Battle Best Anti-Virus and/or IS for me

[Rogerius]

Hello all!
I have a question for you which is bugging me so long.
I don't know which AV or IS to choose for me, and I need your help.
My browsing behavior is good, and I don't use torrent so much, so I thought maybe IS (Internet Security) isn't necessary.
My laptop isn't so strong (i5-3337U & GT 710M) and sometimes I use it for gaming, so the performance is the most important.
I'm using Windows 8.1.
My options is the following ones:
- ESET Smart Security 7 or 8 beta (for this I have a free license because my university)
- ESET NOD32 7 or 8 beta (for this I have a free license because my university)
- Bitdefender Internet Security 2015 (free key from here)
- any other free AV, or paid AV with free key (for example: AVG)

First question: Antivirus or Internet Security? Why?
Second question: Which one?

Thanks for your answers in advance, and sorry for my bad English.

 

[Kent]

ESET (Antivirus or Smart Security) is the best one and you have got it free!!

 

[software182]

ESET Smart Security 8 Final FTW !

 

[Rogerius]

I disagree that recent Kaspersky products are affecting gaming performance in a negative way. Personally I was never able to witness such a thing at any time and neither have I seen any hard evidence to confirm these accusations. In fact I find Kaspersky very light these days. Of course there can be temporary compatibility issues but that happens with all AVs every now and then.

As another great contender I would like to suggest the new Norton Security 2015. Excellent 0-day protection in combination with superb performance.

"I used Kaspersky before, but I have only bad memories...
On one day my system isn't started. Hardly I could boot up, and made the explorer.exe working for a while (which is always restarted in 1 minute but somehow I could fix, so it was stable for 15 mins).
I made a system scan with Kaspersky (it was installed at that time, when I installed my OS; always on & not hacked or cracked (90 day trial)), nothing. In my despair I uninstalled it (and because it's Windows 8 it switched back the built-in MS Security Essential).
It was funny, because in 1 minute it found 1-2 infected file (which was linked to the explorer.exe in system32 -> that was the reason why it always restarted itself), and after the malware removal, my system was normal (at least until I backed up everything and reinstalled my OS)."
So I'll not use Kaspersky... (It's funny (or rather pathetic), that the worst free AV (built-in) was able to detect a (significant) infection, wich cannot be detected by Kaspersky...)

 

[Dima007]

No doubt eset smart...

 

[Kate_L]

360 TS (I use with all engines enabled), 360 IS is also good.

 

[Behold Eck]

Get your pen and paper out and do your Sandboxie homework.

Once configured choose what ever AV paid or free that you like.

Regards Eck

 

[MisterToto]

ESET (Antivirus or Smart Security) is the best one and you have got it free!!

Free?

 

[titan1]

Free?

Rogerius's university is providing the ESET products for free.

 

[MisterToto]

Ok i didn't know=)

 

[Raul90]

I'd go with Eset ESS ver7 and Emsisoft IS

 

[Rogerius]

Rogerius's university is providing the ESET products for free.

But only for students.
It's valid only until the end of the year (12.31.), but at new year I can request an another one.
For example: If I request my license now, it will be valid from today (2014.10.13.) to 2014.12.31.
At new year I can request an another one, and it will be valid from 2015.01.01. to 2015.12.31.
And I can do this every time until I'm a student. (Naturally only 1 active license per person.)

 

[jen900]

for me IS 360 and Norton , Malwarebytes Premium

 

[Rogerius]

I'm using NOD32 v8 at the moment. It's worth to consider Smart Security?
I don't need Anti-Theft; I don't use any mailing software and Windows Firewall will be enough for now. Any other feature or aspect, why it's worth?

 

[Rogerius]

for me IS 360 and Norton , Malwarebytes Premium

Last time I used Norton, it wasn't light.
Aside that: If I haven't got an ESET license I'll use IS 360, and I'm already using Malwarebytes Premium.

 

[GabiCRX]

I suggested Kaspersky,everybody suggested you different AV's, with good arguments, but in fact the best antivirus it's the one that fits you the best, so you have to try to see who's the best for you !

 

[jen900]

''Best way to be safe is self discipline ''

 

[Ink]

free antiviruses provide basic protection.Either they give excellent feature but poor detection(e.g. Comodo IS or zonealarm IS free) or they provide decent detection but lack feature(e.g. Avast or avira) some lack both (e.g. AVG free).those who download torrents are typically considered as high risk users.They are prone to get zero day malwares,or terrifying rootkits etc.So to fight with such danger one needs great feature and great detection.ESET comprises both.That is my point of view.

No, what you need is not an idiot PC user. Free Antivirus solutions can provide similar levels of protection to paid solution.

 

[titan1]

No, what you need is not an idiot PC user. Free Antivirus solutions can provide similar levels of protection to paid solution.

Yes,that is of course the most essential thing.But "to err is human".If anything happens wrong despite taking adequate protection then I think ESET will provide better protection than most (not all) of the other free or paid antiviruses.

 

[jackuars]

Yes,that is of course the most essential thing.But "to err is human".If anything happens wrong despite taking adequate protection then I think ESET will provide better protection than most (not all) of the other free or paid antiviruses.

I wonder where you get this sort of information from. I'm not sure how protection is measured

 

[vaso rao]

Yes it is like ''Best way to be safe is self discipline ''