Anti Virus Software

[andrew kelfo]

Help, As  novice internet user could someone explain anti virus software and recommend what I ned to install.  I have heard of Norton and Mcaffe, but am confused why there is a charge for then when there is free anti virus software which can be downloaded.  The computer I brought did have Mcaffee, but it is warning me it has now expired.  Any suggestions on what I need to do and what are the risks if I take no acionm

[dave m]

software that is free is pants...full of spyware etc...any thing that is a free download stay wel clear...ther is ways round yor expired mcafee...etc buy a mcafee disc of download 1 from edonkey or kdrive for zip

[alunrw]

There is a very good Free Anti virus that has absolutley no spyware - Grisoft AVG

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

 

 

[Goofy]

I agree with alunrw AVG is excellent. Recommended by the Telegraph and the Sunday times, also by a couple of computer geeks I know.

also you should get a firewall - zonealarm is well recommended and also free.

you can get smarter versions of both the above by paying an annual fee if you want.

[dodgyshirt]

The risks that you face by not having an up-to-date AV programme are that you will be liable to catch any virii that are released since your last update.

A friend of mine bought a PC from PC(expensive)World without a functioning AV programme, no firewall (the Windows one wasn`t even activated) and no anti spyware. Within 2hrs of going on line the PC picked up over 700 infections including virii, trojans, worms and browser hi-jackers. The latter were that deeply embedded that every attempt to get rid of them failed and the PC was practically unusable and needed a full re-install of the operating system.

A strong complaint to PC World resulted in the gift of McAfee`s full Security Suite worth �50 and this together with Microsofts Anti Spyware Beta has solved all his problems.

If you don`t want to pay for McAfee I would suggest you uninstall it and download Avast from http://www.avast.com ,Zone Alarm from http://www.zonealarm.com and Microsofts Anti Spyware Beta.

Disregard the uninformed advice that ALL free software contains spyware. These do not.

[Mattk]

dont listen to dave m he is talking out of his derriere

i use avg anti-virus which contains no spyware - free dl and very good with daily updates

i also use sygate firewall which is also free as zone alarm clashed with other software on my pc

i also have microsofts antispyware - again a free dl