# Best (free) anti-virus for a NETBOOK



## lemonadesoda (Sep 23, 2009)

I know we have had the discussion about preferred anti-virus software a thousand times. But I ask the question again, from a different perspective.

Q. What should I put on my *netbook*? (Atom N280).

(On my workstation I use McAfee Enterprise that I am very happy with.)

I tried the McAfee Enterprise on the netbook but it is a no-go. It keeps freezing and bringing the machine to a crawl, esp.with webbrowsing. And I can see the culprit, MCShield is up at 50%. (Hogging the whole netbook of course, because 50% is actually 95% in practical terms for an Atom. This is a HT device not dual core).

So McAfee has to come off. What should I put on? *Remember*, this is for a netbook and not a desktop.


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## erocker (Sep 23, 2009)

I've been using Avast and Malwarbytes on my Asus 900HA netbook without a problem. Neither (except while doing full scans of course) seem to have any impact on performance.


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## [Ion] (Sep 23, 2009)

I use Avast! 4 Home on my X31 (as well as the quad).  I know my laptop isn't a netbook, but it's pretty slow (1.4ghz Pentium M), and Avast has no negative impact on performance except when it's updating (about once every 3-5 days)


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## lemonadesoda (Sep 23, 2009)

Bah! Home wont install, due to my netbook running W2K3.  OK, so I am demoing the server edition. It is using a lot of resources(over 110,000k with ONLY one internet explorer session running), but the CPU utilisation seems much much lower than McAfee. So far so good.


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## [Ion] (Sep 23, 2009)

lemonadesoda said:


> Bah! Home wont install, due to my netbook running W2K3.  OK, so I am demoing the server edition. It is using a lot of resources(over 110,000k with ONLY one internet explorer session running), but the CPU utilisation seems much much lower than McAfee. So far so good.



Ugh, I had the same problem when I was running W2K8 on my desktop (memory usage), I finally switched back to XP Pro because I wasn't interested in paying for Avast Server.


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## RejZoR (Sep 25, 2009)

Yeah, avast! Home Edition is not intended to run on server OS. Anyway, either pick avast! or AVIRA. They both work great on Aspire One (N270) with Windows XP.


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## pantherx12 (Sep 25, 2009)

I've used AVG free since I've had the internet and its never let me down.


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## mrhuggles (Sep 25, 2009)

+1 for avast free


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## phanbuey (Sep 25, 2009)

avira antivir - runs lighter than avast IMO


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## newtekie1 (Sep 25, 2009)

I've got AVG on my ASUS 1000H(N270).  Works wonderfully, though you will have to pay for it if you are running 2K3, there aren't many free anti-virus programs that will work on server oses.  Why would you want 2K3 on a netbook anyway?


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## lemonadesoda (Sep 25, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> Why would you want 2K3 on a netbook anyway?



Unusual situation: netbook came with wrong language XP home. I have a W2K3 license in EN. Installed it and turned off ALL server components... cutting it back to essentially XP feature set.

W2K3 is a better windows kernel than XP, it is faster, I can run it classic, set it up as a workstation, turn off all server services, and resource utilisation is low. But unfortunately reports as server edition so lots of installers complain.

Waiting for Win7 ENGLISH


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## zaqwsx (Sep 26, 2009)

Comodo is pretty good but annoying.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 26, 2009)

lemonadesoda said:


> Unusual situation: netbook came with wrong language XP home. I have a W2K3 license in EN. Installed it and turned off ALL server components... cutting it back to essentially XP feature set.
> 
> W2K3 is a better windows kernel than XP, it is faster, I can run it classic, set it up as a workstation, turn off all server services, and resource utilisation is low. But unfortunately reports as server edition so lots of installers complain.
> 
> Waiting for Win7 ENGLISH



I agree that W2K3 actually made a pretty damn workstation OS, possibly better than XP.

I just figured if you were going to replace the OS, you would use something more modern like Vista or Win7.  But if you don't have the licences, you have to use what you got.


