What is a good rating source for antivirus software?

[aob]

Have been protected against antivirus for the past two years with BidDefender. It is time to renew or purchase another software. I decided to look at several rating sources, to see if there is a consensus as to which is the best. One rater compared 10 software and gave its number 1 rating to one of them. The second rater did not even include this number 1 in its top ten.
How can I rely on any particular rating service, when the raters cannot agree on what should be in the top 10? My problem, then, is who should I rely on, when looking at ratings?

If Consumer Reports gave a current rating, since I trust Consumer Reports, I might just go with its rating. But, there is no recent rating by CR. How do I find a trustworthy rating service?

[HAN]

One I look at is AV-Comparatives http://www.av-comparatives.org/ (You need to look at the Comparatives tab and check the more recent On-demand and Retrospective results.)

That said, I take their opinion and weigh it against other things that are important to me. Such as if the AV bogs down my system, how much of a memory hog it may be and so forth.

I'm sorry but I would not trust CR in something like this. IMO, they are not sophisticated enough to render a valid opinion in this area. (I used to be deeply involved with HiFi and Home Theater and their opinions in that area were waaaay off base...)

[Train]

Comparison charts are all that good I have noticed. I swear most of them are rigged.

Got something that works, I keep it.

I have used computer associates eTrust for years and probably will for more time to come. one purchase for 3 computers is not bad for the price.

[Broni]

For last....uhmmmm....10 years, I haven't been using any paid for AV, or firewall.
Never had an infection, either.
Currently, on different OSes, I use one of these:

- Avast! free antivirus: http://filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/
- Avira free antivirus: http://www.free-av.com/en/download/index.html


- free Comodo Internet Security (firewall + AV): http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

[jerryctx]

If all you care about is how long a product lasts (washing machines, refrigerators, ...) then Consumer Reports have some value. For more sophisticated products (electronics, software, ...) and products where the user interface is important (automobiles, cameras, ...) they don't have a clue.

The AV comparisons I have seen are equally worthless. The only feature worth measuring is how quickly they update their signature file. I don't know how you would measure this. How often they update their download is important but doesn't necessarily reflect speed (if their updates are for malware that's been "in the wild" for weeks update frequency is meaningless).

Number of viruses detected is also meaningless. A large count just means they haven't removed old sigs, ie, viruses that haven't been seen for years, and the AV is wasting your computer's resources.

[SpywareDr]

I decided to look at several rating sources, to see if there is a consensus as to which is the best. One rater compared 10 software and gave its number 1 rating to one of them. The second rater did not even include this number 1 in its top ten.
How can I rely on any particular rating service, when the raters cannot agree on what should be in the top 10?

IMHO, the problem you're running up against here is that there is _no_ 'best' of anything. What might work perfectly for some can be absolutely useless to another.

(Even if one were to develop what they think would be the 'best' of something, upon release someone else will immediately start trying to modify and improve it ... to fit what they think would be even more 'pefect'. )

A 'perfect' Anti-Virus software for PCs would have to be powerful enough to immediately eliminate any and all known and unknown virus threats. Problem is there are no PCs powerful enough to run (or even develop) such a beast. The computer would be so busy running the Anti-Virus software you wouldn't be able to use it for anything else.

That leads to another problem: No two Anti-Virus review committees will use the same identical hardware/software setups (as you). And, more importantly, which of the gazillions of Viruses should they choose to be watched for and eliminated?

So, what you have to do is do like the rest of us ... wade through all the facts, figures and opinions in order to help you figure out which might be 'best' for _your_ particular setup and situation.

If you have a fairly up-to-date Windows PC and need a 'free' anti-virus, "avast!" and "avira" work well for many. They are not 'perfect' nor the 'best' for everyone however.