Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire computer anti virus software

I hooked up a new computer today and I thought i'd ask the tech savvy their preferance on anti virus software. I should get a free one from Verizon, but it won't download without errors.
Thanks in advance,
Tom

Try Avast! Works great and the price is right for the home version.

Try the free version of AVG, Works great. Bear

Isn't the free version a 30 day trial, I think after that you have to purchase it, no?

No, at least not for home use. I don't know about at work. He might have to pay for it using it there. If it's on one computer at work and not the whole fleet, dunno.

I will second AVG. I have used Avast!, Panda, Norton and McAfee. Norton used to be really good, but it got bigger and bigger and now it is just a resource hog. Panda is good but their tech support leaves a lot to be desired in a paid subscriber-type program. McAfee sucks as bad or worse than Norton. I don't know about Trend-Micro's program. I forget their name for it. Truly free or non-free, AVG is the best I've used. It is very trouble free. I can't say much about the free Avast because I used it on an old computer that really didn't have enough torque to be using it.

I'm running the spyware program, and it was labeled as free but then after 30 days I got the pop-up. I'm running the spyware along side my symantec.

I think this will be my last year with the Norton, their subscriptions are only about $10 cheaper than their new software, they are just getting too pricey.

AVAST

I ain't computer savvy--not by a long shot. But based on the recommendation by some of the Generation X'ers computer geeks, I'm running AVG free software now, and it seems to be working fine...


Casey

Been running AVG "free" for 5 years,works fine!

My guess is that AVG is getting to be as popular as Norton and may have even surpassed it. I don't run a spyware program or even a real firewall anymore. I used to run the Windows Beta Spyware program and also Zone Alarm. Don't need either anymore because I've got a hardware firewall from my ISP. I just run Ad Aware infrequently and also Spybot. Old-school, but it works when you've got a good ISP.

What OS? ClamAV is available for most windows versions. Freeware.

If you already have Norton this is a deal, if not I would not use it.. It is a bear to uninstall

http://www.buy.com/prod/norton-anti...ta-traveler-usb/q/loc/105/206531722.html

Zone Alarm is a top rated av, as is PC Shield. Both have top heuristics and steady updates with excellent 24/7 support. Norton and McAfee are becoming clunky and have poor customer relations and poor (i.e. expensive) support. AVG is free (there is a paid version) but its ability to catch newer viruses may not be as good as others. F-secure (Kaspersky) is another top-rated av. I have run on various computers (within the past two years), Zone Alarm, PC Shield, Norton and F-secure. All work, but Norton was the most problematic. Zone Alarm was the easiest to work with and caught the most viruses. Spyware Doctor has recently included an av with their anti-malware program. It seems to work well. Reviews on C-Net are often worth reading if they are recent.

Thanks all for the usual prompt and knowledgeable advice. Will start by looking at AVG, Avast!, Zone Alarm and try to remember to post results.
Thanks All!
Tom

AVG it is.
Easy to install, free at home.
We shall see.
Thanks to everyone for the input!
Tom

http://www.bitdefender.com/

I had nothing but trouble with Norton. Damn program slowed my NEW PC to a crawl.

My son is a Computer Science major and his group swears by Bit Defender. He installed it on my machine and it has been fantastic.

At risk of rubbing it in, we haven't used any anti-virus or anti-spyware programs for the last 3 years. We have 4 iMacs and one MacBook. Our kids and my wife use the iMacs and they will go everywhere without regards to computer safety. Zero problems.

The virus problems that plague the PC world is one of the main reasons we left them in the ditch. The other reason was we were getting tired of compatibility issues and dealing with Brad from India (I'm sure that was his real name).

I currently run AVG with the spyware protection ... it seems to work well enough, at least as good as Norton and McAfee did ...

Everyone says that AVG uses less overhead/resources than the other 'big' AV programs ... but I can't really see much of a difference. AVG seems to kinda 'hog' things as well, but it does run fine and keeps the PC clean - as it should.

If you want some good, free software, try Spybot - Search and Destroy. It works great, in a fairly recent issue of Popular Mechanics, I believe the editors chose it over Norton.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

I use safe computing practices.