Free av, or pay for it?

Ganyam

It comes down to what you use your antivirus for.. free or pay for it.. yes there are many free ones out thre, but you need to remember they are free for a reason, its limited protection.. All these companies offer more than just free..

Yes martin says avg or avast but how safe are they? Do you really want to do your banking online knowing these companies do a full protection but only give free protection?

Ok let’s take the market leaders Norton and Mcafee (full internet security suite) which is far better than any free antivirus.. What do they offer?

Antivirus, firewall, antispyware (they wish) even if you have a full security suite you aren’t protected, do a full scan these programs want find what you have!!

How many of you got problems and your security doesn’t pick up anything.. (Think how them with free av feel). You need more programs that will..

These days everyone has a decent pc, install windows defender it’s not great but its more.. Don’t get me wrong I’m not going to over load you pc with rubbish.. Another good one to run with the £50.00 rubbish you bought is malwarebytes (which is the same free and purchase, only real time); in this combination you are far more secure than the free av which some push on you.

MercilessKiller

Ganyam, what are you trying to accomplish with this post?

I hate to be the one to disagree but I feel people who view your post will get the wrong idea.

First of all, Norton and McAfee take up many more computer resources. They are bloated, and are packed with features which aren't "virus scanners".

You mentioned the full security suite, yet there's different pieces of freeware to give different aspects of the suite. All Norton/McAfee does is put these together, bloat it, price it, and sell it.

For the average home user, freeware is more than enough to provide a high level security. Many small business also rely on free/cheap virus scanners, and only when you get to the richer companies do you start exploring corporate virus scanners.

A lot of common problems exist on home users machines as they rely solely on a virus scanner. Ok Norton combats this due to the extra features, but that's at a price, when those features can be free if considered seperately.

No one should read your post and think that they need to spend money to secure their data. It's all about entropy and the percentage risk of attack. At the end of the day, paying for software will increase that entropy in such a tiny amount it no way justifiest the price. Especially considering the huge reduction in free resources after.

Each to their own preference though I like free. This is MSE afterall.

dj9928

This post is laughable, Norton and Mcafee are rubbish, and detection rates aren't even that high compared to the likes of Avira or Nod32, which also do not slow down your PC, they offer more than enough protection, The only people who seem to buy Norton or Mcafee are joe average who don't have a clue, they then install them and wonder why there brand new PC has came to a halt or takes a life time boot.

My advice is go for

Avira http://www.free-av.com/ for free protection.

or

Nod32 http://www.eset.com/download/free_trial_download_int.php if you want to pay

Browntoa

always used free antivirus, never had a problem

Marty_J

NOD32 is something like £30; hardly expensive and certainly not a waste of money.

espresso

Ganyam wrote: »

It comes down to what you use your antivirus for.. free or pay for it.. yes there are many free ones out thre, but you need to remember they are free for a reason, its limited protection....................

:rotfl:



:rolleyes:

free4440273

^:rotfl: ^^^^

Coveredinbees!!!!

MercilessKiller I had to thank that post, even though you support Leeds

MercilessKiller

Coveredinbees!!!! wrote: »

MercilessKiller I had to thank that post, even though you support Leeds

Even leeds fans can be nice people (sometimes!)

I won't ask who you support though.. I'd like to stay nice for now :P

thomas01155

Haha Norton far better its almost as bad as Mcafee

Bongedone

Kaspersky is free if you bank with Barclays.