Anti Virus software advice

[TonyT]

My Computer is having problems eg crashes, slow etc I do not want to upgrade to a new computer at this time I think the machine is still reasonable to run lightroom and photoshop cs5 I store my photo's on 2 external drives plus 1 other as well as DVD backup. I upgraded the machine about 2 years ago new motherboard and XP.
1.80 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
So I thinking of upgrading to win 7 add more ram and graphic card. If I do I will replace the harddrive and install win 7 and then restall the software any advice on this would be much appricated as well.
I run Norton anti virus at the moment I not sure I want to keeping using Norton so want do you use and why.
thank in advance
Tony

[BullcreekBob]

I stopped using Norton many years ago, it just seemed to want too many computer resources and it seemed no more effective than what I use on my laptop. So now all my pc's use a combination of Free AVG and Spybot Search and Destroy. Neither cost anything or nag me to buy them and both seem to work well.

I also use a great deal of common sense and cynicism when it comes to clicking on unsolicited email or links.

I've only ever had one PC infected and that was a DNS hijacking program on one of my laptops after it had been borrowed for a few days by a "friend".

[biggerry]

I use Comodo and have had no problems, once its trained it works well and I have had no problems, it is also free. Combined with Sypbot and Hijack This it makes for a adequate solution imo.

http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html

[the foto fanatic]

Norton 360 is very intuitive and doesn't hog resources the way older Norton programs did.

[phillipb]

Ever since I switched to windows 7 I've been using the free microsoft security essentials. I've had no problems, a few times some viruses have been detected and removed effortlessly.

[gstark]

Norton 360 is very intuitive and doesn't hog resources the way older Norton programs did.

[aim54x]

I'm running AVIRA (Free) on all the units in the house, it is pretty good at detecting things, and can be a bit overcautious but it has found and removed things that other programs (Norton, AVG) have missed.

[Mr Darcy]

Like BCB I use AVG. Used to use Norton bit these days I run windows On aVM on the Mac. So the risk is quite small I am also careful where I go. Most email and browsing is done in the Mac environment

[gstark]

these days I run windows On aVM on the Mac. So the risk is quite small I am also careful where I go. Most email and browsing is done in the Mac environment

Greg,

I accept that you're doing most browsing and email on the Mac, but I'm curious as to what level you believe that this reduces the risk on your VM hosted Windows sessions?

I've seen some very telling demonstrations whereby systems can be very easily and quickly compromised once they're on a network, and your VM is sharing the network with its host system. More importantly, the trap these days is not so much as a virus, but identity theft, and even reputable sites can be very quickly compromised.

What I'm seeing today is more and more reputation based protection, but the AV vendors admit to some issues there, as host sites become compromised. Vendors are including real time site checking, so that you can see, at the browser say, on a Google query, some sort of an indicator as to the safety of the site, but the issue is that some of the included links on that referred-to site may be troublesome.

[Mr Darcy]

I run four VMs on a regular basis. I have a fifth, and a template handy in case I need another one.
All are set to autoupdate & run AVG free. So there is some risk there
VM1: MSOffice. Never go online I do NOT use Outlook.
VM2: GSAK & GeoSetter. I go online, but only to one site. GSAK uses an email client to retrieve mail from a specific mailbox. The message needs to follow a specific template for it to be retrieved. It also has access to my GPSr
VM3: TurboCAD & related S/W I never go online. It is an old version, I don't even go online for updates
VM4: CS3. I only go online to update a website (includes posting photos here)
VM5: eTax. gets used once a year. spends more time updating itself than I spend doing my tax.

Also I occasionally build a new VM for a special purpose, then trash it when I am done.
None of them are ever used for more than an hour or so at a time. They only have access to the desktop & one external drive which is explicitly moved to the VM for use there.

This website is the highest risk one I use. I probably should set up another VM specifically for online banking though.

Pam's is the only other machine - another Mac - on the network & we don't have access to each others machines via the network. We do have networked drives in common, but they are turned on & mounted only at need.

We use WiFi, but have it locked down as far as we can. And you need to be on our property to be in range.

I am interested in Cam's comment about AVIRA though.