I am trying to determine which 2009 Virus program I should put on our computers at work.

Not looking for something free, I am going to be buying 10 copies of whatever.

Any suggestions of what you are using that might be working good?

We've had Norton, McAfee (never again) and CA.

Someone has told me they are using AVG with really good results.

Comments…suggestions?

AVG is good.  It's not solid, but it's good and cheap.

NOD32 ( http://www.eset.com/ )
Damn good, but pricey.  Although I think you can find it on Newegg for cheaper.  Smallest footprint…very lightweight.

Kaspersky ( http://www.kaspersky.com/ )
Also damn good.  I think it's missing a firewall.  A bit less than Nod32.

BitDefender ( http://www.hermanstreet.com/store/smarthtml/bitdefender-antivirus.html )
Solid AV.  Also has some good malware protection.  A bit more affordable than the other two.  I'd put it a notch above AVG.

Stay far away from the big names.  They're all clunky and over-priced.  McAfee is actually for child-molesters…they fail to advertise that.  Stay away.

OMG!

You are the man. I'd kiss you, but yeah.

Thanks.

I can get 10 copies of Kaspersky for only $ 179. That's less than AVG.

I'd love to try the NOD…but its $ 450 for 10 sets.

I might try it at home.

I will add a vote for a +1 for Kaspersky.

That's what Jenna put on her laptop.

Give her a high five for me.

I went with Kaspersky. The 10 pack came out to roughly $ 17 per computer. Only did one install so far and it was simple and is pretty invisible.

So….4 computer installs in and the thing is paying me back already. On one machine, it found a bug that that actually disabled Internet Explorer, removed it and repaired it.

I am so far very impressed.

Hmm…I'm glad you posted all this. DeeK keeps telling me that I need to find a stronger anti-virus (since i'm always screwing up my computer lol)

I may have to look into these…

Kaspersky royally fucked up our computer. We had a billion problems after the install, and once we finally took it off (which was a nighmare in the first place), problems all resolved. 

We've have good luck with Trend Pro. *shrug*  I know it's too late for the advice, but oh well.

I am having some issues with Kaspersky.

It is causing our mail server to fault out like never before and everyone is complaining about slower internet.

So in looking at the menu of protection, if I turn off the EMAIL filter, all our email issues go away.

If I turn off the "phishing" filter, all our internet problems go away.

It still is protecting our files and memory and web traffic along with something called "Proactive defense".

Will the phishing issue be of any concern? 

I think the problem is that these are older pc's and they cannot handle the additional load. On my newer models, Kaspersky is absolutely running perfect and unnoticed with all its defenses up.

Richard…any opinions?

The phishing filter is probably a heavy hitter because it basically checks every link for validity.  Phishing is mostly the process of faking a website to gather information from people.  Like when you get an email from a bank saying you need to update your information.  You click on a link that looks like the bank's site but it's just some fake site that records the login information you enter and then forwards you to the real site.  The computer usually isn't infected by anything…it's just a social engineering technique to gather information.

Ultimately it's a matter of how much you trust your employees…or even, how gullible you think they are.  I have computers with absolutely no AV software that have worked just fine.  As long as you're not clicking around where you shouldn't be (any unknown/questionable sites, porn, free screensavers, etc), you should be fine.  Phishing is a passive "attack".  You have to initiate it for anything bad to happen.  Actually, most viruses and worms out there require an action from the user.  They're more like vampires than viruses…they don't come into your house uninvited. 

If you still want some kind of phishing filter, IE8 has a pretty reasonable one built right in.

Well after reading your thoughts, I am going to turn off the phishing filter for sure on about 8 of our 10 sets.

2 people in particular, I am not turning ANYTHING off on. They have both proven to be total idiots when it comes to look alike invaders. I've spent over $ 300 on my 38 year old nephew in the last year having his computer fixed. Ugh.

But thanks man…your input is much appreciated.

If you were not a taken man, I'd offer up a daughter. LOL

Trend Pro is a good one, it's the one I had my dad purchase for his company.

Kaspersky is also good,  but it doesn't handle rejection well - in other words, if you have to remove it from the system, it will mess things up during uninstall.  As Richard said, the phishing is just verifying the links and comparing them with a valid link and "badguy" site and IP list.  If you have it hammered into the heads of the people checking email not to click on links from unknown sources, you can turn it off.

The email scanner can be a bit redundant depending on who you get your email through.  Most places that host email do a courtesy scan on incoming messages and will strip the popular email viruses and worms.  Thing is, the email scan checks the email as it comes into your email, then would check it again when there's an attempt to execute it.  So turning it off wouldn't leave a huge gaping hole.

Richard's right in his vampire rather than virus analogy… with the exception of some stuff you can get from Active X and plugins like that on the web.  It's possible for a virus to be embedded in a script or file, and when you pull it from a legit site (like CNN and yahoo) it can execute and try to infect the system.  Keeping applications patched and up to date as well as the OS and the antivirus (definitions and programs) does help prevent that sort of infection though.

But yeah… Avoid McAfee and Symantec/Norton's like the plague… they are just glorified viruses themselves.