I'm a Trend fan all around here. I have it on about 65,000 devices here, plus ScanMail on perhaps two dozen email servers and several thousand instances of server protect. It's worked out great the past few years. PC-Cillin, the consumer version, seems to be pretty good too.

Long time happy AVG (free version) user here. Updates itself almost everyday very quickly even over dialup and scans incoming and outgoing email as well (has a plug in for Outlook) and does not slow my machine down.

My mother's machine was running real slow and after figuring out she didn't have a virus or configuration problems, I uninstalled all the Norton stuff she had running and installed AVG on her machine in its place. There was a very noticeable pick up in speed with the Norton resource hog gone.

Try the Symantec Corporate - its uses the same engine of Norton, but without all the bloat of its consumer counter part.

-Vincent

Any opinions on NOD32 vs. AVG?

Norton's crap because it hogs too much resources and doesn't provide enough protection. I stick with AVG.

Anyone have a recommendation for an antivirus for a small business? About 50 clients, with a centrally managed server? We've been using Norton, but I really don't want to give those jokers any more money.

EZ Armor/eTrust Internet Security is pretty good too. And I think it's FAR this week at Staples.

Quick question about the AVG free program:

Is this any always-on anti-virus that intercepts and deletes bugs from visiting infected web sites?

Or is it just an "after the fact" disc scanner?

Thanks!

AVG is an active virus protection program. It will monitor your system, scan in/out email, and will do "after the fact" disc scanning.

Thanks. I knew it did the email and after the fact, but I didn't see anything that mentioned real time monitoring of web site visits.

While I'm no tech expert, according to this website, AVG ranked #8 with it failing some sort of Level 2 test.

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

Kaspersky?
 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Kaspersky (or is it Kasperski? I can never remember.) Symantec/Norton didn't play well with my pc running Windows 2000 Pro, and neither did Trend Micro. With Kapersky? Peace at last!

So this morning, after last night's update, there was a screen on my computer saying that after January, AVG would no longer be free. Sigh.

Any new recommendations for a decent free av program?

I heard this from a friend, but I, myself, have not seen this. It's not on their site either. Could this simply be a license problem?

The screen said "click here to view your upgrade options."

I didn't do so, but the screen seemed pretty clear: Free AVG would soon be no more.

last i checked, AVAST is still free and works well. you just need to renew your licence once a year.

I know the folks at Grisoft/AVG pretty well, and have decided to use BitDefender (http://www.bitdefender.com/). They also have a free version, and it gets even higher marks than AVG. Kaspersky also gets high marks, but not sure if they have a free version.

fduvall

Thanks for the link. That URL should be http://www.bitdefender.com/. The link posted above has an extra ) character in it so it doesn't work.

Over the space of five years I have used:

Norton: Decidedly bloatware, and as per the OP allowed some pests onto the system. Not good at all.

AVG: Free, light on system resources and fairly effective. No complaints during the time I used it.

AntiVir by AVIRA: Free and fairly light on the system. Seemed very effective but updates took quite long to download.

Sophos: Performs much like AVG. Used it only because the university had a license and updates weren't charged to our accounts (we pay per MB downloaded).

Kaspersky: Costs A$55 for a one year license but provides close to hourly update signatures and is rated as one of the top two in effectiveness (the other being eset's NOD32). My PREFERRED choice.

Windows Live OneCare: Free 90-day trial but left several trojans on the system that Kaspersky found.

NOD32: Several friends have used the product and it is consistenly rated as the lightest on system resources and among the highest detecton rates. I was impressed at how it doesn't slow down boot time.


The best of the free antivirus products (AVG et al) are up there with the likes of Norton and McAfee. However, I believe Kaspersky and NOD32 are a rung above in detection and efficiency.

I've been using Nod32 since I posted in this thread earlier and I've been very impressed. Very light on the system resources and I get signature updates everyday - sometimes multiple times a day.

I've been using F-Secure and it seems to work seamlessly with all my software including Eudora. Not free, but outpost.com (Fry's) sometimes has it with a rebate offer.

I'm trying Kaspersky now after one more time of a virus getting the better of Symantec/Norton antivirus. We use the corporate edition which is MUCH better about being unobtrusive. I hate the consumer version with a passion... so if you like Norton, see if you can get a copy of Corporate antivirus somehow. Same scanning engine, much less BS.

As for Kaspersky, the jury is still out... thus far it's been a bit of a resource hog but has a TON of configurable options that address issues Norton hadn't even thought of (I.E. stop scanning if system activity is above a certain percentage). Also, Kaspersky advised that it couldn't scan certain password protected files. SAV never mentions this!! You don't know unless you go to their support page and check.

I got that message and did upgrade. I believe that it's the version you are using will no longer be free or working in the future. But from what I could see, version 7.5 is still free.

Here is the link to upgrade to 7.5 (free)
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

true
 

true, they never really put hte FREE one on the same page, it is a bit confusing

Thank you. Sorry for the false alarm. My bad.

