Recommend freeware anti-virus

[Ezekiel3626]

Would anyone care to recommend a freeware antivirus app ? I am using Sygate's firewall, and I have used AVG in the past, but recently switched to Norton 2006. I am now having trouble with Norton, so I want to switch again.

 

[panta dokimazete]

I think AVG is the best going freeware...

 

[VaughanRSmith]

I am now having trouble with Norton, so I want to switch again.

I think at some point every person in the world has said that.

AVG is great.

 

[Ezekiel3626]

Thanks guys, as we speak I am d/l AVG again. I probably would have been better off staying with it the first time, but "you live, you learn".

 

[Semper Fidelis]

http://www.avast.com

Home edition is free for non-commercial use.

 

[Ezekiel3626]

I had never heard of Avast before last week. One of the engineers on my rig used it to diagnose and treat another employees laptop that turned out to be severely infected. After you recommended it, I browsed their site. It looks good, I may give it a try. I wonder if it would piggyback with AVG? I know there is a conflict with Ewido and AVG.

 

[javajedi]

Avast!

http://www.avast.com

Home edition is free for non-commercial use.

I have been using this for 6 months or more and so, far, so good. And no problems.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

I had never heard of Avast before last week. One of the engineers on my rig used it to diagnose and treat another employees laptop that turned out to be severely infected. After you recommended it, I browsed their site. It looks good, I may give it a try. I wonder if it would piggyback with AVG? I know there is a conflict with Ewido and AVG.

Not sure. I just loaded 3 computers with it at home (yes I have 3, actually 4 ). I prefer it to Symantec because Symantec slows down my computers drastically. This loads quickly and does a great job of detection. If you're going to spend $$ then I recommend Bit Defender. It's really fast. Avast is free and does a great job.

 

[rmwilliamsjr]

http://www.avast.com

Home edition is free for non-commercial use.

i second this recommendation. i've installed avast on at least a hundred machines and it has never given me a moment's trouble.

remember that a spyware program is as important as virus protection. i've pulled a lot more spyware off dead machines then viruses. last week the record was 1800 viruses off one machine, but the number of spyware that XP's defender found on the same machine exceeded that....

I wonder if it would piggyback with AVG? I know there is a conflict with Ewido and AVG.

as a general rule none of the anti-viral software will play well with each other. the usual problem is that they read each other's virus databases as virus signatures. understandable but not an effective way to do things, you'd think that they would at least recognize the major players database formats and mark them as not-viruses.