Postal Letter

What virus protection software do you recommend?

When I was in college they provided virus software to us, and since I have graduated in May I haven't bought any. Guess it is about time! I know Norton and McAfee are about the same in terms of what they offer, but what stuff is absolutely essential in terms of protection? Do you need the most expensive thing, or will the basic system do? Thanks.

Public Comments

1. AVG antivirus even the free version is GREAT!
2. I recommend avast! The free version is sufficient in keeping your computer safe.
3. avg for free. mcafee for buying.
4. Kaspersky Internet Security 2011, without a doubt. Our family has been using it for 2-1/2 years now and are really satisfied (8 PCs). Kaspersky retrieves updates as many times during the day as it needs to as their experts discover new threats that have been released. I like the configurability of Kaspersky, the fact that you can set up "black lists" for undesired pop-up ads, and I was even able to configure it to stop the "Google toolbar updater virus" that Google trys to jam down every user's throat. Up yours Google!!! Its logging and record keeping is superb, and it even identifies security threats (such as the bi-monthly Quicktime screwups) with links to provide solutions, what download you must get, etc. You can set the depth and intensity of scanning to balance performance with securiy, and Kaspersky has a proprietary algorithm to reduce scan time (after the initial one) by ignoring files that have not been changed. I also don't understand why people go through all of the trouble screwing around using an inferior free product when all they really need to do is buy a three year license for Kaspersky for 3 or more PCs and enjoy the protection. Let's do the math . . . $160 for a 3 Users x 3 Years license = $18 a year per PC for probably the best CONSISTENT firewall/antivirus protection money can buy. Just about every household these days has a few PCs, and if not, I'm sure one could find a friend who would split the costs with them for the 3x license. They will even let you have a 30-day free trial of the complete version so that you can test drive it. At the end of the 30 day trial, if you like it, purchase a license key online, install the key and you are set for 3 years more, without having to reinstall. I have tried many of the other security suites, and none of them has even come close to K-Sky for performance. Norton was a resource hog and frequently programs such as IE that firewall rules had already been put in place for stopped working out of the blue. My wife's 2007 Dell came with a paid-for 3-Year McAfee subscription and we got so sick of the PC almost grinding to a halt during scans that we replaced it with K-Sky after 16 months. McAfee also had, without a doubt, the most illogically laid out user interface I've ever seen. Zone Alarm had some real pain-in-the-ass issues a few times for the one year that I used it before dumping it, and Windows One Care had to have set the record for the shortest time I've ever had any program on my PC before I ripped it out - about 40 Minutes. What a P.O.S. that was! All too often I get phone calls from friends of ours who have suddenly been infected by the latest virus variant from Al-Qaeda, Inc. in Pakistan and they say "but I'm using AVG Free." I've never used AVG Free myself, but both my son and a two friends of our family did, and they both trapped the "Internet Antivirus" virus variants. First mistake - AVG free is an antivirus, NOT a firewall. If you get one virus infection, any amount of money you thought that you saved is blown away by the time you spend trying to fix the problem. In life you get what you pay for; "free" is definitely NOT FREE, unless, of course, you like stabbing yourself with a fork because you think it feels good . . . Free 30-Day Trial Version of Kaspersky Internet Security 2011: http://usa.kaspersky.com/trials/home-users/internet-security/
5. Nah, you don't need the most expensive... you really don't need to pay anything for good protection. I've used Avast free antivirus for years, coupled with the Comodo free firewall, and *nothing* gets past them. Microsoft Security Essentials with the Windows firewall [Vista or Win 7 only (*)] would be *adequate*, but IMO the free Avast is the best all-around free antivirus. (*) The Windows XP firewall monitors *incoming* traffic only. A firewall *must* be bi-directional to be effective. So if you are using Windows XP, I strongly suggest a third-party firewall instead of the Win XP firewall. > Avast Freev5: http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download > Comodo Free Firewall: http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html > Comodo Firewall Tutorial: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-install-comodo-firewall.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmosbest+%28Gizmo%27s+Best-ever+Freeware%29&utm_content=FeedBurner NOTE: Although the newest version of AVG free (AVG 2011) is significantly better than previous versions, it still isn't as good as Avast.