New 'Protect Your PC For Free: No-cost Anti-Virus and Other Software' discussion

GunJack

Ey up RIK,

on speedtest.net, I get 33-34 mS to Sittingbourne, Milton Keynes and Maidenhead with avira.

on avast, that goes up to 40-44 mS, and with MSE it was 50-odd mS.

33-34 on an interleaved line I can live with (it's not bad, actually )

Add to that MSE generally takes more resources, it's updates are (typically mirosoft) slooow, that's out of the window. Avast I like, e-mail scanner is good, and the new user interface is nice, but, in terms of resources and ping times, avira for me at present

closed

do you do a lot of pinging? avast is much lighter on pc resources, and has a fast scan time, so using another scanner may slow things down elsewhere

GunJack

with 2 xbox360s, a PS3, 4 lappys and 2 desktops, never mind the psp's and ipods etc., and a 50dB line, I need to squeeze every last bit out of my internet connection I can ....the kids don't half moan if they get kicked out of online games, and I'm not too pleased if I can't plat Resi 5 online

hence being somewhat anal about ensuring EVERYTHING is optimised as best it can be

...and avast isn't as light as avira - I was a committed avast user (RIK may even remember me singing it's praises a long while ago) 'till I gave avira a try, and now, unless avast gives me the same performance as avira, I'm sticking with avira.

aliEnRIK

To be fair, I think the latest Avast has the option of turning it off for gaming (Or something along those lines)

GunJack

aliEnRIK wrote: »

To be fair, I think the latest Avast has the option of turning it off for gaming (Or something along those lines)

Thing is, though, RIK, none of us game on pc's . It's all consoles. I'm just trying to make sure nothing is hogging any aspect of the 'net connection as far as possible. Can't control any aspect on the consoles, so optimising the pc/lappys is the best I can do

closed

It's not going to be talking on the net, other than to do updates occasionally, so choice of virus scanner isn't going to have any effect on console games.

The gaming option turns off alerts.

ernie-money

I've just installed Avast, and when I opened the browser afterwards, I got a message flash up, saying that Internet explorer isn't my default browser - did I want to make it my default. I've also noticed a new icon - Google chrome, I've obviously not checked all the tick boxes... What should I do now, remove Google Chrome, or is it needed for avast to work, and is there anything else I should check...?

busenbust

ernie-money wrote: »

I've just installed Avast, and when I opened the browser afterwards, I got a message flash up, saying that Internet explorer isn't my default browser - did I want to make it my default. I've also noticed a new icon - Google chrome, I've obviously not checked all the tick boxes... What should I do now, remove Google Chrome, or is it needed for avast to work, and is there anything else I should check...?

Chrome is not needed for Avast to work I can assure you. You can leave IE as is and install your browser of choice. Nothing wrong with Chrome -- it's certainly very fast! -- but I use Firefox.

HTH

ernie-money

busenbust wrote: »

Chrome is not needed for Avast to work I can assure you. You can leave IE as is and install your browser of choice. Nothing wrong with Chrome -- it's certainly very fast! -- but I use Firefox.

HTH

In that case I think I'll get rid of it - just cus I'm used to IE... Also don't want loads of unnecessary software to slow pc down...
Is there anything else I could have accidentally downloaded at the same time without noticing...?

busenbust

ernie-money wrote: »

In that case I think I'll get rid of it - just cus I'm used to IE... Also don't want loads of unnecessary software to slow pc down... Would I have "accidentally" downloaded anything else at the same time...?

that's what i find a bit odd -- never had that happen with Avast before?? unless the install has changed with opt-in/out menus. ??

http://www.avast.com/lp-upgrade-4-5

^is this your link download ??