Besides AVG, What's The Best Free Anti-Virus?

lonebyrd

Apr 22 2006, 12:29 AM

I hate AVG personally, but i havent yet figured out what I want to use for an Anti-virus program. I have Anti-vir right now, but I really love to the many different opinions that are given here on these forums. I just don't know what would be good. I had Avast for a little bit, it seemed pretty good, and I'm not quite sure why I didnt use it again. So what do people think is the best free anti-virus (please don't mention AVG)?

ganeshn11

May 2 2006, 05:57 PM

QUOTE(lonebyrd @ Apr 22 2006, 01:29 AM)

Hey, you seem to have quoted almost all the best and the free available anti-virus softwares. I dont know about Avast, I have'nt tried it out, but you must give a check to bit-defender. The free edition gives you just plain anti-virus but you might as well check out their pro edition which includes anti-spam, firewall...bla, bla.
Another good free anti-virus I can think off is Panda. I got this AV on a CD magazine which gave me 1 year promotion subscription. It has all the features to defend you and your computer. Its a truly install and forget AV. You dont even have to think about updating it, as it automaticaly updates as soon as you connect to the internet.

Just one more thing, if you are a genuine microsoft windows xp user (I am one) you get a 1 year subscription free from CA (I think so), just give it a check.

BitShift

Jun 15 2006, 04:33 AM

I have used Avast for years and I love it.

Automatic updates, automatic scans.

Has web shield, instant message shield, network shield, email shield, p2p shield, and of course the regular passive scanner going.

I've gone to web pages and while they are loading avast pops up a message saying it detected a virus was downloaded, and asks me to delete it and I do and i leave web page, do a scan on computer to make sure, no viruses, and everything is fine. And thats just the free home edition, i can't even imagine what kind of functionality the professional edition must have

Heck it even has a Virus Recovery Database that passivly backs up files, and if they ever become infected it has a back-up ready for you.

I love the software and highly recommend it.

I used AVG a few years back and I didn't like it either. I then found avast and have stayed with it since.

luizzeross

Jun 15 2006, 01:24 PM

Avast! is for sure a explendid anti-virus program, but it isn't free is it? And what about that so-called Open-Source anti-virus, named "Clam Anti-Virus"?? It could be a key for better security, because it's open -source, then maybe it can grow stronger, and maybe one day it can finally get better than any Avast!, Norton (this one sure sucks), or AVG (Old-friend of mine

iGuest

Nov 17 2007, 11:17 AM

Here I am adding my voice to yours for Avast Anti-Virus. it's splendid,yet a friend of mine once told me that it had deleted some codes in the registration,

I mean in the system. what I like the most in Avast is : the automatic update, not to mention the attention sound :), furthermore, I used NOD32 anti-virus, it's great also and it's less in size

wutske

Nov 18 2007, 12:03 PM

I've used Avast for a long time now and I'm very happy about it (if you configure it correctly, because it tends to stall Vista a lot

). It has a great on-access protection and they update the database very often.
I'm not a fan of AVG and Free-AV, basicaly because their user interface is below par

, they are hard to use, BUT they do offer better protection over Avast.
Bitdefender (free version) and ClamAV are good back-ups, but aren't suited for main protection since they don't offer an on-access scanner.

kelvinmaki

Nov 18 2007, 01:38 PM

Agreed with the others on AVAST. Currently using that and very satisfied with it. Anyway there's a lot of topics on Anti-virus and you might want to search the site of view here for more details on other views.

http://www.astahost.com/index.php?showtopi...46&hl=avast

ethergeek

Nov 19 2007, 03:17 AM

I'm all about Clam AV (clamwin on windows) because it's free, GPL, and open source. Also, it doesn't dig any hooks into your system, so you don't need to worry about it hosing your system. The only downside (because of the aforementioned no-hooks policy) is that it doesn't have an on-demand scanner, but if you just scan things before you run them and periodically do system scans, you should be just fine. If you run clamwin from a USB key or a CD, you don't need to worry about your scanner being compromised too.

kelvinmaki

Nov 19 2007, 04:33 AM

Anyway just to add on, AVAST provide a bios virus scan when starting your computer (before loading into Windows). I found it pretty useful for this kind of scanning as normally trojan or virus usually loading when windows startup. So it will be loaded in system and can't be removed. Just some information. Cheers

NintendoWii

Nov 23 2007, 09:33 PM

I just found out NOD32 is pretty good it includes anti-virus, anti-spy-ware and more plus it scans your computer very fast. It's barely slows down your computer unlike other anti-viruses. I used it for a while but then I bought AVG Internet Security and now I have That. Sorry for mentioning AVG

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xboxrulz

Jul 6 2008, 05:23 AM

I never liked Avast because of its really dumb down interface that gets in my way. Like fine, it can be easy but why did you make it so frustrating to go through?

I like AVG's interface a lot better.

xboxrulz

FirefoxRocks

Jul 5 2008, 09:20 PM

Normally, I have AVG installed on both of my Windows computers. However, AVG started deleting every download from every browser for some unknown reason yesterday so I switched to Avira AntiVir Personal. I don't like it because it interferes with my computing session (the nag screen to buy the higher version/updates) by popping up those windows right in the middle of doing something. I think I might try Avast, or switch back to AVG.

Avast, Avira and AVG are all given 5 stars on Download.com, but Avast has 4.5 stars as the user rating, while the other ones have only 4. [http://www.download.com/sort/3150-2239_4-0-1-6.html?operatingSystemId=&rows=10&start=0&ca=&licenseTypeId=49]

I also used to have Portable ClamWin AV, it was good and all, but I found it to be useless because I didn't need it so I don't use that on my USB drive any more.

xboxrulz

Dec 23 2007, 06:11 AM

I have been using AVG and I have never been punctured by a virus, then again, I am very paranoid about computer security.

xboxrulz

dewslat

Dec 23 2007, 05:41 AM

I am using Avast since I had an internet cafe 3 years ago and until now, I am still happy about it. Though there are still a lot of virus that penetrated my PC.. especially newer USB type that is locally distributed, I have not been brought down. One thing I just didnt like about it is that I hogs a lot of resources during update and I have one older system that just couldnt keep up with it. I dont know why but it is just making it too slow. which is why I switched to Zenwalk Linux.. now, antivirus seems not necessary to it anymore. AVG is too cluttered and AntiVIR just wont do. Norton Sucks with all the commercialization and the rest, I dont want to try...

wutske

Dec 22 2007, 10:09 PM

I've found a nice website that compares the different scanning engines; http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/comparatives.html
They do use the professional versions, but I don't think the free-versions perform worse.

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