Free AV's and kids pc's?

I have run Sophos, NAV, KAV and till recently McAfee on my pc and also used McAfee 7 on my kids computer. Of them all I liked KAV best but for one reason or another ended up with McAfee 8 on my own pc and McAfee 7 on my kids. While my own subscription has been renewed, I was loathe to pay twice to MacAfee to renew for my kids as well. Instead I decided to go with AVG7 as it was well thought of as a free product a while back. Downloaded it a few days back, ran a scan which found a trojan (the McAfee DATS were out of date) and really loved the simplicity of the programme. One thing I noticed was that unlike McAfee I don't have to re-start the computer after every update which can be a pain.

I have heard from a few sources though that viruses are quite often planted on children's site and am wondering whether it is a false economy to trust in free AV's. I have growing kids and they cost an awful lot regardless of the pc. The bottom line is, will free AV products do a good enough job of protecting their pc? I have heard a lot of good stuff about Avast! since I installed AVG and don't have a problem switching as both are free. Or would you guys recommend spending the extra money and going for two paid licenses? My business is dependent on my pc so I have to have the best protection available myself. Are the free products able to do an adequate job for kids pc's?

Regards
Ashak

 

Hi ashak,

The free AV's will keep you computer pretty safe. However it might be wise to "beef up" security with some additional FREE scanners. The bitdender 7.2 FREE scanner has great detection (note: on demand scanning only) another thing to consider is an anti-trojan. Ewido FREE is the one i would reccomend.

Regards

 

If you're going with "free", I would personally run Avast!. With it's new web shield, it's a better choice, IMO.

However, I would also suggest an investment in the imaging software of your choice, because that can sometimes be the best solution for infections that can hammer a kid's pc.

 

What is imaging software??

 

Norton Ghost or Acronis True image can create a back up image of a drive or partition for quick recovery from a disaster.
I am not experienced with True Image but I make a b/u image of my partitions at least weekly with Ghost. I consider Ghost to be indespensible for back up and recovery of the operating system.

 

On your children's machine I would go with the free Avast and Ewido.

With the money saved from not renewing one of the McAfee licenses, think about investing in some sort of imaging/restore program for backup.

Other possibilities apart from the ones suggested above include;

1. Deep Freeze; http://www.faronics.com/html/DFStd.asp

2. Shadow Surfer; http://www.shadowstor.com/products/ShadowSurfer/

3. FirstDefense; http://www.raxco.com/products/fdisr/

All of which should hopefully, "kid-proof" your PC.

 

Simply reinstall your McAfee 7 if you don't want to renew...

 

For free AVs, I recommend AntiVir Personal Edition or Avast! because both are strong in their own ways and have good detection.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, especially in regard to Ewido which I will definitely install. From reading through the forums, it's clear that Avast! is the more highly regarded free AV, so I will switch to that. I do feel though, that both AVG and Avast! probably suffer from having the 'free' label, as both offer the same basic protection as their paid for versions, maybe without all the bells and whistles.

As for the advice to re-install McAfee 7, I know I could do that, but I am basically trying to steer away from a McAfee solution. I have had problems in the past with their software and I detest the McAfee security centre which you are forced to take up past version 7 which no doubt will have support withdrawn before too long so everyone has to go the security centre route. It might be a fine AV but it comes with too much baggage.

Thanks again to everyone who answered. Look forward to any more insights, especially from people who currently are running a free AV programme. Interestingly I have seen relatively low bad feedback from those who actually use these AV's.

 

That's because AVG, AntiVir and Avast! have relatively low bugs, apart from AntiVir's interface which could look better *looks at logo with ugly dud in umbrella*.

 

I also think it makes a huge difference whether this is the kid playing on your PC or the kids own PC. Since my kid has her own PC and behaves pretty well, I use AVG on it. All the same it is behind a NAT and Sygate, but I don't worry about imaging since that PC has nothing but her games on it - a reinstall would work just as well.

 

''a reinstall would work just as well.''

-If she plays games a lot I wouldn't recommend that because her savegames and settings would be wiped out. I as a gamer have shed a lot of tears due to this...

Just my 2 cents.

Regards,
Firecat,

 

I'm also a big gamer - she's 5 1/2 and already beaten every game she has 5-6 times - she beats them the day we buy 'em... got her pa's brains... so savegames don't mean much so far

 

Very Very intelligent girl ain't she? I take some time to finish my games...coz I like to waste time looking at the excellent graphics rather than enjoying the game!

 

That's a big factor. I don't let the kids anywhere near my pc except in an emergency. Part of the reason why I am sort of comfortable with using free anti-virus tools for theirs, as there is nothing of critical importance on theirs although obviously they wouldn't see it that way

I have done a re-format once already, it's pretty straightforward if time-consuming.

 

I use the new avast! 4.6 on a new WinXP SP2 installation and like it a lot. I also have AVG7 on a Win2K machine and it is working OK also. But the new Web Shield in avast! is probably what you want.

But I run in limited User accounts and never have problems anyway, since nothing can install. That is the way to go, especially since kids might click on anything. But it is a pain to set up initially until you learn all the tricks, and is not for everyone.

 

Thanks Jim, very useful feedback. The Webshield was a big reason why I decided to make the switch to Avast! though I did like the look fo the AVG product as well. Thanks for the advice about Limited Users but I'm pretty sure that has to be done at the outset via the Aminstrator rights which causes a whole load of other headaches unless you know what you are doing. Which I don't!