AVG Free vs. Panda

Nyarlathotep · #1 08-04-2009, 02:45 PM

Anyone got experience with Panda?

Long story short, I took my (well, really my parents I guess LOL) desktop tower in to get it dusted and tuned up (properly defraged, etc) and the guy asked me what anti-virus I had installed to which I truthfully answered "AVG"

Suddenly this dood goes into what I figure is "upsell mode" and starts on about how he's "probably gonna find 100 viruses on there". Am I valid in figuring this guy is just trying to upsell me?

Apparently Panda will cost 50$ a year.

Oh, and I also have Sunbelt as my firewall (looking on the Panda site, it includes a firewall)

http://www.pandasecurity.com/canada-...ons/antivirus/

DigMe · #2 08-04-2009, 02:59 PM

I think Avira Antivirus is the best free one out right now but I previously used AVG and I would doubt that you're going to find "100 viruses on there". If You're going to pay for one then go for Eset.

bc

Scarlet Fire · #3 08-04-2009, 03:02 PM

I've used AVG for a year and have yet to find a virus on my computer.

Falkner · #4 08-04-2009, 03:11 PM

I use AVG and have no problems. Take it for what it's worth, but I tried a demo of Panda a few years ago and it completely hosed my system. I've never seen anything like that before.

OrionManMatt · #5 08-04-2009, 03:20 PM

avast!

DigMe · #6 08-04-2009, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OrionManMatt

avast!

Avast used to be good but now it's a bulked up resource hog. I switched from Avast! to Avira.

bc

mcbosler · #7 08-04-2009, 03:29 PM

i vote for avast.

UncleFluffy · #8 08-04-2009, 03:31 PM

AVG is ok - not the best, but as good as you're going to get for free.

If you want some extra reassurance, run http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ once a month or so. It's a free online scanner from the Trend Micro folks. (Avoid the upsell and just click through to get the free stuff).

jkritchey · #9 08-04-2009, 03:42 PM

I've used AVG quite successfully on lot's of PC's that I 'support'. It has it's irritations, but no failures yet.

There's a new Panda Cloud version that I've been running on an old P2. I wouldn't say I use the PC enough for it to be a good test, but the overhead is quite low. Looks promising.

irishryno · #10 08-04-2009, 03:45 PM

I use panda and switched to it when i was unhappy with avg free's performance. i have had no problem with panda and have avoided some scary situations. I would recomend panda with out any hesitation. 50 for a year of complete peace of mind is well worth it.

Falkner · #11 08-04-2009, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleFluffy

If you want some extra reassurance, run http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ once a month or so. It's a free online scanner from the Trend Micro folks. (Avoid the upsell and just click through to get the free stuff).

+1

kserg · #12 08-04-2009, 04:49 PM

I have AVG on my windows and my linux machines. it works good.

I did pay for it though.

Nyarlathotep · #13 08-04-2009, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falkner

I use AVG and have no problems. Take it for what it's worth, but I tried a demo of Panda a few years ago and it completely hosed my system. I've never seen anything like that before.

Care to share details of the hosing?

Falkner · #14 08-04-2009, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyarlathotep

Care to share details of the hosing?

After installing and rebooting, it took my PC 15 minutes to start up each time, it bluescreened at the drop of the hat, ran too slow to do anything (over a minute to open the start menu, etc.) and I spent the rest of the evening trying to remove every last bit of that program. After I finally managed to uninstall it, everything was fine.

Nyarlathotep · #15 08-04-2009, 05:00 PM

Damn

Chunk-O-Funk · #16 08-04-2009, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kserg

I have AVG on my windows and my linux machines. it works good.

I did pay for it though.

Me too.

Switched from Norton to the free version of AVG a long time ago, then eventually bought the AVG Internet Security package. Half the price of Norton and works much better, IMO.

Steveaux · #17 08-04-2009, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falkner

After installing and rebooting, it took my PC 15 minutes to start up each time, it bluescreened at the drop of the hat, ran too slow to do anything (over a minute to open the start menu, etc.) and I spent the rest of the evening trying to remove every last bit of that program. After I finally managed to uninstall it, everything was fine.

These look like standard symptoms of far too little RAM. Norton is a resource-hog that will cause this as well.

I've been running Avira and ZoneAlarm free firewall for years. No bugs, no hassles.

Falkner · #18 08-04-2009, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steveaux

These look like standard symptoms of far too little RAM. Norton is a resource-hog that will cause this as well.

I've been running Avira and ZoneAlarm free firewall for years. No bugs, no hassles.

I would hope that 2 gigs was more than enough for AV software

I really have no idea what happened there. That said, I never really wanted to try it again.

TOOL460002 · #19 08-04-2009, 06:52 PM

100 viruses? haha... i seriously doubt that. im pretty sure youd notice.

ive used panda and norton, but not avg, so i cant weigh in on that. i was not impressed with either.

what i have been using for quite some time is eset nod32. its the best ive used, and my more tech savvy friends swear by it. i know its also a yearly subscription thing, but do not know exactly what that cost is.

heres my number one tip i learned a while back when i got a really really nasty virus whilst messing around with network settings and temporarily disabling nod32:

(assuming youre using a pc) make one administrative user account, and then another one with restricted permissions that you use 99% of the time. you have to switch to admin to install applications and a couple of other things, but if you get a virus and it has administrative privileges, its not a good thing. i learned a lot from that mess.

Selta · #20 08-04-2009, 07:55 PM

I just do all* my web stuff in a VM. Previous to a couple of weeks ago when my ESX server bit the dust, I would run it there. Until I get that fixed (read: when I get un-lazy and actually decide to look into the problem), I'm running sandboxie.

* = exceptions are web-dev and work related items, that's it.