whats the best or good virus protection out there?

ESET Smart Security, it has a 30 day full free trial, try it first then buy a license after 30 days this is both anti virus and firewall.

if you want just anti virus then use nod32 on that site and not the smart security.

Edited by DST4ME - 14 Aug 2009 at 3:14am

thanks

eset is much better IMO and has much better reviews, just my 2 cents, I wouldn't recommend it, but thats just me.

Norton 200999999999999999

awesome, never slows me down, always finds every virus in files. and it even detects and blocks intruders, plus it scans for spyware too, so you dont need to get a seperate program

its just superb, i tried McAffee or howevr u spell it, it slowed me down, and let in viruses, with Norton ive never had a problem yet and it has a gaming mode to minimize its processes


Edited by <8) slunK parade - 15 Aug 2009 at 5:34pm

doesnt matter to me, their AV is top of the line now 

well ill let you know ;)

I've been impressed with ESET on my new rig. Its great. I have Norton 09 on my old rig and its massively better than previous versions, its excellent, but I would give the NOD to ESET.

Had a friend of mine a few years back, a corporate network stress tester, notice that a Norton auto-update had a virus in it. He still uses them cuz they fixed it quick once told but that makes me a lil queasy about them.

I use Kaspersky 2010 having previously used Norton Corporate edition (the horror) and then a random poorly coded Indian antivirus thing that i was duped into buying from my local computer repair guy.

Though ever since I upgraded to win7 7600 I figured out that if you toned UAC down from it's default obsessive compulsive setting, and left windows firewall/defender on then you're unlikely to ever get trojans/viruses unless you download random email attachments from Nigerians scammers and/or activly seek pr0n.

If you are talking Norton 2008 or older than yes that is true.

Norton 2009 and ESET actually both play in the same playground, similar scan times, boot up times within seconds of each other, Virus Bulletin and AntiVirus comparatives rate both eSet and Norton VB100 certified and Advanced+ respectively.

The pair are effectively well matched contenders either one an excellent resource to protect your system. It really comes down to your preferences as effectiveness and speed are the same.

Many throw out Norton due to history, but having myself been a computer user since 1979 with a Commodore Pet 16 and moving up to the good old PC in 1984, I will say that back in the day Norton was also one of the best, for many years, no one would even consider using anything but Norton to protect their computer... They strayed for a while I will admit, and for a while they were a true dog. Here is hoping they have gone back to their lean mean roots and realized that the purpose of anti-virus is to protect the machine invisibly... not to cripple it so no virus can run at all due to lack of resources available... which seemed to be their plan starting in the early part of 2000.

Dave

Happy Norton Internet Security 2009 user.

We agree to disagree as I said before eSet has its issues as well.  It has failed to meet VB100 several times, and has in past years only met advanced not advanced+ certification from AV Comparatives.

I am not familiar with the DST4Me Anti-virus rating service, but VB100 and Antivirus comparatives are two very well trusted anti-virus rating and comparison groups.

I am talking about reports, like these, with information on testing methods and standards, where A/V software are compared real world against each other and rated on performance in finding or preventing infection.

Edited by Kliebor2 - 26 Aug 2009 at 6:37am

I just got back home and wanted to pass on a few comments as a newbie with no history of PC ownership.

I decided to go with a DS machine because, in part, no matter the build, it comes CLEAN. No bloat. In keeping with that theme, I have taken my time exploring Windows Vista, reading this (and other) forums, and have talked to various tech supports. I am enjoying the journey. The people on this forum have a lot of knowledge and experience, and a discussion like this is valuable and much appreciated. I am not experienced enough to add to the debate here, I just want to comment on my recent experience installing a security scheme on my new machine.

I called ESET tech support and I was told that Smart Security and Nod32 are identical in that they both have the exact same anti virus, anti spyware, and anti spam modules. Smart Security also has a Personal Firewall module. The tech said that if Windows Firewall is sufficient for my needs, get Nod32, it's cheaper. If you want a "beefier" firewall, get Smart Security. Because I do a lot of stock market trading, I went with the full SS package.

Before installing ESET, I disabled Windows Defender and Windows Firewall. I restarted the computer. I then installed ESET. After installation, I did another restart.

When the computer restarted, I had ESET perform a full computer scan. It took a couple of minutes to do the initial scan.

The setup was straightforward. Click on "Setup" and the following links show up:
Antivirus and antispyware
Personal Firewall
Antispam

The Antivirus and antispyware provides the following protections which can be individually disabled or configured with a click:
Real-time file system protection
Document protection
Email client protection
Web access protection

The Personal Firewall contains
Network traffic filtering (or you can click to block, disconnect or disable)
Automatic filtering mode (enabled by default) or Interactive Filtering mode

Antispam module
Email; Client Protection (or click to disable or reset spam counter)
User's Address Book (Whitelist, blacklist, or Exclusion List)

The TOOLS button shows you Log, Quarantine, Scheduler and SysInspector functions.

The whole shootin' match runs on startup and takes 5 seconds. It constantly scans and my Firefox, World of Warcraft, and stock tickers are blazing fast.

The ESET tech guy warned me that if I choose to purchase ESET to be sure that I use the ESET uninstaller BEFORE installing either Smart Security or Nod 32.

One last note. When I go to the START menu and bring up the Security Center control panel the "Firewall, Automatic updating, Malware protection, and Other security" settings are green and happy.

Simply my experience.

Are there recommended settings for ESET? I read somewhere in the forum that DST4ME was going to post his suggested settings. Sure would be helpful.

Don't forget ...

EPIC STORY MAN 

Man oh man DST, you go above and beyond once again. Thanks a ton for the precise info.