Antivirus progs...what's the one you are using?

I actually am using PC CILLIN internet Security 2004

I was a big norton freek till 2002, then i change to Panda Platinum (cause its cheaper and it had a firewall, looks better than norton, and dont kill my CPU...but its not super good concerning detection) and since 2003 i only use PC Cillin...It kicks ass...and so cheap even the licenses...
Plus it is not among the 'First to Hit' antivirus by worms or viruses...

I would appreciate if anyone share his experience with AV cause security Problems especially like WITTY are more and more dangerous than ever and protection is esssential.

Symantec Enterprise here. Now. I went for two years without AV protection. I was doing McAfee first and that was fine. I think Symantec/Norton is better...

Either way, I didn't pick up a virus in almost 2 years, even though I saw and recognized them in email when I had them sent to me.

Best practices:

Don't open an email/attachment from someone you don't know
If you get an email/attachment from someone you know, but weren't expecting, don't open it until you find out if they sent it.

You might be able to get some info off these threads..

http://www.ozzu.com/general-discussion/best-anti-virus-software-t20246.html
http://www.ozzu.com/general-discussion/best-anti-virus-program-t21269.html

I'm still sticking with Norton. In 11 years online, I've found that a firewall is useless - at least for me personally. If you run a good anti-virus, use common sense online, and don't make yourself a target, a firewall is just going to slow you down and piss you off more than it helps you.

Personally, on the attachment front, With NAV Pro 2002, all known viruses are converted to "Norton Antivirus Removed.txt" attachments. They don't even make it to my E-Mail client.

I've setup a mail filter so that if Norton has flagged it, it gets put straight into deleted items. If I get an attachment that Norton does not recognize, I save all the attachments to a directory (rather than just opening them directly), do Norton's Live Update, just to check my definitions are good, and then scan the directory. Infected stuff gets deleted, stuff that passes is generally ok.

Remember, only .exe, .com and .msi files are actually executables. There are some other files, like .vbs, .js, and java applets that can be executed by double clicking on them (at least, it executes another application, and then processes the file's contents, and executes code contained within), but unless you're a coder, and you know you're expecting something from a client, you can pretty much nuke all these on sight.

Zip files, JPGs, GIFs, TXT files don't execute, can't contain any executable code, and can not infect your system.

I say Zip files, because the files themselves can't do anything to you, except load up in WinZIP, WinRAR, or other archiving application, but their contents could potentiall be viruses or trojans.

If somebody ever tells you "Don't open jpgs, I got infected by a virus in a jpg" ignore them. They don't know what they're talking about. Chances are the filename was something.jpg.exe or something.jpb.vbs.

Go into Windows Explorer (same on any version of windows) go into the folder options, make sure you UNCHECK "Hide extensions for known file types". Also make sure to show all hidden & system files.

i use NV and i have always used it, and i never had any problem up to now....

Well i guess Norton is awsome...but the problem is tat it is so well known that recently a flaw in internet security 2004 has been used for attacks...
I mean, now it's not only windows "gruyère" holes that are the main target but th defense programs like NAV and recently Black Ice fiewall that had a flaw and the Worm ,virus, call it whatever you want, just stick itself in memory without writing anything on the HDD and delete it's file structure...As for the double extension trick i used to do it when i was dumb enough qnd stupid to send the netbus trojan to people

Oh yeah, the anti virus/hacking/trojan tools have been a target for years.

There was (still is?) an application called NukeNabber, which basically you fired it up on startup, and it started listening on certain ports before the OS & other software on your system could grab them. Thereby preventing attackers from exploiting those vulnerabilities, and instead feeding you the IP of the attackers - it doesn't block EVERYTHING, it's not a firewall, simply a monitor, but if NukeNabber grabs a port and starts listening on it, the port is prevented from being accessed by other applications.

I wrote an application a few years ago that actually took down NukeNabber completely. Just crashed it outright, no warning, nothing. Then when the software looped around to try and grab hold of the port again, it was available, thus the system was again as exploitable as it would be if NukeNabber wasn't there.

I think this was actually the last bug ever found in NukeNabber. It worked against all versions of NukeNabber up to & including 2.9a. After I sent my exploit to the author, 2.9b was released, and I believe that is still the latest version of NukeNabber.

This was about 4 or 5 years ago that I did this, so attacking security software is nothing new. But, this is why security software is ever evolving to thwart these attempts.

I've got my Norton setup to automatically do the live-updates, and install the NAV patches. Other than that, there's not much you can do.

You can go along with the Mac principle - the less popular a computer system is, the less likely it is that hackers will develop tools against it. The same is true with anti-virus software. If a company released "All New Super MyProFixIt Anti-Virus" or something, and only 10 people on the planet are using it, then chances are, virus writers aren't going to be writing viruses specifically to take it down, but, being such a small & little-known anti-virus application it probably can't defend against as wide a range of viruses as the likes of Norton can.

Yes, Norton AV may be targetted specifically by viruses more than most, but, it's the most updated, and even viruses that specifically attack it are usually thwarted within a couple of days (and often before you're infected by such viruses) through the live update.

i use norton av enterpise addition, but i agree with ATNO?TW, it doesnt really matter what AV program you use, as long as you follow these two rules:

My AntiVirus: common sense

and when that fails, NAV2k4

and when that fails, low level format

I just use AVG anti-virus, because it's free. It hasn't found one virus on my comptuer, but just incase.

I used to have norton, but it wanted to auto-update while I was playing a game (it would wait for me to start playing before wanting to update) it was a system hog, and the only thing it found was some dialer that adaware would have picked up.

For a firewall, I just use my linksys router. My dad used to have blackIce but later he just got a smc router, so no real need for the software firewall.

I USE PANDA ANTIVIRUS PLATUNUM
WORKS WELL

All natural; just a well secured system and some common sense... and I don't use mail clients that facilitate infection (Outlook).

Well before i bought Pc Cillin this year, i had been with no av, cause the update expired...so i downloaded Platinum from the site to try it out...
It is good looking and has afirewall too. But catching viruses is not it's toughest point, so i used the heuristic function and it found that some of my pdf files (like my CV) were a probabal threat!!!???
And when i bought Pc Cillin and made a full check i realised that Panda missed the Klez wrom even though the update (the only one we can have in trial versions) contained the virus that got caught by PC Cillin.
Plus it's firewall is like gruyère cheese....
Put the firewall in optimum protection, got to norton website and check your pc to see if it is vulnerble...you'l weep

RAGNAR78

I DONT USE THE FIREWALL IN PANDA BECAUSE ITS BAD
I USE BLACK ICE FOR MY FIREWALL

BUT WENT TO NORTON AND DID THE SCANS

SECURITY SCAN:
HACKER EXPOSURE CHECK SAFE
WINDOW VOLNERABILITY CHECK SAFE
TROJAN HORSE CHECK SAFE

VIRUS DETECTION

FILES INFECTED 0
VIRUS STATUS SAFE!

I HAVE HAD PANDA FOR ABOUT 1YEAR ON ALL MY COMPUTERS AT WORK AND AT HOME AND I HAVE NOT HAD ONE VIRUS IN THE SYSTEM YET.

Well i see...then good if you're not catching anyvirus...

Just want to remind you to patch BlackIce because of the memery Worm Witty that uses a flaw in it (in case you did, i apologize for nagging too much cause i'm such a paranoid person with these stuff )

its all good
and yes i did patch