Anti virus

I've been thinking about whether to get anti virus software beside the freebies. My old PC had Norton anti virus which expired a year ago and I didn't get any new one. So far, so good, I haven't encountered any viruses. Am I very lucky or this is quite common? I guess what I'd like to know is, how many of you have ever encountered viruses on your PC? Just to have some idea --Also, if you had viruses, what exactly did they do to your computer?

 

Ok, so virus software is a great idea whether or not you actually get or have gotten aa virus. There is always a chance.

Virus can destroy a computer, they can delete everything, they can make so many copies of themselves that your computer will simply not run. They pass themselves on to EVERYONE else in your address book behind your back before they destroy your computer.

Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky. They are all really good and you need them regardless of whether you are safe at the current moment.

Protect yourself.

 

Check out Avast AntiVirus. Its free for personal use. In my opinion its better than Norton.

http://www.avast.com/

 

I second that, I use avast as well, the professional edition and it's awesome. I haven't had any problems since I've been using it. And it's also 64-bit which is a plus.

 

You can get viruses from pretty much anything, even visiting pages that have a lot of java script. Viruses mostly come from doing stuff dangerous (downloading stuff from a questionable site ) but I've also ran into hacked forums from my World of Warcraft guild that I visit everyday.

Its best to keep a freebie anti-virus (AOL has a free version of Kaspersky, Antivir is another good one) and a spyware scanner (Ad-Aware, Spybot, A-Squared) that you can use every few days to keep spyware out, since they can be almost as bad as viruses.

 

Check out http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php. Best Antivirus ever, and the best: it's free!
I really like it!

 

I also use Avast, and I'm satisfied with it.

 

If you really don't want the freeware for some reason (I agree that Avast is good), you can pick up 1-year license for free (after rebate) in a lot of places.

 

Glad you like it but it's not the best Anti-virus ever.
NOD32 is! (not free though).

http://www.eset.com/products/index.php

 

Thank you all so much! I just visited the Avast site recommended by many of you, but it says "Most of our downloads work for sixty days from the first installation even without providing a serial number"?

 

When you register they e-mail you the serial number for free. They make you re-register every 14 months, but its not a big deal.

 

Bill Morrow has a discount for thinkpads.com forum members.

 

Supposedly a 20% discount code:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/login.php?redirect=viewtopic.php&t=40476

 

Check out AVG antivirus at free.grisoft.com

Some viruses do not pop out and tell you that you are infected. It's invisible, but leaves tell-tale signs for the user to spot.

 

@system64 - I'm using AVG (free version) for the past few weeks. The little icon is on the task bar by the clock but I can't tell if it's doing it's job. Is it scanning "on the fly" or do I have to do manual full scans?

 

You can schedule regular scans. My Free AVG scans for viruses at a scheduled time every day. And you can do a manual scan anytime you want. Keep in mind the free version of AVG is an anti-virus only, it is not a firewall or anti-spyware program. You have to buy the AVG security system for those upgrades.

 

So are you saying that it doesn't scan in "real-time". I can download a virus and it will eat up my computer until the next time AVG is scheduled to do a full scan or I do it manually?

 

Never mind. I think I figured it out. The component in AVG called "Resident Shield" is the real-time or on-the-fly scanner. So, yes, AVG free edition does real-time virus scanning.

 

Many thanks for all the replies to my post. I've installed Avast. It is now scanning my ancient computer :laugh:

 

It seems Avast can only scan hard disks, floppies and CD/DVD, but not USB memory keys? (its removable storage doesn't include USB memory keys)

Turns out my computer has been infected with files with ".CPY", some trojan horse... but I haven't seen any damage yet.

 

I believe AVG is the best and the most updated; mine updates almost everyday with new definition files

Stallon: it is real time protection and is one of the very few free ones that also checks email! even if it is interbased such as gmail

 

I use Windows Live Onecare. It might not be the best or have the most features. But it gets the job done. Syncs really good with Windows Vista. Plus I have it on all three of my PC's without any extra cost.

 

I think NOD32 is the best if you are willing to pay (it updates usually a couple times a day and provides RTP)... AVG is the best free anti-virus. my .02

 

Yes, NOD32 is the best in my book.

 

AOL gives out a free mcafee copy... (member or not), i'm using it... not sure how good it is ....

http://safety.aol.com


--

 

Good for you!



Now can we have a separate forum?




please?

 

It's the best Jerry ... THE BEST.



--

 

yes...it is very, very good for me. I hope you are very happy that it is so good for me

 

No offense intended, just used your post to make a point.

 

Avast! antivirus for me. Pretty decent feature set for an antivirus application.

 

well it didn't help this thread and my comment was much more helpful and I wasn't increasing my post count by making sly remarks.

I completely agree that there needs to be a subforum for this topic

 

I think it did

If you say so

Post count is not a big deal for me.

Thanks

 

My favorite is Trend Officescan...but it is way too much for single users (or even small businesses for that matter! (runs around $6000)).

I like Avast as well and it is my favorite free one, but it still has more noticable impact to performance then Officescan and other corporate suites....I just wish AV makers would make a more corporate type AV for single users!

 

why do people like avast over avg? avast has around 80,000,000 downloads while avg has 350,000,000+? according to download.com

 

I like Bit Defender. When I installed it, it found and removed spyware and viruses that AVG, Ad-Aware, and Spybot had missed. There are updates constantly, sometimes every couple hours.

 

Antivir is a good choice because of his main advantages: free, high detection rate and low on ressources

Antivirus like Norton and Mcafee are ressources-hungry and slow down the computer

 

More popular does not necessarily mean better.

In the computer security forums Avast is widely considered the best free AV program. It has also won best AV program for 2006 from Secure Computing Magazine.

I've used Norton, AVG and Avast at home. Avast found a bunch of trojans in old files I had laying around for years that Norton and AVG missed.

 

time for me to go to avast then! thanks

i guess people just follow the herd

 

I tried both AVG and avast! and found something about AVG that I did not like, although I cannot recall what that was anymore...

 

does avast have email protection for attachments? I tried reading through the site, but could not find info on it

 

If you are using Outlook then yes, it scans all files as they are downloaded. That is the reason I switched from Norton AV; it was causing Outlook to crash.

 

but not gmail, correct? avg does that and that is very important to me..im asking b/c im wondering if i should now switch

 

Avast for sure will check gmail attachments when you open them, as will any AV program with real-time protection. When any executable file is opened or saved on your computer the AV program automatically scans them.

 

alright...avast it is!

thanks for your help!