Free Antivirus?

nullogik

In reply to the original post, you should also consider a "paid for" virus suite.

Sure the free products are good and come with good recommendations from users here, but they do have some limitations and aren't necessarily as flexible or offer as many options/features as "paid for" products do.

If you do want to go for a paid for package, then check out:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

this site, is highly regarded and tests a wide range of products to determine the best performing ones.

Don't let me scare you off the free stuff, but don't ignore the "paid for" stuff either.

superscaper

Actually Donnie's posts have inspired me to try out NOD32. If I'm pleased with it I may switch to it from the free alternatives. Considering I use my pc for work as well, probably best to go for the best AVs available rather than just the free ones.

nullogik

superscaper wrote: »

Actually Donnie's posts have inspired me to try out NOD32. If I'm pleased with it I may switch to it from the free alternatives. Considering I use my pc for work as well, probably best to go for the best AVs available rather than just the free ones.

It would be great if you could report back how you have found NOD32. I know its very well regarded but have never tried it myself, since theres little reason to change from Kaspersky (who are highly regarded too).

Thanks in advance.

lforster

^^ If you're going to pay for one geezer, I recommend McAfee for non-intrusive AV goodness.

superscaper

lforster wrote: »

^^ If you're going to pay for one geezer, I recommend McAfee for non-intrusive AV goodness.

Actually I changed from McAfee to AVG as I found a few problems (sometimes didn't load up, reinstalling could be a pain, it missed a trojan when I changed to AVG). It was purely a logistical change for me as I get McAfee Enterprise for free but I still found it was worth changing. Also it doesn't rank that highly in detection tests that I've seen (Eg the recent computer shopper, I think, labs test).

superscaper

nullogik wrote: »

It would be great if you could report back how you have found NOD32. I know its very well regarded but have never tried it myself, since theres little reason to change from Kaspersky (who are highly regarded too).

Thanks in advance.

Well so far it's been pretty smooth to install and use and is quite unobtrusive, which is good for when I play games. Pretty difficult for me as an individual to test for how good it's prevention and detection are without deliberately or by chance exposing my pc to a virus. I'll probably post whether I decide to buy it or not.

lforster

superscaper wrote: »

Actually I changed from McAfee to AVG as I found a few problems (sometimes didn't load up, reinstalling could be a pain, it missed a trojan when I changed to AVG). It was purely a logistical change for me as I get McAfee Enterprise for free but I still found it was worth changing. Also it doesn't rank that highly in detection tests that I've seen (Eg the recent computer shopper, I think, labs test).

:think: Bizarre. Different strokes I suppose. Worrying about the low detection rate though I'll have to look it up.

superscaper

lforster wrote: »

:think: Bizarre. Different strokes I suppose. Worrying about the low detection rate though I'll have to look it up.

I don't think it's particularly bad at detection but the main problem is that it's no better than the free AV's such as AVG and Avast. Of course the problems with resources and loading etc that could be down to my specific set up etc. And of course everyone will have their own preferences and experiences with different apps. But for paid for AV the ones I keep hearing from different places (not just this forum) that are the best are NOD32 and Kaspersky. Which is why I'm giving NOD32 a try. So far one advantage I've noticed over AVG is that email integration with Outlook is less obtrusive.

superscaper

nullogik wrote: »

It would be great if you could report back how you have found NOD32. I know its very well regarded but have never tried it myself, since theres little reason to change from Kaspersky (who are highly regarded too).

Thanks in advance.

Well I've purchased a licence (last night) after being quite happy with the trial. Very resource light and no problems so far. I like how by default it keeps up to date all though the day whereas I think AVG only updates daily by default. So I'll see how I go on for the year. I'm sure Donnie will be happy I'm not using AVG .

Cricri

I've been using McAfee Enterprise for years and switched to NOD32 a year or two ago. I'm not looking back, it's better than McAfee in my opinion.
And that was McAfee Enterprise. If you compare McAfee Home with NOD32, it's a no brainer, I'll take NOD32 any day.