Anti Virus

[wesleyw]

I've been testing out a few different antivirus packages (Avast, AVG, etc) however a few threads on here mention Microsofts anti virus and I was wondering what sort of experiences people have had with it i.e. is it any good?

 

 

 

Wes

[Geoff]

I've only used the home edition (security essentials) which I've put on a lot of machines. Never had any issues. It just quitely sits down there in the notification area doing its job.

[MattHarwood]

MSE's detection rate is lacking - well behind all the others in the more reputable tests. It is, however, very light on the system and could be seen as "good enough" - depending on the vital question, what's the system used for?

 

The best in terms of detection capabilities are BitDefender, GDATA and ESET, with Kaspersky not far behind. However, out of those, only ESET could be called light on the system resources.

 

Avast is light, but with middle-of-the-road detection. New features such as the sandbox mode are interesting, but only for people that could figure out how to use them.

[elsiegee40]

I'm another MSE fan for home use... However the licensing is not for commercial use.

 

It won't update through a proxy server either.

[Millgate]

I know a lot of schools use Forefront but it's worth taking a look at Vipre too. Really good product & really good price.

 

You've just got to decide whether to pay extra for Vipre or use the Forefront you can get with EES

[Sylv3r]

We currently use Kaspersky but when the contract expires we will move to Forefront as part of our EES.

[mac_shinobi]

@wagnerk - I know wagner uses forefront, might be able to give you his feedback ref forefront

[MrWu]

Another Forefront user here. We migrated from Sophos and now have 500PCs and servers running Forefront 2010, locked down with GPOs and update via WSUS.

[FN-GM]

I also use it, is there anything specific you want to know?

[plexer]

Forefront is easy enough to deploy however unless you have/setup an sccm environment you don't get centralised management & reporting.

 

Alternatives such as the offering from truesec also comes at an additional cost.

 

Ben

[synaesthesia]

Forefront here. It's not as great on detection rates as has been mentioned but these days it's so easy to lock down the right parts on a network that it's almost negligable. And to be honest, it's picked up and dealt with *everything* we've had thrown at us so far.

 

Its ∞ better than Symantec.

[glennda]

I rolled out Avast with great success and at a very good price for 900 desktops (sub 5k!)

[twin--turbo]

I rolled out Avast with great success and at a very good price for 900 desktops (sub 5k!)

sounds expensive to be honest, we got Kaspersy down to ~£4 per PC before we were moved to SEP last year.

 

Prices have droped considerably over the last 4 years though. We have had Sophos, Kasper and SEP..

 

All have issues but at least Sophos have a good active UK team.

 

 

At home, I use Linux

 

TT

[glennda]

sounds expensive to be honest, we got Kaspersy down to ~£4 per PC before we were moved to SEP last year.

 

Prices have droped considerably over the last 4 years though. We have had Sophos, Kasper and SEP..

 

All have issues but at least Sophos have a good active UK team.

 

 

At home, I use Linux

 

TT

 

I used linux for the back end - should have mentioned it was for 3 years so under £2per machine per year

[twin--turbo]

I used linux for the back end - should have mentioned it was for 3 years so under £2per machine per year

 

Yes, that does make a difference

[teejay]

Forefront Endpoint although looking similar to MSE has a different, more advanced scan and threat engine, they're not the same product. We find it spot on, cheap, easy to use, lightweight and has very good detection.

[EduTech]

I use MSE at home now and install it on any home based machines, I have deployed Forefront in a few places now and it's pretty easy to setup and works really well indeed. (reasonably cheap for Edu also!)

 

I am also a fan of ESET NOD32.

 

James.

[Davidbln]

I'm using MSE + Mawlarebytes + F-Secure. Malwarebytes is great! Before F-Secure i was using ESET but this one is much better. privacy-pc.com/antivirus-software-review/f-secure-anti-virus-2012-review.html - latest tests and rankings proves this. Kaspersky (latest full version) is not bad too