Anti-Virus ?

[kiran1247]

Hi friends,

I brought new HP laptop a couple of days back..

Initially I've installed "Norton" the one which was given along with the laptop for 90 days , now it got expired..

Ca someone suggest me best anti-virus ?
Do we get anywhere for free anti-virus download software? or have to buy one?

Can someone help/suggest me...

Thanks
Kiran

 

[catilley1092]

ESET NOD32 has a trial that you can use for 30 days. It's highly effective, and is low on resources.

http://www.eset.com/download/free-trial

You have nothing to lose, give it a shot.

Best of Luck,
Cat

 

[catilley1092]

I can also suggest to you, through personal experience, that the "free" AV's don't stand up to their paid counterparts. Something is always left out of the freebies.

And as far as MSE goes, it can't even catch a cold, let alone a virus. Not once, in the over a year that I ran it on multiple systems, was there even as much as a log of defending against a virus or malware.

It was only when I began to use the ESET Online Scanner that I woke up and smelled the roses. The online scanner picked up all kinds of trash that MSE overlooked, on 7 different installs of Win 7 & XP. That was enough evidence to convince me.

Cat

 

[kiran1247]

Thank You Catilley...

I'll give a shot with this new ESET , and let you know how it's working..

Thanks
Kiran

 

[catilley1092]

I believe that you'll like it. When you switch the screen to Advanced Mode, you click "Statistics", which can be found under Protection Status, you can actually see the files slowly scanning. No free AV gives you that peace of mind, the protection is right in front of your eyes.

Plus, it protects you from nearly every threat there is, as it auto updates, and does a memory scan at startup.

But when you actually buy it, check with Newegg or another online retailer, you'll get it for less than you will from ESET themselves. Remember, you have 30 days to find a copy of it. Check with Newegg, Tiger Direct, Amazon, eBay, all of the major online retailers, you can save money. Even some of the local Office stores (Office Max, Office Depot) runs deals, and you can sign up to get discount cards in the mail. I get one nearly every month from Office Max, usually for $10 off, and it saves me over $100 yearly on inks, and other accessories.

Cat

 

[kiran1247]

Wow sounds good!

What's the actual(total) cost of this pack ?

thanks
Kiran

 

[catilley1092]

Wow sounds good!

What's the actual(total) cost of this pack ?

thanks
Kiran

I believe that a single user license can be obtained (for one year's use) from ESET for $59. I lucked up, with yodap's help, a link was provided, and I got a 3 user set from Newegg for $29.99, a $40 instant savings on their prices. Newegg's normal price is $39.99 for a 1 user license, so I got a helluva deal. That's $10 for each install.

ESET charges a lot for a multi user pack, probably well over $100. There's plenty of places to purchase it from, and not get torched. Sign up for Newegg's deals, and check them thoroughly every day. Make sure that you key in ESET NOD32 AV in their search bar.

These are the kind of deals that you need to hunt down, you don't need to be in a hurry. You can even use an alternate email address, and get an extra 30 days, if you want. Just be sure to completely uninstall the installed one, before installing the other. I do this all the time, to get free trials of paid products for daily use. Having five email addresses helps a lot.

Cat

 

[kiran1247]

Thanks..

5 diff email ids for 5 months , and if we use 12 diff emails ids - can use for 1 yr

Anyways thanks a lot for the information...

I'll hunt for best deal to get licensed one .

Thanks
Kiran

 

[catilley1092]

Now you're getting the picture! You have to juggle things around. Using different IP's helps too.

I can't even begin to count the all of the trial software that I've used as back to back trials. Professional Uninstallers, Defrag Tools, and many others apps have free trials, download & use them as needed. I do a lot of installing and uninstalling, so each install is a whole new computer.

Cat

 

[kiran1247]

Got it!!

I'll rock from now onwards..
Thanks

 

[catilley1092]

If by chance the cost is too high for you, you can download and install Comodo's free AV, provided that you don't have a low end CPU (as I do). It's a full AV, and they even have a full suite, the AV & Firewall together for added protection. I use their firewall myself.

But on a low end CPU (anything below 2GHz) it'll peg it to the max during scanning, if that's your case, avoid it. The firewall is fine.

Cat

 

[kiran1247]

Catilley - I have some problem with partition... already i put my doubts in some other post , but i didnt get reply

Can you help me?

Let me know , i can send you the details for you.

Thanks
Kiran

 

[catilley1092]

I found the thread and posted for you.

Cat

 

[Mortov Molotov]

Kiran,

I second Cat on NOD32: very fast, low memory footprint and a highly succesful detection capacity!


On side note though,

Norton is very intrusive software; with a commom uninstall, it still leaves junk on your system. Symantec indirectly confirms this by the development of their Norton Removal Tool

You should run this after you've uninstalled Norton, the usual way (via Control Panel).


cheerz,

Mortov Molotov

 

[kiran1247]

Morton - Do i need to download this "norton removal tool" , or it's pre-defined control panel ?

Thanks
Kiran

 

[lonewolfmage]

Norton Removal

Kiran~

You asked " Do i need to download this "norton removal tool" , or it's pre-defined control panel ?"

My answer is YES .. i know this was directred toward Morton... but i figured id chime in here ..

YES you do want to download and run the notron removal tool .. as a matter of fact run that rather than going through the add/remove programs ..

If i may also suggest .. AFTER runin g the Removal tool .. get CCleaner and run its registry toll ..

Those 2 combined will remove notron from your system completely

And YES I speak from experince .. (many years of working on systmes that had norton on them pre installed) having used both in conjuction.

Just my suggestion.
~LoneWolf

 

[kiran1247]

Thanks LoneWolf..

I'll execute everything as specified for safe side..and come back here if i come across any issues.

Thanks
Kiran

 

[chezzrob]

anti virus

personally i would suggest to use microsoft security essentials, and learn to partition the C drive to 60 gig then take images of C drive and store them on D drive. Renew the image every couple of months.

 

[catilley1092]

personally i would suggest to use microsoft security essentials, and learn to partition the C drive to 60 gig then take images of C drive and store them on D drive. Renew the image every couple of months.

Speaking from personal experience, avoid MSE as though it were a plague. It may be free, and supported by MS, but you can't hinge your security on MSE alone.

If one does decide to run MSE, the user will need at least a couple of scanners such as Malwarebytes (aka MBAM), and a spyware scanner such as SuperAntiSpyware.

Then run the ESET Online Scanner on a weekly basis.

http://www.eset.com/online-scanner

It's best for the ESET online scanner be ran in IE, as you'll have extra options to check.

For those who cannot afford a paid AV/IS suite, then Comodo offers one, free of charge. Comodo's AV is as close to the paid AV's as you can get. You can run the AV alone, or run both for best protection (I use the firewall).

However, on low end computers (any CPU under 2.0GHz), it (Comodo's AV) is heavy on resources. But I'd rather run that over MSE on any given day. There was a moderator on this very forum that, in his opinion, felt that MSE was the total solution for a lot of computer issues, but that's far from reality.

Cat

 

[kiran1247]

Hi Catilley,

I have UN-installed the "norton" with help of norton removal tool , and making sure that everything was wiped away from the laptop.. i installed ESET trial version for 30days..

This(ESET) is awesome.. i really liked it.

Thank you so much for you're help here..

Thanks
Kiran