AntiVirus / AntiSpam software

[graywolf]

Getting tired of fighting Norton Internet Security (NIS) sporadic Symantec Framework errors.

Looking for a replacement software that handles AntiVirus / AntiSpam (works with Outlook 2010). This would be for a Windows XP machine.

Any suggestions.

What would you say would be the pros/cons over NIS in your suggestion?

Have worked with Norton Support but less than pleased. Seems all they want to do is uninstall Norton, reinstall it, and it works for a bit but then the errors come back again.

[brainbone]

Use the norton removal tool to completely get rid of it.

I've been using the free Microsoft Security Essentials for some time now with good results. Better than norton, but lacks antispam.

Edit:
For antispam, I'd recommend redirecting your email through a free Gmail account, or sign up for Google Apps if you own your own domain name -- then you'll have relatively good server-side antispam.

[markds]

AVGFree from grisoft.com
no problems
virus spyware email scan rootkit and more

[Fuzzy]

I use gmail for the spam redirection (works great) and haven't run an anti-virus program in 5 years (I use Microsoft Sec Essentials on my mother in law's computer - though nothing's going to stop her from downloading viruses).

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

though nothing's going to stop her from downloading viruses

Isn't that the truth. No mater what AV you install, there is always someone determined enough to install that particular piece of malware.

[jptheripper]

I run avast on all mine, free and light weight.

I remember a study a few years ago where a webpage had a button that said "Click here to install virus" and like 1/3 of site visitors clicked on it. Sigh.

I consider Norton and McAfee and Symantec to be in the "virus" category based on how much they mess up your system and how hard they are to remove.

[ccsmoke]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Use the norton removal tool to completely get rid of it.

I've been using the free Microsoft Security Essentials for some time now with good results. Better than norton, but lacks antispam.

Edit:
For antispam, I'd recommend redirecting your email through a free Gmail account, or sign up for Google Apps if you own your own domain name -- then you'll have relatively good server-side antispam.

good advice...I use Avast mayself
for malware such as security tool, I've cleaned a few infected computers using
http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index...howtopic=35239

Boot into safe mode though and don't ever enter a credit card.

For toolbar removal I use ccleaner

All free versions

[stevech]

I dumped Norton AV for Microsoft Security Essentials (Free). My rationale is that MS has a vested interest in stopping attacks on its own operating system.

Flaws in that logic?

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by stevech

I dumped Norton AV for Microsoft Security Essentials (Free). My rationale is that MS has a vested interest in stopping attacks on its own operating system.

Flaws in that logic?

Well, I'd say Symantec has at least as strong of an inventive to top attacks, given that a huge percentage of its business relies on the strength and credibility of its malware database.

Still, I think Security Essentials is great. I use it on all my boxes. It's free and fairly lightweight. I think its great that it doesn't include things like a firewall or SPAM filtering, since I wouldn't use that anyway.

[reeven]

KIS(Kaspersky), NOD32, those are good for premium.
For free, Avast,AVG,Avira. But sometimes i see bluescreens from AVG and Avira.
Also, Avira delete any suspicious files, if you name an text.doc "patch", or crack, it will be deleted.

[Zippster]

Avast free, works great.

[blade]

I used AVG for years, but on older machines it had become a resource hog. For some reason on certain systems it would bring them to a crawl. I tried Avast and a few others and settled on Microsoft Security Essentials and have been very happy.

[texneus]

I've been looking into Avast a bit lately and lately it seems to top all the other free AV programs in comparative reviews in both detection rates and speed (but then, so does Norton...). If I were picking today I'd certainly try it.

I use MSE and Threatfire on all my machines and am very pleased with protection and speed the combination gives me. MSE is relatively poor at picking up 0-day vulnerabilities (see av-comparatives and av-test reviews), and that is where Threatfire comes in. One or the other has indeed saved my butt (can I say butt here?) more than once across the six machines I have the combo installed on.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/secur...s/default.aspx
http://www.threatfire.com/

P.S. Your experience with Norton pretty much mirrors my own in 2009. I had given up on Norton around 2006 or so but went back to it after a number glowing reviews of the recent versions. When it works it does work good, but eventually it fails in some utterly craptastical way. After six months or so I abandoned my paid out of my pocket licence.

Edit: Another great tool that I found is http://www.virustotal.com/. With this site, if you ever have a file on your computer (say something you just downloaded that you are unsure of or something your AV just flagged that you think is a false detection) then upload it here. Virustotal will then scan it using something like 40 AV programs and provide you with results more or less immediately if the service is not busy. If multiple AV's flag the file then it is very likely it is bad!

[Serra]

If you want a low end free antivirus, Avast is the best. I have used it for a while on PCs that don't really matter, it has never failed.

If you want something a little better, Kaspersky is really the best on the market right now. (The antivirus, not Internet Security, unless you really need it).

The best place to get Kasperksy is to download the free trial and test it out. If you like it, then buy it online at Amazon. ~$26 for 3 one year licenses.

The reason I like Kapersky is that it catches everything. However, it does have some false positives that you just need to learn to ignore. Pretty much any shareware program that scans for key presses looks like a key logger to it. Doesn't bother me, it just does a popup that clears itself in a few seconds.

I stopped using Symantec about 7 years ago when it repeatedly crashed my system. For about a year I was having crash issues and finally pinned it down to Symantec Anti-virus. Once I removed it, I had no more issues.

[RocKKer]

+1 for MS Security Essentials...light and quick. Installed it on 20 or so PC's, only had one false positive, it flags coinminer (bitcoin miner).

IMHO Mcafee and Norton are bloated. They take the "snappy" out of many systems.

I used to use AVG Free, but it's latest versions seemed to be growing so switched to MSSE.

[trallyus]

My favorite Antispam program is the older version of Mailwasher at http://www.mailwasher.net/ - I love it due to it's blacklists feature and the abuility to send spam mail to spamcop.net. Sure I still get spam with it but it's usally deleted with mailwasher before it gets to my email program.

By the way, don't confuse this with the newer Mailwasher Pro 2011 that is at http://www.firetrust.com/en/products...r-pro/download as at the moment it does not compare to the original which can also be found on the link above as well.