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antivirus and web defense

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Steven Avery:
Generally I have

WinPatrol, Online Armor, and the Malwarebytes scan are three major parts of defense, with a few extra cogs here and there.

Plus an anti-virus and web defense.
For a few years, Avast! free was my Anti-virus and Web Shield of choice (mail is not a problem).  

The new 2015 Avast I found too much of a hassle on CPU and uninstalled it, with Revo helping, after a spot of discussion on Wilders and reading on the Avast forum. I'm not saying I might not have eventually tamed the beast, but CPUs from 25 to 75 when very little is happening is not happy.

Free is not absolutely necessary.  And almost all the companies have had one black mark or another over the years.  Some worse than others.  

Maybe I will check what is active on one of the Brit PC Magazines for a special.

Without getting too convoluted about test results, do you have a comfy, happy, modest cost (ultimately 3-5 puters could be involved) recommendation?  I could go back to an earlier Avast! which was what one fella did.  AVG and Avira (I left when they danced with Uniblue) are always floating around with, like Avast!, free alternatives. Eset and Trend (surprise) and Kaspersky and GData and Panda and BitDefender and maybe Webroot or Emsisoft and some others are possible. Discounts right now look thin.

Real world thoughts?  I know this can get a tad hackneyed, but I appreciate the common sense approach of the DC crew.

Steven

mwb1100:
I've been happy with the Webroot Secure Anywhere software I've been using since about March.

Not free, but this affiliate link (not mine - just one I found on Google) gives a decent discount.  For $30 you get 1 year for 5 machines:

  - http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/affiliates/wsc-29

Joe Hone:
I followed a suggestion in another antivirus thread here on DC and went with Outpost Security Suite Pro in March of this year and I have been very pleased, both with the low CPU useage and with how responsive it has been to malware. Easy to set up, has a learning function to keep false positives to a minimum. And I like the fact that every so often I have to suspend it for 5 minutes to get something to properly download when sites appear suspicious.

Steven Avery:
Thanks!  Good suggestions.

Went to Webroot, a company i have liked.  Private Firewall, my firewall in this one puter, was I think in some manner built on their firewall engine.

Twice I got a BSOD (no problem in reboot). Checked the Webroot forum.  Loaded "WhoCrashed" free Home edition from Resplendence. My tentative conclusion was that the default firewall of Webroot was on (just turned it off) and the driver crashed in some manner with the other related firewall cousin also loaded. (WhoCrashed showed each of the two .sys files responsible for one crash each). Since that might be a legitimate problem and solution, I turned off the Webroot Firewall (it should have asked me on startup what shields I wanted.).  We shall see. I may dump Private Firewall, which gave me a good run of about 3 years, I don't like the fact that it is late loading on startup, I raised that at Wilders once.

Webroot did one other thing that was tacky. When I started the uninstall (which I cancelled, since I did the troubleshooting) they put up a false message:
"Your computer is currently infected. Are you sure you want to uninstall?"

Anyway, despite those glitches, I think Webroot might be the solution with the $50 or so for a year for multiple puters.

Outpost I have that early free firewall edition, discontinued, on one puter at work, which is ok. They don't have a particularly strong anti-virus reputation, However, if Webroot does not come through, I might give them a try.

Steven Avery

mwb1100:
Two BSOD's and still considering it?  You're more patient that I am.

Webroot might be the solution with the $50 or so for a year for multiple puters.
-Steven Avery (December 08, 2014, 05:35 AM)
--- End quote ---

If you're still considering Webroot after all that, the link that I put in my previous post should get you the 1 year for $30.

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