New Anti-Virus search

[Ralph]

I have been searching for a new Anti Virus program to run as of late.

Norton has screwed up anything it touches since 2005 and AVG has now released a new version of its anti-virus/spyware utility which to be polite........sucks. They will be stopping support and updates for their old version 7.5.5 shortly, and the new version 8 just mucks up everything it touches, so I am off searching for a replacement.

I have recently downloaded avast! Anti-virus to test and see how that acts. So far so good.

Anybody else ever tried it?

[dgriffin]

Yes, I have been running Avast for about 6 months or so. Before that I ran AVG, which I liked, but was convinced by someone on the net that I'd like AVAST even better. And I do. I never liked Nortorn ... hated it, in fact, and still do. I did sort of like McAfee and used it for years, even paying for a subscription yearly. But it is so heavy with overhead, and besides, I got really upset with their cancellation policy. (You can only get a subscription by agreeing to let them continually bill your credit card, and you can't cancel on line, instead having to call them up, wait in line on the phone and then argue with a salesperson to cancel your account! Nazi Marketing.)
Avast is simple to use and I don't notice the overhead on my XP SP1 and SP2 machines, each about 2 gigahertz. I'm on roadrunner and I've sat across the room doing something and heard the Avast alarm go off when it finds a virus or someone tries to break through the firewall. Pretty impressive.

[rickolney]

I've used Kaspersky with nothing but glowing flawless protection. It has a 30 day free trial then you've got to buy it.

[Ralph]

Thanks Dave, answered my question for sure. I already have it on the laptops and just need to do Betty's desktop and then I will remove AVG on them all before the support for it goes down.

Rick, the nice thing about avast! is it's free, free, free.

[Clipper]

I sympathize with you assessment of McAffee Dave. I used it for the first two years that I had a computer, and on one occasion, I needed customer service. I ended up on the telephone with someone in downtown NewDelhi, haha. The accent was so damned thick that I could not understand a word they said. Could have saved the phone call, and simply stopped by the local Days Inn and talked to Patel.

[dgriffin]

Just a thought on your New World Order experience, Clip. I find it less frustrating to take advantage of various vendors' "Live Help," a two way conversation via the computer, if it is offered. That's because most of the non-English speakers are more understandable in writing than speech.

[Clipper]

Marvelous suggestion Dave. I now am using Avanquest System 8 professional sweet. Another $30 program from Walmart, that seems to really work well for me. It seems quite thorough, but the scans run slow. I don't know if is the amount of data on my machine or because of the speed of the software.

[rickolney]

Aug 27, 2008 1:37:44 GMT -5 Ralph said:

Rick, the nice thing about avast! is it's free, free, free.

Nothing is free, amigo. You don't get in without someone paying your fare, and you don't leave with a thing in your pocket. ;D

[Clipper]

Sheeesh, I better use spell check more often. I just noticed in my last post, that I spelled the software program "professional SWEET instead of Suite, LOL. Sorry guys.

[Ralph]

Well Rick, normally I would agree with your assessment, but there are actually some things out there that are free, and you have to wonder why sometimes because they work so well.

If you check out the thread I have here for PC Maintenance and Security - 2008, you will find that every single program there is completely free...no strings attached......and they are all rated as good as or most of the time better than the ones that you pay for.

Sad thing is that I have double and triple redundant security programs all running at the same time taking up practically no RAM, .86% of my CPU and only .28% of page file usage.

Norton 360 gummed it up so bad I had to spend an entire day getting rid of it from my PC before it would get back up to speed again.

I was originally using only Norton when I first started out 7-8 years ago. Got whacked so many times it hurt!!!

I have been running the free stuff and practicing what I preach for the last 6 years and haven't been zapped again once.

And I am not that damn lucky!

[dgriffin]

The other thing I like about Avast is that its VirusScan truly runs in the background. I'm running it now and, except when bringing up an additional program, see no effect on web browsing. I couldn't do that with McAfee.

[dgriffin]

For those using AVG, this from Joe Mezz's "Recent posts on The Mezz.com."

Update AVG Anti-Virus silently using Command-Line:
www.winhelponline.com/blog/update-avg-anti-virus-silently-using-command-line/