ditched norton, now what? PLEASE HELP! (1 Viewer)

[Micah Cohen]

Well, I ditched my recent upgrade to Norton Anti-virus 2006. It was hogging up my RAM, causing my machine to drag along, not allowing anything to get done, always running some mishigas in the background, always cycling thru some other mishigas, and I couldn't take it anymore. Symantec's overseas-based customer service is, you could say, less than helpful. Amazingly so.

SO... What now?

What can I download from cnet or download.com that will help me protect my computer from viruses and whatnot, without jamming it up and without costing an arm and a leg and another arm? (What, in fact, would be "free"?)

Can anyone recommend anything?

Quick, before my computer catches a cold!

Thanks in advance!

MC

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I cover a computer help desk for division of a state agency. At work I used the approved anti-virus program, which I'm sure costs the government an arm and a leg to license. At home I use the free version of AVG anti-virus and have never had a problem. I keep it updated, do a full scan every day and worry less about my home PCs than I do about the machines I have to keep an eye on at work (where I can't control which websites people are visiting and what e-mails they are stupidly opening. )

You can download AVG from C|Net or Download.com.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

I ditched Norton in May 2005. I've been using AVG (as with above poster) ever since without one problem yet. It being free is a nice bonus as well.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Another recommendation here for AVG. I dumped MacAfee a year ago for AVG.

 

[Alon Goldberg]

Yet another recommendation for AVG! http://free.grisoft.com/

 

[Radioman970]

AVG! Yeah!!! I've been using it so long I don't remember when I started. 2000? 2001? Hell, I don't remember. It's a fantastic piece of software.

 

[Arthur S]

If you are willing to spend some money, Consumer Reports top rated Bit-Defender just a couple months ago.

 

[Micah Cohen]

Well, I guess the AVGs have it.

I'm gonna go download it.

Thanks!

MC

 

[Bob Graz]

I've been using AVG for years. No problem.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

I'm very impressed with the new Kaspersky, version 6. It works flawlessly, doesn't bog down the machine and keeps track of generic malware too, not just viruses. Definitely worth a look. True, it costs money, but we're not talking bank-account busting amounts here.

http://www.kaspersky.com/

They could have chosen a better sound for when it finds something though - it sounds like an enraged monkey screeching at you. With the volume up high, they could be causing heart attacks.

 

[Rommel_L]

Another vote for AVG. Add to it IMO the best antispyware combo out there: Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, MS Defender and SpywareBlaster. All these antimalware programs come in a fantabulous price, $0...

 

[Mike Fassler]

Congrats, on your choice for AVG. Ive been using it for a longtime,and it works well. I also will recommend Avira AntiVir which is also free and as good as avg.

 

[Tom_Ca]

NOD32!!!

http://www.eset.com/

 

[Stephen Orr]

AVG's the only thing on my four home computers...

 

[Jeff_HR]

Another vote from me for Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0.

 

[JediFonger]

who is your ISP? my local ISP comcast and Verizon both gives me FREE subscriptions to McAfee. just FYI =).

 

[Chris]

Both AVG & Avast! have very solid free versions available.

 

[Robert_Gaither]

I ditched AVG for Avast because AVG is not a continuous sweeper versus Avast (it scans each email opened and each time media is opened). Avast is more of a resource hog but much less than Norton (I build computers for friends, family, and co-workers) from what I've seen. McAfee is pretty worthless in my opinion.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Kaspersky scans memory constantly and is so efficient it almost became a nuisance for me at work; I was debugging a new mail server with built-in scanning of content for viruses and thought I'd download the EICAR test file (not a virus, but all virus scanners treat it as one for testing purposes) and I had to turn Kaspersky off just so I could a) get it downloaded and b) send it out as an attachment to the mail server...

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

I used to use and recommend Norton (despite its numerous drawbacks) for the simple reason that it was the only major antivirus product that offered free virus definition updates for life (all the other majors charge you for that after X months). Once Norton shifted to the same "pay for updates" scheme everyone else was using, I lost all reason to bother with it.

For a while I switched to McAfee, not because it was great, but because I got a free license from doing volunteer computer work at a community center. Years ago McAfee was touted for consuming fewer resources and catching more viruses than Norton, but I found it to be a buggy piece of crap.

So I switched to AVG Free (like everyone else apparently).