Internet Security Suites II

Free Anti Virus compared to paid service

[SilverLining]

Firstly compliments of the season to all!

This question has probably been asked over and over: Is free AV as good as a paid one? I read some info on Internet Security Suites - Best Suite with No Interuptions [webmasterworld.com] and, with my AV having to be renewed, am considering replacing PC-cillin with AVG 7.5.

Does anyone know of any previous vulneribilities with AVG and does it come highly recommended (or not)?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Interesting subject. What I do know is that I have Norton System Works and over the piece it gives me more problems than the bloody viruses! I also have a problem with part of the package that does not work and several emails to their support organisation have failed to fix it.

I would therefore suggest that you steer clear of Norton. Their products end up taking over your PC and it's very difficult to get rid of them.

[rj87uk]

SilverLining, I find that you need to treat your computer like your house the last thing we all need is our data gone (FF bookmarks anyone?).

I read up on many anti virus programs and came up with Nod32 I bought it for a year and im the happiest internet user when it comes to being protected. I say its worth the money to shell out for one well peace of mind alone is good enough!

I just bought a 400gig external hard drive yesterday so that I can get back ups of everything I do locally.

Sorry to dodge the question a little - Just letting you know how I feel about the issue in general!

[SilverLining]

Thanks for your responses. Yes, NOD32 seems to be a popular one, although I would prefer not to change unnecessarily, unless it is free of course :-)

Another question: How does PC-cillin compare with NOD32? By the way Bill also uses NOD32, which says a lot.

Once I install NOD32 are there any special settings which I need to look out for?

I just bought a 400gig external hard drive yesterday...

rj87uk - Was that you birthday present to yourself?

[bill]

Once I install NOD32 are there any special settings which I need to look out for?

The NOD32 forums are run over at Wilders Security. There are a number of helpful threads over there. I would suggest that most NOD32 users take a look at this thread:

Extra settings for Nod32 [wilderssecurity.com]
It has many screenshots and walks you through the entire back end. You can really fine tune NOD32 with some of the tips in that thread.

[Leosghost]

Even with NOD32 ( the best of the "affordable" AV's ) run a regmon and a worm hook ..and then to stay reasonably safe there is a long list of "don'ts" ( beginning with "if you can avoid it ..don't point doze at the innerweb" :-)..and if you do ..don't run as admin etc ..

and dont do torrents and P2P ..illicit thrills on the net can get you into lot's of trouble and infected ..just like life offline :)

[rj87uk]

Ive read two or three different studies that compare several anti virus just use the search engine of your choice and find out for yourself - Head over to the nod32 website they have one...

[eset.com...]

rj87uk - Was that you birthday present to yourself?

Why, Yes :D

[SilverLining]

Just to add that I have now installed NOD32. Thanks for all your posts and also the Wilders Security forum which explained the extra settings step-by-step and was very helpful.

[rocknbil]

Well it's a bit late but I suppose we can continue this for anyone else looking for AV software. I have used Grisoft AVG Free Home edition for several years and it works great. Scheduled updates, scheduled scanning, and email scanner. The pro edition is very well priced as well.

What I do know is that I have Norton System Works and over the piece it gives me more problems than the bloody viruses!

I couldn't agree more. I have wrestled with Norton products on both PC and Mac since the system 5.0 days, and have had nothing but recurrent problems. It worms itself into your system and is nearly impossible to rout out. My worst case was a brand new system that came with Norton pre-installed - corrupted registry entries, wouldn't uninstall, etc. etc. - a re-format and fresh system, and I was good to go.

[Kendel]

I've run both the Norton Internet Security suite and McAfee Internet Security suite, and have not had any major problems with them. My biggest irritation with Norton was their integration with outlook for their Anti-spam, which I had to turn off due to problems.

Also, for those with Comcast as their ISP, I found out by accident that you can download McAfee Anti-Virus and McAfee Personal Firewall for free through Comcast.net (there is a link towards the bottom of the page for 'McAfee Security Downloads'). McAfee then requires the comcast.net e-mail to download and register the products. I learned this from a tech support rep for Comcast, and it saved me from spending additional money on AV for one of my PCs.

[bill]

The only good experience I've had with Norton recently has been the corporate AV. I run this on several workstations and servers, and it is very innocuous. It just runs in the background and does its job. There is almost no interaction on the user side except for scheduling scans and when a virus is detected. I don't know why the rest of their products seem to have lost their mojo...

I have also run AVG (the free version) on a couple of home machines, and it seems to perform reasonably well. It seems that AVG gets the best press and reviews among the free AV software.

Suites that do everything just don't seem to provide the best options. Maybe the Suite has a good AV, but the mail filter or firewall is crap. There always seems to be a bum product in the mix. You get a lot more mileage out of picking the best of breed individual applications that do the work you want.

[grandpa]

The only good experience I've had with Norton was the day I ripped last shred of it out of the system registry. I use a paid product, out of line with this topic so I won't share. (It starts with K and I love it) I have a business to protect, so I guess I'm buying peace of mind as well.

[SilverLining]

NOD32 - Checking logs after a scheduled scan, the following information is listed:

Operating Memory is OK.
MBR sector of the 2. physical disk - Error reading disk sector

Quite worrying really... Sounds like a failing drive. Has anyone dealt with this or is it nothing to worry about?

[bill]

Has anyone dealt with this or is it nothing to worry about?

I've not seen that one before, but there is at least one thread on the NOD forums dealing with it:

Error Message scanning MBR Sector [wilderssecurity.com]

It sounds like it could be a permissions error.