Anti-virus program

There was a thread about this recently, AVG http://www.grisoft.com/ was pretty popular.

I am using kaspersky, i don't recommend anyone.. Bad customer support

ORIGINAL: jamesg1213

There was a thread about this recently, AVG http://www.grisoft.com/ was pretty popular.

AVG here too combined with Spybot S&D and ZoneAlarm. That is pretty good protection. AVG is fairly unobtrusive but I still would recommend that you consider shutting it all off while running your DAW.

ORIGINAL: scook

ORIGINAL: jamesg1213

There was a thread about this recently, AVG http://www.grisoft.com/ was pretty popular.

AVG here too combined with Spybot S&D and ZoneAlarm. That is pretty good protection. AVG is fairly unobtrusive but I still would recommend that you consider shutting it all off while running your DAW.

This is good advice. At least AVG lets you shut completely down. Norton's, on the other hand, will allow you to disable auto protect, but it leaves 4 or 5 additional services alive to chew away at your resources.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130869/article.html

AVG system slowdown - only 2%. BitDefender - 124% mwuha.

I can remember testing slowdowns via software, on purpose like, and 2% is not even noticeable. Near 5 is. So I go for 2% and full protection, no oopsies.

AVG is the lightest anti virus program that ive seen. I can actually record or run sonar glitch free when its doing a system scan.

Cj
For the record, i have a daw only pc and one for the net, but your daw needs to go on the net for updates and downloads sometimes

Another recommend for Spybot and Nod 32.

Used both for years,never had a problem yet.

Alan

I haven't seen any reports as to its effectiveness.

Originally a Linux app, never included in tests etc because it has no real-time protection, but the scanning itself is *superb*.

Avast and AVG have good reports from SONAR users. I use AVAST.

I 2nd the recomendation that if you're on XP also use SpyBot Search and Destroy!

Better than that is to update your operating system to Windows 7, if you can. :)

Silence Dogood Anyone running "Avast!" ?

I went from AVG to Avast because AVG is a bloated POS.

Honest_Al



if anyone needs to read about it..like it's not clear enough.. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125772-page,2/article.html

Well to be fair the report mentions the period 1998-2006. In the UK at least I don't think AOL was too bad as a ISP. The browser is horrible but you don't have to use that or even have their software installed. My wife likes the browser and she still uses it on her computer even though we have changed ISP.
 
But back to dswinds question. I don't care for McAfee as it seems to be a resource hog, I have it on my work computer. I don't know how it can be called weak, it is certaily trusted by many major corperations with huge networks. (McAfee did get egg on thier face a couple of months ago though when an update false positived a XP systems file.)
 
I use Bullguard. A trial version came with the PC, I liked it so I signed up for a full account.
 
EDIT.
 
And one more thing. Just because a computer is not connected to the internet does not mean its not at risk from viruses. In my company it's PCs never connected to the internet that get the most infections. The cause - USB memory sticks.

Amen - "no internet" does not mean you are safe.  
Another issue is: people without anti-virus THINK they are safe... and so unwittingly pass their infected media along to others.
(e.g., by sneaker-net USB drives, transferring files to "their other PC" and emailing, etc.).
 

+1 for AVG.  I was using McAffee and it was horrible.  Switched to AVG a couple years ago and have had no problems at all.  I usually keep it turned off, but I never go on the internet with my DAW except to grab updates for the software I am using on it.

msr

In a perfect world, you'd use no A/V software on your DAW.
If you must have A/V software (sending/receiving Email and general purpose surfing), I'd use Microsoft Security Essentials.
Works great, light footprint, free...