What Antivirus software should I Use?

June 2, 2005

Most people have finally realized that anti-virus software is almost as important as having Windows on their computer. It is well worth the investment that you make in purchasing it. Most people have yet to understand the relatively new and emerging threat of Spyware/Adware. Antivirus software alone will not protect you against this threat. I will discuss these and other threats on this web-site in other articles. Please check back frequently for updated articles.

There are numerous antivirus software packages currently on the market. Some are good, some are very good and some are not so good. There are products that are free but my take on that is “you get what you pay for”. That is not to say that all free software, antivirus included, is no good because it is free. As you will see later in this document I will talk about one free anti-virus software that I consider to be very good. I will take a look at four of the more popular software packages and give you my opinion on them based on the experience that I have with them.

Norton Antivirus by Symantec, Inc. – I probably have more experience with Norton than any of the other packages that I will discuss. Norton has been the most reliable of all of the ones that I have experienced. It is easy to install, it keeps itself updated, and I have found very few virus attacks that slip by it. One thing that I don’t like about Norton is that it has a large footprint (large files that load in memory at startup and slow down your system). If you are running a late version of Norton on an older system, you can expect it to run a bit slower. I have also found that some viruses are written to attack the Norton software files directly. This is because it is a popular software and the virus writers can get more bang for their buck. If you have a relatively new machine with a little more horsepower, then Norton should work fine and you should not see any significant slowdown in performance. If you run the Norton Internet Security suite that contains anti-virus, firewall, spam, and some other security features, then you will see a dramatic drop in performance on older machines. In my opinion, you really need to be running a P4 with a minimum of 256MB of RAM in order to run this suite. I highly recommend this package but if you don’t have a lot of horsepower you better be patient.

McAfee Antivirus by Network Associates, Inc. – McAfee has a good reputation and seems to do a good job on protecting you. It is probably the most comparable product to Norton. It seems to have a smaller footprint and does seem to perform decently. In my experience, McAfee seems to get corrupted very easily and has to be uninstalled and re-installed frequently. I personally have not had that particular experience with Norton. Both McAfee and Norton have trouble installing if you are already infected with a virus when you attempt the install. McAfee offers a product that does your scan on-line rather than having the core of the scan engine running on your machine. I am not a fan of this method of protection. You don’t have much control over the situation if you can’t get to the internet. McAfee also has their all-in-one security package that also carries a large footprint. All-in-all McAfee should do you a decent job. Renewing your subscription for virus detection files was a little more expensive than Norton the last time I checked.

E-Trust Antivirus by Computer Associates, Inc. - Seems to have a very good product. I have to admit that my experience with this software is limited. I do run it on my wife’s computer at home and it does a great job; it updates itself and I have never been infected with a virus on that machine. I also have a few clients that run this software and it has always done well for them. It is very user friendly and carries a small footprint. This product is more known in the business world than the retail world because the company mainly focuses on business products. I really do like their product and I hope to get more hands-on with it in the near future.

AVG Anti-virus by Grisoft, Inc. – AVG has certainly been gaining in popularity as of late. They offer many products that you can purchase but the one that I have seen the most is their free version. It does have some limitations, as far as bells and whistles go, compared to the products they offer that you pay for. It seems to be very good at blocking viruses but not quite as good at cleaning them up if you are already infected. For example, I scanned a machine yesterday with AVG (latest version) that was infected and it detected a number of infections but was unable to clean them. I un-installed it and installed Norton (latest version) and it removed all of the infections and detected a couple that AVG missed. I must tell you that the AVG Free product is only licensed for personal home PC use. It is not licensed for businesses. Grisoft does offer products for sale that are licensed for commercial use. AVG seems to carry a small footprint and has little affect on system performance.

In this article I have not even really mentioned the commercial security products that these companies offer. In particular, Symantec, Network Associates, and Computer Associates all offer a commercial line of products that are all very good. These products are geared more towards networks with 10 clients or more. It really boils down to what you have the most experience with, who will give you the best technical support, and who will not break your bank roll. I personally prefer the Symantec Client Security Suite. I will discuss these products more in another article soon.

Robert E. Haney Please use the BACK button on your browser to return!

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