Decent Free/Cheap Computer Antivirus Program

[yakers]

I have XP on my netbook and the Norton antivirus program it came with is expiring soon. I think the program has been OK but not if it will cost much to renew as it look like it will, it was only $10 originally. Anyway, is there decent freeware antivirus protection? And then, how do I remove Norton, which has seemed to embed itself in the OS?

 

[ziggy29]

Norton should have an uninstall option depending on the version. Anyway, you may want to look here at a fairly recent (December 2009) review of antivirus options, many of which are free or cheaper:

Free Antivirus and Antispyware - Reviews by PC Magazine

As far as Norton goes, I think they charge something like $69 for an annual renewal for use on three computers if you renew directly with Symantec (unless there's a special offer at the time), but I've seen it on Amazon for half that price at times.

 

[chemist]

I use AVG Free and have been very happy with it. It even found some viruses that (pay) Norton had missed.

 

[cantlogin]

I have observed that Norton is as bad as a virus and that McAfee is worse. I use avast! and Spybot.

 

[ziggy29]

I have observed that Norton is as bad as a virus and that McAfee is worse. I use avast! and Spybot.

Most reports and reviews of Norton 2009 and 2010 have been positive. My understanding is that they completely rewrote it for the 2009 version to make it much less resource-hogging, and it's light years better than the 2008 and prior versions of buggy bloatware that bogged your system to a crawl.

Having said that, it's still $40-50 a year for 3 PCs from most retailers (only suckers pay the full $69 retail price here), and my experience is that the anti-virus component AVG is on par with it (Norton does other things, but the free AVG does anti-virus just as well, IMO).

 

[John Galt III]

I recommend AVG free. I used to use it, but I cannot download any updates to its database any longer, since my OS ( Windows ME) is so old. I was forced to find another antivirus, and chose the free version of Avast, which has been good.

 

[clifp]

I really dislike Norton customer service and I especially hate how they want to charge full price for a renewal. Unfortunately, my experience with smaller guys also hasn't been wonderful. That said Costco generally has a $10-20 off coupon on it a couple of times of year, so I end up picking it up for <$40.

I'll try AVG in the future.

 

[TromboneAl]

I got fed up with anti-virus programs years ago. They take up space, they slow things down, they have problems requiring you to contact tech support. I've used AVG, Norton, PC-Cillin, and others.

I've gone without for years now and I have had no problems. I back up once per week, and I run malware checks now and then and the free online housecall. I use gmail, so it would be hard for a virus to get through via email.

 

[travelover]

I was happily using AVG, then I had to download the newer version and things went to hell in a handbasket. My computer just crept until I uninstalled it. Someone smarter than me may know why. I ended up downloading MS Essentials and I'm happy so far.

 

[donheff]

I have been happy with the free version of Avast. I also use Ad-Aware, and Malwarebytes to scan for malware now and then.

 

[powerplay]

I've used AVG and been happy with it.

 

[plex]

Norton and Mcafee are both really low quality virus scanners. It is amazing they actually try and charge money for them. Using low resources is the bare minimum a virus scanner should be doing.

I go into the deepest, darkest parts of the net, so I make sure my computer has good quality protection.

I use avast! as a virus scanner (for active viruses), spybot for its immunity protection, and a-squared to pickup malware/trojans/viruses which hide themselves. A-squared is by far the most sensitive and accurate, but, it requires a manual scan, so I only do it once a week.

 

[Rustic23]

I have used Avast and Avg. I currently use Avast. No reason, just change every year or so. Actually if i am going to do any extensive browsing I use Ubuntu Linux and no antivirus.

 

[WanderALot]

I use Microsoft Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
It's free and has got decent reviews from various sites. It's fast and doesn't seem to interfere with other programs. I also try and not click on any weird links and I ran SpyBot occasionally.

I have used AVG in the past, but besides the speed issues, I got sick of the constant annoyances.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I just switched to AVG to give it a try. My work provides free Symantec and McAfee, but I found them to really (REALLY) bog down my PC. Not sure what was going on, since my PC is pretty fast.

 

[Nords]

AVG Free 9.0. You have to sort though a lot of ads and "upgrade" offers to make sure that you end up with just the free version.

This latest version somehow validates files that have been scanned and are unchanged so that it doesn't have to scan them again. Of course a hacker would want to examine this assumption's coding for flaws...

4-5 years back Norton gave the federal govt (including civil service and military, even Reservists) an unlimited free user's license for home PCs. Don't know if this freebie is still available.

 

[yakers]

Form the PC Magazine review article I went with their favorite, the Panda Cloud Antivirus free program. It uninstalled Norton and went to work and seems to work unobtrusively in the background. I'll see how it goes and go to AVG or AVAST if anything goes wrong and I can recover.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[Rustward]

I got fed up with anti-virus programs years ago. They take up space, they slow things down, they have problems requiring you to contact tech support. I've used AVG, Norton, PC-Cillin, and others.

I've gone without for years now and I have had no problems. I back up once per week, and I run malware checks now and then and the free online housecall. I use gmail, so it would be hard for a virus to get through via email.

You must be behind a NAT router at the very least. It is surprising that you have not gotten infected. Good job!

 

[Khan]

AVG Free 9.0. You have to sort though a lot of ads and "upgrade" offers to make sure that you end up with just the free version.

This latest version somehow validates files that have been scanned and are unchanged so that it doesn't have to scan them again. Of course a hacker would want to examine this assumption's coding for flaws...

4-5 years back Norton gave the federal govt (including civil service and military, even Reservists) an unlimited free user's license for home PCs. Don't know if this freebie is still available.

Free software and anti-virus are one of few things I miss from w*rk.

I use free AVG.

 

[easysurfer]

I use AVG. I've heard many nice things about Avast and tried that but AVG seemed more inuitive to me.

 

[travelover]

You must be behind a NAT router at the very least. It is surprising that you have not gotten infected. Good job!

A few years back I had a firewall program that showed you real time the attacks on your computer and had a function where it would ping and show you the location of the attacker. If this thing was legitimate, it was non stop and from all over the world.

 

[donheff]

A few years back I had a firewall program that showed you real time the attacks on your computer and had a function where it would ping and show you the location of the attacker. If this thing was legitimate, it was non stop and from all over the world.

It was legitimate. I used to run an open source intrusion detection monitor called Snort on my home network. The probes were essentially non-stop but almost everything incoming is filtered out by the typical router people have nowadays. The biggest threats result from return traffic based on your browsing habits. Those attacks are harder to block.

 

[Rustward]

The biggest threats result from return traffic based on your browsing habits. Those attacks are harder to block.

Right. NAT makes it almost impossible for an outside attacker to initiate the session, at least with HTTP (assuming you are doing no port forwarding). But if you point your browser at the wrong site you can be gotten. I think that is where a good AV program is useful.

 

[Zero]

I run a FREE anti-virus called Avira AntiVir and also Malware Bytes. Both are great and kept up to date. No virus or malware problems at all and it catches something almost weekly.

 

[calmloki]

NOT recommending this product, but the advertising is good...
Computer Protection | Norton 2010
Deny digital dangers.