Virus protection?

heavymental
heavymental Posts: 2,076
edited August 2007 in The bottom bracket
My Norton Anti Virus that i got free with my laptop has just expired. Its £40 to renew for a year. Any suggestions for a cheaper/free alternative that will protect me from those evil cyber terrorists?

Comments

  • Big Red S
    Big Red S Posts: 26,890
    AVG
    Avast!

    Though all and any free anti virus is useless without common sense. And superfluous given enough common sense.
    http://avi.co/doc/Forums.html
  • jibi
    jibi Posts: 857
    Avast works for me

    http://www.avast.com/eng/download.html

    Free and updates nearly every day

    george

    https://picasaweb.google.com/georgeidf50
  • MarvintheAndroid
    MarvintheAndroid Posts: 409
    Well......

    If you want the best and are happy to pay for it, go with NOD32 Antivirus from ESET. Not only does it have a 100% record, but it is the fastest scanner on the market and has a small memory footprint. www.eset.com

    On the other hand, Avast! Antivirus is a good freebie (for personal use only) and has never given me any problems. www.avast.com

    I stopped using Norton, not because it doesn't work, because it does - but because of the enormous drain it placed on my system resources. Much better now.

    Trust me, I'm an android.

    Marv
    What tree ? ...........

    Trek 8000 ZR XC hardtail.
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,076
    Big Red S wrote:
    Though all and any free anti virus is useless without common sense. And superfluous given enough common sense.

    Cheers chaps...looks like I'll go for Avast as it sounds...well...it reminds me of pirates so I'm going for it!

    Bit worried though Big Red S, I'm wondering what kind of tests my common sense will encounter? Surely its just a case of installing then clicking the updates every so often? Or do you mean thats its necessary to use common sense when surfing the net i.e avoid porn and other dodgy sites?
  • MarvintheAndroid
    MarvintheAndroid Posts: 409
    Big Red S wrote:
    And superfluous given enough common sense.

    Not sure I agree with your last bit. This would imply trusting all your friends and contacts to never get a virus infection, and would restrict you to never opening any attachment of any kind just in case. Although I agree that common sense is unfortunately not nearly common enough, especially when it comes to so-called virus alerts / hoaxes received from well-meaning colleagues.

    Marv
    What tree ? ...........

    Trek 8000 ZR XC hardtail.
  • Eurostar
    Eurostar Posts: 1,806
    Common sense isn't enough now. The days when you could only get viruses from opening attachments are long gone. You can get trojans just by going to web sites. Jack Schofield of the Grauniad tried going without virus protection for a while - it's not advisable these days.
    <hr>
    <h6>What\'s the point of going out? We\'re just going to end up back here anyway</h6>
  • JustRidecp
    JustRidecp Posts: 302
    Buy a Mac!
    Real Ultimate Power

    "If I weren't a professional cyclist, I'd be a porn star" - Super Mario
  • L60N
    L60N Posts: 223
    I you PC tools Diskdoctor. Simply put, its the dogs danglies. Not free though..
  • Big Red S
    Big Red S Posts: 26,890
    JustRidecp wrote:
    Buy a Mac!

    If youi're going to switch to unix, you might as well go to the free and portable one.
    http://avi.co/doc/Forums.html
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,076
    Well, I went for Avast. Hopefully it'll do the job and better than spending £40.
  • andicp
    andicp Posts: 9
    Another vote for Avast 8)
  • Aidocp
    Aidocp Posts: 868
    MarvintheAndroid wrote:
    Well......

    If you want the best and are happy to pay for it, go with NOD32 Antivirus from ESET. Not only does it have a 100% record, but it is the fastest scanner on the market and has a small memory footprint. www.eset.com

    On the other hand, Avast! Antivirus is a good freebie (for personal use only) and has never given me any problems. www.avast.com

    I stopped using Norton, not because it doesn't work, because it does - but because of the enormous drain it placed on my system resources. Much better now.

    Trust me, I'm an android.

    Marv

    What a timely thread, my antivirus (norton) runs out in 29days, I might try Avast
    Road Bike
    Sirrus
    Commuter
  • onbike 1939
    onbike 1939 Posts: 708
    Don't just use the one but use two as they are more likely cover more ground. Go for "Spybot", it's free and effective and I use it in conjunction with AVG.
  • jibi
    jibi Posts: 857
    Spybot S&D "search and destroy", is for spyware , not for viruses

    but it is a good thing to have on the PC

    http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html


    george

    https://picasaweb.google.com/georgeidf50
  • Shadowduck
    Shadowduck Posts: 845
    Big Red S wrote:
    JustRidecp wrote:
    Buy a Mac!

    If youi're going to switch to unix, you might as well go to the free and portable one.
    I've been on Ubuntu Linux for over a year now, haven't looked back. :mrgreen:
    Even if the voices aren't real, they have some very good ideas.
  • Big Red S
    Big Red S Posts: 26,890
    I don't know anyone who has.

    I'm trying out OSX, being the last of the Big 3 operating systems for me to try out, and it's crap. It seems _really_ poor. I really can't understand how people can reccomend it.
    There's not a huge amount installed with the OS and, given that it's still not Windows, I'm a bit alarmed at the apparent lack of any central resource for installers. It's _really_ bad at error messages - things just fail silently - which is really frustrating. Really, I'm struggling to see any plus side to it.

    Aaaand breathe. I've been waiting to get that out for a while.
    http://avi.co/doc/Forums.html

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