Anti-Virus Software - can anyone recommend some top end stuff.

[Shamrock Shore]

Right - I've had enough of Norton 360. Hate when you can't turn off Outlook unless you reboot. I think it's dragging my laptop down also with its weight.

Can anyone recommend a top end anti-virus software that will protect agin all badness and do backups of important files to External drives.

Please don't recommend McAfee as I binned this yonks ago.

BitDefender any use?

All help appreciated.

[Tyrones own]

  NOD 32 is working great for me, no problems since installing it.

[J70]

'Tis strange stuff, antivirus and internet security suites. I left Norton three years ago when a new version wouldn't install. I've gone back to it this year and it works fine on the same computer.

Check this link for some ideas of what the various suites offer: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140127/article.html

Their ranking is:

1 Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008
2 Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0
3 McAfee Internet Security Suite
4 BitDefender Internet Security 2008
5 Trend Micro Internet Security 2008
6 Avira Premium Security Suite 7.06.00.168
7 Checkpoint ZoneAlarm Internet SecuritySuite 7.1
8 CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008

I don't know how many of these companies offer the equivalent of Norton 360 with the utility and backup extras.

[lynchbhoy]

SS
AVG is pretty good as an Anti virus prog - and its free.
You will need spyware and malware s/w too, not sure what the best are at the moment - Lavasoft did a good one that was aggain free for spyware I think it was - though it could have included malware too.

As for backups, is this an automated backup of system files etc?

If so, then I would maybe take a ghost image (ghost is not too exp).
Its quick and east to take a backup (image) and also to restore.
Pain in the erse for commercial operation, but for standalone or small groups of similar computers, well a lot of companies out there use it.

I would also get an external hard disk. Approx 100 euros for a 500 GB maxtor , western digital or seagate unit.
Save all your data to this rather than the PC or laptop.

PC's or laptops will require rebuilding every year or couple of years. They choke themselves, grind to a half - with more use, installed/uninstalled software etc.
So with a ghost image taken of the newly installed OS, plus all the apps you want on it, and the data siphoned off to the extenal hard disk - you will be back up and running in 30 mins.

give me a shout if you have any more questions or want further ideas.

There are other approaches and this one takes a bit of setting up, but you will be pretty well set up for disaster recovery - if thats what you require.

[hoopsaaa]

The best all round product on the market at present is Eset Nod - the Internet Security version. Its the one that has the least impact on PC/Network performance.

Kaspersky is a great product but it degrades the client performance.

External HD's are a great job for back up and cheap. You can use XP backup to automate the back up or simply copy all thoose important files onto the drive.

[Shamrock Shore]

I didn't realise this message made it. The board crashed last night just after I hit 'post'.

I did some research prior to reading your thoughts and decided to go with BitDefender.

Since then:

Fan in Toshiba has calmed down - it was almost constant prior to this.
System a wee bit faster

Haven't done a backup yet to see what this is lke - will do this eve.

However I still can't close Outlook fully. Fecker remains in the system tray (windows vista os) when I click the 'x' so I still collect emails when I may want to hide.

Any thoughts?

[tbrick18]

AVG is excellent, I use it myself.
They also now have anti-spyware software for free as well which is really good.

www.grisoft.com

Ghost is a good tool as already mentioned and would be a good idea along with the external drive...barring that, backup to DVD.

[J70]

Wouldn't touch AVG myself.

[ziggysego]

Wouldn't touch AVG myself.

Me neither. Nearly destroyed my computer a few months ago.

[Lar Naparka]

I used to use AVG .( I had the pro version at that.) It slowed the system down very much whenever I did a scan.
One day I suddenly found I couldn't connect to the update site. Problem was probably at my end as my laptop was still able to do so but I couldn't afford to wait about, so I headed to CNET and read the latest review on anti-virus programs.
Avast seemed a good, overall choice so I downloaded it and gave it a run. I'm totally satisfied with it. It runs unobtrusively in the background and updates itself without fuss. It is not a resource hog either.
I was using Spyware Doctor, via Google's Updater package so I decided to switch to PC Tools firewall product from the same company.
The three products above are free, they all run without slowing down system resources and all appear to be doing a satisfactory job for me.

[J70]

Spyware Doctor is the business, one of the best out there at the moment. I'm using it with Norton AV and Zone Alarm firewall at the moment. I use CC Cleaner to keep everything from getting clogged up (a must-have free programme, IMO) and System Mechanic for general utility stuff (it gets very mixed reviews, but I have no complaints).