Free Anti-Virus Software?

[TNGTony]

For the last couple of years or so I have been using a great free utility called AVG as a virus scanner for e-mail, apps and internet. It has worked great with automatic daily downloads of the latest virus signatures. Well, as with any great thing, it had to come to an end. As of Jan 15, 2007 AVG will discontinue the free software and, more importantly, the automatic free virus signature downloads.

So, is there an alternative? I will not pay for AVG. If I have to pay I will go to McAffee or Symantec. I remember seeing several other free virus software programs out there but I am looking for recomendations.

Thanks
See ya
Tony

 

[damaged]

http://www.avast.com/

18 months free, renewable (the Home Edition version).

 

[charper1]

Norton 2007 Security/AV/SPAM/Spyware $28

CNET 9/2006 "Very Good" rating (by AOL?)
http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?

I would go with a reliable, paid, known product if you favorite free software is now gone.

 

[damaged]

Norton 2007 Security/AV/SPAM/Spyware $28

CNET 9/2006 "Very Good" rating (by AOL?)
http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?

I would go with a reliable, paid, known product if you favorite free software is now gone.

This is Norton, I thought you said reliable.

BTW, avast! is reliable AND well kown, has won many awards over norton and mcafee, and it too has a commercial product, it just cares about the internet enough to give free licenses away to fully functional products to home users, as it should be. It has found virus' that the others missed.

 

[charper1]

As reliable as the others; I have been with them at home and corporate for many, many years without one single issue; ever. Can't say the same for McAfee. Norton 06 & 07 ; 07 esp, is a GREAT issue.

I should have also mentioned to Tony; if he will end up going the pay route, why not compare his favorite's new cost scheme with all the others. He may come out better and stick with his fav to boot.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 can be "smaller" and a tad better but $50 and lacks some desirable bundled features.

NOD32 2.5 is good, but NOT for the tech challenged.

 

[damaged]

I've done 1000 installs, reformats, etc, and Norton and McAfee are memory hogs, their antispyware scanner is known for MANY false positives because of the simple regex patterns it uses, and once I switch them to avast! it's like a new computer, evrything runs much faster after norton or mcafee is replaced, don't fall for the hype, bah, I've been over this before.

 

[jokeworm]

7.1 is no longer being supported - the new 7.5 version will remain free and supported ...

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Active Virus Shield is nice ...

http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?

its got AOL's name on it - but it is essentially a free version of Kaspersky.

 

[DRGingras]

For the last couple of years or so I have been using a great free utility called AVG as a virus scanner for e-mail, apps and internet. It has worked great with automatic daily downloads of the latest virus signatures. Well, as with any great thing, it had to come to an end. As of Jan 15, 2007 AVG will discontinue the free software and, more importantly, the automatic free virus signature downloads.

So, is there an alternative? I will not pay for AVG. If I have to pay I will go to McAffee or Symantec. I remember seeing several other free virus software programs out there but I am looking for recomendations.

Thanks
See ya
Tony

Tony, AVG will continue to offer free antivirus - their splash screens just make it sound like you have to purchase the new version. Here's a link to the upgrade:

AVG 7.5

Dave

 

[TNGTony]

Thanks guys.

When I saw the 325mb required to install Nortons anti-virus program It made me cringe. That is huge for no reason. I also dislike the need for subscriptions. I will go with a reliable free utility before I pay for the bloat-ware.

I know Nortons does a good job but there are too many negatives if I have a good alternative.

Thanks again.

See ya
Tony

 

[TNGTony]

Well... isn't that special! Thanks for the link to AVG7.5. I guess if I had actually looked into the AVG situation I would have just updated the software.

I am now up to date with the nag-free free version

See ya
Tony

 

[Bulldog]

Avast! or AVG -- Which is better?

I had to ask

 

[Jimbo]

Tony,
Did you already install it ?
If not, pay attention when it tells you in the read me , I think it was, that you can upgrade, but tell it to REPAIR when doing the install and you will not have anything written over previous info, originally we had to get a password I think, it's been awhile for me, but I installed the 7.5 and continue to move along with it just fine.

Jimbo

 

[Neutron]

We use Avast, which is free for home use.

 

[TNGTony]

I had to ask

LOL! Trouble-maker!

Jumbos, Yes I already installed it and had it "repair" the old version. All is well. Everything seems to be running exactly as the old software.

Thanks all

See ya
Tony

 

[hdtvtechno]

Avast baby....

 

[mastermesh]

I use AVG.

In the old days I used to use Norton. Here's something after many years of tinkering has taught me, Norton (or at least the old edition that I have, not sure which year it came out) will give you one year free virus protection... after the year's up, simply re-install the OS and all of a sudden you have another free year. I did that for 3 consecutive years one time. I found out about it on accident as I kept having computer issues that required OS reinstalls. Now, I use Deep Freeze and just sit with a frozen C: drive so that I can save to F: and X: but C: stays put and will not change until I thaw it out for a while. I love deepfreeze because it gives you a little bit of a sandbox to play with, sort of like virtual machines work, but easier to get understand and work with.

http://www.deepfreezeusa.com

 

[cybok0]

I use AVG, never had a problem with them.

Use to use Norton but it wanted to controll everything so I got rid of it.

 

[charper1]

I use AVG.

In the old days I used to use Norton. Here's something after many years of tinkering has taught me, Norton (or at least the old edition that I have, not sure which year it came out) will give you one year free virus protection... after the year's up, simply re-install the OS and all of a sudden you have another free year. I did that for 3 consecutive years one time. I found out about it on accident as I kept having computer issues that required OS reinstalls. Now, I use Deep Freeze and just sit with a frozen C: drive so that I can save to F: and X: but C: stays put and will not change until I thaw it out for a while. I love deepfreeze because it gives you a little bit of a sandbox to play with, sort of like virtual machines work, but easier to get understand and work with.

http://www.deepfreezeusa.com

You don't have to go all the way through a full OS reinstall, you can simply uninstall Norton/use their removal/cleaner tool and then remove all its program file folders and registry keys. Thus saving your OS and whatever was needed to be saved on the PC.

 

[Van]

Comodo group has a good product that I have found to be very very stable and its free. I started out with the firewall and went to the antivirus a few weeks ago and it found an old port scanner utility that I had saved on another hard drive from 6 years ago that nortons, mcaffee, avast, and avg never found so that right there says alot in and of itsself to me.

Nortons isnt bad but the 05 version of mcaffee I have never been able to get it all off of my computer even with reg editors and CCleaner and specific directions from symantec so I wasted $100 last december on a 2 computer virus suite.

It was either avast or avg that I also had a problem with in that it wanted me to buy it after 5 days though the website said it was free so that turned me off.

Nortons got way to big and corporate just like Dish and lost site of important things like they're customers and the quality of the product isnt like what it was 5 years ago when I used it regularly.

 

[Bogy]

I've been using AVG for six or seven years now. It's always done a great job. I've had the 7.5 version on our computers for some time already. Nicest change is that you don't have to go through the registration/password process anymore. Updates come automatically everday. I think I'd go without a virus scanner if I had to go back to Norton or McAfee.