any risk you'll run simply by downloading known applications from known sites.
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: Haze]
#390303 - 03/13/21 09:11 PM
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I'm what you might call "computer-savvy". I'm often called upon to "fix" people's computers. Often I don't want to engage their paranoic fears and thus I just create a new (admin) user and make that the default one. They always praise my fix along the lines: "Now everything just works!".
When, inevitably, they return with the same problem I erase the user I created, create a new one along the same lines and they´re good for another year. (Until again they press a bunch of porn/meme-links and think they have a virus again and we start over).
Sometimes I really have to erase the entire thing. I then reinstall Windows. I try to make sure they remember their passwords and stuff but sadly they dont bother with this at all. So no wonder they think they have a virus! They dont even remember the password for their primary internet account (ie.: their email account). So they dont even remember if their email is with hotmail, google, AOL, etc.
In the end you give up trying to educate them. They think this technonolgy should be like eating an apple. And since they only eat chocholate they get someone who enjoy apples to fix it for them.
It's much easier just reinforcing their paranoia.
Share the chocholate but enjoy the apple when their back is turned.
EDIT:
Sorry, I wrote this in a pretty cynic mood. I just dropped my beer and a warm pizza. I'll go buy a new set. 
Edited by GeorgeDorn (03/13/21 09:13 PM)
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: GeorgeDorn]
#390305 - 03/13/21 09:31 PM
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Why I thought this had a bearing on your topic is beyond even me. I'm just having a really bad evening having "fixed" a "friend's" computer and, as I mentioned, dropped a newly bought pizza. Now I bought and ate a new one though so I´ll leave the posts here for "historic" reasons unless some admin think theyre worth deleting.
Again, sorry for my uncalled for acerbic input. )
Edited by GeorgeDorn (03/13/21 09:34 PM)
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: GeorgeDorn]
#390311 - 03/14/21 02:40 PM
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well, technically I'm an admin and I could delete it. But... this is the loony bin. Your post threw me back to 80's Arsenio Hall - things that make you go hmmmm (before the song was made in '91)
so it's right where it beongs, I guess.
lol
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Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: URherenow]
#390323 - 03/15/21 10:54 PM
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> SEP products have apparently ended support. I liked the non-managed install because
> it has never given me any issues (except for several Windows 10 updates, that broke
> it without an upgrade).
>
> Always hated Mcafee products. That's what DoD PCs use nowadays though. Yet... past
> rough experiences with it and still ranks low on every list I try to Google...
As an advanced user caution and prudence has always been the best option for me. If I need to browse shaddy web sites or install a chinese file downloader program (mostly to get old programs with known MD5/SHA1 hashes) I run it into VirtualBox that I restore with a previous state after use. Firefox portable, noscript and uBlock is my solution to feel safe on the net. If I need to scan a file I let virustotal.com do the job for me.
However, common users feel otherwise. They don't feel safe with Windows Defender, they don't even consider it an antivirus. So I choose for them a minimal instalation of AVG Free Antivirus. ESET is quite popular for low spec computers too. Avira and Avast are good candidates too, however it has been years since I used them. Kaspersky is king among the people who actually want to pay for an antivirus license. As long as your kids don't use the computer with Administrator rights everything will be all right.
I'm showing my age here, but I wouldn't touch bloatware software like Norton360 with a 10 feet pole. Removing that with iTunes made many PCs perform almost as new OS installations.
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: BIOS-D]
#390324 - 03/15/21 11:28 PM
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I never liked Norton either. I often have to explain to people that although the same company, SEP is NOT Norton. Not really anymore though, since the DON stopped using SEP. When it did, we could legally download it and a license for it from the INFOSEC web site (only accessible from a .mil domain, but you downloaded it and burned it at work to install at home).
Although the firewall can be a pain in the ass sometimes, a look at the logs is enough to give the most of power users pause about which firewall to use along with antivirus...
Now I use MacAfee at work and can get it free the same way. But I have also always disliked MacAfee. I dunno... maybe I should give it a test run again. Surely the DoD doesn't use the same version that a normal user buys at home, much like SEP is definitely not Norton...
