Selecting anti-virus / anti-malware protection for your computer

**jmw_man** · 10-28-15, 10:50 AM

I need recommendations for various scenarios.

I use Avast (free). Never have issues, but then, I never click on stuff I shouldn't. Everything is phishing to me.

Anyways, I need paid and free recommendations. More specifically, I'm looking for an immediate solution for my Mother's laptop I recently purchased for her. My Mother is 66 and does a lot of accounting on her laptop, but when she isn't doing that, she has a tendency to do things she shouldn't be doing; ie, believing every e-mail coming to Outlook inbox is legitimate. My saying to her goes, if you didn't ask for it, delete it. Yea, she probably shouldn't be around computers anymore. I also suspect that she may have uninstalled a virus scanner from her laptop before. No clue why or how it happened but I went remote on her computer and didn't see one on there when I guarantee you that I would have caught that before on any of the various other times I've been on her computer.

I started this post because her laptop arrived and I turned it on and was starting to setup stuff and then I got to thinking, what's the best protection for computers nowadays... I did a quick google and everywhere I look I see Mcafee at the top of the list. WHAT

that crap!!?? I usually get rid of that crap immediately. Norton too, they are on the top of my shit list as well. I don't know what it is but I hate virus scanners that bog down my system and Norton was pro at that. Mcafee just always seemed like malware itself to me. I think I used it once and it never blocked anything that I knew of.

What are some good free options?
What are some good paid options?
What do the companies you work for typically use?
Is there something you recommend that doesn't really require upkeep, maintenance, or monitoring being that I'm looking for something for someone who isn't computer savvy?

Just FYI, my Mother has to remote from her laptop to another computer 300 miles away. She live in the middle of nowhere with very slow internet. I can't remember what her speeds were, but something to keep in mind if it matters at all.

**DJ Ms. White** · 10-28-15, 11:01 AM

As far as protection, I've had good experiences with Nod32 and Bitdefender for paid. I'm using Avast (free) right now. It's got email protection and web protection.

I wonder if you should create a Windows profile for her that disallows certain things, but then you might get called every time she needs to uninstall/install software.

If she has clients (and is doing work on that laptop) stress the fact that uninstalling her AV and clicking things she shouldn't would be bad for business. If it's personal accounting, ask her if she'd like some guy from the Ukraine stealing all of her money before retirement?

**Phyrelight** · 10-28-15, 11:06 AM

We use forefront at my work (State University). Its the enterprise very of Microsoft security essentials. If she has windows 8 or 10 the built in Microsoft antivirus is good. The nice part of using Microsoft's integrated solution is that it updates with Microsoft updates.

https://getprotected.asu.edu/software/antivirus

That is a link to my university's "get protected page" with links to recommended software.

As far as your mother clicking things she shouldn't there's two ways to address it .

First, don't let her be an admin on the machine she is RDPing into (or use a nanny software)

Second, install VMs on RDP machine and have her RDP into the VM not the machine itself. Then if there is an issue you roll it back to the checkpoint prior and infection is gone. You could setup multiple VMs...one for banking for example....another for surfing. On the banking whitelist only banking sites and limit access to email etc. On the surfing one allow general web access but black list banking and such.

**Sly** · 10-28-15, 11:25 AM

I use Eset Endpoint. Business version of NOD32. You can buy 15 licenses 2yr subscription that gets you in at about $13 dollars a year per user. I've had more than 1 virus come through that Essentails did not catch that was removed by Eset. Even some of the not so technical users have commented on how they like the Anti-Virus. Identifies viruses was they enter reducing the amount of times scans need to happen. Scans do not eat your pc resources and run smoothly in the background. One of the major differences in most pay for versions and free versions is you get realtime protection from pay versions limiting the amount of viruses you need to manually delete.

**rush2049** · 10-28-15, 11:30 AM

Bitdefender (paid) has all the tools you want. It does email scanning, web link scanning. etc. etc. very minimalistic if you want it to be.
It's a good set and forget it. Some features slightly slow down the browser, but if you click on everything, then leave those on.

My company uses trend micro, because it has a good management and install tool, not necessarily because it's the best protection.

**jmw_man** · 10-28-15, 11:49 AM

I know some computers at the office use Nod32, I just don't have an experience with it myself. You mentioned that Avast (free) has e-mail and web protection, is this something that's exclusive to Avast or is this pretty standard with other scanners?

Yea, I may have to create a Windows profile, I just don't have a lot of experience with doing stuff like that but maybe it's time to learn. There's no reason why she ever needs to install or uninstall something that I can think of, but is java an example of what you are talking about? She already calls me too much as it is complaining about how her computer is acting up. I never know what to tell her because I don't know what she did, but restarting usually resolves most issues.

Her new laptop has Windows 10. Are you talking about Windows Defender? I do like the idea of using built in options.

Heck, I may need recommendations on nanny software.

On the RDPing, we're using a browser; Logmein. It's been a few years since I looked into an alternate method. I tried an alternate method out on her computer to connect to the office and we found it to be extremely slow, even slower than using Logmein. I may have to create profiles for both computers.

Edit: on second though, I can't remember if it was Nod32 or Eset Endpoint. I think I've seen both on different computers at the office.

**Phyrelight** · 10-28-15, 12:03 PM

yes windows defender is built into windows 10....that is what I am currently using. Making her a user instead of an admin will block anything that changes the system 32 folder so that blocks the majority of malware and viruses. Trust me, the amount of time it will take you to connect one every couple of months to run a couple updates for her (new version of java I think changes the system 32 but an update inside the save version ...ie version 60 to 61 doesn't require admin permissions. Regardless the amount of time for you to update java every now and then is much less than cleaning malware.

As for nanny software, this review and comparison is pretty helpful The Best Parental Control Software of 2015 | Top Ten Reviews

**Warprosper** · 10-28-15, 12:06 PM

Look into openDNS. You can use some of their services for free. From my experience, it's going to protect you pretty well when combined with even the most basic anti-virus.

**jmw_man** · 10-28-15, 12:08 PM

Phyrelight, Is Windows Defender the same thing as Microsoft Security Essentials? SlytherN mentioned that Essentials didn't catch stuff that Eset caught. Do you have any experience with its reliability?

Edit: didn't*