Anti-virus recommendations?

Filan

My Avg free is apparently no longer available for free from December, does anyone know of other free programmes or failing that recommend a reliable 'paid' system?.
Thanks
Alan

Big Lar

Avast seems to be the No.1 these days http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

I use Antivir myself, Find it OK http://www.free-av.com/en/download/1/download_avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html

Most machines I fix, I place Avast on them
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
It can scan out of the OS which I like.

For any old machines which need less resources, I tend to throw on ClamWin http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/
It's open source.

Another which I have used in the past, both premium (paid) and free is Avira http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php
The free system pops up an advertisement trying to entice you to purchase the premium product every time it updates it's definations, if you could live with that, then it's a good product.

The list below are all FREE products, and what I would use to keep a windows machine healthy.

Avast = Antivirus
Antimalware Anti-Bytes = malware detection
CCleaner = Clean the registry and housekeeping.
Zone Alarm = Application Layer Firewall (optional)

Filan

Thanks, thats great, have downloaded Avast:)

FusionNet

I was going to suggest Eset as its deemed by the powers to be to be better than most. Also they were doing a great deal until the 15th nov. Buy three licences for 49 euro. Thats a genuinely good offer, best antivirus and security for cheap as chips, good time to get all the laptops done

www.eset.ie

zenno

kaspersky internet security is by far the best of the lot i have being using it for a few years now. it has a virtual keyboard in it as well so no keyloggers can recieve keystroke requests from your system. very powerful scan engine. not free though but well worth the money

ryanch09

norton 360 seems a good way to go. i've had it for 2 years now. it does a ton of things like antivirus, internet security, parental controls, free online backup and it keeps ur pc running smoothly

BaconZombie

ryanch09 wrote: »

norton 360 seems a good way to go. i've had it for 2 years now. it does a ton of things like antivirus, internet security, parental controls, free online backup and it keeps ur pc running smoothly

ryanch09

BOFH_139 wrote: »

funny but definetely not true. i'm pretty sure quad cores didnt exist back in the time of norton 2003

Mike Litoris

Hmm, i'm in the middle of uninstalling AVG, I changed from avast about a year a go when I got a new machine. I installed AVG 9 recently and today I've had enough. I never had a problem with avast so I'm going back.

The only reason I went with AVG is because everyone claimed it was the best free one etc. I take it this isn't the case any more?

red army256

What problems did you have with AVG?

FusionNet

For the record Nortons 360 is one of the worst pieces of software you can install. I dont use Avast as my business partner and I clean up to ten machines a week, Eset goes on all of them. The more basic softwares cant find root kits and the really nasty stuff. No disrespect to anyones suggestions but if you have only used it on one machine its not a fair test. we've seen dozens and dozens of machines and full networks using Eset and for the most part is perfect. It has its odd flaw too but as discussed in other threads its regarded in the top 3 in the world.

check out this website, very helpful.. Look where symantec is, scary considering how many units they sell world wide!! http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests

BostonB

Filan wrote: »

My Avg free is apparently no longer available for free from December, does anyone know of other free programmes or failing that recommend a reliable 'paid' system?.
Thanks
Alan

Theres a free version of AVG 9. Your probably on 8.5 and that probably is being dropped now the new version is out.

Norton is the worst software I've ever seen.

Have to say I can't remember the last time I saw a virus on a machine. its years ago anyway. AVG free has worked fine on all the machines I've ever installed it on.

AVG 9 though leaves a index file on every drive, including external drives and that just bugs me. I turn off link scanner. I'm thinking of trying some of the other free ones though, as I usually do this every so often.

the_syco

Use Bitdefender myself. Don't find it much of a resource hog (compared to Nortons), and it finds stuff inside archives, etc. It can't scan password protected archives, but scans everything else. The only thing I'll say is that it's firewall can be set to not allow anything to go in or out, which I found usefull.

Capt'n Midnight

the_syco wrote: »

Don't find it much of a resource hog (compared to Nortons),

TBH Norton may contribute more to global warming than any other app, maybe it should be carbon taxed