2014 Antivirus recommendations

[rambo919]

The big problem with most paid AV's these days is they are either uber-complicated or treat you like a child.
For free I'd love Avast AV and Comodo Firewall but the two never seem able to play nice.

 

[Carnajo]

Another thing to keep in mind is that some are better at removing malware and others are better at preventing malware. A while ago Comodo kept getting poor reviews for not removing all malware, but on a clean system it was tops at preventing new infections.

Also, why all the hate for AVG?

 

[w1z4rd]

Java doesn't come anywhere near any of my machines, if needed I'll run it in a VM. Java is responsible for over half of virus infections on Windows machines.

Yeah, its the easiest, but definitely not the only method of getting a payload delivered. But yeah, when it comes to mass infections, it is currently the easiest. I run Java, but I need it I have games and applications that rely on it. Its more important for me to keep java updated than my AV

MSE is good enough for me.. and common sense even more.

ANY anti-virus program can miss a new worm, virus etc. but what bothers me the most is, folks that don't keep their software up-to-date. I had to remove so many virus of students laptops it's scary (ok, granted maybe they didn't have access to the net on their personal pc's to update the definitions, but still).

common sense to me = don't insert someone else's flash drive in your pc to copy the latest cracked version of angry birds

So get any anti-virus program and keep it up-to-date and don't click on things you are unsure of.

This is not about "just missing a worm", this is about its the number one AV that viruses writers crypt for.

 

[Eskomisaloser]

MSE is good enough for me.. and common sense even more.

ANY anti-virus program can miss a new worm, virus etc. but what bothers me the most is, folks that don't keep their software up-to-date. I had to remove so many virus of students laptops it's scary (ok, granted maybe they didn't have access to the net on their personal pc's to update the definitions, but still).

common sense to me = don't insert someone else's flash drive in your pc to copy the latest cracked version of angry birds

So get any anti-virus program and keep it up-to-date and don't click on things you are unsure of.

Disabling autoplay would also help big time the rest I agree with

 

[SirFooK'nG]

I personally don’t believe that free anti virus products work so well. There are teams of people preparing the update definitions, so why would it make business sense for some company to give it away? So my opinion is to go for a paid product from a big company, then you can be sure they put allot of people on the development team for the new daily definitions.

The antivirus thing is like selecting a German car, what do you like, Audi, BMW and Merc, all good cars, and all roughly doing the same, but each one do something a bit different.

So I use Common Sense + NIS 2014 for standalone users (home users) and Symantec Endpoint for Corporate users.
While using Symantec/Norton products, I keep in mind that it doesn’t detect all viruses/malware etc., but on the other side I also know that Trend, Mcafee, Kaspersky detect those viruses, but let others go through un noticed.
Like they say, better the devil you know..

So then Android is shyte.... its free...

 

[roguemat]

+1 to MSE

 

[VC-1]

+1 to MSE

+1 to MSE

 

[Chris-Ven]

AVG internet security

 

[AthenianOwl]

Microsoft Security Essentials aka MSE.

 

[Iceman360]

MSE

 

[koeksGHT]

Avast has "limited stocks" buy quick

 

[systemofpurplelimpminion]

I did a search on the forum regarding AV software but most are dated.

I am looking for a free and paid AV. I am using AVG free but a scan on another computer led to a USB worm. I will be backing up a server soon via USB as per my client's wishes and I do not want to infect that server.

I'd like some recommendations please.

No complaints with Avast so far (wasn't a big fan back in the day)
Also have a look at nod, it's a paid for app and not one of the more popular antiviruses in SA, but it has only impressed me so far.