QOTD: Is Free Antivirus as Good as Paid Software?

[Guest]

I have paid for and use McAfee and Norton in the Past, both caused considerable problems both performance and just darn poor programming, As subscriptions on the 9 computers expired I replace them with AVG and had far less hassles. Absolutely no regrets about doing this. Note this was not a money decision. I started Beta testing Microsoft Security essentials about 3 month ago on 2 machines including my main machine and am now switching over my machines. I have not had a virus in about 4 years(that I know of) but have cleaned many off of friends machines in that time (Mostly put on by their kids downloading something)

 

[willstay]

I have licensed copy of Kaspersky but I uninstalled it in favor of free Avira Antivir in my laptop. A colleage of mine did the same thing. I am using Avast in my home desktop. Calmwin on my office Windows Server 2008 x64. AVG is little difficult to get around these days. Norton Corporate installed in most of my officer servers do not catch most of the viruses. McAfee and Kaspesky are good but they come with so many features, downgrades your Core 2 Duo to a 486 DX

 

[Razor Kid]

I say yes, Free anti-virus (AVG in particular) is more than sufficient for the average pc user. Like it was said in the article, as long as your somewhat net savvy (not clicking the link that says click here for your free monies, or downloading from www.tehfreemusicplace.de) you should be fine.

I had used Norton for a couple years and that became a pain 9especially trying to uninstall ALL the Symantec components) , then switched to another pay antivirus system before discovering AVG. And suprise! I don't get viruses on my comp (and if I do they are caught and dealt with).

Just my thoughts. I feel if you want additional security such as password protectors, back up systems, extra firewalls, etc, then paying for protection (once) is a good idea. But if all you need is a competent anti-virus to ensure a trojan and worm free stroll through the net, paying just seems more of waste (in time, money, and system resources) than is worth it.

 

[clairvoyant christopher]

Norton is ok.

 

[americanbrian]

@ clairvoyant christopher

It sounds like your hard disk was developing bad sectors. They are only really good for about 5 years. 7 years is the best I have seen myself. So your old compaq was the problem not the AV.

 

[spentshells]

[citation][nom]rooket[/nom]Avira and Malwarebytes are the best ones right now. Nothing else comes close besides norton SEP. Everything else is somewhat useless. Even kaspersky isn't top dog any more.Plus I still believe that Kaspersky pays Russian hackers to create virii and spread it on the internet. Just to keep that in mind, since it is also a Russian company that apparantly popped up out of nowhere 4 years ago.[/citation]

I second this combo
Ive installed it on infested computers
had it running smoothly.....once I got norton off there

 

[megamanx00]

I think Avira is good enough for the average user. For someone who wants a complete security suite I usually recommend BitDefender's package. While the bitdefender free anti virus is only decent, no active scanning and it misses some root kit viruses, their total security suite is pretty good for the price.

 

[jay236]

I'd have to say NOD32 Business Edition with a enterprise license is the best I've had so far. Stays in the background without hogging resources, and has real-time anti virus.

 

[Guest]

I used AVG until I hit compatibility issues, then I used Avast! for a while, but currently I'm using Nod32, which has turned out to be the best antivirus I've used by far.

 

[koga73]

All anti-virus sucks, just don''t be stupid... thats that rule I live by... I mean if a "hacker" really wants to get on your system then anti-virus won't protect you anyways, therefore its pointless to have. It just slows you down.

 

[hemelskonijn]

Antivirus software should do real time read write scans well other then that it really should never bother any one.
Therefore Antivirus software should be light and have a small footprint resource wise.
As i am writing this my Avira Antivirus Pro is using a combined grand total of 14 megs and is hardly noticeable in the cpu charts.
I scan with several online scanners once in a while just to be sure but i can honestly say that apart from a rootkit (thanks to sony) i have yet to find the first virus Avira did not warn me about and killed for me.

Norton or Symantec and McAffee are evil for being over bloated and useless mostly because of their over bloated-ness, take out all the crap and they might even be use-able.