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## hat (Sep 26, 2009)

Malwarebytes FTW


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## Boyfriend (Sep 26, 2009)

Kaspersky is top-notch & complete protection again malwares. Kaspersky® Internet Security Special Edition for Ultra-Portables is available for netbooks (only $29.95). For freewares, I will recommend Avast, Avira, AVG, or use trial version for 30 days and then reinstall Windows (you might consider Ghost/Partition Backup of Windows without AV). (I am not affiliated with Kaspersky. Don't comment offensively. I am using it since 2005 and found it THE BEST).


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## RejZoR (Sep 26, 2009)

Kaspersky is good but certanly creates too much drag on the system. And most of netbooks just can't take it. Especially it takes long to boot if you don't disable startup scan which is quite lenghty and resource intensive.


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## Boyfriend (Sep 27, 2009)

RejZoR said:


> Kaspersky is good but certanly creates too much drag on the system. And most of netbooks just can't take it. Especially it takes long to boot if you don't disable startup scan which is quite lenghty and resource intensive.



You are probably talking about previous versions of Kaspersky. Current version (Kaspersky 2010) is totally different. It is much faster, take little RAM, not resource intensive & light on system, add ignorable time to boot and make decisions automatically. Kaspersky® Internet Security Special Edition for Ultra-Portables is even further optimized for netbooks. Experiment it and then comment please.


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## RejZoR (Sep 27, 2009)

I've tried version 7.0 and 2010. Both were slower than other AV's. Haven't tried Kaspersky for Netbooks though.


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## alexpr07 (Oct 5, 2009)

I have always used Norton but it's not free. If you are so concerned about the safety and virus-free environment for your PC, you should invest some money into a good antivirus. Or just don't download anything from Internet - and you're good to go.

All of them slow down the system so having no antivirus is a solution too.


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## inferKNOX (Oct 5, 2009)

RejZoR said:


> Kaspersky is good but certanly creates too much drag on the system. And most of netbooks just can't take it. Especially it takes long to boot if you don't disable startup scan which is quite lenghty and resource intensive.


+1. I'd prefer Kaspersky on my main rig, definitely, but it's heavy on read/writes.


phanbuey said:


> avira antivir - runs lighter than avast IMO


+1. Avira is definately the best, it just eats a good amount of RAM, but has a virtually non-existent footprint on CPU and I/O, so it's the best choice. To top it all off, it's detection strength is excellent.

Check some comparatives here: http://av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests


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## Delta6326 (Oct 5, 2009)

For free i would go Avast, but if your willing to pay then get TrendMicro i love it and it use hardly none resource i think around 27k im at school so i cant check. the one thing i dont like about TrendMicro is that there are updates like every 3hours but thats not bad that means there just updating making it better


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## Kreij (Oct 5, 2009)

I use AVG Free Version 8.5
Works fine on my rig, but I'm not sure how well it would run on a netbook.
It appears that all AVG processes eat up about 25MB of RAM.


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## Black Hades (Oct 5, 2009)

Avira Antivir is really low on resources. also has a one of the best detection rates. It's simple no nonsense antivirus. I'd only go with NOD32 as an alternative but that one's not free now is it.


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## Lazzer408 (Oct 5, 2009)

My experience...

Norton - problems/slow
Mcafee - problems/slow
Kaspersky - problems/slow
Panda - major problems/slow Once installed it'll take a format to remove it. (like a virus?)
Avast - no issues/fast
Avira - untested
AVG - no issues/fast (currently installed on ALL my computers including my acer one)
BitDef - no issues/fast
Nod32 - untested
Sophos - untested

I've been hearing good things about Nod32. I'll be trying that next.


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## RejZoR (Oct 5, 2009)

AVIRA is also very fast. You can add it on your list


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## Boyfriend (Oct 6, 2009)

Why not give a try to Microsoft Security Essentials. It is good and cost you 0$. Only prerequisite is genuine Windows.


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## exodusprime1337 (Oct 6, 2009)

i'd say avast, personlly i love nod32 but later editions have begun to show up in other programs as ctd, blue  screens and the like.  I wanted to try something free as i hear so many good things about various free av programs, so i tried avast, i'm currently using it on all 4 of my computers including my notebook, it runs great, updates all the time and doesn't thrash the disk often


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## extrasalty (Oct 6, 2009)

You should all google "linux antivirus".


