Anti Virus.

[Paul Carmel]

Hi,

Well it's that time of year, when I hand over the plastic to Norton, for another year of viruses they say can't fix. Anyone got a better option?

[Alan Knighting]

Paul,

I have just decided not to renew with Norton. For anti-virus I have also used AVG for the last three years and I rate it quite highly. It does the job, i't quick and it's free. Give it a try, why not? Go to:-

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

Alan

[centime]

I also use this free one so its a thumbs up from me. Just had a new computer installed and they gave me a copy of a bitdefender for 12 months free by I could not install the English language versions of the controls so the sent me another. I just went back to the good old and free one, so I can vouch for it being just as good - saves on the plastic!

[Paul Carmel]

Thank's for this! It does look good.........

[Normandy Cow]

Paul,
How did you get on with this? I too am about to renew my virus software but I am not keen to carry on with Norton for a couple of reasons, the main one being that about 6 months ago it started interefering with my Outlook Express and I have had to instead use the webmail option from my ISP instead and it is pants!

But now I desperately need to get a new antivirus software as mine just expired!!!

Help!

[Ju]

Catherine,

We run bitdefender and have done for a couple of years, ever since we had real problems with Norton. We got it from L'Eclerc, and now update it one the web. Its the program the EU commision uses.

Ju

[AndyLucia]

After years of paying for security stuff (Norton, McAfee etc) I've now scrapped them all and use only freebies; since doing that the incidence of problems on my PC has plummeted!

A combination of AVG Free, Zone Alarm, Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D seems to do the trick.

[e-richard]

Beware of switching......

You really do need Norton to give you absolute protection, as this genuine screen capture of a recent incident that I had, illustrates :

[Hells Bells]

I use Avast, Zone Alarm, AdAware, and Spybot. I had to get rid of Norton or lose my sanity.

[vrooje]

I think the best thing you can probably do to protect your computer from viruses is to refrain from using IE.

Or, you could be like me: I never get viruses, spyware, or adware. And I don't use Norton, McAfee, AdAware, Spybot, or anything like that.

Linux all the way!

[spbowman]

My vote goes to AVG as well. Combined with Spyware Blaster. And I also agree with Vrooje that Microsoft (anything) is to be avoided. I prefer Mozilla, but my other half still prefers IE, and I get fed up having to constantly reset Mozilla as the default browser even though the IE settings have been set to not interfere

[Hanorah]

I have tried all that are mentioned as Internet security is my field in my day job where we use Esafe, Surf Control and Mimesweeper. Norton's is fine but not enough as you need a firewall, anti-virus, antispam, and a spyware protection. Interestingly the best spyware programme at the moment in my opinion is a free beta programme by Microsoft but I bet that doesn't last long. Its called windows defender and the link is http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... fault.mspx

[Alan Knighting]

My vote goes to AVG as well. Combined with Spyware Blaster. And I also agree with Vrooje that Microsoft (anything) is to be avoided. I prefer Mozilla, but my other half still prefers IE, and I get fed up having to constantly reset Mozilla as the default browser even though the IE settings have been set to not interfere

No problem. I use a number of browsers and I have a shortcut to each one on my desktop. The only time which one is set as default is relevant is when I use the shortcut button on my keyboard.

Alan

[Hells Bells]

You can download a plug-in for Firefox that lets you view a page in IE without having to open ie separately. Useful as I sometimes forgot I'd swapped to IE and managed to download a nasty toolbar.