Which is the best Free Anti Virus software

mr_fishbulb

dogmaryxx wrote: »

Best one is common sense

Stay away from illegal/questionable sites.

This is one of the main causes why a computer gets infected. Visiting cracksites/warezsites - and other questionable/illegal sites is ALWAYS a risk. Even a single click on the site can be responsible for installing a huge amount of malware. Don't think: "I have a good Antivirus and Firewall installed, they will protect me" - because that's not true... and even before you know it, your Antivirus and Firewall may already be disabled because malware already found its way on your system

No offence, but that advice is a bit out of date.

Innocent sites regularly get exploited through SQL injection and Cross Site Scripting vulnerabilities. That means any site could potentially be serving up malware to unsuspecting visitors.

GunJack

Marty_J wrote: »

In PC World's 2009 round-up of paid-for AV software for instance, Avira came in 7th place, behind G-Data, Norton, Kapersky, BitDefender, Panda, and F-Secure.

...and I've read tests/reports from 2009 that put avira and avast above all except G-Data, and others which had other winners and losers

Part of the problem is that the tests themselves are pretty much all unique, and so one product can do comparatively well on one test and comparatively poorly on another.

Personally, I think the (paid-for) one to watch this year is G-Data's suite, as it seems to be consistently good in several test reports I've seen, including the PC World one Marty refers to above.

Oh, and for the record, I mostly use/recommend avast (e-mail scanning) or avira (if not fussed about e-mail), but am trialling MSE on my lappy as of today

Sublime_2

I like avast, but am trying Microsoft Security Essentials which seems good so far. Its unobtrusive, and doesn't slow your system down.

stone7

Avast for me and I visit loads of "dodgy" sites.

Saving_spree

Check the link.

http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

busenbust

stone7 wrote: »

Avast for me and I visit loads of "dodgy" sites.

^^Lol, looks like you have tried and tested

aliEnRIK

stone7 wrote: »

Avast for me and I visit loads of "dodgy" sites.

Cant be THAT dodgy then else youd be riddled with nasties (Or maybe you are.........)

busenbust

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Cant be THAT dodgy then else youd be riddled with nasties (Or maybe you are.........)

^^^^:rotfl::rotfl:Careful

Lazy_Ike

binnie wrote: »

Hello, I am on a new laptop and have got one months free McAfee anti virus software. After that month is up, there is a charge for it to carry on.

Does anybody know of a free anti virus programme which is free forever and if so, could you send me a link please.

All the best to everybody for 2010 :beer:

If you are a Barclays Bank customer and use their online banking facility you can get Kaspersky (3 computer license) for a year. Not for ever, but renewable so long as you remain with Barclays.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2148439
See entry #3
I have used this offer, thanks to OP, and two friends I notified who are also with Barclays and were unaware of offer

Scrilla

Lazy_Ike wrote: »

If you are a Barclays Bank customer and use their online banking facility you can get Kaspersky (3 computer license) for a year. Not for ever, but renewable so long as you remain with Barclays.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2148439
See entry #3
I have used this offer, thanks to OP, and two friends I notified who are also with Barclays and were unaware of offer

I've recently got rid of Kaspersky in favour of MSE on one of my computers. MSE 'feels' better, less intrusive and makes the machine 'feel' faster. Whether it still offers good protection or not I only have the reviews to go by, but so far so good imo.