What is the best? Tell the best free program and the best cost efficient one. I don't think I can handle any $300 anitvirus program.

Depends on what type of operating system you're running and what you do on the internet.

There are free places online and often your internet provider offers free antivirus and spyware programs as part of your monthly fee.

Many people are using AVG which is free and easy to use.

Might not be a bad idea to get your free copy of Adaware which removes those annoying ads that get attached to your hard drive.

There are a lot of programs out there, I hope you find one you like and use it.

Of course, NO program is good unless you use it!

Hi,
I always refer to this site for my antivirus reviews: http://www.anti-virus-software-review.com - their reviews seem quite reliable and they present you with a clean, easy-to-read-and-determine feature comparison chart. I'd picked up BitDefender Pro from their list. While even I'm not willing to shell out $300 on an AV, BitDefender cost me only $45 - which I was more than willing to pay, to save me the long-term troubles on an unprotected system.

My all out recommendation is for BitDefender Pro 8 coz:

• My system hasn't been infected even ONCE over past 8 months - it manages to catch every form of Worm/Virus/Trojan - whatsoever.
• The purchase was well worth it - their updates are always declared well-ahead in time and downloads happen really smooth, even with broken updates. With the purchase i'd got 1 years 2 months of free updates.
• The AntiVirus also includes an integrated FireWall - which works really well + an AntiSpam module which scans incoming mails on almost any well-known email client automatically. It infact watched out for outbound connections to port 110 and starts scanning immediately.
• Overall very strong protection and excellent detection rates. Finally am very happy with one concrete antivirus.
• Their after sales service is really good - always very prompt with their replies.

i could go on and on about this - but best would be for you to check out their site (http://www.bitdefender.com) and the review site i mentioned above.

Regards,
m^e

I would say AVG Anti-Virus is a good and highly competent free anti-virus software. It has so many good features and is capable of defending any machine that it beats some of the non-free software out there. It's free to receive updates and new info about newest viruses too.

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

I highly recommend it.

I personally like to use a lot of third-party anti-virus programs, but I also use others that are not quite anti-virus to protect my PC from malicious code...

avast, AVG, norton, pc-illin... I've used all those. Some are OK, others get the job done apparently well enough... as it stands, I've never had a virus problem, and I don't know anyone who really has. With my experience, I wouldn't recommend really spending any money for an anti-virus program, when you can find so many free on a site like download.com

I have been using a different very popular Anti Virus that was purchased 9 months ago up to now.
The reason is that I came across the Avast site just by chance, and the company feels that the only way to cut down on computer viruses is to provide the software free of charge for the home user. So I downloaded the software run it along side my other anti virus. Avast detected a Trojan Virus in a download which the other did not. Just to see that it was not a hoax I did an online scan with a 3rd Virus Package and the virus was found.
Avast has really helped me out as I cannot afford virus software at present and is available to anyone. Avast also supply a licence that needs entering and the software is Valid for 14 months at which time you just re-register free again.
There should be more companies like this, giving back to the community and also helping clean up the Net.
I cannot thank Avast enough and would highly recommend checking out the site. Just type Avast in search and Bob's your uncle. Avast also have a virus cleaner if your system is infected and in turn isolates it.
Keep up the good work Avast and thanks again.

Finally I was very concerned that my Norton software is only 9months old, however did not detect a Trojan Delphi that I received 2 weeks ago which is a bit worrying!!!! Avast detected it straight away with Norton finally 3 days later :-( I also ran an online scan with the Panda Software which detected the virus straight away too. Still waiting for a reply from Norton as to why so slowwwwwww in detection. Still you can never be too safe and would recommend using Avast in addition although I'll use it as a Primary with Norton SECOND BEST. I seem to be receiving 1-2 updates per day from Avast which is also a good sign as normally with other software just 1-2 times per week. It is also very comforting when I hear the words "Your Database has been updated" which is done automatically when the settings are set.

I personally think its worth giving sophos a go, i use it at work and at home and it picks up literally everything and anything going.

It is currently installed on over 450 computers at work and it continually finds and removes all viruses new or old from the machines. It also has daily updates and automatically installs them to the machines followed by a nightly scan.

I use this at home and compared to some other anti virus programs performs best for what i want.

Sophos

The best AV program is the one that you keep updated. No matter how good the program is, if you don't keep the deffinition files current it will do you no good.

On a second note I use Norton. I have never had any problems out of the years that I have used it. It hasn't let a known virus in. Even while surfing the net it has caught malicious bits of code that doesn't exectly classify as viruii. (the good Lord should know that with some of the sites that I have visited I should have been infected enough for 20 people.) The only complaints that I have with Norton is that it doesn't like certain "hack tools" which I need for my job (ackcmd.exe) and you can not exciplitly set directories that you do not want scanned. I have a certain directory that turned up over 8,00, hits on the last automatic scan, lol.

Hope this helps.

If we talk about free antivirus two names come in the mind. Avast and AVG. Both are good antivirus. Updates used to come on daily or alternate day. Both are not resource hogs like Norton. You search the internet and compare both of them according to your needs.

I have tried various anti-virus programs.
All of which reduces the system speed and performance
Now I am using Symantec anti-virus program corporate edition
it is very efficient and does not reduce the system performance