The "free" version of Avira antivir shows an add once a day while updating which imho means its add supported and thus not free to start with.
However i never minded it showing me the one add a day (add to buy avira no 3th party adds) but since my boss bought some spare license i run with avira happily ever after or at least till December 21 2012 (seriously ).

 

[hemelskonijn]

Let me add you cant proof that your anti virus software works well by just running it.
However you can disproof your current view on anti virus software by running some of the others.

Without catching bugs and trowing them up against the scanner to test for them you really cant tell how well it works.
Arguments like i am running for 4 years and i have never found one virus are useless.

 

[Guest]

I'm not going to say which one is the best because honestly i haven't used all of them. I have used Norton and McAfee, both of wish i had never encountered in my life. They hog memory don't catch virus and never alert me when theirs a intruder. I'm currently using avast on all my PC's, all 5 of them and its the best AV software ever. Ive never caught a virus, and lets my PC runs quite smoothly. If Avast needed me to pay I would greatly.

 

[blackhawk1928]

All anti-virus sucks, just don''t be stupid... thats that rule I live by... I mean if a "hacker" really wants to get on your system then anti-virus won't protect you anyways, therefore its pointless to have. It just slows you down.

I agree with you 100%, but sometime you need it to get rid of virus and malware that slow you down however if you don't do anything stupid like clicking on popups, you shouldn't ever have problems with viruses.

 

[belardo]

Back in the 90s, McAfee was the best... then Norton took over. Since about 2003, I've stopped using Norton as it became more and more bloated and less useful. Viruses were constantly taking it out, its huge, an ugly mess to clean out.

Been doing fine with AVG Free & Paid... as well as ZA's paid Security Sweet ($50 = 3 installs / 1 year) is far better than Norton.

Curious to see MSE being put through a PRO test to see how good it really is.

 

[Dogsnake]

Having been involved for years in helping people clear various types of infections from their machines, I can say the majority of them have used free software like AVAST and AVG. I have never seen a free solution do as well as one that costs in any tests or comparisons done year after year. I run BitDefender and ZoneAlarm Pro fire wall. I have read that the latest Symantec products have reduced their impact on system resources. Every security software has it's own special removal tool. So what? Try using Revo's uninstall utility (it is free) and you will see what is left behind by most software's uninstall feature. So for the average user I say pay some money and get an above average AV software. For the above average user perhaps a free solution is enough. digiex has it right. The average user often lacks common sense in surfing the web and does not have the experience required to produce wisdom in this area.

 

[gti88]

I had Avira installed, but after uninstalling Avira and installing Avast, I found lots of viruses. I wonder if Avast can let some viruses in.

 

[tanderskey]

for the average user who walks in my door (so to speak) with a flapping Windows PC under their arm i'll nearly always remove whatever they had -- which is often an expired trial version of something that they thought was working ... but is sometimes also a paid-for version of something that has been disabled or has expired -- and let them know i replaced what they had with what i use on my Windows boxes: ZoneAlarm's free firewall and AVG's free anti-virus.

i also try and take that opportunity to educate them a bit with regard to what a client-based firewall is good for (always leave it on) and what anti-virus is good for (always leave it on) and how they need to let both products update on a daily basis if theyre going to run Windows.

i also recommend they run a full Spyware sweep whenever they make their monthly house or rent payment. for that i install Spybot (even though i'm not always enamored with their sometimes flakey UI).

"What else is there?" they sometimes ask.

Well there's Linux (Ubuntu's pretty friendly) but still reserved for those who can tell the difference between what's on the internet and what's on their hard drive.

And there's Apple but i tell them i'm reluctant to recommend Mac's because i never see those customers again (except at the grocery).

and then i present their bill.

i think for most people, Free is as good as Paid.

 

[Guest]

Symantec has the best antivirus ever, no not norton! the one thats called "Symantec Antivirus Business Corporate" =D Thats what I use, doesn't slow down the machine at all, catches everything out there as well as any other antivirus. This in use with spybot / malewarebytes and your good.

 

[lightsaber]

free is the way to be, Norton and all those high priced security apps just make the pc slower then it should be and really makes no sense. AVG for me and Zonealarm free firewall. Oops almost forgot I use Malware bytes free edition.

