AntiVirus Software

[mrozman22000]

Hi Guys,

I am the media director at church (volunteer position). I am in charge of all things electric (lol), including the computers. We have 8 computers in use at the church and offices. Some of them are using AVG free, Avira Free, and Norton 360 anti-virus on them. I am looking at purchasing a multi-license suite (total protection - anti virus, mal ware, adware, etc...) to cover all computers legally and effectively. (I know the free ones are home use, hence the move to purchas a multi-license product). I want to move to something that is a) leagal, b) cost effective, and c) dependable. I was leaning towards Norton 360 with a 10 user license for $239. I am looking for opinions from the professionals out there. There are so many products to choose from. Can you give me some suggestions. The latest threaed I found was in 2005. Please direct me if you know of a more rencent one.

Thanks in advance for your help
Mike

[[Admin] osborn4]

The AVG free version is not licensed for commercial installations.

However, Microsoft's Security Essentials is. You can run that for free. We will be converting from Norton to it soon.

I also like ESET Nod32. Very lightweight, stays out of the way, but does the job.

[zactommo]

Security Essentials has worked well for me too. As each of our church computers are being updated or refreshed, i'm install security essentials.

If your wanting a paid solution, E-Trust or NOD32 have both worked well for me in the past.

[Esoteric]

Avast works great for me.

Mike

[BrianAltenhofel]

As we say in other circles I may or may not have been involved in:

Not even Norton can protect you.

But seriously, Norton and McAfee are expensive, both financially and in computing resource usage. On top of that, their performance has been slacking in recent years.

If you want free, go with Microsoft Security Essentials. It's not great, but it's free.

If you want to pay for something that works extremely well, go with Kaspersky. I've been using it for the last three years and barely notice it running. The main reason I even tried it is part of my side income is computer repair. Most of those jobs are people that come to me because they have data they can't afford to lose and have just been told that they need to format their hard drive to remove the virus because it's one of those that replicates itself on boot and on shutdown, so no antivirus running after the OS has loaded can remove it. Kaspersky has a nice feature that let's you burn a bootable CD with the latest definitions at any time. Go to the computer that has the virus, pop in the CD, let it boot from the CD instead of Windows, and 99% of the time you can remove the virus. That other 1% is when you just happen to get a virus close to 0-day, and in that case you just have to wait a couple of weeks.

[mifantrax]

Hi
My top choices are Nod 32 and Kaspersky, they have non profit discounts also you can contact somebody like http://www.ccbnonprofits.com/.
If you do not have the money then Security Essentials + group or user policies is the way to go.
Now I have 50 stations all on McAfee it is ok but user policies had to be too strict. Waiting for the license expiration and changing either to kaspersky or nod, will se who gives the better deal.
Kaspersky may also be hungry on resources but you can disable some things you do not need.
My opinion...

[hopeunited]

Hi There

Yes MS Security Essentials gets my vote.

As you are only running 8 PCs you can email Kaspersky sales direct and ask if it is OK to purchase home editions.

Perhaps 1 pack of 3 PC and 1 pack of 5

I also run my own IT support company and cleared this with them for small offices a while ago.

Also do you have a server?

I would also look at getting Malware Bytes AntiMalware

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

This program is the best in malware removal and protection and no person involved in IT security should be without it. Paid version will allow auto updates / schedules etc.

Other FREE programs include:

Spyware Blaster - Browser protection

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Spyware Guard - Hijack Protection from the same company

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

Hosts MVPS - Parasite protection via a Hosts file

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

You could also have a look at some sort of content filtering program such as OpenDNS or K9

Hope that helps and any questions just ask.

Regards

[mrozman22000]

Thanks for the info, I knew you guys would give me some great insight.
We use microsoft security on a pc at work, and it is slower than grandma! I will test it on one at church, but also look into the other suggestions made. Thanks again!
Mike

[Havalilsi]

What I've discovered is MSE can be a hog on lesser machines running XP especially XP Home. I had to take it off my laptop. But on Vista on I haven't seen any issues.
I also like Malwarebyte. I get enough computers to remove viruses that already have Norton or McAffe already installed on them. It seems these viruses actually target them and then disable them.

Kaspersky is good stuff too as well as SuperAntispyware.

[cw4u]

INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.
Home Use. If you are a home user, then you may install and use any number of copies of the software on your personal devices for use by people who reside in your household. As a home user, you may not use the software in any commercial, non-profit, or revenue generating business activities.
Small Business. If you operate a small business, then you may install and use the software on up to ten (10) devices in your business.
Restrictions.
The software may not be used on a device running an enterprise version of a Microsoft Windows operating system.
The software may not be used on devices owned by government or academic institutions.

From what I'm reading, you can only use Security Essentials if you have a max of 10 computers. This rules me out.

But, Kapersky gets my vote as well. We're using AVG right now and I hate it. Too much junk slowing down the computers. As soon as the license is up, Kapersky is getting installed everywhere.