The wording on the screen really made it sound like there would be no more free version.

Kaspersky is gone. I couldn't take it anymore. Seems like any event whatsoever set off a full scan and I couldn't turn it off no matter what without disabling realtime protection!!! It was a huge drain. On a VERY fast machine, it brought it to a crawl. Back to the drawingboard.

I've got a T43 inbound, so I am currently testing various antivirus options. Kaspersky has been good so far, doesn't seem to slow down my current T40 excessively. That said, later today I will be installing NOD32 as a direct comparison.

Interestingly, NOD32 costs A$66 whilst Kaspersky costs A$55 here in Australia.

AVG free made me forget about Norton quickly.

I am very happy with Trend's product.

You're the 2nd person I've heard from that thought that AVG Free was going to bite the dust. I'd be interested in seeing the exact wording.

As you gathered, Free v7.1 is being phased out and replaced by Free v7.5, which also supports Vista. Free v7.1 does not support Vista. Vista is being released to some corporate customers in November and to retail customers in January, from what I've read.

I have AVG Professional (the paid version, pretty much the same as AVG free, but more controls which I wanted to use to stop the full daily scan from running), and it updated itself to v7.5 automatically. Part of what you pay for includes free upgrades during the license period.

So, I gather that the free version does not include the auto-update feature to Free AVG 7.5 and you have to download it manually? And I wouldn't be surprised if they are trying to steer free customers to the paid version. Anyway, hard to say without seeing the exact wording and where it took you if you had clicked on that link. But I do know that you are not the only one that's been confused by that announcement.

-David

I havent read through this entire thread. I got fed up with Norton a few years back. It consumed too many resources and slowed my computer down and was always causing some sort of problem. I have been using Eset's NOD32 and have been very happy with it. It scores extremely high on industry tests especially the "in the wild" virus detection. Its not quite as "plug and play" as Norton or Macaffee, but it isnt difficult to set up.

exactly the case. I did upgrade to 7.5 free and it was flawless. I also downloaded their free spyware 7.5, which replaces Ewido, seems to work fine---hopefully keeping away the "TIGERS"

I'd second this too.

I've put ClamWin http://www.clamwin.com/ on a couple of PCs we have in the office at work. One is an old Dell we keep around for stupid stuff, and it had an ancient Norton on it that I couldn't update and I did a clean wipe and started over. The other is a new HP laptop that's being used by someone who recently started working out of our office. (The other stuff in there is all Mac.) I remember looking up several other free offerings, and they all stipulate personal use only. ClamWin is a usable Windows port with GUI for the open-source ClamAV. http://www.clamav.net/

Typing this on a MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, OS X don't do it all and MBP or not, XP still needs a virii diaper.

I am using version 7.5 ... today I got a message from grisoft that's only be free until January 15, 2007 :confused:

I think that's a bug. From their website:

"GRISOFT is announcing a new version of the AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. This new 7.5 version with improved performance and full compatibility with the latest Windows Vista version is available. Users that are using AVG Free 7.1 will be provided with a specific dialog, within the next few weeks, with the opportunity to choose the right option fulfilling their needs. AVG Free 7.1 version will be discontinued on 15th of Jan 2007."

As an update, I am quite pleased with Eset's NOD32. Much lighter on system resources than Kaspersky, but seems to provide as much protection. Doesn't add too much to startup time and scans equally quickly.

Combined with the COMODO firewall I think it's quite an effective yet lightweight solution.

Free version of Kaspersky -- AOL Active Virus Shield
 

I also got fed up with Norton. It seemed to bog things down and sometimes wouldn't play nice with some of the ThinkVantage applications on my ThinkPad. I even tried going back to a Corporate Edition of Norton that I dug up from an old W2K laptop, but that was too old and didn't communicate its status with the XP Windows Security Center control panel.

I checked out a couple of different trial versions of other anti-virus programs and settled on a free version of Kaspersky offered by AOL (of all firms), the AOL Active Virus Shield. You can find the download through CNET's download.com. You don't have to be an AOL subscriber, but you do have to give them an e-mail address (to get the activation code by e-mail).

It seems to be lighter on system resources than Norton, works with the XP Windows Security Center, and plays nice with the ThinkVantage applications. The underlying Kaspersky engine seems to be well-regarded. And the price is right. So far so good. If I do end up with a virus, I'll probably check out the full version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus to try to get rid of it. The free version from AOL is only a scanner and shield. Recovery and clean-up requires the full version.

I tried Kaspersky out, it absolutely was not lighter in use than Norton was. The problem was that it would scan incessantly and I couldn't change it's behavior. While scanning, it slowed the system (dual core 2.13 running at 3.2Ghz, 2GB ram, 10k RPM HDD, NOT slow) noticably and hammered the hard drive. It did seem to be a better virus engine though, if I could've sorted the issues out i would still use it. I went back to Norton Corporate. Still looking at other options.