Free antiviruses or commercial ones?

[Sulaman]

I also use NOD32. I would say that it is one of the best one's out there for real time protection as well as scanning. The good thing also is that it's never annoying me with pop-ups, etc. It also scans 24x7 your HD, etc as to find any viruses.
Another big thing is that it doesn't slow your PC down while its on.
It is also advisable to run other scans for any that it might not catch but it would be a rare case if it doesn't catch it. Only possibility is if they're the other spyware, etc viruses.

 

[holeepassion]

Avast gives me complete confident on the net, have used for so many years .... not much issues with speed ... no stalling like McAfee.

 

[Wolfeo]

I am lucky my internet provider provides me with a professional firewall and anti virus combo for free. They provide me with Zone Alarm Security Suite. It isn't a resource hog like Norton. However, I have heard a lot of good things about NOD32. If I had to use a free one, I would try them.

 

[Evocation]

I run my computer anti-virus free, in all the years I've had my computer with a virus scanner I never got an alert from it that I didn't know was a dodgy file already and use online sites to check it, they just seem to use up loads of memory resources. I use zone alarm pro, with the anti spyware and advanced firewall it can stop mos things anyway
Most ofthe paid ones are worse then the free, though they are often alot more user friendly..

 

[kajasweb]

I prefer using Commercial Anti-Virus. I'm using Symantec Norton Anti-Virus.

 

[Agenator]

Um whoever said that the choose Norton becuase it doesn't allow viruses in probably has virusues hiding right under his nose. Norton, like many commercial virus scanners is considered bloat ware, they packed it full of too many features, (most of them useless) to the point where it will actually alow down your system. In many cases, the Norton Internet Security product will even disable you from getting on the internet. If I where you, I would try and get another AV but thats just my opinion. Also, another probelm with Norton is that it doesn't search for rootkits and it also is incredibly hard to uninstall... Trust me, a decent AV is the way to go if you are in need of another AV soon then either buy the Norton enterprise/corporate edition (less bloated) or buy a less bloated AV (Kaspersky or Nod 32) or go totally wild and download a free one like AVG free or Avast... Trust me youll be happier in the end!

 

[mr kennedy]

I'm using Avast free right now and it has a firewall but I put my own firewall.. it's PeerGuardian 2... But if you'll ask me, An antivius, internet security or any program out there that protects your PC, Commercial or Not, It's nothing if it's not regularly... Updates are like boosters for vaccinations... lets say you had a vaccine for MMR and not had the boosters for it, you still have the possibility to get one of the diseases of MMR like mumps... the same applies for AV's...

i think i've had 'nuff said

 

[Dazz]

I agree that FREE AV is as good if not better in some cases than the commercial versions. I currently use AVAST 4 Home edition and its great at its job. I have in the past used Norton which slowed my system down so much it was pretty much useless and also Kaspersky which completely failed to detect a very nasty virus that completely destroyed my OS and about 7 months of work (most of which I was able to recover from my backups)

It just goes to show that free is'nt always rubbish (though of course this does'nt apply to all free software LOL) and that the most expensive is'nt always the best.

As further proof of this I also use Spybot 1.4 to protect against spyware and malware which is also free but absolutely the best Anti-Spyware software I have ever used.

 

[fattony]

AVG Rules. They are a credible company that offers a paid service as well. For us poor college student, downloading and useing AVG is easier than "borrowing" others from our friends. Plus, I found that AVG actualy removes more than its compeditors.

 

[Ragsy1]

I personally run NOD32. In my experience with AV software, most tend to be major resource hogs if you have active monitoring. NOD32 is very low impact on your system. As far as free vs. commercial AV programs, you get what you pay for in most cases. I've had housecall, AVG and many others miss virus, spyware and malware on my machines before, more often than NOD32 or Norton does. Then again, some programs such as Spybot tend to pick up spyware/malware better than some of the commercial scanners.

I guess it depends on how often you're battling off virus/spyware/malware, and what you end up infected with. But for now, I'll side with commercial, NOD32 for the win. :runaway:

 

[Splatzone]

My anti-virus isn't "free", but it's free to me. It came with the PC. Mcafee is nice software to use, but the firewall gets in the way sometimes.