Anti-Virus Programs

Hi, I have McAfee virus scan 8. They have
notified me i have 7 days left on my registration.
They said to keep McAfee i would have to upgrade to
the tune of 69.99. Can anyone suggest an anti-virus
program that's free or at least a little cheaper?
How about AVG? Thanks.wpdmc.

 

You can search the forums for Antivir, Avast!, AVG, these are the big three of free. If you do chose AVG, use a ondemand only scanner such as Bitdefender Free 7.2 or 8.
If you are looking to pay, you should definately try before you buy.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/downloads/default.mspx
at the link above eTrust is free for one year, and FSecure is free for six months.
There are many other options discussed here at wilders so have look around.

 

Hi, I'm not familiar with an on demand only scanner. What does it do. I've heard of AVAST, but not the other one. Are they fairly good?
wpdmc.

 

I would invest a little more and check into Nod 32 or Kaspersky AV.

 

I've heard of Kaspersky, but not the other one. i'll have
to look that one up. Thanks. wpdmc.

 

There are a number of good choices... KAV, NOD32 are probably the best of the paid AV. Antivir and Avast if you want a free antivirus.
I would urge you to try before you buy... you may be disappointed how a particular antivirus program interacts with your system.

 

Yeah, I kind of know what you mean. I had to manually
download mcafee's updates. when i used auto-update it
would just about freeze what i was doing until it was
over. Thanks for the reminder. wpdmc.

 

I would personally take NOD.
Others to consider that are top notch / price issue -

F-Secure (part Kav)

6 Month Free Trial (expensive, but FREE for 1/2 year)

http://www.f-secure.com/protectyourpc/

or

BitDefender 9: $22.50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681273347SF

or

Fully Free (best of frees by far)

AntiVir

http://www.free-av.com/

note some have had problems updating this (not me)

 

The problems with updating AntiVir, are they enough to worry about? wpdmc

 

If you're on dial up it will take a long time.
(European servers and large updates).

I have no problems with cable - zips right on.

 

Antivir update works fine... & it seems to mess with my system the least of all the top rated a/v's. Detection is great also according to AV Comparitives.

 

I had problems updating in the past but now all seems well, no problems 24 hours a day, and it's a good product.

 

There are so many good free AVs and ATs out there so - if you are a relatively careful surfer/downloader - I would try the free ones first.

Antivir did good at latest AV-comparatives and updates work just fine - as often as you want invisible or not - allthough I have to use "Steves Workaround", but thats unusual I think.
Anyhow that workaround works great.

The downloads are normally small and quick from 20-60 kb - BUT sometimes (today) like 1500kb. Thats the same for any AV isnt it?

Complement with Ewido free online trojan scanner - very good.

AVG is very problem free - same type of downloads - less detection everybody says.

Avast - I have no personal experience - search the forum - it has a solid good reputation.

For downloaded specificly suspect files - I recommend on line scan at Virustotal or Jottis.

If you want to pay for Internet and Mail security, once, no yearly updatecosts , look into Defensewall HIPS.

Best Regards

 

If free, go for Avast( Antivir if you don,t get update problems, some do get as a fact)
Paid- KAV or NOD is popular in the forum, no personal experience. I have used McAfee and it was quite good to use with complete auto-update, so is my experience with latest Norton, both have good detection rate as well. Really easy to use as well. Now I am using Avast.

 

Thanks aigle, I've heard with avast there's a key that you use. Is it used like a password? wpdmc.

 

You can download and use the free edition. Home Edition work 60 days after installation in demo mode. You will obtain FREE license key by E-mail after the registration. The license key is valid for 1 year. After one year you need to just re-register( taken from site).

http://www.avast.com/i_kat_207.php?lang=eng

 

With avast you are given a free key via email. The key is good for a certain time (not sure how long)...but when it expires all you have to do is re-register and you will be given a new free key via email.

You don't need to do this with antivir...no registration necessary.

I have used both and have found antivir to be far superior. It's detection rate against malware, especially trojans is FAR better than Avast. Plus it uses less system resources...allowing your PC to function normally and not be slowed down in any way.

 

I have read so many complaints about the update problems with Antivir.

 

When they first released version 7 updating was a problem for many. I could not get thru at all during certain hours. Now, however, it seems ok. Worst case is it takes 2-3 minutes to get connected and for the download to begin. But I find that I can update 24 hours a day now, which is nice. But having said all that, I must also admit that AntiVir has the worst update situation of all the AVs. Seems to me if you're offering update services then they should work smoothly 100% of the time. Anyway, it's passable now.

 

The updates are MUCH smaller now with antivir...as they used to be 3-4 megs...they are now under 100 kilobytes. (give or take a few)

They also have ugraded their servers to 6....yes 6 servers.

 

I did an AV search here on the forum. My head is still spinning from all the different opinions. I do know i would prefer one that would'nt slow things down too much. How does mcafee rate as far as resource requirements? I guess i might be leaning toward antivir. I have spywareblaster, spybot S&D. ad-aware se, cw shredder, and bazooka scanner. Should'nt antvir be enough with these other programs? wpdmc.

 

Let's put it this way...Antivir has better malware detection than MANY paid programs. Can't say this about Avast and CERTAINLY about AVG.

Mcafee is not as bad as Norton in terms of being a resource hog but it still does take a toll on your system resources.

Why pay for Mcafee when Antivir is free?...trust me...try antivir and it will not disappoint.

 

Love that AntiVir, have it on Dell D800 along with ZA free and Sandboxie,
SpyBot, Ad-Aware and SpywareBlaster.

They also have a different download for Win9x/ME and I would
download directly from AVIRA, only problem I ever had
was a bad load from a 'mirror' download.

I am on Dial-Up and AntiVir checks for updates on each and every dialup,
usually three a day.

Program has worked perfectly for me on both systems, WinXP & Win98 backup Dell.

It looks like most of the problems are related to system anomalies like remnants of
old Antivirus not completely uninstalled (SpyBot's Tea-Timer should be off
for removal of old and install of new) with a clean, healthy
system you should have no problem.

 

I'll give it a shot. Thanks guys. wpdmc.

 

Hi, JUst wanted to let you know i uninstalled McAfee, and downloaded antivir. I've done an update already, and everything was successful. We'll see what happens. wpdmc.