What is the best Antivirus For Home Use ?

nikhilprasad

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Hi guys I have two laptops and two desktops , connected in a home network , so I was wondering what could be the best Antivirus for complete home security? Any ideas and suggestions.
 
1. ESET Internet Security.
2. Avira Inernet security
3. Kaspersky

Used avira for nearly 12 years, very good but since last couple or years it's like heavy on the system resources and UI has become like bloatware.
Using ESET since last 2 yrs, excellent performance and I think it's better than Avira
 
As a matter of fact I know a little bit as to how to keep the pc running safely however my kids use it and my wife , who are not that tech savvy , so considering all those points I have to come down to a conclusion. Hope you guys get it .
 
Use windows defender and windows firewall they are good enough.
The other things that you can do.....

First up use cloudflare family dns servers, that will block a lot of unsafe content.

Install some good addons on chrome or Firefox for privacy and security, like ublock, privacy Badger, https everywhere, adguard adblocker, and if you can tolerate and train the addon then may be noscript.

Use free version of malwarebyte antimalware its very nice.

This much should be enough.

Third party anti virus make your system heavy and a lot of them collect so much data.. Many are of Chinese origin as well.
 
Bought kaspersky internet security for my dad and sister a year back. No issues so far. Low system usage and quite extensive malware database.

Check his videos for other anti viruses too.

Bought two 3 year keys from amazon for 999 each. Received keys and instructions in email in 15 minutes.
 
As a matter of fact I know a little bit as to how to keep the pc running safely however my kids use it and my wife , who are not that tech savvy , so considering all those points I have to come down to a conclusion. Hope you guys get it .

You should make one separate limited user account for the kids and share admin account with your wife. That way the kids can't install any unwanted program on the pc. I forget if Windows can deny all access to other accounts on the pc - like read, write or list. But it's probably set to read only by default.
 
You should make one separate limited user account for the kids and share admin account with your wife. That way the kids can't install any unwanted program on the pc. I forget if Windows can deny all access to other accounts on the pc - like read, write or list. But it's probably set to read only by default.
Did you mean to say to create group policy to limit user access ?
 
Common sense is the best antivirus. Lots of do's and don'ts when browsing, downloading etc. A Google search would help on that topic.

This is the only sure thing.

As a matter of fact I know a little bit as to how to keep the pc running safely however my kids use it and my wife , who are not that tech savvy , so considering all those points I have to come down to a conclusion. Hope you guys get it .

No offense to anyone but having a very powerful tool and not knowing how to use it properly is the reason for innumerable accidents. The same applies to PCs. You can have the best antivirus/firewall, all it takes is one careless click and you're infected. I'm not saying everyone needs to PhD in computer use, but this is the sad truth.
 
This is the only sure thing.

No offense to anyone but having a very powerful tool and not knowing how to use it properly is the reason for innumerable accidents. The same applies to PCs. You can have the best antivirus/firewall, all it takes is one careless click and you're infected. I'm not saying everyone needs to PhD in computer use, but this is the sad truth.

Extremely good words of wisdom. Never stop learning. Especially in this age when everything changes constantly and you get left behind very soon.

Even people using windows or other os need to be alert to change since every new upgrade something is new. We just can't take it for granted that we know everything now.
 
The sad thing is we can't expect everyone to be that technically adept and alert. Heck even I almost clicked on a downloaded file that i'm pretty sure had malware, maybe even ransomware in it. Blame it on the windows/mac ecosystem which makes it too easy to mess with users' installations. Almost any pc i randomly check has at a minimum, spywarey extensions in the browser. Some have actual worms in the windows/system folders.

How are these users supposed to learn the technical intricacies of all that? I can pretty much look at the run etc. sections of the registry and quickly notice if something looks amiss. About two decades of experience. A normal user won't learn this in 100 years.

Android is only slightly better.
 
You are asking for paid antivirus or free?

I have been using Avast free antivirus since years now and I am very happy with it. I will recommend that. It's very light on the resources, and offers excellent protection. The latest version includes ransomeware shield for protection from ransomware. It also has a web shield, which protects you against bad websites. It has saved me a few times. Although I am a very safe surfer, and do not visit bad websites, but sometimes, you can come across a bad website unknowingly. I can't imagine an antivirus without a web shield now.

Some people may not like me mentioning Avast, because it has been in bad news recently because of privacy issues. Personally, I am okay with it, and there are privacy settings in options where I can turn off the stuff that is sent to them. The antivirus is quite good, so I am sticking with it.

Personally, I find that Windows Defender makes my system slow.

Kaspersky free is also good from what I have read. It doesn't require much interaction.

If you want paid antivirus, go with Kaspersky or BitDefender or Norton. I think both the latters have got quite good over the years.

Whichever antivirus you choose, what people have written above holds true. You have to use common sense, and avoid just going to any sites. You have to be careful of what links you click on in social media like Facebook, or have to be careful about the links that you get in email. You have to be careful about phishing, or scams.

Ad blocker on browser is a must. ublock origin is very good ad blocker.

And you have to learn a little bit about how to handle antivirus interactions, because if it does catch a virus, you will have to respond appropriately, unless it handles the infection itself.

But yes, as others have observed, those who are not technically inclined even a little bit, they just don't care about all these things. They just want an antivirus for the peace of their mind, but they don't observe safe practices. Will click on any links, will install software from anywhere... all those sort of things. Those just invite trouble.

One of my cousin had her whole laptop reset and erased, because she didn't read properly what the laptop screen was saying. Just spending a bit of time and understanding what the screen says can save you from a lot of trouble, rather than just clicking ahead coz you don't want to spend time understanding what is on the screen.
 
I've installed Bitdefender + Malwarebytes on Windows.

On Firefox, Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger and Disconnect add-ons.
 
Hi guys I have two laptops and two desktops , connected in a home network , so I was wondering what could be the best Antivirus for complete home security? Any ideas and suggestions.

Suggest to use Windows Defender for day to day use. Also suggest to keep OneDrive handy (or any other Cloud storage) to be able to recover from ransomware. This is the setup for my office pc.
Malwarebytes is also good for a time to time scan.
 
I'm on Bitdefender. Found it to be excellent. Works great at preventing and recognising threats plus it's not a drain on resources
 
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