Blitzen (17-09-2011),dave87 (04-09-2011),j.o.s.h.1408 (05-09-2011),Paul Adams (05-09-2011),Sputnik (04-09-2011),Terbinator (05-09-2011)
Then were screwed
i read a few months ago an article that basically said with all the free editions out there now and the competition between the company's, you really don't need to pay for a virus scan / suite for just home protection as the free editions offer enough protection.
j.o.s.h.1408 (05-09-2011)
I've always had great faith in free antivirus products as some of the sites my kids wind up on must harbour all sorts.
Back in its day AVG free was great, perhaps less so since it started piddling around in the browser. These days I rely on Avira (I am sure that others like Avast are just as effective) and an occasional sweep with Ad-aware and have only been hit once or twice with a trojan that was a bit stubborn.
At work I picked up a Google redirect virus which was a right pita and totally ignored by the expensive Symmantec solution they use. I eventually uncovered the problem using the free malwarebytes, on-demand scan and got shot of it with tdsskiller, also free from Kaspersky.
don't drink and derive
the main difference between free and paid products is generally the frequency of updates.
the free versions only update once per day. the paid products have multiple updates per day and do normally have better support.
I prefer paid products. I haven't found a free product I like. most of the free products have annoying adverts and some other limitations so I feel paid products are worth it.
one product will not detect 100% of threats. the most important thing IMHO is how long it takes for a vendor to react to a sent sample or reported false positive.
the other thing to concider is that different products will react differently on some systems.
btw i agree about kaspersky its a good product from a good company but it does use alot of resources and its why i dont use it anymore and no longer reccomend it.
Last edited by lodore; 05-09-2011 at 08:37 PM.
I'm happy with a combination of MSE, Windows Firewall and MBAM in Windows 7.
I used to use Comodo Personal Firewall and AVG in Windows XP but neither worked well (or at all) on 7 when I switched and I've no inclination to return to them.
Apex (16-09-2011)
Funnily enough, I had nothing but trouble with that, and it was the last version of AV (about v7 IIRC) that I paid for .... for a triple licence. It wouldn't install, crashed frequently after I did get it installed and I ended up scrapping it. I never did get any actual value out of the product I paid for, and no help from Kaspersky either. At least if a free product doesn't work, it has only cost you time and effort to find out.
Edit - checked, and it was v6.
Hello Saracen,
I remember you mentioning that before.
in the later versions of kaspersky internet security they removed the ability to do a custom install so you have to have antispam,parental control etc installed. one of the reasons ive now gone to eset is that eset is about the only vendor that hasnt added any crap to their product. other vendors have added so called tune up utilities which do registry cleaning and other things unrelated to security.
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