I use Symantec Antivirus CE...I love it......It uses hardly any resources and I've never had a virus.

I've never heard of that one.. I thought Symantec only made Norton..

Its from Symantec's Enterprise Solution line...its for Desktops/Servers...

You can read more here

you dont need a client/server for that software Jason?

Nope...runs directly on windows...you can set it up to manage it from a network...but you don't have to run it on a client/server

hmm.. so does it catch more than AVG ya think?

they catch almost all, theyre both good. th real question here is which uses less sytem resources

AVG doesn't use many resources.. as for that Norton one... well, Norton is famous for resource hogging

One of the most important thing with antivirus are the frequency of updates.

Avast, even though its free, updates at least once per day, i've seen it update 3 times in on day.

This alone is why i use Avast instead of less frequently updating AV's such as AVG

Nothing from Norton get installed here.

With "real time protection" enabled, Symantec Antivirus CE uses about 2,590K of mem.

ahh.. not much resources at all.. pretty damn good

i had been using Panda antivirus for sometime,then today i decided to download Avast. What do you know? i had 12 infected files,it had found them within seconds of starting up then it was safely able to delete them. I think i have found my new favorite anti virus program

hm.. kay .. I guess I should get that.. I'll try it out..

I've installed it before but never experimented around with it.
I very much like the way it updates, based upon your description.
With AVG you have to schedule a time. I'm assuming with Avast! you set a update frequency (ie: 6 hour)..?

Avast updates on a set frequecy, i dont know what it is though.

It also checks for an update evey time you log on to the internet (if you have autoupdates enabled)

It also uses (if you want) something called Push updates.

<from the Avast site>

utomatic Updates

Automatic updates are another key point in virus protection, both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The updates are incremental, and only new data is downloaded, thus reducing the transfer time. The typical size of a virus database update is approximately of 20-80kb, the program update usually has approximately 200-500kb.

If your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed completely automatically in fixed time intervals. If you connect to the Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online.

Push Updates

A special feature of the Server/Profesional Edition is PUSH updates. It is a dramatic change in the philosophy of updates, usually every installed program checks periodically and when a new version is available downloads it. PUSH updates however are initialized by our servers; they result in your computer quickly responding and performing the necessary update. The system is based on the SMTP protocol. The updates themselves are controlled by the avast! resident e-mail providers (MS Outlook and Internet Mail).

The whole system is protected by asymmetric ciphers and is resistant to unauthorized misuse.

Thanks for the info yaggy..

Yes, thanks yaggy... I think I'm going to switch over to Avast!. I liked it very much when it was installed for a few hours maybe a month ago.

im switchn to avast too. EZ anti virus is crap.

maybe I should try it, EZ does suck

hmm, avast is crap too. i think ill follow jasons advice and get NAV CE.

no, if i was looking for performance, NAV 2004 would suit me fine. The problem is system resources. i want an anti-virus to occupy as little system resources as possible and be effective. but this is just an opinion.

I installed Avast! last night.. I don't have any viruses but.. It's pretty fast and I like the interfaces / skins.. I don't think it was taking up many system resources either

Avast is one of the better AV's in regards to system resources and performance.
We all know Norton has to be the most bloated as far as resources go.

I still think update frequency is one of the most important aspects of an Antivirus and thats one of the main reasons i use Avast.
I'm not taking about how often your client checks for an update but how often the company actually releases them, Avast clearly wins in this regard.

I guess the bottom line is to use whatever product you feel comfortable with

Well..if your looking for a light weight product....Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition is the way to go. It's the lightest one I have ever ran across. It has caught every virus I've ever had on my computer with it's Real Time Protection before it was able to infect anything. Its update frequency is the same as NAV as far as I know. Its rare if you don't get an update every 1 or 2 days. I know this... I'll never use anything else.

Ok...enough advertising for Symantec...if they want more, they'll have to pay

I've tried syman corp edition before as well, I gotta agree with Jason's plug, its quite light and hopefully effective, you can never REEALLY tell unless you check with every AV, otheriwse you dont know if you miss something, but yes its quite good and quick and light.

Avast! also has real - time protection..

Lets not forget the price

Avast is Free with Free Updates and does everything just as well as the "pay" products, and even better in some cases.

Its one thing to pay for a product but to then have to pay for yearly updates ? No thanks.

I have to say I'm not very pleased with Avast! due to it being such a resource hog and having skins when I ACTUALLY don't want one. The "cosmetics" is what bothers me more than anything else. The functionality is good but there are some annoying things when it comes to this as well that I'm not willing to take time to try to find out how to disable when I can reinstall AVG again. I'm going to try Symantec Antivirus CE though.

Avast is probably the best one I've ever come across, thanks yaggy.

at first it seemed like a little bit too much but after I restarted, it was EXACTLY what I wanted.

Free product, small size, excellent monitoring, screensaver virus check and Virus recovery database and excellent in resource management.

It seems to go down in it's use of sys resources everytime I start up a game, etc... down to something like 600kb!

I love it!

Avast is still relativly new and in time will be tweaked to perfection i'm sure.

They have a pretty good support fourm in which people get their questions answered rather quickly.

No, i don't work nor have anything to do with Avast, just when i see a product that is as good as Avast and free, i like to tout it.

I've benn using it for about 3 months now without so much as a hickup.

Anyway , Take Care guys

I decided to install BitDefender last night. It's a can prove to be a bit of a resource hog, especially with all the services running at once.

Right now it's fairly low though...
bdss.exe ... 4,456 K
bdnagent.exe ... 596 K
bdmcon.exe ... 1,468 K

One of the reasons I'm using, although not a very good one, is for the interface. Avast! was a huge resource hog on my computer so I uninstalled it last night and was going to install AVG but just couldn't help trying something else new and since the exe was already on my system I installed it. It gives you a free 1 yr use... I'm not sure what happens after that time, either you request another serial or it expires.

The only reason I never installed it was because actz said it was a huge resource monger but it's not that bad. I may still install AVG again though.

i just got Symantec CE. its pretty low on resources and i kinda like it. i think ill stick with it.

i use Norton 2003. Mcafee ddin't catch lots of virus.

Mcafee is also a resource hog, just like Norton tends to be.

Symantec CE rocks. my start up time is down 10 seconds fter romving Norton 2004

I'm glad you got rid of Norton Anakin!

oh my god, I changed my mind about Avast!, it screwed up my PC worse than anything I had ever come across before in my life

My pc has screwed up lately too, this isn't my pc lol, and I installed Avast not too long before that.. but I still dont really think it was Avast! .. its a VMM32.VXD error on start up..

Once again BB, didnt you mean Norton AV 2004? ( its the worst )

what? you're going back that far?! Geez but yes, 2004 versions of mcafee and norton are terrible.

ive been using avast! for the last couple of weeks and it has worked flawlessly,i think its much better than norton,no VMM32.VXD errors either

im usin Symantec Corporate Edition now, and it dosnt have NAV 2004's bloated interface. Its VERY low on sys resources and updates have the same frequency as NAV.

The only reason i asked you why you thought Avast had caused your problems is that you are one of the only people i have seen that have had a problem with Avast.

Anyone that has had a problem, turned out not to be avast but with something else al together as IMO is the problem you had.

Nonetheless, No one is forcing you to use it and since i have no affiliation with them, it no sweat of my gnads.

What, if i may ask are you using as an AV now?

My setup, which runs great and has not had even the slightest problem is;

OS - XP Sp1
Browser - Firefox
AV - Avast
Firewall - Sygate
Email - Thunderbird

Take Care
yaggy

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