virus scan software?

LegacyUser

my mcafee anti virus softaware 90 day trial is up.

they're lookin for £25 for a years subscription.

is this the norm?

or can i get a good free one? or cheaper.

jcoote

u can get the full mcafee internet suite 2005 (virus firewall etc) for 35 euro in pc world at the minute...my mate got it the other day

kippy

Go for the free version of AVG,
You'll be forking out for annual subscriptions for those others annually and I think AVG is is good a scanner as any of the pay ones.

aidan_walsh

Upon recommendation here, I've recently started using avast!, and have been finding it pretty good. Free updates, which it applies itself fairly silently, thorough scanning, I like it. You have 60 days to try it out without restriction before they ask you to register it for free.

LegacyUser

is it any good?

kippy wrote:

Go for the free version of AVG,
You'll be forking out for annual subscriptions for those others annually and I think AVG is is good a scanner as any of the pay ones.

Ruu_Old

I second AVG free edition, never a problem with viruses in all the time ive used it. if you want to fork out dosh, you could buy avg pro. its better than the rest in my opinion.

TheBigLebowski

See here...

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=232963&highlight=anti-virus

5 geeks out of 10 prefer AVG!

I use it and I haven't had any problems yet...

If you want to download AVG. It's here...
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

_Turismo4

paperclip wrote:

my mcafee anti virus softaware 90 day trial is up.

they're lookin for £25 for a years subscription.

is this the norm?

or can i get a good free one? or cheaper.

Yes i had to do the same, some time back.
but i've now changed to Norton AntiVirus, as i find it better.

raxall

25 pounds per year is not that bad

smeggle

_Turismo4 wrote:

Yes i had to do the same, some time back.
but i've now changed to Norton AntiVirus, as i find it better.

i'd have to advise you to seriously thouroughly check your system for Trojans. Norton has a long history since it's beginings in letting them in and the problem still exists.

Thats without both of them being resource hogging monsters.(McAfee and Norton both).

Last I checked along with there Firewalls they were up around the 35meg mark. AVG is 11, ZA firewall about 6.5, both of which out perform both of those pay for solutions.

If you are an advanced user and really want to take control then Kerio is also a good option though quite complicated if you don't know your way around it.



btw for info on Nortons problem just do a google for 'Known problems with Norton av' or conflicts with norton av. I found a rake of stuff against it.

Laguna

Get AVG Free. It's class, it's what I've used for years, it's also less resource demanding than other "Commercial" anti-virus. Get ZoneAlarm for your PC as your firewall. Have a look at the essential software sticky thread too.

LegacyUser

thanks lads

LegacyUser

ok, i've installed both of these, and now my pc crashes when i try to play counterstrike.

Laguna wrote:

Get AVG Free. It's class, it's what I've used for years, it's also less resource demanding than other "Commercial" anti-virus. Get ZoneAlarm for your PC as your firewall. Have a look at the essential software sticky thread too.

duridian

That could be because it is trying to connect to Steam or something on the internet and ZA is popping a window up which you can't see asking if you want to allow access to the net for the game. Many games can do stuff like this .
I would also endorse AVG Free but I'd recommend Sygate Personal Firewall over Zone Alarm. Here is why/what I have found:
There seems to be a problem on ZA which crops up if you leave the pc idle for a short while, ZA apparently completely blocks all inbound traffic. It is similar to engaging the Internet Lock (and before someone suggests, no it isn't the 'auto lockdown' feature either) but the only way to restore inbound traffic seems to be reboot or shutdown ZA. I used ZA a lot in the past but I observed this problem on multiple pcs including my own pcs, happening with various different hardware, and also with different ISPs and connection types (I've seen it happen for example while using Eircom 56k DU, Eircom BB, Esat/IOL BB and UTV ISDN DU, and on both Intel and AMD machines). The only common element on all was Zone Alarm so I and the others switched to Sygate and the problem vanished.
I would be interested to hear if any others on boards had encountered this.

Bogger77

paperclip wrote:

my mcafee anti virus softaware 90 day trial is up.

they're lookin for £25 for a years subscription.

is this the norm?

or can i get a good free one? or cheaper.

New version of the 2006 suite should be available soon, if not now.

bringitdown

paperclip:
Your wireless router has a firewall built-in. So inbound connections shouldn't be a problem, outbound ones - from spyware and such possibly but keep vigilant use of Ad-Aware or similar and you should be okay.

Personally I don't have a software firewall running, I find it more of a hindrance than a help and I have never had a problem.

I'd third / fourth AVG too, have used it for years and never had a virus, of course I that I never got one means that it never had to deal with one either.

rogue-entity

Avoid AVG if you can, it is completly useless compared to all the paid versions.
The only free version that I can recommend is AntiVir. It catches EVERYTHING. It has daily updates so you are even better protected, not only will it catch virii, trojans and worms, but some spyware, dialers, joke programs and other annoying files that can sneak onto your computer.

I switched to it after a sysadmin friend of mine told me about it and I have never looked back. It is also smaller and more efficient then AVG too.

Sully

I actually dont really trust AVG. I dont think it offers the best protection (I know its free and all but still) and its not the best at removing viruses and often takes decades before it notices one during the background scan (u know the one that always runs?). Thought Panda was much more acurate at finding viruses and removing them but it turned out to be as buggy as anything.

Legend_Killer

rogue-entity wrote:

Avoid AVG if you can, it is completly useless compared to all the paid versions.
The only free version that I can recommend is AntiVir. It catches EVERYTHING. It has daily updates so you are even better protected, not only will it catch virii, trojans and worms, but some spyware, dialers, joke programs and other annoying files that can sneak onto your computer.

I switched to it after a sysadmin friend of mine told me about it and I have never looked back. It is also smaller and more efficient then AVG too.

I read somewhere that antivir only finds 67% of viruses so i unintsalled and now im using nod32. class piece of software IMO.

Laguna

It crashes when you play counter strike as you've probably forgotten to set program/internet access levels. You have to tell ZoneAlarm to allow CS access to the net. (Zonealarm->program control->Add->Locate the cs .exe file->allow access to internet with ticks)

maidhc

I use AVG, and I think its great. I haven't been infected since I started using it 18 months ago. Only complaint is the updating isn't done as well as F-Secure which I use on the laptop.

Norton is an evil piece of software. Dell ship some version of it, and the first thing it needs to do is connect to the internet to download about 30mbs of updates. It also made my p4 feel like a 386.

Wandering Dazed

aidan_walsh wrote:

Upon recommendation here, I've recently started using avast!, and have been finding it pretty good. Free updates, which it applies itself fairly silently, thorough scanning, I like it. You have 60 days to try it out without restriction before they ask you to register it for free.

Personally I found avast to be very resource intensive especially during boot time. AVG doesn't seem half as bad. I use antivir on another system as well and though the gui isn't as "nice" haven't had any problems with either.