Best Anti-Virus for a gamer?

[Cuan]

I sleep with my door open... well, it's closed but not locked... what was you point again? 

I think it was "Where do you store your valuables?"

[HiddenJumper]

Back when Avast was runnin a special for its Professional version (not the suite version), I got it for 3 years. Does its job, updates every day, doesn't hog the system when playing anything (I play Team Fortress 2, Starcraft 2 and various other games through out the day).

However even Avast professional was probably an unncessary purchase only because I'm careful what I download and browse through.

[AceHigh]

I sleep with my door open... well, it's closed but not locked... what was you point again? 

I think it was "Where do you store your valuables?"

Locks are to keep honest people honest. Locks don't exactly stop those that have intent on breaking in. I live in a community with mostly honest people, no need for locks.

[mgz]

(click to show/hide)

Sadly common sense is not good enuf protection to day =(
If you have a computer whit no av or anti-spaywerer or firewall you will get infected. why? as fast as you open up you web-browser for the first time it will take an estimated 5 to 10 min until the computer will get infected =/
But i would recommend Panda Cloud Antivirus its free and gives a sloid prtection or go whit Microsoft Security Essentials bout is great for gamers ^^
Download it here http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/

lol you sound like a paranoid 60 year old lady who read a msnbc article on computer viruses

ive had no virus protection on my computers for the past 6 or 8 years, havent had any problems at all. I use noscript, and adblock in conjunction with firefox.

If you need more then that for your home computer then your fucktarded.

If you do happen to have lots of financial information ON your computer or use it as a business computer and home computer then getting virus protection isnt quite as silly seeming since its then just additional security to protect confidential information as opposed to not having to redownload your anime music and porn

[mgz]

I don't feel safe without an anti-virus, it makes me feel like I'm going to sleep in my house with my front door open.

I sleep with my door open... well, it's closed but not locked... what was you point again? 

yea for the longest time(the better part of a decade the back and side doors to my home were unlocked, and often wide open for 24/7 365 front door was usually locked due to us not using it.

I live in a nice neighborhood the only problem is in nice neighborhoods often undesirables will wonder in from well out of the area to seek to target people who dont feel the need to lock up because of it being a nice area.

And thats why ive always had at least 1 100+ lb dog

[siferhumen]

(click to show/hide)

Sadly common sense is not good enuf protection to day =(
If you have a computer whit no av or anti-spaywerer or firewall you will get infected. why? as fast as you open up you web-browser for the first time it will take an estimated 5 to 10 min until the computer will get infected =/
But i would recommend Panda Cloud Antivirus its free and gives a sloid prtection or go whit Microsoft Security Essentials bout is great for gamers ^^
Download it here http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/

lol you sound like a paranoid 60 year old lady who read a msnbc article on computer viruses

ive had no virus protection on my computers for the past 6 or 8 years, havent had any problems at all. I use noscript, and adblock in conjunction with firefox.

If you need more then that for your home computer then your fucktarded.

If you do happen to have lots of financial information ON your computer or use it as a business computer and home computer then getting virus protection isnt quite as silly seeming since its then just additional security to protect confidential information as opposed to not having to redownload your anime music and porn

No my good sir/lady that is common sense 

In my honest opinion on protection you cant get paranoid enough 

I have seen it far to many times already that people cant get it right on there protection, they go and like (Fuck yea i am far to cool too get hack or get a virues cuss i am so fucking brilliant and do nothing wrong) well even if you THINK you are safe you aint, Why? if a hacker or a virus maker wants too get the info you have on the computer they will get it if you ant protected from it of cures but sadly if they truly want that info they will get it.

hell i know admin and programmers that is afraid to get infected of a virus just because they know it can happen at anytime.

[Cuan]

Back when Avast was runnin a special for its Professional version (not the suite version), I got it for 3 years. Does its job, updates every day, doesn't hog the system when playing anything.

The free version of Avast even updates every 4 hours. Panda Cloud Antivirus doesn't limit update intervals either, but it depends on a steady Internet connection. As said, most of the other free stuff artificially limits you to 24 hours and makes you more vulnerable to 0-day exploits this way. That's why I think there's no real match to Avast, when it comes to freeware.

Locks are to keep honest people honest. Locks don't exactly stop those that have intent on breaking in. I live in a community with mostly honest people, no need for locks.

Reminds me of Michael Moore walking into Canadian people's houses.
And some minutes earlier, talking to a home security salesman. "An axe would do it."

