Advice on virus protection for my computer.

[PADDY]

Currently have a free online virus checker called AVG which has served me exceptionally well over the past few years. Just been told that they are stopping this FREE service this month.

Any other good Free virus checkers out there that I can use to protect my computer here please...?

Thanks in anticipation!!

 

["Doc" Devereux]

If you go to AVG's website there's an update which I'm now using quite cheerfully.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Ya get what ya pay for.

I had the free AVG for a while recently and thought it was quite good so I got the real deal. One of the first scans with that revealed a hidden worm that the free version did not find.
I had it for about a year, hidden inside another file that luckily I did not open. The free version was good, but not that good. Also had Norton for most of that time and it did not find it either.

 

[MB5]

The message that opened with AVG made it sound like they were dropping the free version, but they are not supporting 7.1 anymore. You can download the free version of 7.5.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I hear good stuff all the time about Avast!, mostly from nerds who would seem to know!

 

[Harry Pierpont]

My 18 year old son, who is the computer guru in our family says Avast is a good free anti virus and uses it himself.

 

[RedPop4]

I used AVG for years, I got the messages about the free version, as well.
So, thinking I'd lose it, I went ahead and downloaded the Cox Suite provided free by my ISP Cox Cable.

 

[blacklagoon]

spy ware

I usually use the free software: Ad-Aware SE to clear my computer of things like spy ware etc.it is very good.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Pay and protect. Norton AntiVirus. It's not free, but it's worth the price. I haven't had many problems for a long time.

 

[Chanfan]

It's actually an interesting trade-off. I use Symantec Corporate Edition to protect the machines at work, virus wise. We also have a separate email scanner.

At home, I'm using AVG free edition.

While the big name pay ones are indeed good - especially in getting updates out (response time), they are also targeted by virus writers. So, new viruses are specifically written to bypass the big guys (until they are detected otherwise, and updates come out for them). Turns out smaller companies AV can have an advantage in that department, merely by flying under the radar.

Baseline, as long as you are using something reasonable, that you keep up to date, you are better off than the vast majority of computers out there. If you are really paranoid, a layered protection is probably best (scanner at your computer, different brand at your gateway).

 

[olive bleu]

Anyone using McAfee? I had been using AVG Free for the past year, but McAfee has been made available to me as we use it at work,and they offered it to staff for their home PCs, for free.I just installed it today..anything I should be on the lookout for?

 

[Dr. Shocker]

Best Anti Virus on the market.....
Apple Computer

 

[Martinis at 8]

McAfee. This will probably get some laughs.

Unfortunately, most of my corporate clients require meto use McAfee as my virus scanner.

Cheers,

M8

 

[LadyStardust]

For free, I usually went with Ad-aware and the like. But as had been mentioned, these programs are good but not -that- good. Last year, there was a period of time where my computer started being extremely sluggish and lots of programs were messing up, so I ran a scan with free software and it told me (well, obviously) there was a virus, but it could not remove it. I finally went and downloaded a program called Spyware Doctor, which not only found and removed that virus in a matter of minutes, it cleared up every single other threat the computer had. It's been absolutely brilliant from the first, and I believe the year-long subscription was only 27$, give or take a few.

 

[olive bleu]

McAfee. This will probably get some laughs.

Unfortunately, most of my corporate clients require meto use McAfee as my virus scanner.


Cheers,

M8

This does not fill me with hope.

 

[Martinis at 8]

This does not fill me with hope.

McAfee is actually okay. However, I supplement with a few other things:

1. Spybot Search & Destroy. It's free on the web.
2. Firefox for my web browser. Also free on the web.
3. Eraser (from Heidi)- does an encrypted erasure of deleted files. Also free on the web.
4. I also use McAfee's registry cleaner. I consider any registry cleaner a must, as it keeps the computer healthy.
5. Thunderbird for e-mail. Also free on the web.

Cheers,

M8