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Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: URherenow]
#390375 - 03/19/21 09:56 PM
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I for one have blacklisted Norton products and will never use their junk. What really did it for me was when (many years ago). Same with McAfee.
I myself use Windows 10 with Windows Defender (and decent precautions like running adblock in my browser to block ad-delivered malware, not running random crap from random emails etc). Before I upgraded to Windows 10, I used AVG. The 2 problems with AVG were the amount of system resources it took up and the constant nagging to upgrade or trial the "full version". But if I did need something better than just what Windows has, I would probably just go with whichever free option was the least crappy (i.e. the least nagging about upgrading to the full version etc)
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| jopezu |
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: jonwil]
#390393 - 03/22/21 05:56 AM
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> I for one have blacklisted Norton products and will never use their junk. What really
> did it for me was when (many years ago). Same with McAfee.
i feel like there was more story to tell there. i'm curious what happened.
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i learned everything i know from KC
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: URherenow]
#390402 - 03/23/21 02:50 PM
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> Now I use MacAfee at work and can get it free the same way.
I also used McAfee at work, then I brought a copy home and used it ever since. It's still supported with daily automatic updates and can work on XP and W2k if so inclined. It does cause noticeable slowdown on old machines though, so I wouldn't really recommend it for XP in particular unless you have a strong computer.
As for whether it's effective at stopping viruses, I don't really know, as I don't visit dubious sites and I have hosts file protection, uBlock Origin, and other barriers too.
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: jopezu]
#390403 - 03/23/21 03:29 PM
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The missing bit should have been "when Norton Internet Security totally broke my internet and stopped me from accessing web pages and generally didn't work right". That (plus the fact that Norton AV is/was a huge resource hog) is the reason I blacklisted Norton.
I also stopped using PC firewall software after that and now rely on what Windows has and what my router is doing (it may not have a specific firewall but the NAT does help to prevent certain attacks from making it all the way to my Windows PC)
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: Robbbert]
#390404 - 03/23/21 04:58 PM
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My machine isn't all that old. I jumped on Win10 when it was a free upgrade (actually, I think you can still get an upgrade activated for free, although the offer has expired, officially). i7 4790k, Vega64.
Want a newer GPU, but availability of 3080+ or 6800 XT+ is almost nil, unless you want to pay scalper prices. In the end, I still spend half the year or more deployed, so I just gave up on the GPU and spent an assload of $$ for a new laptop that I should be receiving on Monday.
Thus the AV question. Most of my stuff, I want to keep the same, but this is the most sensible time for a fresh start on things. Not sure if my timing was so lucky that I got the very last one of current stock (at Newegg), but if it wasn't the last one, it was really damn close. Showed as Not in Stock this morning, and I ordered it last night. My bank hasn't even been charged yet, but it has shipped, so yay!
https://www.newegg.com/core-black-msi-gs...N82E16834155723
And for anyone who thinks it's a bit much to pay for a laptop, it's actually more than that, because I'm using my Japanese address for shipping (which incurs an import tax/tariff/vat/whatever you call it where you're from). My time on shore is running short again, so I didn't have the luxury of waiting for the GE76 models to be available (thunderbolt 4, among other upgrades from the one I just ordered).
Either way, this thing is no doubt more machine than my desktop. That Pacman fps tho... 
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Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
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Re: Best Antivirus as of now. Go.
[Re: BIOS-D]
#390524 - 04/02/21 10:35 PM
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My sentiments exactly. As I think I mentioned elsewhere, my social circle regard me as computer savvy (read: a nerd ) and they come to me when they (think they) have a virus. So far it's always been malware and other forms of clutter they "contracted" surfing shady sites. I haven't seen a proper virus in maybe 20 years. If you suspect your computer is being hijacked for DDOS purposes it suffices to be aware of net-traffic. I have a suspicion that most of the virus software industry thrives on people who think the intarwebs are full of evil people who want to disrupt your access to porn.
Obviously I don't mean you people. I'm sure you're at least as web-savvy as me. 
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