But the net isn't that much of a community with mostly honest people.

ive had no virus protection on my computers for the past 6 or 8 years, havent had any problems at all. I use noscript, and adblock in conjunction with firefox.

If you need more then that for your home computer then your fucktarded.

NoScript is pretty paranoid by default. But it only protects you from shit that can happen while browsing. And it only works if you don't get accustomed to whitelisting sites anyway because your RapidShit download or your cute little kitty video wouldn't work otherwise. Same thing as accepting every Vista/Win7 UAC window out of reflex.
But if you are tricked into downloading a modified Firefox, µTorrent or even warez, NoScript won't help you a bit.
Relying on common sense is nice, but can you expect the same level of common sense from you parents and grandparents? And while you may be able to tell trustworthy from not, the crackers are of course trying to take this into account as well. Scams are getting better and better.

AV programs alone don't solve the problem. To be somewhat secure from rogue applications, you'd need to prevent non-signed programs from running, yet continuously apply patches to fix security holes. You couldn't run old games in administrator mode to have them work under newer versions of Windows. Etc.
Once they get real, people will have to choose to live with the restrictions or act like a fucktard to at least have a computer that just works™. Many users will choose the fucktard option, even in business scenarios. (or from my experience, especially in non-technical business scenarios  )

So it isn't a bad idea to get an AV scanner and be happy if it never detects anything, to check the integrity of your executables and libraries (have they been modified without your knowledge), to use recent and stable software release (most Linux distros are good at updating, check out Secunia PSI for Windows boxes) or to make sure you aren't exposing any unwanted service to others (a NAT router should do in private scenarios). Add you common sense, and you have a somewhat decent security package.

Also, if your box has been infected, you don't have to worry about your porn that much, but more of the botnet it might be part of.

[HiddenJumper]

Back when Avast was runnin a special for its Professional version (not the suite version), I got it for 3 years. Does its job, updates every day, doesn't hog the system when playing anything.

The free version of Avast even updates every 4 hours. Panda Cloud Antivirus doesn't limit update intervals either, but it depends on a steady Internet connection. As said, most of the other free stuff artificially limits you to 24 hours and makes you more vulnerable to 0-day exploits this way. That's why I think there's no real match to Avast, when it comes to freeware.

Well just to make it clear, I said I was using the Professional Version. While there's no real significant difference between the free and the professional (despite some extra minor functions), at the time of purchase, I felt just a tad safer knowing that if I do screw up somewhere, Avast would be there to bail me out. So this isn't freeware since the version I use wasn't the free version.

I'm just saying that the constant updates are nice to their virus definition. It has been known that some updates have caused problems, but on the other end no antivirus is safe from screw ups from time to time.

[AceHigh]

if a hacker or a virus maker wants too get the info you have on the computer they will get it if you ant protected from it of cures but sadly if they truly want that info they will get it.

Conclusion:

[Fool010]

The best protection remains organic firewall/anti-virus ... be cautious and think about what you're about to do. As soon as you go public safety's an illusion.

[fohfoh]

I personally think that if I had to buy antivirus, I'd go with Nod32.
Panda Antivirus professional isn't bad. Not sure about how effective it is because I'm not a moron, but it's very light for sure.
I hear that Norton in the higher levels (enterprise/gamer) are decent and not like shitty cheap norton products... but I've never used it myself.
Avast has a "gamer mode". Dunno if that's helpful to you.

[bloody000]

The best protection remains organic firewall/anti-virus ... be cautious and think about what you're about to do. As soon as you go public safety's an illusion.

Obvious flaw in this thinking is that it assumes you can monitor everything going on in a modern computer. You can't.

[HSSDamian]

I don't feel safe without an anti-virus, it makes me feel like I'm going to sleep in my house with my front door open.

I sleep with my door open... well, it's closed but not locked... what was you point again?  
Oh and, I can't sleep when my door is open, to cold.

Different people, different feelings... what was your point again?

Obvious flaw in this thinking is that it assumes you can monitor everything going on in a modern computer. You can't.

+1

Avast has a "gamer mode". Dunno if that's helpful to you.

AVG also has a gaming mode, but I think that just means the firewall is softer and less secure, allowing a better connection with everything and reducing MS.

[AceHigh]

Viruses come only from internet, as such you will get infected only if you fuck up on the internet. Most legit sites out there are clean of malware and virus. You will not get a trojan when you for example browse bakabt. However if you are so stupid that you click any link you can find like for example nobrain.dk, then you deserve what is coming to you, no matter what anti virus you have installed. Oh and don't click on that last link.

