Is paying for antivirus a waste of money?

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  1. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #400

    UltraTechnic446 said:
    Been running Avast for 3 days now and not a single threat. I also have 3rd party firewall properly set up to block incoming connections and outgoing connections.
    For the most part you won't be seeing much of anything unless you frequent bad sites! At times however you may find traces of something that Avast picked up on and stuffed in quarantine if not simply automatically deleted depending on your settings. For the most part simply sticking with the usual sites will rarely see anything while being out there with a degree of protections is still going to be risky business at times.

    Simply clicking on a new link during a search can see a clever bug dropped on you on some occassions. Try to avoid the first and second links or going through multiple pages in the results. Generally that will prevent the drive by bugs.
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  2. Posts : 111
    Win 10 Pro 64bit (1909)
       #401

    Geneo said:
    The best antivirus is backups.
    Unless the backups contain virii and malware....
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  3. Posts : 111
    Win 10 Pro 64bit (1909)
       #402

    [QUOTE=Night Hawk;642354] "For the most part you won't be seeing much of anything unless you frequent bad sites! ...."

    Not true as many of the infections I see come from ads on legitimate sites.
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  4. Posts : 3,352
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #403

    I use the paid version of AVG, which was essentially free (price for 2 yrs on 3 PCs less same amount MIR, so only cost of postage stamp to send for rebate) and has kept my systems clean except for an infrequent PUP or 2. Scanning with free Malwarebytes at least once a week takes care of any of those. As insurance, I do a Macrium Reflect backup on each PC system drive whenever Windows updates are installed and keep the most recent 2.
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  5. Posts : 5
    Windows 10
       #404

    I get quite a good deal for ESET license and thats why I use it. Otherwise is useless if you are reasonable. Can't remember when was the last time that I saw a virus warning. The current license expires after less than 3 months and am thinking of getting rid of it and just use the build in. And spend that money on beer.
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  6. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #405

    azasadny said:
    Night Hawk said:
    "For the most part you won't be seeing much of anything unless you frequent bad sites! ...."
    Not true as many of the infections I see come from ads on legitimate sites.
    That lead off of that site to where ??? Some other place where the bugs are stashed is where. A month ago when running a general search without the av software running a bug being an ad bot went on like a regular installed app without even being noticed until getting the software going again and seeing a notification about traces of something being found right after seeing sudden unexplained pop ups for Russian and Chinese dating sites?! The subsequent scan revealed only traces until I felt a need to look in the Control Panel> Programs & Features and guess what I found? Someone mentioned earlier on the thread here being a well hidden well planted bug the Firewall and web filtering might have otherwise caught if it had been running.

    About 3yrs. ago here when running a search for a replacement board for an old 7 build having moved everything into the present case a newer model and wanting to pass the old one along as a gift a site found off of a regular busy shopping site lead to a scam site where it wasn't any malware you saw but your credit information trying to be used to make a $2,600 purchase in Istanbul according to the card company's security dept. when the order for board never shipped and finding a number of others also scammed as well.

    Wouldn't matter what you had on for the av or any other systems protections there. You still get burned at a bad site! The "https//" secure protocol was still used to make the site look legit showing it wasn't a virus that struck! As the paid for softwares continued over time to see improvements so do the scams as well as malwares geared to work around things.
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  7. Posts : 1
    Windows 10
       #406

    My computer also runs Windows 10. I upgrade to Windows 10 last year and it has never been infected with any virus.:)
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  8. Posts : 11,247
    Windows / Linux : Arch Linux
       #407

    Hi there

    I'm REALLY surprised this topic is STILL running -- surely it's been discussed ad nauseam now.

    Use whatever you feel that keeps you safe (or not use if you think you don't need it).

    Everybody uses computers differently - whether you use Torrents / download from dubious sites or barely ever use the Internet so for some people ANY amount of AV software might not be sufficient, for others just the basic stuff while for some no AV stuff at all would probably be OK.

    There's no harm in whatever type of person you are to use the basic built in stuff -- Windows 10 is quite good now.

    However the BIGGEST help is use BRAIN -- a lot of tricks these days aren't caused by Malware etc - but simply by users giving away too much info on social media, not changing passwords often enough, and above all opening / replying to emails from "rogue" senders --some of whom are quite sophisticated these days.

    Note in particular : POLICE, BANKS, TAX OFFICE and similar organisations will NEVER email you for password details or request money. Any email from these types of organisations will be a FRAUD. Send details of any Scam like this to your local Police or whoever handles Internet fraud --FBI in US for example, or The City of London Police (Not the Met) in the UK.

    Two tips --I've said this before but repeating this will help.

    1) Always take regular BACKUPS of your OS - it's always easier, quicker and more reliable to restore a computer to a clean state than use "Virus cleansing" software after an infection -- you can never guarantee that the cleansing is 100% good and in any case you are running the stuff on an ALREADY INFECTED MACHINE.

    (Of course it goes without saying that the backups must be Virus free !!!!. I'd also keep a long term copy of your FIRST clean Windows install which you could always use if you ever wanted to completely re-install windows again. Take this backup after your basic install together with any drivers such as special video etc and archive it for any possible future use).

    2) Monthly or other Post analysis comparisons of AV software are a 100% WASTE OF TIME - since between the date of testing of the products and publication a load of NEW threats may have emerged rendering the previous list as useless.

    Cheers
    jimbo
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  9. Posts : 3,453
       #408

    Good article - supports what I said way back at the beginning.

    jimbo45 said:

    2) Monthly or other Post analysis comparisons of AV software are a 100% WASTE OF TIME - since between the date of testing of the products and publication a load of NEW threats may have emerged rendering the previous list as useless.
    Please stop posting this ^^^...it's misleading.

    Behavior-based detection can, in theory, protect you against malware that's so new researchers have never encountered it. However, this isn't always an unmixed blessing. It's not uncommon for behavioral detection systems to flag many innocuous behaviors performed by legitimate programs.


    Whitelisting is another approach to the problem of unknown programs. A whitelist-based security system only allows known good programs to run. Unknowns are banned.
    Source: The Best Antivirus Utilities for 2016 | PCMag.com
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  10. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #409

    When they put McA Fail in there as one of their best I wouldn't give much credit to the review source! Obviously they are being told to make them look good. And the overall general problem with reviews to even start with is only comparing the select few while there are tons of paid for retail wares to choose from. The better ones tend to see far less reviews however.
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