 

[marraco]

[I had read lots of lab test involving antivirus, and avast free version is far better than most non free.

Norton sucked big way latests years making the computer much slower that one loaded with virus, and his virus detection is on the same level that Avast.

To see an independent source see av-comparatives.org]
Sorry, I meant AVIRA, not avast

 

[sojrner]

[citation][nom]hemelskonijn[/nom]Let me add you cant proof that your anti virus software works well by just running it.However you can disproof your current view on anti virus software by running some of the others.Without catching bugs and trowing them up against the scanner to test for them you really cant tell how well it works.Arguments like i am running for 4 years and i have never found one virus are useless.[/citation]

and that is why I put up the link to the review that does just that. (page 4) I agree that the argument you mention is invalid. Reviews like that are what enable informed decisions instead of a "my friend's friend ran X-virus for a bajillion years totally immune" only to get one w/ the same app because your surfing habits are not the same.

Instead of making a call based on how many fanbois like one over the other.

Again, for me... I want it to work (based on real information like that review) and I want no popups (like even avira, which has a daily popup) and as of yet I have nothing that meets both in a free app. (mainly b/c I have no idea how the m$ one works. It has yet to be reviewed.)

 

[rdhood]

Its hard to say. I sit behind a router with AVG/Spybot/AdAware on several windows XP systems and have never been hit by a virus... that I know of. I also don't visit questionable web sites and download questionable things.

I will say that a company's OS and apps should be safe from hackers. If something on my system get's infected from a program that I did not give specific permission to do so (and I wouldn't), then it is a programming error or programmers fault. More to the point: I should not have to purchase antivirus software to prevent or clean up virus attacks against OSes or Applications. That should be the fault and responsibility of the manufacturer of that software. For Microsoft products.... that should be Microsoft. When Microsoft products are the major gateway to virus attacks, it is their responsibility and in their best interest to prevent them and clean them up. Otherwise, the ignorant get and spread viruses, and Apple makes fun of them for 10 years.

 

[Guest]

Whatever you do, don't get complacent.
Corporate user paying attention directed me to a fake av that popped onto his machine. Crashed out the browser to kill it but there was an exe left on the desktop. SEP didn't stop it so I submitted it to virustotal. 0/41 programs caught it. NOBODY. left it sitting on my desktop and SEP found it A WEEK LATER.
An aware user (like most of the folks reading this) is always the best and first line of defense

 

[hardwarekid9756]

I work for a free PC Security utility. (www.threatfire.com)

and I can tell you from my personal experience, they're all about the same. For pay. Not for pay. It doesn't matter. Some clean things up better than others. Some detect better than others. Some have lots of fake hits, some have very little fake hits. Some are incredibly alarmist, and some are very understated. But, in the end, they all block the majority of the baddies, and in the end, they all have the potential to save your behind from danger.
I, however, have come to the conclusion that security software can be more or less avoided, if you know what you're doing. Don't go to dirty links, do click on suspicious content, keep the privileges of your account to a minimum (LUA with that annoying but ever-so-useful UAC), update windows often and with everything, and if you need to do something that even feels like it COULD be fishy (opening a habitually-infected friends' USB drive on your PC) use a virtual machine. (Virtual Machine 2008 and Linux are both free, walk you through the process, and more or less transparent to use.) Hell, if you're ultra-paranoid, Virtualize EVERYTHING, and leave only your most-trusted apps on your host for heavy-lifting.

AV's are not protection, they're damage control. Behavior guys (Like us, PrevX, and HIPS like Comodo and so forth) are approaching the more "proactive" solutions, but in the end, things like Security Essentials, Norton, and Avast are exactly what they say they are: Virus removal tools that might help you stop it from hurting your system farther once it's on the box.

IMO, just being intelligent about security and your sites (only go to trusted sources, don't do shady things on a production machine, keep everything separate, don't open things you don't know) and keep yourself very well informed before venturing into the nasty open world, and everything will be peachy. Why get sick and need an immune system when you can use test mules and knowledge to avoid being sick in the first place?