Do ANY anti-virus vendors allow purchase of signature updates only?

My PC-cillin 2002 maintenance license just expired on one of my systems, and the PC-cillin 2003 license I have on my other system is in its last days. And apparently, Trend Micro forces its customers to upgrade the entire anti-virus product in order to provide ongoing pattern file updates.

I find this policy ridiculous and unfair. Yes, anti-virus technology gets outdated, but you can't tell me that PC-cillin 2003 is no longer maintainable.

I am no longer willing to spend $50 per year ($25 x 2) just to maintain basic anti-virus protection. I've been evaluating free alternatives, and have concluded that among them Avast Antivirus Home Edition is the best.

However, I don't mind spending a reasonable amount of money for signature updates. A fee of $10 per year seems reasonable to me. Do any anti-virus vendors allow this? (Note: All Symantec products are out of the question.)

 

The trouble with just updating signature files is that sometimes they change the scan engine to detect trojans,worns and other malware. Trend micro in their new version added spam watch, spyware and better web mail and pop3 support and the older engines can't take full advantage of the signature updates which in the case of trend micro the older engines don't protect as well which could put you at risk. It is my personal opinion that although some freeware antivirus are pretty good products they just don't have the internal support of the pay as you go larger companys such as

nod
norton
f-secure
mcafee
f-prot
panda
trend micro and all the other reliable products out there
this is not a jab at freeware antivirus I use one as a backup.

 

I appreciate the response, but I don't think technology creep has made PC-cillin 2003 insufficient just yet. I don't need or want bloated features like anti-spam or anti-spyware, and I don't use web-based email much at all.

In light of that, signature updates for my existing product would do just fine for me, with the apparent problem being that Trend Micro purposely stops supporting it, just to force never-ending, expensive product upgrades.

 

I will have to agree that they do try to support their bottom line and as we all know that is money==== ours

 

Can anyone please tell me about Kaspersky's update policy? That is, if I purchase Kaspersky AVP Pro, do pattern updates run dry after a year? Then what--am I forced to purchase an entire new (read: expensive) license? I found no answers to these questions on their site.

I think EZA can be updated for $10 per year, but I would like an anti-malware solution that actually has a clue what a "trojan" or "worm" is. I run BOClean real-time, and run Spybot S&D and TDS-3 on-demand, but... you know.

Are there any other products with good AV and AT protection, which don't require a full product upgrade every year? Or am I just out of touch with reality here?

 

My understanding is that KAV has an annual license. You might choose not to upgrade the program itself but you still have to pay the annual license fee to get the updates. More economical in terms of price is KAV Lite which is geared for home users and is newbie friendly as I understand, but that's still $20 for a one year license. I *think* it may also cost $20 annually to renew the license, but I'll defer to anyone who's more familar with the product to confirm or correct that. You could find more precise info (and also post questions) in this unofficial KAV forum where KAV reps do visit and post:

http://forums.useice.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=3f88e6c614ebffff;act=SF;f=1;st=15

Also, some info on KAV Lite: http://www.kaspersky.com/buyonline.html?chapter=610707

 

Since I assume that I am not the only one in need of edification on this...

Apparently, Kaspersky offers a (rather pathetic, IMO) 20% discount on license renewals. Right now, this would come out to be:

$15.96 for KAV Lite
$39.96 for KAV Personal
$79.96 for KAV Personal Pro

That's a bit expensive for my taste. KAV Personal Pro sounds great, but a recurring $80 annual fee?

 

Somewhere (can't remember if it's in this forum or dslr) there's a thread where someone asked for a comparison and pro/con regarding the various KAV's available. The gist of the responses as I recall is that for the average user, Personal was more than enough. Some people paid for Personal Pro and wound up not using some of the "pro" features.

To me, no way would I pay $80-$100 bucks for the Pro or any AV, frankly. But my needs are less than those others who might find the investment worthwhile. The Personal version sounds more in the right price range for competitive purposes, given the product. The Lite version sounds like a sweet deal IMO for a home user on a standalone machine. I don't believe it was available years ago when I was in the market for a new AV or I would have given it a try.

 

Hi nameless,sig

There's a similar thread here

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=14923

Don't know if its the one you were thinking of but it also contains a bit of info regarding Pro or no

SpyD

 

I got my KAV Personal through useice.com, which says they offer 30% off the purchase price - which would be $35. That's a little better.

 

For free alternatives, I agree with you

 

Hah, thanks. I ended up biting the bullet and bought KAV Personal. I love it, though it really does love to tie up my CPU at times.

 

If you need, in the future, some help on avast!, just let me know.
I use it and it seems very good for me. I have heard good thinks from KAV too.
Take care. See you round.

 

Hi,

If you are in the UK, kav do have a few resellers which can give you a discount if you bought it from them previously, i think they can go up to about 30%.

I renewed my kav through new edge software who i bought it new from the previous year and i got a 30% discount from them.

Link to site: http://www.nest-soft.co.uk/kaspersky

might be worth a try.

 

Thanks. I ended up getting a 25% discount from Kaspersky directly, after a relatively serious amount of hassle. I got the discount playing Kaspersky's goofy online game, Virus Hunter II.

Long story short on the discount: I obtained a 25%-off coupon, but Digital River refused to recognize it. Kaspersky said to use Element5, not Digital River, to get the discount. That's great, but U.S. residents are automatically directed to Digital River, and even if you use a proxy to fool Element5 into taking your order as a U.S.-based customer, they won't recognize the coupon, either. As ridiculous as it is, I had to use a proxy server based in Europe to fool Element5 into (1) initiating my order; and (2) granting me the 25% discount. (I asked Kaspersky reps for help, but they were not helpful, sorry to say.)

I do appreciate the input, though. And I'm glad I went with KAV (even though it is CPU hungry at times).

 

Since starting this thread, I've wasted more time, money, and effort on AV utilities than I can stand to think about. From CPU-hogging aggravations, to annoying system behavior, to total system crashes, to endless configuration, I've put up with it all.

Now, I find upon going back to the Trend Micro site that if you click the "Upgrade" option, you can either buy the PC-cillin 2004 upgrade, or you can simply buy signature maintenance for older PC-cillin versions for a reasonable $15--which is what I wanted in the first place! I don't think that was even an option a couple months ago.

So, I've removed NOD32, I've relegated KAV to a backup scanner, and I've reinstalled PC-cillin 2003. And I feel like my system has been given back to me. I feel like an object lesson for how there truly IS NO single "best anti-virus utility".