Considering switching to a free solution after subscription expires

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by JohnnyDollar, Jun 21, 2009.

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  1. JohnnyDollar

    JohnnyDollar Guest

    Hello everyone. I have been using Nod32 for a couple of years and I really like it. Nod has picked up a few trojans when I was downloading torrents in the past, but I new what I was getting into and would use virtualization when experimenting with risky downloads. Nowadays I don't ever pick anything up. I use firefox with WOT and practice safe surfing habits and only download from reputable sites. I do scans with Nod weekly. I use MBAM and SAS for on demand regular scans. I never find anything. I have drive image software and regularly do image backups. If I was to get a bad infection that I could not clean, then I would restore from an image. I guess the point that I am making is I am starting to feel that I am spending money on a good commercial av product that I don't need to. Nothing against NOD, but I think that when my subscription expires I may just go with Avast or Avira, or Microsofts upcoming free AV, and I beleive that I will still be able to keep my pc clean. Anybody have any thoughts about the subject?
     
  2. gery

    gery Registered Member

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    Actually you said it all. That is all you need.You will only miss premium support from the vendor you use but that is not a big deal.
    good luck
     
  3. JohnnyDollar

    JohnnyDollar Guest

    I suppose I answered my own question didn't I? I have learned that the best PC protection starts with the user. The more informed that I have become over the years about malware in general and the tactics that are sometimes used by it's authors and suspicious websites, along with using common sense has done more to protect me from infection than anything else.
     
  4. gery

    gery Registered Member

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    yap well said
     
  5. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    As you clearly mentioned basically there is no real difference between paid and free, your post becomes a rhetorical question. I used to have Nod32for a couple of years (excellent performance) then went 'naked' for a while and occasionally installed Avira free because of infected USB flash drives Avira would tell me if the drives were infected so I could stop the infection from spreading. I ended up buying a licence from Avira out of respect (a donation) for a company that IMO has made headway in a very competitive field.

    With the announced entrance of the new MS player, it'll be tempting to have all from MS: Firewall, UAC, MS essentials, Windows Defender.
     
  6. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Yes, the primary security appliance is between the user's ears :D If it's not operational all the security software in the world won't keep the system clean. By the way, I've been running Microsoft Security Essentials on both Windows 7 and Vista for a couple of days, and so far it's been working fine.
     
  7. the Tester

    the Tester Registered Member

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    I agree.
    Some of the free av programs are just as good. Will you miss the support of a paid version? If you are a safe surfer, probably not.
     
  8. Macstorm

    Macstorm Registered Member

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    These are the key words ;)

    Go ahead and pick any of the excellent free alternatives out there :cool:
     
  9. Montecristo

    Montecristo Registered Member

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    Go for it. I haven't run a realtime antivirus in over a year. Never been infected once. And yes, I surf risky places and download things. I use Sandboxie and image back-ups as my protection. I scan all downloads with 2-3 different scan engines.
     
  10. Someone

    Someone Registered Member

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    Agreed.
     
  11. G1111

    G1111 Registered Member

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    I would also consider free version of Sandboxie or GesWall. Maybe a block list (modified HOSTS file) too. Firewall, free AV, free Sandbox, a free block list or two and that is all you probably really need.
     
  12. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    I think NOD32 is using 30Mbs space with V4, up from 20Mbs with v3, or there abouts. Avast uses 100MBs. I'm not sure about RAM but I think Avast uses 265Mbs. If that's not an issue for you, than that would be the only reason I can think of to use NOD32 instead of Avast. I have been using NOD32 for a few years because of it's frequent definitions updates, and it runs well. I installed Avast on my Daughter's computer when she got infected, and as soon as it installed it went into a boot scan and found 77 instances of the Vundo trojan and quarantined them. It updates daily, even build updates. I am in the same situation as you in that I never get infected (bad luck to say that) and my subscription is up again at Eset in September. I am thinking about which way to go. It's like breaking off with your girlfriend because you see a redhead you like. LOL :D
     
  13. raven211

    raven211 Registered Member

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    Don't forget that MSE is a superseeded version of WD. ;) It includes WD and adds AM-protection. Installing MSE on a system with WD will remove WD first.
     
  14. Johnny123

    Johnny123 Registered Member

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    With a limited user account, a software restriction policy and DEP you could make your system even more secure. LUA is easy to use with SuRun (excellent tutorial by mrkvonic here) and here is one for a software restriction policy. With this setup I have Avira on one crate and Avast on another without the on-access scanners just to check files I download. I do a scan once a week and they never find anything. I can't figure out why people don't use the features of the OS instead of installing tons of security apps.
     
  15. JohnnyDollar

    JohnnyDollar Guest

    Well I have 8G of ram so that is not really a big concern as long as it doesn't slow down windows startup.
     
  16. JohnnyDollar

    JohnnyDollar Guest

    Well I know sandboxie isn't compatible with vista x64 yet, and I have thought about GesWall but have not tried it. Acronis try and decide is a nice sandbox to. I use acronis for my image backups but I dont have it installed. I do all by backups from the recovery manager at bootup. I had trouble with acronis running on my machine.
     
  17. JohnnyDollar

    JohnnyDollar Guest

    I checked those links you provided, very interesting. The first link 'Surun' is that for Xp only?
     
  18. cqpreson

    cqpreson Registered Member

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    For free version,Avast is the most comprehensive that I have seen:D .
    Avira doesn't have Web Guard and Mail Guard in Free version.That's a pity.
    If you have a good habit to surf the Internet,maybe Avira is a good chioce:) .
     
  19. Johnny123

    Johnny123 Registered Member

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    SuRun works in Vista as well, both 32 and 64 bit. Only takes a day or two to get used to using it.

    The software restriction policy is also worth looking into. The benefits are explained in the article pretty well. Also check here in the search for a thread started by Lucy concerning locking down Vista using the OS features, there's some excellent info there.
     
  20. gery

    gery Registered Member

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    if you would be looking for a free light set up i would suggest this one
    AVG antivirus free
    PC TOOLS Firewall free
    Dr Web cureIT free
    SAS free or paid
     
  21. dansorin

    dansorin Registered Member

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    265MB RAM used by avast? :blink: you must be joking...
     
  22. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    Sorry I just checked and it's 128MB RAM. :-*
     
  23. dansorin

    dansorin Registered Member

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    well, my avast is consuming 18.5MB. in it's default configuration. it reaches a maximum of 85MB when it's doing a thorough scan.
     
  24. robinb

    robinb Registered Member

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    it will remove it once it is out of beta but right now it is having problems removing it in windows 7 and vista, Microsoft says this will be fixed in the final version.

    robin
     
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