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Drop Commercial Antivirus?

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Kawzman

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2003
Location
San Diego, CA
I’m a Maximum PC subscriber and read an article that surprised me. I’ve been Googling and reading through my favorite forums looking for other’s thoughts on the matter.

In the March 2015 issue, Get More Speed for Free article, Page 41; Tweak 8 recommends dropping commercial antivirus in favor of Windows Defender. Since Norton got their act together several years back and Norton is not “as much” a resource hog, I have been using their security suite. I currently utilize Norton Security 2015 on my desktop (Windows 7 SP1) and three laptops (an old HP Pavilion dv7 with Windows 7 SP1 and two Toshiba Satellite C55-A5302 with Windows 8.1).

While on deployment, with limited internet connectivity, Norton Security 2015 significantly slowed my HP laptop to the point that had to uninstall it once I determined that it was the culprit. The performance delta once removed was substantial. I returned home a few days ago and find myself hesitant to reinstall Norton Security 2015 after experiencing the performance boost. A potential contributing factor may have been access to unstable low bandwidth internet while in port Dutch Harbor about every two weeks (think mid to late 1990s dialup slow). Norton was sometimes able to download and install updates but rarely. Could incomplete updates have been a factor? Possibly but for only my laptop.

Maximum PC and other’s reviews of antivirus software typical rank Norton’s suite among the best and fastest but the decreased performance is obvious on all my laptops. At the same time I’m hesitant to trust the security protection options integrated into the Windows OS because, well, it’s Microsoft. Seeing how they’ve dropped the ball in the past compounded by the general negative perception makes it difficult to trust them with the security of my network and platforms. However, perception is not fact and I prefer to make informed decisions, hence my current research and trek of the forums. To complicate matters I have a wife and kids that are users so I need to protect my network from them as well since security also hinges on the user’s actions.

I also utilize Norton Family to implement parental controls for the kids on their laptops (Toshiba Satellite C55-A5302) and their user accounts on the desktop PC). Windows offers parental controls but not nearly as robust as Norton Family with the only features being time limits, game ratings, and program access. Does not offer online activity monitoring, filtering, or blocking.

So what are the thoughts here? I strive for realistic high performance on all my gear but not at the sacrifice of strict security measures needed to protect them. Admittedly, none of my laptops are top of the line but their purpose is really just for keeping the kids off my desktop and homework use while mine is something to use away from my desktop and while on deployment. It’s great that information on this topic is so readily available online but I have found, as with so many other topics, that there’s no shortage of conflicting opinions and facts in support of both sides.

Cheers,
Kawzman
 
Im the only user for my PC, the only thing protecting it is Windows Firewall and Windows Defender. No 3rd party garbage for me.

A PC with my wife and kids... heh, its more protected and runs an AV. I don't trust those yayhoo's not to click on things they shouldn't!!
 
the best antivirus of all is safe browsing practices

bit defender is the best paid antivirus, security essentials is on the low end when it comes to defending against viruses, but it is light weight and not as in-your-face as many others. I personally stay away from Norton stuff.


what I do is use a combination of bit defender free edition and good backups as my antivirus. the way I figure it, most antivirus is not worth much anyway, so might as well use something free and lightweight for whatever it is worth, plus you can usually get rid of a virus by google searching the solution, for those times that your computer is truly borked, just make an image of the current system, use a bare-metal backup to restore to an earlier time, then you can mount the virus infested image to recover any files that you REALLY need, which should be few if you are doing daily backups.

the theory is that a good backup can always solve a virus problem whereas a antivirus will NEVER fix a broken hard drive.
 
Im the only user for my PC, the only thing protecting it is Windows Firewall and Windows Defender. No 3rd party garbage for me.

This.

the best antivirus of all is safe browsing practices

the theory is that a good backup can always solve a virus problem whereas a antivirus will NEVER fix a broken hard drive.

And this.
 
I went by the thread title...probably should have read more though. I thought he was considering dropping it all together. :)

As far as what I use on my familiy's pc, an older version of Avira without all the bloat!
 
I swear by ESET personally. Like Wathnix said, safe browsing is the best bet. But even then I have come across websites that looked legit in every manner and weren't. I myself know what's bad and good, but then again I don't set myself up for the best case scenario. You don't leave your seatbelt off and hope not to get in an accident, you use it for the possibility's and I believe the same for AV. A solid yet light antivirus is a must.

Eset Nod32 does that for me, minimal system resources used, and up there with the top in virus detection. They have their smart security that includes firewall, parental control, and other perks which may be useful to some but a little over the top for my needs.

Having said that, security essentials, and all other free AV I have seen in the workplace day in and day out, those machines are always infected, and I mean always. Those with payed AV have no, or very few and minor viruses, usually just your normal PUPs.
 
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Paying doesn't = more protection. I don't think I've known a single soul who calls the antivirus maker to utilize the "support" they pay for. All one would do is probably yell at them anyway wondering what they're paying them for in the first place.

I have ESET Business at work and sit behind high end enterprise grade firewalls and still get a handful of staff who get infected a year. I've had one that was able to delete all of ESET's files. And most recent was an email attachment that came through and was opened by someone.

If your business is of any decent size, you MUST pay for licenses due to the EULAs. The free stuff is often specifically limited to home only or businesses with ~10 or less computers.
 
Thanks for the replies. Yeah, if it were me just by myself using my gear, my approach would be more simplified (not norton). But since I'm deployed months at a time I have to have something protecting the fam (mainly from themselves) with something that's fairly hands off.
 
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