Anti-Virus: tECh's Top 5
My Thoughts, My Use, My Ratings...
written by: tEChniiQue

As all of you know, I'm sure, viruses are becoming smarter by the day and anti-virus makers have to step up their game to provide prevention/protection to the customer.

My personal views on virus/anti-virus are simple. I look at it like a scientist in an attempt to cure a disease. If there were a cure for the common cold, A.I.D.S., herpes, etc...doctors, pharmacies, various scientists, and I could only guess how many more people...would be out of a job. Well, I think that computers and viruses are the same way. Never-the-less, viruses amongst other things exist and serve as serious threats to our systems so we have to have prevention and removal software to keep our computers up to par.

In the past few weeks, I've sampled several anti-virus tools and I want to share my experience of them with your and throw in a little ranking to make my thoughts even more clear.


RANK #5: AntiVir FREE

Amongst the free anti-virus programs out there on the market, this is the best of them all. What's it's best quality? Well, it's not the part about being free which is a good thing. It's very easy to use which is important nowadays. It has been recorded at detecting 90% of known threats by several agencies such as PC World. But it doesn't seem to hack it when it comes to unknown threats which will serve as a downfall.

It got into my ranking because it is freeand it really does do a good job overall at protecting a PC. Afterall, something is better than nothing but this something could servers it's purpose and hold it's own on just about any PC.

RANK #4: Kaspersky $40

I really wasn't overtaken by the look of the software but it does perform on a great level as virus detection. It's test have shown that when thrown in the cage with backdoor programs, bots, and Trojan Horses, it's finds them all better than 99% of the time.

I found it hard to get around the interface though, it's not necessarily user friendly. It will take a little time to get used to for the first time user and novice users to PC's altogether.

One of the best things I can say about this software is that it has one of the fastest reaction timesaround when it comes to new threats on the block. It will definitely aid in protecting many PC's around the world for some time to come.

RANK #3: McAfee $40

Bottomline: This program is great unless you begin to have problems and need a little customer support. It will cost you in that area.

The program was very simple to use, easy to navigate. My advice, is to use the FREE 24/7 internet chat sessions because any questions you may have will cost you about $3 or $4 a minute for telephone technical support.

McAfee is a strong application but the extreme charges for telephone help turned me off of it...It is one of the best, but you can do better.

RANK #2: Norton $40

One of the most popular applications in it's field. Something that stands out about Norton from the other applications is it has some features that most other anti-virus products don't. It scans instant messaging traffic, it secures the PC against hijackers, keystroke loggers, and other forms of spyware and adaware.

I believe the price is reasonable but phone support may charge consumers up to $30 a minute. For Norton, I could look past the telephone support price. Why? It's such a popular program, there are several forums out there that could aid a consumer in tough spots.

It is truly one of the more advanced antivirus programs and would do any user and their PC good.

RANK #1: BitDefender $30

Well, if you're looking for a pretty interface with bells and whistles...look elsewhere. If you're looking for the best all around around antivirus protection, you've stumbled on the right application.

Most of the options you will need are located in the AntiVirus and Update tabs. You can decide how you want the program to look on the screen as well as several other options like how virus data is sent to you.

The scan time-frame is a bit lengthy but it's a quality search that is usually hit and rarely miss.

Some honorable mentions are:
F-Secure AntiVirus
Panda Titanium
Alwil Software Avast Home Edition
Trend Micro
Grisoft AVG

These are just my opinions. Do not take the above information, apply it to a purchase, and be upset with my opinionated review. The above is just my thoughts and is in no way an attempt to deface or exclude a company from recognition. Thank you for reading and I hope this gives you some insight and the programs above.

BitDefender is definitely a good prog. Although I would love to try this other one called The Shield Pro 2006. Got the impression from this review.

http://antivirus-software.6starrevie...02006%20review

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I've been using AVG 7.1 email server edition for awhile now and it's been good to me so far. I dunno what it costs,but the free version is just as good. Considering that I usually have about 1-3 updates a day,they must be on top of things as far as their database.

http://free.grisoft.com/softw/70free...ee_375a703.exe

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I have to disagree with Norton being #2. It doesn't do a good job of protecting against Trojans, doesn't come with a stateful packet firewall, and it puts an amazing amount of drag on system performance. I personally feel it's awful. Mcafee is okay, unless you want to uninstall it. If you uninstall Security Center, it will automatically download and install itself again. The only way to prevent this is to go into the registry and delete the appropriate keys. My Personal top three are BitDefender, AVG, and Trend-Micro PC-Cillin.

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AVG Free for what it is is an amazing prog, however I can safely tell you the best protection from viruses is from Kaspersky, a full scan can take ages,however it is worth it, the kaspersky scanner is the most intense and powerfull scanner offering a huge detection rate.

I myself, just use AVG Free & ZA Pro, used to be Agnitums Outpost Pro & AVG pro, like the new combo better though.

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Yeah Kapersky does have the #1 detection rate according to just about every online review. The Suite costs $80, way overpriced.

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To be honest,one AV program that is highly recomended by alot of people in my rings is NOD32. It's small and takes next to no time to do a scan...and it's been tested out in the wild for quite awhile now.

It's not free,but it's well worth it.


IMHO Norton is crap,in the same sense that Aol is crap. They both will do what you want,but they are targeted by all the bad people. Alot of trojans are scripted to turn programs like Norton and Zone Alarm off once inside. Mainly because they are widely used.

Also,don't even get me started on trying to get Norton out of your machine.....I'd rather cleanse my machine of a virus than dig through the registry to get all that Norton bunk out.


...but that's only my opinion.

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Why is norton on this list? Its the worst AV software and a massive headache for my daily routine with clients. I agree that the Free-AV (Antivir) is a really great product and I install it on all of my clients systems very low resource requirements and catches almost everything.

I agree Norton is awful, it runs too much in the background and slows even fast PC's to a crawl. The main reason the auto protect fails is because it's specifically targeted by worms and trojans, due to its popularity. Norton does have a pretty robust AV database, and is updated frequently. The problem is the bloat running in the background, and the amount of malware specifically targeting it make it undesirable. That being said, it's just Tech's top 5, so it's all opinion. I doubt any of our top 5 would look alike when it comes to AV/Anti-Spy apps.

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AVG Free
Nod 32
...why are neither of these included?

both are better than norton

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