2 Questions for you about Cnet Reviews and Virus Protection?

[Centrix]

OK guys I have two questions...what do you think about Cnet Reviews? and what Virus protection do you guys use? I've been using Windows Security essentials for a while now with out any problems, kinda of bored with it I wanted something new, lol. I brought Cnet up for those who are wondering because I check there often for reviews from them and to see what users have to say but I have grown bored of there input and since I have been coming here for years now with all the help I have received from you guys I thought I'd get your input on the above questions

Any input or help would be great!

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Ehh...Cnet is ok, usually a lot of the things on there aren't very useful (at least to me). I use AVG for virus protection, works wonders.

 

[s4mid4re]

I never look at cnet reviews, so oh well.

I use microsoft security essentials too.

 

[Blood Fetish]

Microsoft Security Essentials is an excellent product.

 

[gifi4]

I know people say you shouldn't (Please, Rydian, don't jump my back) but I use 2 anti-virus programs, AVG Internet Security and Microsoft Security Essentials. They work wonders together, the only conflicts I've had is they both picked up a virus at the same time and MSE complained that it disappeared because AVG removed it. I've noticed AVG misses alot of things and then MSE picks them up whilst when MSE fails, AVG picks them up.

I also do a monthly scan with Malware Bytes.

 

[Ericthegreat]

I use avg free, I personaly wouldn't recommend 2 anti virus cause a conflict between avg and windows defender killed my windows one time....

 

[Centrix]

So AVG or ESET guys?

 

[FAST6191]

Cnet Reviews- a bit like Amazon reviews really in that they pull from all sides so disregard the stars/scores and look at the reviews. Fortunately it is still usually just a matter of disregarding the ones with lousy spelling and grammar and then filtering out those that made simple mistakes.

As for MSE I install it on all the clients that need it (rather nicely it is free for up to 10 business machines as opposed to the vast majority of other free AV programs) as do most of my associates also in this PC fixing game- despite it paying the bills most IT types truly dislike being called out for this sort of thing and MSE seems to lessen the chances of it happening. I will allow AVG, antivir and comodo to stay on machines and quite like ESET/NOD32 (although I am not sure I can justify the price with the other options) and will suffer something bigger if it is properly wound in but norton and mcafee will be gone as soon as the removal programs (they have some nice standalone removal tools that are always in PC fixing kit/USB drive of wonder) are under the mouse.

@gifi4 by all means have two scanners but for different aspects of security (one to mail scanning and another for files and such or one for full active scanning and another for sandboxing, web security (hosts, adverts and such) and/or locking down a machine*) but two active scanners (especially with heuristics) can be worse than a bit of general slowdown as they will probably both try hooking into the same methods which is not good and may even reduce their efficacy.

*I have in the past tried to get people to use lower privilege accounts and windows coders are gradually getting the message (for that I will point the finger at UAC) but there are still times when rocking an admin account makes life easier.

However a solitary virus scanner is not a solution to the problem of security so http://gbatemp.net/topic/244450-whats-the-best-free-anti-virus/page__st__30__p__3032425#entry3032425 pretty much sums it up. A couple of things have changed (I quite like the sandboxing programs now and rely on the VM a bit less) and my day to day web browser is rather locked down compared even to then (as an aside ghostery + adblock + beef taco is not as good as that plus noscript and requestpolicy but it is whole heap easier to use- a vanilla noscript install or even a allow global with a few checks elsewhere tends to see me getting calls the first time the browser is used but ghostery tends to plod along just doing its thing) but it still holds.

 

[mysticwaterfall]

+1 to fast's post, then a few things of my own -

I like Avast + Threatfire myself, even though I do wonder if threatfire is doing anything most of the time. For something I'm supicious of, I tend to run it in Sandboxie first. For the browser I use WOT + Ad Block + Disconnect + Beef Taco (and chromeblock when I'm in that). I tried noscript but thought it was a little too overbearing.

 

[Rydian]

Cnet's downloads push adware now, so they've lost my trust.

As for protection programs I usually recommend MSE or Avast. And yeah have two security programs, but two AVs is the wrong choice. Go with an AV and then something like malwarebytes.

 

[Gahars]

I'm not a huge fan of the official reviews from Cnet (I've found myself disagreeing with their findings frequently enough). However, there are usually plenty of user reviews, so that can give you a good idea of how a large amount of people felt about the product at hand.

It's not perfect or absolute, but it's helpful nonetheless.