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What antivirus software do you use? (Looking to buy/update mine)


#98QBKiller

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I work on enough computers to know what an infected machine looks like. I don't have any viruses.

For someone that works on computers, that seems a very cavalier attitude. But, for your sake I hope you're right. Not all viruses have obvious telltale signs you know. Unless of course you monitor your system tasks, track network activity and religiously delete all kinds of temp files and the like. Me, I'd rather just put a free AV on my PC and be done with it. Just my :2cents:

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For someone that works on computers, that seems a very cavalier attitude. But, for your sake I hope you're right. Not all viruses have obvious telltale signs you know. Unless of course you monitor your system tasks, track network activity and religiously delete all kinds of temp files and the like. Me, I'd rather just put a free AV on my PC and be done with it. Just my :2cents:

I have ClamWin on an old flash drive and it runs on Portable Apps. I use that for when I work on other peoples computers. If I notice something fishy I can run that. I use Firefox and Opera almost exclusively, buy my music and software, and don't go to questionable sites. In addition, I use only web based email and so all my emails are scanned for viruses.

Would I advise someone else to do this? Not unless you do what I stated above but it works for me and it keeps system resources open for something that I actually need.

If I get a virus someday it will be an excuse to do a clean install of Windows. :D It's always nice to have a computer that runs like it's new again.

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How is it that AVG offers both an annual fee for anti-virus, yet you can also get free programs? What gives? Is the one that you pay a yearly fee on give you added protection? I often wonder about these "free" antivirus programs. I guess im one of those that think nothing in life is really free.

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I was using Zone Alarm but it slowed my system down and (I suspect) caused so many crashes that I uninstalled it. I'm not comfortable without anti virus protection so I'll try AVG.

I have also been using the free Commodo firewall for about 6 months and have had good results with minimal system issues.

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I have ClamWin on an old flash drive and it runs on Portable Apps. I use that for when I work on other peoples computers. If I notice something fishy I can run that. I use Firefox and Opera almost exclusively, buy my music and software, and don't go to questionable sites. In addition, I use only web based email and so all my emails are scanned for viruses.

Would I advise someone else to do this? Not unless you do what I stated above but it works for me and it keeps system resources open for something that I actually need.

If I get a virus someday it will be an excuse to do a clean install of Windows. :D It's always nice to have a computer that runs like it's new again.

If you have a lot of intensive apps that take up a lot of resources, that makes some sense. That being said, I know I'd have a heart attack if any of my clients decided that they didn't need an updated AV. Actually, that's happened a few times with new clients. As a matter of fact, I just finished a PC in the shop that had its NAV expire in 2005.

And, ditto on the clean install. I probably rebuild my PC about once a year or so, and I don't even do that much with it anymore, just school work, internet/email, and a little music and photo editing.

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That's interesting because I have Norton Internet Security installed on my PC and it's the best AntiVirus/Firewall program I've ever run. It's simple, straightforward and hasn't given me a bit of trouble in the year I've had this computer.

Ditto for me. I use it at work and home for last 10 years.

I also like to run spybot and adaware. Just FYI.

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Used to use Mcafee Suite, but it slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwed down my computer. Now I use AVG Free Anti Virus and Spy ware, and Comodo firewall; The comodo firewall is awesome.

AVG free anti Virus

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

AVG Free anti spy ware

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0?prd=asf

Free Comodo Firewall

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

-Grant

man!!!! I installed this AV yesterday through this link....the damn thing expires next month!!!!

no one do this.

I think I may just use the AV that comes w/ my comcast internet.

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Used to use Mcafee Suite, but it slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwed down my computer. Now I use AVG Free Anti Virus and Spy ware, and Comodo firewall; The comodo firewall is awesome.

AVG free anti Virus

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

AVG Free anti spy ware

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0?prd=asf

Free Comodo Firewall

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

-Grant

Comodo also offers free Encryption Certificates for your email. Then you can send encrypted email to people you trust instead of your email passing through the internet in plain text.
How is it that AVG offers both an annual fee for anti-virus, yet you can also get free programs? What gives? Is the one that you pay a yearly fee on give you added protection? I often wonder about these "free" antivirus programs. I guess im one of those that think nothing in life is really free.
man!!!! I installed this AV yesterday through this link....the damn thing expires next month!!!!

no one do this.

I think I may just use the AV that comes w/ my comcast internet.

AVG offers a Free Edition and a Pro Edition.

The free one doesn't do Real-Time scanning. It only runs a full scan at a preset time of day.

AVG Free Edition

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Comodo also offers free Encryption Certificates for your email. Then you can send encrypted email to people you trust instead of your email passing through the internet in plain text.

AVG offers a Free Edition and a Pro Edition.

The free one doesn't do Real-Time scanning. It only runs a full scan at a preset time of day.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

does the AV software still update regularly to provide protection against new viruses?

I had Micro Trend AV and loved it....it worked great, but it costs like 40 bucks to renew it for the year, so I didn't renew it.

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does the AV software still update regularly to provide protection against new viruses?

I had Micro Trend AV and loved it....it worked great, but it costs like 40 bucks to renew it for the year, so I didn't renew it.

Yes, in the control center you can specify the time of day it updates. Mine is set to 5AM to update and run a full scan or at next boot up if it misses it.
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Yes, in the control center you can specify the time of day it updates. Mine is set to 5AM to update and run a full scan or at next boot up if it misses it.

yeah, I'm pretty sure I set that up. I just wanted to make sure it would update regularly. So is there a certain time period that it is free? Like a year or something? If not, why would anyone pay money for an AV software, when they could get one for free.

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I repair a lot of PCs for our IT Consulting business and I put AVG Free on every machine that comes in the door that doesn't have AV protection. There have only been a couple of instances where I had to install a stronger program like Norton AV Corporate to fully clean a machine when AVG couldn't.

The big problem with these beefy security suites is that the create numerous inbound/outbound network connections. The more security you have, the more connections that are made and the more RAM and CPU cycles your PC has to use. It's wild how many PCs come into my shop with Norton 360 installed and only 256MB of RAM running Windows XP. These security suites try to do way too much and if you aren't a power user of Windows it can be really troublesome just trying to do basic things on your PC like use the Internet.

For example, we installed Norton Corporate 11 here on our workstations and servers in the office. Now, normally out of the box, after it's installed you can't get out to the internet without doing some configuring. In our case, we could get out to the internet but could not see our internal network. It was ridiculous. We were on the phone with Norton for quite a while. I could see why you can't get out to the internet after installing a corporate security suite without configuring it to communicate with your higher end equipment. But to be able to get out to the internet and NOT see your internal network? Ridiculous. Our engineers had to come into the office and logon to our domain to be able to get updates. If they weren't logged here in the office, Norton absolutely would not allow them to get updates. All of the options in the program would be greyed out.

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yeah, I'm pretty sure I set that up. I just wanted to make sure it would update regularly. So is there a certain time period that it is free? Like a year or something? If not, why would anyone pay money for an AV software, when they could get one for free.
Because the pay version runs realtime. So a virus is immediately detected vice being detected the next morning.
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so this free AV probably isn't a good idea to have then.
I use it. Just be careful where you surf. Use additional spyware/grayware protection like Spybot Search & Destroy and a firewall of some sort (even Windows FW is better than nothing).
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