Best Antivirus Solutions
Virus Bulletin is a paid service that, among other things, tests antivirus products and rates them according to how well they catch virus, trojan and other malware threats.
They recently released the results of tests run on Windows Vista PCs and included threats known to be circulating in early 2008.
Of those tested, five products scored a perfect 100%.
Want to know what they are?
- Avira Antivir Personal (free for noncommercial use) - I mentioned this one recently in an update to my subscribers. It has gotten a lot of attention lately.
- ESET NOD32 - Been around for a long time; not known for ease of use, but good reputation.
- Fortinet FortiClient - This surprised me; I use FortiClient for secure IPSec VPN’s to client firewalls (Fortinet Fortigate Firewalls) but have never used the antivirus feature.
- Frisk FPROT - Another name that has been around a while.
- Symantec Norton Antivirus - It pains me to see them in this category. In times past they have missed infections that free online scanners have caught. Known for being a resource hog and slowing your computer down.
These five scored a perfect 100, but most names you know scored a 98 or 99.
Keep in mind however, that this is one set of tests. If those same tests were run today (whatever day you read this) you may find a different group in the 100% category. Also, as I noted above, no antivirus program is known for having more problems slowing down your computer or giving you difficulty installing or uninstalling than Symantec Norton Antivirus. I personally wouldn’t use it if it were free and always rated a 100.
The important points are these:
- Do select a quality antivirus program and make sure it is always up to date.
- Do employ a quality firewall, hardware (like the Fortinet Fortigate) if possible, software otherwise. This may or may not come with the antivirus software.
- Do use common sense when using email and surfing the web. I have written about this on my website - look under Computer Security.
- Do NOT engage in illegal file sharing.
- Do NOT act recklessly on social networking sites (myspace, facebook, etc). A news article just came out indicating that’s where hackers are spending most of their focus.
One product that scores very well overall, though not perfect in this test, comes with both antivirus, software firewall, antispam and other features is ZoneAlarm Security Suite from Zone Labs. This product I have found to be much easier to understand than many of its competitors.
The best product in the world can be useless if you don’t understand how to operate it. And these days, any comprehensive antivirus and firewall product will take some level of understanding by the user to make sure it is working properly protecting you.
Like many computer security suites today, you can pay one fee and cover multiple computers. Save $20 when you Download ZoneAlarm Security Suite today
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