Comments | corinna_5: The internet is made of tubes

corinna_5

The internet is made of tubes

Oct 26, 2006 16:20

We've been on the road, interviewing people about how they use their home computers, and I've been astonished, really astonished, at how many people do not have anti-virus software on their home computers ( Read more... )

Comments 12

cereta October 26 2006, 16:31:43 UTC

$100? I get pretty full coverage for $39 a year. Their tech support sucks ass, mind you.

corinna_5 October 26 2006, 16:36:32 UTC

D'oh! I was estimating up from what I remembered the cost of the anti-virus + firewall. Fixed.

Get a firewall package too, if you don't have one!

cereta October 26 2006, 16:43:20 UTC

Nope, that comes with ;). Or it came with the original package that came with the computer.

musesfool October 26 2006, 16:42:52 UTC

ZoneAlarm's free firewall is pretty spiffy. And I've been using BitDefender as my antivirus for a while now, and it's good - I think it's $40 a year, as well, but I haven't had the same troubles with it I had sometimes with Norton.

mecurtin October 26 2006, 17:01:01 UTC

We use Norton and I hate it, it's an incredible resource hog. Is Bitdefender bad, too?

musesfool October 26 2006, 17:10:25 UTC

I don't honestly know. I just know I haven't had the same problems with it that I had with Norton, where it would lock up, or not let me update it, even when I'd paid for the privilege etc. It was recommended by PC Magazine or PC World or one of those as a good alternative, so I bought it for my dad's PC as well as mine.

Via friendsfriends... primad October 26 2006, 17:19:10 UTC

We use TrendMicro's Client/Server Security Agent on the server and all of the computers/workstations (four desktops. two laptops) in our house which is probably more than most need but while we used to use Norton back in the day when we only had one computer, the spouse (network engineer/system analyst) prefers TrendMicro and uses it for his clients.

abbylee October 26 2006, 17:29:49 UTC

I use ZoneAlarm Internet Suite as my basic Firewall/Antivirus/Spyware software. I had been using it's firewall only, but my ISP offers a free upgrade, so I figured it was easier than using two separate programs as I had been. It's $49.99 USD per year, but the $39.99 version would do everything that I use anyway.

The main advantage of Norton Antivirus is that it's pretty popular, so it's easy to get help figuring problems out. But the main disadvantage is that it's pretty popular, so it's not uncommon for hackers to write against its heuristics.

I remember seeing a good list somewhere that ranked a large number antivirus software by how well they caught infections. I'll see if I an wrangle it up.

abbylee October 26 2006, 19:27:22 UTC

I still can't find the specific site I'm thinking of, but here's a ranking from PCWorld in January for a number of anti-virus software:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/125857-1/article.html

And here's a ranking from PCWorld in May for some security suites:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/124475-1/article.html

ratcreature October 26 2006, 17:51:17 UTC

I use Linux because Windows and its applications are too expensive for me to afford anyway, and I don't use any kind of anti-virus software. I mean *nix viruses exist as proof of concept, but they aren't a problem, Obviously I keep up with patches for my system in order to not leave any potential exploits open anyway, and I use a firewall too (one hardware through my router and an additional software one that came with my distro), and I never had any problems, and did I have to pay anything for extra software either.