Virus Protection?

[cpnichols]

So it looks like my AVG Free Edition will finally run out at the end of the year and I will need to actually buy something. Need help picking... here is what i want:

- Not norton or MacAfee... I think they are bloated
- Something with a small footprint, low resources, but powerful
- Something that will not conflict with anything else
- Good updates
- Easy to transfer to other computers if needed
- Cheap... like $20...

Question is... do I stay with AVG or is there something else I should consider?

[percydaman]

I've never heard bad things about AVG. Which is more then I can say about alot of others.

[instinct]

We're using Aviras AntiVir here. The personal Edition never stops working (but it's personal, so actually not allowed in a corporate environment).

The Premium Version of the Classic Version is exactly 20 bucks and should do just fine.

Regards,
Thorsten

[zeronove]

chris,
only 7.1 version of the AVG free edition will be discontinued on 15th of Jan 2007 (the pop-up dialog is confusing). From their home page I understand that a 7.5 will be available for free also beyond that day; so if u like it I suppose u can stay with that.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

a.

[Dynedain]

I've been quite happy with Avast, low overhead, and was the first one that worked on XP 64 systems.

[PixelJockey]

After my subscription to Norton AV blessedly expired on my home workstation I switched to Kaspersky. About the same price as NAV. I've been using it for a couple of months and so far I'm loving it. My system just seems a bit snappier and have yet to receive any of the oddball errors that plagued NAV.

Now we're evaluating AVG and Kaspersky to replace NAV Enterprise for our office.

http://www.kaspersky.com/

[joconnell]

Personally I haven't used one in about a year and it hasn't affected me at all - a good firewall and some malware bits yes but no anti virus.

[crazy homeless guy]

i initially thought the same thing, but zeronove is correct. ...and Norton still sucks.

[flino2004]

I have AVG too, I paid $48 (Antivirus and Firewall) for 2 years subscription..the price is not bad at all.

[MegaPixel]

It could be me, but I can't stand the performance hit that Anti-Virus protection software does to the system (McAfee AVP in particular). A perfectly clean fresh installed system boots up slower and randomly hangs on application opening and closing, not to mention the rediculous alerts and pop-ups you get with using everyday ordinary app.s. I really hope that Vista has adequate protection out of the box so I don't have to pay more for someone elses mistakes

Sorry, Had to vent something there - I feel better now (I just got some coffee)

[DaForce]

Well I dont use any virus protection at all. Im with MegaPixel, I hate the performance hit.

BUT, when I suggest any AV protection to customers its always AVG Free.

Norton is EVIL do not even consider

[studioDIM]

I agree with everyone that says good things of AVG.
That's how antiviruses sould be, not the silly bloatware McAfee and Norton turned their products into.
Easy to run, nice and easy to turn off the realtime protection, and it got every shred of "virus" it could find (even my old Showdown IRC bots and backdoors within an archive within an archive within an archive).
Two thumbs up, definitely.

[cpnichols]

chris,
only 7.1 version of the AVG free edition will be discontinued on 15th of Jan 2007 (the pop-up dialog is confusing). From their home page I understand that a 7.5 will be available for free also beyond that day; so if u like it I suppose u can stay with that.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

a.

Thanks for the hint... I am glad I can continue my free ride with it. I think that is what I will pick.

[Clifton Santiago]

Hey Chris,

Yes, I just updated my AVG 7.1 free to AVG 7.5 free. Its quite seamless... you just select "repair installation" when installing. It looks and feels just like before.

Now I need to decide whether their new free anti-bot checker is as good as Spybot.

Aaron

[jujubee]

I've tried both Kaspersky and AVG Free/Corporate Edition. While I really like Kaspersky, I think AVG has the lowest performance hit while working (although I still turn it off.) Kaspersky had some intermittent problems with their automatic updates. Both of these applications found totally separate things lurking around my laptop.

In the long-run, I ended up going back to purchasing a subscription to AVG and couldn't be happier. It just seems to work and not interefere with system stability. My only issue with AVG is that their interface design needs some simplification for the average user. Not a big deal however.

As for Norton, I warn people NOT to install it as it causes more problems than actually solves them. I also noticed a huge performance/system hit.