anti-virus .. the best 1 is ..

i've used Norton anti-virus before and stuck with it. however, for a DS gaming pc, i'm starting to think Norton will not be good enough.

i don't visit porn sites. i mostly surf, play games (once my DS pc arrives), and listen to LOTS of music via iTunes.

which anti-virus software do you recommend and adware/spyware software? i definitely want my DS pc protected from viruses and hackers.

thanks !!

it's b/c i saw another forum talking about other anti-virus softwares that i've never heard of. this led me to believe otherwise of Norton.

I've been using Norton Internet Security 2010 for about a month (after issues I had with BitDefender when I went to Win7).  No issues at all and I don't notice any performance degradation.  It is so much better than Norton was 2-3 years ago.  IMO no need to switch unless you experience issues.

I'm on Norton Internet Security 09, and it's fantastic. But still, I'd recommend Microsoft Security Essentials, since it's free. I know I'm going to do that as soon as my Norton license expires..

Edited by Gringo - 13 Dec 2009 at 3:22am

I'd go with Bitdefender if you're really into security. (Uses more resources)
Eset is ranked pretty high in my opinion as well. (Uses very little resources)

Norton is just a big hog on resources and will actually bog down your machine. Doesn't matter how powerful it is. I learned that the hard way.

what feature did eset not have? cause it has them all.

you are right it does not have parental controls. but that is not usually a part of any firewall.

New user, first post... been lurking for a few days.

I've used a ton of antivirus for many years...(I  even had a virus 'farm' for a while for the fun of it and to test antivirus and cleaning techniques) and I agree with DST4ME, going for a paid version is the cheapest and most effective route when your time starts to become valuable.

Norton, B/D, Eset, Avira, etc they are all good.

Personally, I lean towards B/D (2009+ for XP, 2010 for W7), for my needs it strikes a good balance between price, features and performance, PLUS it has a gaming mode that comes very handy when you really need that extra oomph.

Transitioning between XP and 7 can be a little time consuming if you don't read directions. Simplest course of action:

- Clean install of Windows 7, install B/D 2010, you'll have no problem with that.

- If you go the Windows upgrade route: then you should completely uninstall B/D BEFORE you upgrade to 7, turn on MS antivirus suite, upgrade to 7, do all the post upgrade activities, then install B/D 2010

BTW, if you have a 2009 license when you move to W7 they upgrade you to 2010 for free

Finally: Antivirus is not the final answer, you should regularly use other tools (but not active antivirus): CCleaner, Highjack This, Supera, Malwarebytes, MGTools, etc are good to have in your tool belt.

I will go ahead and disagree, with DonSasquatcho, all you need is a good anti virus and one proper anti malware like spysweeper, tho malwarebytes is a good one also, but I trust spysweeper due the my own testings, and good firewall, and the last but most important thing you need is commonsense, without commonsense all the tools in the world won't matter.

o.k.

I have used ESET the last 2 years and have had 0 problems.

For me... you get what you pay for. ESET isnt all that much per year(about 1 new game or less than half of a MMORPG subscription) I use it because it has a low profile,installs easy and is very secure. It doesnt take up much resources either (about 51MB of RAM) so for me its a easy choice.

webroots's spysweeper is the best anti spyware, but its av is not the best.

for best setup, go with eset for av and firewall and SS for anti spyware, done.

I'm a big fan of spysweeper and you will see me recommend it all the time, but its av is not as good and not as light as eset.

multi layer secturity does not provide better security, you are right its in your head.

for av and firewall eset is one of the best, defiantly very light and quick, it has an anti spyware also but as I mentioned nobody does the anti spyware as good as spysweeper, so for that reason I recommend and use eset and SS, but keep in mind 90% of security is commonsense, these apps only help you 10% and even then if you don't use them right they can't help.

for example a good av or spysweeper are no good if their definitions are not updated regulary.

if you open a downloaded file without scanning it or ignoring a warring from ss or eset then they can't help you there either.

good luck

also be careful reading reviews, most are full of crap if you ask me.

in my tests against SS, adaware did not do well, my top 2 where spysweeper and malwarebytes, they both pickedup stuff others did not, including adaware.

Edited by DST4ME - 07 Mar 2010 at 2:17am

Pilgrim,

BitDefender internet security 2010