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## inferKNOX (Oct 6, 2009)

I wouldn't advise (speaking as a PC Technician for a IT company) using *AVG (especially free is bad), McAfee, TrendMicro or Panda* because of their poor heuristics (detection) and weight / problematic behaviour.
*NOD32* is only good with on-entry detection, but once the malware is in the system, NOD is useless.
*Kaspersky* is by far the best that I have used, but is too demanding for lower end systems.
*Avira & Avast* have good detection rates & low resource use for lower end systems, they are the best choice


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2009)

inferKNOX said:


> I wouldn't advise (speaking as a PC Technician for a IT company) using *AVG (especially free is bad), McAfee, TrendMicro or Panda* because of their poor heuristics (detection) and weight / problematic behaviour.
> *NOD32* is only good with on-entry detection, but once the malware is in the system, NOD is useless.
> *Kaspersky* is by far the best that I have used, but is too demanding for lower end systems.
> *Avira & Avast* have good detection rates & low resource use for lower end systems, they are the best choice



^ i agree with what he said.


your best bet on a netbook is to run windows 7 with UAC on high.


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## lemonadesoda (Oct 6, 2009)

I am unsing avast! at the moment... it added a little slow-down, but nothing like McAfee Enterprise.  Since I upgraded to 2GB memory, I noticed avast! resource untilitsation increased BUT it his the HDD less so is overall a little faster now.

Antivirus for netbooks is a real problem. Single core Atoms are essentially "weak" pentium 3's, and Atoms dont HTT well.  Someone needs to come out with antivirus TARGETED to netbooks, and not just Dual/Quad core CPUs.

It seems that (as is with so much software) as CPUs become more powerful, the programmers become less efficient.


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## inferKNOX (Oct 6, 2009)

lemonadesoda said:


> It seems that (as is with so much software) as CPUs become more powerful, the programmers become less efficient.


Don't you just hate that? It keeps new generation hardware feeling sluggish like older h/ware!
Tech aught to be improved on all fronts, not progressing in h/ware & receding in s/ware.:shadedshu


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2009)

inferKNOX said:


> Don't you just hate that? It keeps new generation hardware feeling sluggish like older h/ware!
> Tech aught to be improved on all fronts, not progressing in h/ware & receding in s/ware.:shadedshu



and thats why i'm excited about GPGPU and compute shaders. finally a generation where things speed up drastically


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## RejZoR (Oct 6, 2009)

You guys will want to use avast! 5.0 once it's finally released. This thing is so damn fast. Even for a beta version. There is hardly any lag and i'm using Max heuristics on my netbook.


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## erocker (Oct 6, 2009)

RejZoR said:


> You guys will want to use avast! 5.0 once it's finally released. This thing is so damn fast. Even for a beta version. There is hardly any lag and i'm using Max heuristics on my netbook.



When is this due out? Where can I get the version you are using?


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## RejZoR (Oct 6, 2009)

You can get it on avast! forums. Just remember, it's still a BETA and is not recommended for regular usage. Final release is scheduled before Windows 7 release. Not so far away anymore.


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## newtekie1 (Oct 6, 2009)

inferKNOX said:


> I wouldn't advise (speaking as a PC Technician for a IT company) using *AVG (especially free is bad), McAfee, TrendMicro or Panda* because of their poor heuristics (detection) and weight / problematic behaviour.
> *NOD32* is only good with on-entry detection, but once the malware is in the system, NOD is useless.
> *Kaspersky* is by far the best that I have used, but is too demanding for lower end systems.
> *Avira & Avast* have good detection rates & low resource use for lower end systems, they are the best choice



I agree with everything, except AVG.  I've found it to be the best free anti-virus.  Resrouce wise, it can seem a bit heavy, but even during a full scan, I notice no performance hit on my netbook(or any other system).

Having working in computer repair for nearly a decade, I can say that vary rarely do I see a machine come in that has a properly updated AVG and viruses, and I have only see one or two times when AVG has broken, which can't be said for McAfee, Trend, or Norton, they all break way to easily, leaving the computer unprotected.


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## Mussels (Oct 7, 2009)

performance hit isnt the issue with AVG, its the crap heuristics.

it tends to miss all the newest viruses, and grab random safe files (false positives)


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