Anti-virus/security suites - free or paid? (1 Viewer)

[Tom]

Hello all, So I have my annual Bitdefender Total Security licence coming up for renewal. I like how comprehensive it is, how it's 'all under 1 roof', and that it covers my PC, MacBook and Android phone. I can afford it, but I'm aware that some free versions of other software do as good of a job.

I'm curious about what you lot use, as there's a good mix of IT professionals and enthusiasts around.

 

[m4nu]

Personally, I am using nothing. The best protection is to be minded which website you are actively visiting. But that is only me^^

 

[SillySausage]

I also haven’t used any for a few years now and never had a problem.

 

[Dutchtastic]

I'm with T0day, I don't run any virus protections.
Being mindful of which websites you enter and what you are downloading from time to time is pretty much the best virus protection you can have.

 

[Pamellaaa]

As everyone else has said, keep a backup of anything important and be sensible, worked for me for several years.

 

[Cluck]

Bitdefender still has a high reputation for being good at what it's designed to do. It can be a little too aggressive at times (it was responsible for lots of people being unable to play pCARS1 - and pCARS2 during development - for example, flagging it as a false positive) but provided you're happy with how it works then I'd stick with it.

I use Norton Security and it's what I install for customers. The simplicity of the 'install and forget', coupled with only just slightly worse protection (in tests) than Bitdefender, means it's the best choice for my customers - the less crap that appears, the less the software cocks up, the better. Before anybody goes off on one, Norton WAS crap back in the 2005-2008 period - and I had one of their programmers admit to me as such, at a rather boozy trade dinner (I might have sworn a lot about their product that night ) but they turned themselves around. Since 2009, I have dealt with 3 infections on customer PCs that had Norton. 1 didn't actually have Norton running (they didn't realise a Windows update had knocked it out), 1 hadn't updated it for 3 months and got hit by a bogus advert on a trusted web-site (so those that think "stick to trusted web-sites and you'll be fine" really need to think again) and the other, well, that was a 60+ gentleman who was desperate to view some boobs and ignored warnings from Norton, Google Chrome and Windows that he was being a fool trying to open the site he was trying to open! Otherwise, across the entire spectrum of users that I deal with, not one failure of the software to do its job.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I used Avast in the past. Generally I had a very good experience, but since Windows 10 it interferes with the system waaaaaay to much, leading to a lot of system problems.

Since a few weeks I use nothing but the integrated Windows Defender. No trouble at all sofar.
I strongly recommend you though to use a good adblocker (atm I use uBlock Origin) to block some threats coming from ads.

Personally, I am using nothing. The best protection is to be minded which website you are actively visiting. But that is only me^^

Yep and that's why I can do that. Some people I know I can't entrust it with.

 

[Hujkis]

Personally, I am using nothing. The best protection is to be minded which website you are actively visiting. But that is only me^^

Same here. With SELinux enabled on all my devices. Except for the gaming windows10 PC, where the included 'defender' should be enough, if you're sensible.

 

[steveg200]

I only use Windows defender which seems pretty good,also run a scan with malware bytes every couple of weeks.

 

[Ranjanado]

I did use bitdefender. Just had it uninstalled for a couple of months as the performance of my computer dropped considerably. Uninstalled it and uninstalled Microsoft Office and its back to top speed. I was thinking of re-installing Bitdefender back on. Too many risky stuff happening online. You can never be too safe

 

[FuBii]

I've used NOD/ ESET Internet Security since I was a kid. Always caught everything, never had an issue with it. Just create a new email account each month & free trials.
Work just recently bought some new laptops which came with a years protection from Bullguard. A software I hadn't even heard of till I got given the things to sort... Find out how that goes.

 

[Ashnoom]

Personally, I am using nothing. The best protection is to be minded which website you are actively visiting. But that is only me^^

Yes, untill the Ad-Company behind your favourite website is hacked, which you white listed in you Ad-Blocker because you wanted to give that site a bit of income, and you visit that site and get a virus anyway.

Yes, sounds like good protection to me. Or when using a programing, for ex. CCleaner, which somehow got hacked and whose automatic update contained a virus which you automatically install due to the, oh-so-easy-ness of, automatic updates.

I prefer a virus scanner over any best practice methods.

I am using (payed) ESET32

 

[Invincible]

I'm sailing pretty good so far with "being cautious" + Windiws defender. Whenever I was using any AV software in the past, I had nothing but abysmal performance and boot times and basically a ton of problems with other programs and games. I tried Norton, Avira, Kaspersky so far. Not worth the hassle for me.