antivirus & security

[Papa Steve 55]

My Avast is up for renewal. Had for a couple years with no issues but I'm wondering if something is better out there and if anyone has any thoughts they would be willing to share. Hate to just renew out of habit and every piece of software out there claims to be the best.

Thanks

[dennyjones]

Why change if what you have is working for you?  The free Avast will work well.   AVG and Windows Defender also work well.   For several years I was an Avast user.  It worked great for me, never giving me any problems.   This year, I reformatted my computer and decided to give Windows Defender a try.   It seems to be working well.    I also use Malwarebytes.

[Jeremie Boop]

It may be worth looking to see if you can find anything that actively monitors for cryptoware/ransomeware attempts. I haven't looked into it for residential use, but I decided to go with Sophos with Intercept X for our work environment. It actively watches for processes that make changes to multiple files in a short period of time and if it sees something it stops the process, rolls the changes back, and it provides the ability to print out a log/graphic for everything that the process touched during it's life cycle. I'm sure that last part is overkill for home use, but unless you regularly do backups at home and keep them on a removable drive *because if those backups are kept on the computer or on a drive connected to the computer they can be locked too* crypto/ransomware is one of the worst infections you can get.

[Strandly]

I tried AVG briefly but it spammed me waaaay too much about buying things so I uninstalled it.  Been using Avast for several month now and no idea if it's working or not but until it gives me a reason to stop using it I'll probably keep on using it.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Strandly

[jamo]

Check with your ISP, they may offer one for free. 

[shortstop20]

I wouldn't pay for an AV. 

Avast, AVG and Windows Defender are all good in my opinion. 

 

[gregsandiego]

12 hours ago, Papa Steve 55 said:

My Avast is up for renewal. Had for a couple years with no issues but I'm wondering if something is better out there and if anyone has any thoughts they would be willing to share. Hate to just renew out of habit and every piece of software out there claims to be the best.

Thanks

This might night work for you, but I finally got sick of Microsoft machines and shifted all my personal work to Chromebooks, Google Docs and everything is in the cloud.

Guess what. Go ahead and infect my Chromebook if you can, because I can just reset it to factory default. Plus it starts up in seconds, not minutes. Maybe in the old days I needed Office at home but not anymore.

That being said - what kind of work do you need to do?

 

 

[Papa Steve 55]

I'm just CYA on home stuff. Ransomware seems to be beyond the old style annoying virus that we all got at one time or another. I do the usual web surfing and at times get off the main stream following something that looked interesting. I just had not thought about it at all for a few years, the renewal notice got me to thinking. Thank you all for your insights though.

[LHH]

I just use whatever is built into windows these days. That and an ad blocker. Sometimes if I want to go overkill I'll use Firefox and the noscript addon.

Mostly a bit of common sense and being a little vigilant with what you're browsing works well - don't click on ads for one thing.

[jkelley9]

I use bitdefender. It goes on (steep) sale regularly for the 5-device, 1-year licenses which is enough to cover my home's devices (2 desktops, 3 laptops).

It's well rated and is pretty clean. 

[Hacker James]

I use Mcafee and also Malwarebytes (freebie). Mcafee automatically updates itself, the Malwarebytes requires manual scans but will often catch things that Mcafee misses.

[Valleygolfer]

I like Commodo's internet security. They have a free version that is pretty solid and runs in the background ftmp.