Please recommend the best "Anti Virus" (1 Viewer)

[Erin C]

My trial version of Mcafee just expired. It worked amazingly!
Is Mcafee the best available?
The only other I know of is Norton Anti virus.

Mcafee seems to run around 70$ and Norton is around 20-30$.

Thanks for any input!

 

[JimPeitersen]

Go to PCSecurity and get the Shield Antivirus. I've found it works perfectly, takes few resources on the computer and is inexpensive. I use it and spyware software from Webroot. Haven't had a problem with my "always on" computers in over three years.
JP

 

[Rommel_L]

Grisoft AVG Antivirus - has a freeware/retail version
Avast! - has a freeware/retail version

 

[Bryan X]

I'll second Grisoft's AVG Antivirus. Free and effective.

 

[Joe D]

AVG Free works great for me.

 

[Scott L]

Read some reviews and Avast seems to be preferred over AVG:

Download.com | Homepage

Works great so far.

 

[TonyD]

the same for me with avg.

how is avast better?

 

[Al.Anderson]

I also use AVG combined with Spysweeper. But I'm not sure you can really tag one as "best". They all tend to miss some things that another might find. Plus, it will vary by the current virus definitions in effect.

A lot of people, myself included, have become annoyed at how McAfee and Norton take over your computer; and so stay away from them. On a more concrete level, since those two are the biggest, the bad guys may tend to target circumventing those first; or at least that's another rationalization I use for avoiding them.

 

[DougR]

One more vote for AVG Free !! Been using it for 2 years now..........works great !!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Another vote for AVG from this former MacAfee user. It works just as well, and you can't beat the price.


You should be able to find MacAfee for *much* less than that. When I was using it, I typically paid $10 - $20 for a new version.

 

[Scott L]

There's no way of knowing. All I know is I tried both and Avast gives me a greater amount of warm fuzzies Also caught a trojan in a full system scan which I was happy about.

One cool feature is that the program doesn't contact Avast to check if there's an update every other hour or so.. If there's an update, Avast contacts you similar to your SMTP email service, and updates automatically. Of course you can manually check yourself anytime you want.

 

[Bryan X]

I've tried both AVG and Avast! and like AVG better. Like Scott L, however, I can't quantify why. I just liked the interface on AVG better.

However, I think either AVG or Avast! will give you excellent protection and it will just come down to which interface you prefer. I would just download both AVG and Avast! and try each separately then go with the one you like the best. Both are great.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I can't argue against anything FREE.

However, from experience....

NORTON is total bloatware. It hogs system resorces.

I discovered MICRO TRENT PC-CILLIN. Costs $50 a year
and works tremendously better than Norton, almost silently
in the background. Does a superb job of catching all the
nasty email viruses sent to me on a daily basis.

Just my .02

 

[Francois Caron]

AVG here too. We even have the corporate AVG installed at our offices. The bugger eliminated TWO viruses contracted by the company president's workstation!

 

[Matt Stone]

Another AVG lover here. Much better than the McAfee that I used to run.

 

[TonyD]

i dl'd avast. it seems interesting.
little balls in the task bar kinda neat

why not run both avg and avast?

btw
i started a system scan with avg.....5 hrs ago

how stinkin' long does it take to finish that.
laptop.

 

[Bryan X]

Looking back at the scan log details, AVG will do a full system scan in about 26-28 minutes on my computer. And usually I'm running multiple other programs at the same time.

My computer is 3.2Ghz Dual Core, 2GB RAM, 250GB HD.

 

[Rommel_L]

Because running two antivirus programs will cause conflicts. Just pick one. And don't forget the unbeatable spyware trio: Ad-Aware SE, Spybot S&D and Spyware Blaster (all freeware)...

 

[Tom_Ca]

Eset's NOD32...the best.

http://www.eset.com/

 

[MarkHastings]

You guys do realize that the reason Norton slows down your system is because it's doing a much better job than the 'free' versions?

Norton automatically gets installed with the highest level of security. Of course that means it will take away precious resources. You can scale back Norton to take up less...

It's just a matter of how much protection you're willing to give up over processing power. Most consumers don't know how to surf 'safely', so it's worth slowing down their system to make their surfing safer (by using Norton).

If you know what you're doing, then you can get away with less protection, but please don't knock a product because it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.

I installed Norton on my parents computer and my dad complained that the computer was 'slower'. I said "You're going to have to deal with slow because I don't want to keep coming over here and getting rid of viruses and ad-ware"