Choosing Anti-Virus Software

There are a number of companies that provide software solutions to virus, Trojan, and internet worm attacks. It can be really confusing when you compare three different software packages from five different companies trying to find the one that is right for you. With that in mind, there are several very important things that you need to consider when choosing antivirus software:

1) How often/fast are the virus definitions updated. You want the answer to be "As soon as a ne...
There are a number of companies that provide software solutions to virus, Trojan, and internet worm attacks. It can be really confusing when you compare three different software packages from five different companies trying to find the one that is right for you. With that in mind, there are several very important things that you need to consider when choosing antivirus software:

1) How often/fast are the virus definitions updated. You want the answer to be "As soon as a new threat is found".

2) Are the virus definitions updated automatically by the software? You want the answer to be "YES".

3) Can you configure the software to check for updates every time you go online? You want the answer to be "YES".

4) Is the software "smart" so that it can find viruses it doesn't even know about yet? You want the answer to be "YES".

5) Can it scan incoming and outgoing email automatically? You want the answer to be "YES".

6) Can you configure it once to perform automatic scans of your entire computer on a regular schedule? You want the answer to be "YES".

7) Does it provide a way to 'clean out' any viruses etc. that are found? You want the answer to be "YES".

8) Are upgrades to the software package performed automatically, regularly, and at no cost? You want the answer to be "YES".

There are a few major players in the field that you should know about in order to make an informed decision about which antivirus software solution to buy and use. There are Norton Antivirus, Trend Micro's PC-cillin, and McAfee Antivirus. Sophos and Grisoft’s AVG are also very god choices. All of the top antivirus solutions will provide each of the eight points above (and more).

There are quite a few smaller players on the market as well. In many cases they are quite good. However, most of the smaller players in this market don't have the resources (yet) to keep up with constantly changing virus threats. For now I would recommend staying away from them. Not because they are poor products, but simply because they aren't able to consistently provide each of the eight requirements above.

The first few days after a new virus appears are often when it can do the most damage. The sooner you get an update the better. The big 3 will provide automatic updates to new threats usually within days of a new virus being found. Sophos and AVG are similar. Smaller players may take several days to provide updates, which are often not automatic.

This should be enough basic information to help you on your way to choosing a good antivirus software. If you’d like to learn more first, there is plenty to read at http://www.antivirus-report.com/antivirus-software.html

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About Norton Anti-Virus

With the many types of anti-virus software, it is helpful to read a brief description of what the different types do and how they can be beneficial to you and your computer.

Norton Anti-virus

Symantec's Norton AntiVirus software is perhaps the world's most trusted antivirus solution. It is available for both Windows PC's, and Macintosh (Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh - S.A.M). Norton AntiVirus is a very reliable and easy-to-use anti-virus product. It's the best anti-...


With the many types of anti-virus software, it is helpful to read a brief description of what the different types do and how they can be beneficial to you and your computer.

Norton Anti-virus

Symantec's Norton AntiVirus software is perhaps the world's most trusted antivirus solution. It is available for both Windows PC's, and Macintosh (Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh - S.A.M). Norton AntiVirus is a very reliable and easy-to-use anti-virus product. It's the best anti-virus product for catching viruses in downloaded files and E-mail. Norton AntiVirus is also more expensive than McAfee VirusScan although not by much, and the added abilities of Norton can easily make up the difference.

Norton AntiVirus includes many tools that can be run in the background, including watching for suspicious PC activity and automatically checking downloaded files for viruses. Norton AntiVirus is also automatically configured to handle E-mail virus scanning for email messages coming into your computer, as well as those you send. This process automatically scans and cleans both incoming and outgoing email, stopping viruses from infecting your computer or spreading to others. It removes viruses automatically, without interrupting your work and prevents infections during real-time online chats, and also detects viruses in instant-message attachments. Because so many viruses and internet worms are now spread using email and Instant Message Systems, this is extremely valuable and necessary protection.

Norton Installation

Installation is simple. Simply install the CD in your CD drive, and the installer will launch automatically. The installer should ask you if you want to do a pre-install scan of your system for viruses. This is a very good thing to do. Once this is finished, the installation will proceed, and you can accept all the defaults without worry. Once the installation is complete, you'll be prompted to go online and get up-to-date virus definitions. DO NOT skip this step. Having up-to-date virus definitions is essential to the performance of any antivirus software.

Normal Use

Norton is a very hands-off program. Pretty much it is an install and forget program that looks after itself. It will automatically notify you if there is anything that you need to do. If a virus is found, the software will try to automatically repair the file, if it can't, it will place the file in a safe 'quarantine' zone, and let you know. In addition to looking for known viruses, the Norton Antivirus Bloodhound feature tries to spot new viruses and worms by their behaviour that is common to such nasty programs.

Checking your system and downloading updates are two things you need to do regularly. Norton Antivirus makes them painless by setting up a full system scan once a week and checking for new updates (both to the software, and virus definitions) whenever you're online. These simple update scans hardly slow down your PC down at all.

Overall, Norton Antivirus is an excellent way to guard against viruses. It is the system that I recommend to my clients most often, and that I use personally.

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