Antivirus advice

[merluzo]

Once again...

once again I installed Windows XP in my veteran k6 computer.

Now it runs smooth and (almost) troublefree. No hangs, no bluescreens, no Irq conflicts...

I installed via “4-in-1” drivers. Then Winup, Seamonkey, Openoffice and Xnview...

But, I forgot an antivirus software!. And that's the big question. Half a year ago I used to install AVG but after a some fixes and updates it became slower and slower. Then I tried “Clamwin”, but it lags far behind commercial products. “Avast” is a good option, quick and free for home users but I do hate its silly interface. Panda is a slow motion nightmare.

I'm loking for the most suitable antivirus software for my computer. (It's an 600mhz ,overclocked k6-III+ ANZ, on a VA503+ motherboard. Two edo ,2x256mb, dimm sticks and an Gforce400x videocard.)

Is there anything fast, not too hungry, stable, free and reliable out there?

Thanks for your posts and comments

[DonPedro]

merluzo,

I think you don't need to look any further than to www.avira.com.

there they offer a free version of their commercial product similarly to what avg does. antivir (avira) is proven to have the smallest footprint on system resources and I use it on all machines I service (from k6-system up to modern ones).

if need be you can boost performance even more by restricting it to monitor only file-read operation but let file-write operation (file creation) happen unchecked. so this way viruses are allowed to enter your system but once they are started (read from disk) they are detected.

or, since file read operations are 80% of all disk operations, you can boost performance even more by allowing virus checking only for file write operation. of course these options puts your system at a higher risk, because once the virus did pass the antivirus gate undetected it has free way to ruin your setup.

[rls48j]

I've had very good results with NOD32 in both trial and regular versions. In fact I likrd it enough to pay eventually.

[merluzo]

Thanks Don Pedro, I´ll try it.

Sometimes we do not care about the software and we run defective-non efficient applications in our beloved K6s.

Regards

[merluzo]

Rls48j,

just a week ago I was running NOD32 j ,when, maybe a bad update or a hard drive error damaged my OS. (I´m not sure) I tried almost everything but I was unable to recover it, then I reinstalled win XP from scracth.
I must reckon that this antivirus is one the the good ones. Fast, reliable,and clear interface. But homeusers have to pay for it.

Thanks or your comments.

[Jim]

F-Secure seems to be exellent. Not free though.

[Yahuli]

I've been using NOD32 for quite some time as well. It I had more than two thumbs to put up for that, I definitely would! (y) (y) (y)

[TheBrain]

I use and recommend Avira Antivir Personal - Free.
Only one con: the big ad screen that pops-up when updating the definition files.