How does your AntiVirus stack up?

[Randal Stevenson]

Greg,
to each his own, but my experience with norton has been less than steller. I guess the biggest issue I have with them is the amount of system resources used by norton. At one point I had decided that I needed to buy a new computer due to it running so slow. Then I read somewhere that norton was such a system/memory hog. I switched to AVAST and , I swear my system performance went up by 50-75%. It also reduced my system lockups/crashes to almost never. I also had some subscription renewal issues with them as well. Let's just say I will never give Symantic another penny of my money.
However this is just MY experience.

Also in addition to good AV, I would suggest everyone use a good firewall. My firewall finds more questionable stuff than the AV, but both have ID'd stuff pretty regularly. I would not suggest ANYONE go without either while cruising the web. I use Sygate Personal Firewall, not the cheesy Windows one. I do run Windows Defender along with Adaware, Spybot, and others. Another good one to run occasionally is HijackThis! It can find and get rid of a lot of malware the other can't. Be careful with it as it is possible to hose your system. You can post a log in some AV forums and people will guide you through what to get rid of.

I have more then a few Windows friends, who recommend NOT putting a virus checker on your system, until you suspect a problem. Then put it on, check it, remove any problems, then remove the virus checker. That keeps it from being a resource hog, and if like me you have had one or fewer actual virus problems (the only one I ever had, targeted the antivirus program), the cure can end up as a problem.
I also recommend a dual step antivirus (double check your systems with something like the free online antivirus checkers).
As for the firewall, I still recommend a dual setup to those that ask me. I don't know about Vista, or know anyone who uses Windows firewall by default, so I don't have experience with that, but I do recommend a NAT box (basic hardware "firewall" for the computer illiterate) and something like the free Zone alarm (DO NOT turn off the outgoing announcements). I don't know what is "new" out there, but ZA was one of the few that actually notified you of OUTGOING connections (can give you a warning sign).

[Russ Filtz]

Sygate does the outgoing announcement, plus you can allow/deny/prompt for each website as need be so you don't constantly get messages. As for the AV, I'd still like to know before it even hits my PC. A lot of malware can be silent and do a lot of damage, steal passwords, etc., before you see any sign. Why risk it? With the relatively cheap cost of RAM, the resource hogging of good AV software should be minimal.

My AV will detect and stop malware from installing itself, so you don't have to wait for it to install and be detected during a later scan. Kills it before it even gets on your machine.