Norton AV about to expire - should I pay up again or go for a freebie?

greenwich

I am curious. Do you get regular updates with the free version of AVG? Why do they give it away for free? I paid $20 for ZoneAlarm so I am wondering if I wasted my money.

MercilessKiller

Well, i'm sorry to say that you have unfortunately lost a good $20. ZoneAlarm is a real waste of time i'm afraid.

AVG give it away for free as they want to try and commercialise they're full piece of software. There are update limitations as well as removal limitations as far as I am aware. Personally I use Anti-Vir which is a free antivirus software that has full updates for free. Its absolutely amazing. They also have a commercial version for businesses and networks but that costs money.

Unfortunately I can't find the english site anymore as it seems to have been deleted. https://www.free-av.de works fine but the .com english version hasn't worked for a long time.
If i find the english .exe file I will post the link on here.

Hope this helps.

MercilessKiller

Found the link:

http://www.avup.de/personal/en/avwinsfx.exe

That is a free anti virus software with full updates for free. 100% works and is absolutely amazing. Have fun.

Fifer

You get regular updates (usually daily) with AVG. I wouldn't use anything else. Why is it free? They hope that a percentage of users will upgrade to the premium products and that people will recommend it for small business situations. Would I pay for something else? There's no point. I've been using AVG for years and it's worked faultlessly. Would I use Norton's? Not even if paid to.

MercilessKiller

Fifer wrote:

You get regular updates (usually daily) with AVG. I wouldn't use anything else. Why is it free? They hope that a percentage of users will upgrade to the premium products and that people will recommend it for small business situations. Would I pay for something else? There's no point. I've been using AVG for years and it's worked faultlessly. Would I use Norton's? Not even if paid to.

Couldn't agree more with the last bit.

Norton has about 6 things running in the background of your pc that clogs up memory and slows down your computer.

AVG however also takes up a lot of memory which people cease to realise.

http://www.free-av.com is by far the best free virus software. Which is still yet unknown to most.

996ducati

Theres also the free one year trial of Computer Associates EZ Armour Anti Virus software via Microsoft.

Works well,regular updates & doesnt hog system resources.

http://store.ca.com/dr/v2/ec_main.entry25?page=PYPCtrialPage_MSsite&client=ComputerAssociates&sid=55939&CID=190471

(if you look round elsewhere you can actually pay for this software which is free here!!)

996ducati