Common sense 2011 and how to use it:

Need to download an application or a game?
When you download either, you are at risk of getting a trojan.... if you are a complete dumbshit, if you are not, then you will download proven releases from known groups like Razor911, RELOADED, Fairlight, etc... If you are very stupid you will probably also take the bait when you see a torrent site that turns up a "download full version from our sponsored site", where you get a full speed download of an .exe file that does god knows what.

But wait! you found a patch for a game and now you need to find new crack for it! This is where most idiots fail at life and get infected by a trojan. Warez sites are filled with shit that will get you infected. Alas, knowledge is power, so use only the release groups that you trust.

My point is, it doesn't just come over in 10 minutes as soon as you plug your computer to a DSL cable. You have to click on something to get it. That is where common sense is the best protection.

[Fool010]

The best protection remains organic firewall/anti-virus ... be cautious and think about what you're about to do. As soon as you go public safety's an illusion.

Obvious flaw in this thinking is that it assumes you can monitor everything going on in a modern computer. You can't.

Obvious flaw in your statement is that you're bent on scoring rather on understanding what I actually meant. Ace got my point and expanded on it.

[Zirro]

Viruses come only from internet, as such you will get infected only if you fuck up on the internet. Most legit sites out there are clean of malware and virus.

While I do see what you mean, what if an attacker were to launch an attack against a vulnerable application at an open port in your network/on your computer? This way, you wouldn't even even need to access the Internet with a browser to get infected.

EDIT: My advice is that as long as you are hooked up to the Internet at all, you should take precautions. Even then, if you are not connected to the Internet, an infected USB-drive or memory card could spread malware to your computer.

[AceHigh]

Your first assumption is that I have something of interest to an "attacker", I don't, and most people don't.

The only vulnerable application I had was MSN messenger as that thing was prone to all kind of shit. Don't use it any more though.

[xfreidax]

EDIT: My advice is that as long as you are hooked up to the Internet at all, you should take precautions. Even then, if you are not connected to the Internet, an infected USB-drive or memory card could spread malware to your computer.

QFT that's the only way I have ever gotten malware on my comp. I have anti virus installed but disabled. Only time I ever enable is when I want to scan usb storage devices from co-workers, friends etc.

[Hrak]

Viruses come only from internet, as such you will get infected only if you fuck up on the internet. Most legit sites out there are clean of malware and virus.

While I do see what you mean, what if an attacker were to launch an attack against a vulnerable application at an open port in your network/on your computer? This way, you wouldn't even even need to access the Internet with a browser to get infected.

EDIT: My advice is that as long as you are hooked up to the Internet at all, you should take precautions. Even then, if you are not connected to the Internet, an infected USB-drive or memory card could spread malware to your computer.

It happend several times before, USB sticks/Mem Cards from known brands had some trojan/viruses/rootkits on it and so on.
Surely, it is very likely that the danger to expose yourself to malicious content is the highest while browsing careless on the internet, but its not the only source of it.

Common sense (like with everything) should be used with a moderate amount of misstrust (if its to good to be true, it mostly isnt anyways), but users should be also aware that you dont need to do "something" to get a virus and other critters if you surf the web.
A malicious advertbanner, some "flavor of the month" exploit on some webservers can be enough to get what you dont want.

There is no real protection against all this shit, only different amounts of how you "reduce the risks".

But back to the topic at hand, for gaming I use the Aviria Premium Security Suite (with disabled firewall) and the actuall Commodo Firewall (with Defense+).
Avira has actually a good heuristic recognition and a decent realtime anti-virus engine and the Commodo is better than most software firewalls but its still a OS/application based firewall.

Mcafee/NAI is and Symantec/Norton in any configuration and bundle are not worth the trouble for a desktopuser, Kaspersky is not all that bad but still a big resource muncher 

So, I would go for Aviria and keep the "common sense" thingie in mind.

[AceHigh]

There is no real protection against all this shit, only different amounts of how you "reduce the risks".

Yeah, adblock+ and noscript are the two best ways of reducing the risk when browsing. First one will block all adds that might be malicious when you click on them, and the second one stops scripts that run automatically as soon as you visit a site.

You are correct that common sense antivirus does benefit from a mistrust package.


I do believe that antiviruses that run constantly are no better than real viruses. After all they take system resources and often network resources, just like many trojans out there. Also in case of Norton, that thing is worse than any virus out there. At least it is as hard to completely remove from the system.

Howver a scanner is never a bad thing, for that I use two tools: Windows task manager and Highjackthis!