Antivirus decision time

[entropy]

Alright. I've been using an illegal copy of BitDefender for years. Now they've got it set so that the key I'm using (and any others "out there") will expire June 22, 2005.

Let me start by saying I have never gotten a serious virus using this. Norton let most of them in, Panda Titanium was the only real contender to BitDefender in my opinion. The only virus that's ever gotten through with BitDefender (and consistently...) is Java.BytVerify.something. It's never done anything, and everytime I run a Java-based thing in a website, it'll come back, so whatever.

Now I have several options. I could buy this software. It's only ~$23 for a year. Or I could find something else. What do you guys suggest? And I'd really like to not use the free one that most people here use... I can't even remember it's name. It's small, "effective," and free. I tried it - it missed a lot of blatant virii (I had once downloaded a zip file full of them from a website designed to test your antivirus software. They couldn't infect unless they were run, however. BitDefender sucked them all up before the .zip was even complete. Panda got all but one. The free one GOT one.). IF, however, it's improved, OK, but other suggestions you guys have would be appreciated.

[topherice]

I use AVG from Grisoft. It's free and I've never had any probs. out of it. Grisoft (http://www.grisoft.com)

[primesuspect]

AVG is the small free one that a lot of people around here use. AVG has a really good detection engine, I've not come across anything that it doesn't catch, and I've got several copies deployed. all of my home computers have it. I'm not sure if that's the one you're talking about.

If you're happy with bitdefender, just pay for it. Support software that you've stolen for years. I mean you probably spend way more than $23 a year on, say, Pepsi.

[Trogan]

I don't get how an Anti-Virus software by different companies find various things? For example, Norton may find 1 infected file, Panda might find 10 while AVG finds 7 etc...

[entropy]

AVG, that's the one. I guess I could give it another whirl, but I wasn't happy last time I did (although it was quite awhile ago). You've got a point, though, prime. It's probably better if I pay for it. The only reason I'm asking this is because I don't have a lot of money (and no income yet), and I guess I want to buy, or use, the best one out there. So far that's been BitDefender for me, but I obviously haven't tried them all.

Edit:
Trogan: It's because they all have different techniques, and different ways of going, "Ok, this doesn't match exactly what I have here... but it's close, so we'll call it a virus and kill it." If they were all the same, there would be no point to different software. It would be nice, though, if each was as good as the next. Also, it has to do with how frequently the definitions get updated.

[saintuk]

i had a few slip through with avg, using Nod32 now. cant fault it.

[Dexter]

We have a stikcy thread in this forum which covers this very topic:

http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12261

Dexter...