Free Anti-virus question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Edward Hodges
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Edward Hodges

has anyone heard anything about (or knows anything about) AntiVir Guard
(www.free-av.com)... is it reliable? is it flawed? any info would be
greatly appriciated

e
 
Edward Hodges said:
has anyone heard anything about (or knows anything about) AntiVir Guard
(www.free-av.com)... is it reliable? is it flawed? any info would be
greatly appriciated
Click to expand...

I have used this software. It seems quite reasonable, but I think some
posters in this group have said I may not detect some of the older malware.
However, as we know today a bigger problem is internet worms. I imagine that
any av-software will do a good job of detecting worms becuase they are
usualy quite easy to detect now -- unfortunaly such software genrally can't
detect new viruses. The other problem is the volume of spam these internet
worms genrate.

I am tempted to say that no AV software is significantly better than
another, for sorting out the problem in genera, but some are much better at
detecting certain things than others. It's a bit academic when a new piece
of malwre turns up though isn't it. You are better off having a av product
then you are without one. I think you should also consider installation,
support, frequency of updates and the like when you do choose.
 
I used AntiVir free Personal Edition for several months and liked it. It
has a good support bulletin board. However, I couldn't always get the
automatic update to work, and whenever there was an updated virus definition
file available it had to download the entire file, not just the updates.
Finally, whenever a new program release became available it was necessary to
reinstall the entire program from scratch.

I now use Avast! free program and like it uch better. The updates are
automatic when you boot up, audio messages tell you when the virus database
has been updated or a virus has been detected, and it has separate functions
for scanning e-mail, internet browsing, instant messaging, etc. Some users
have said it slows their computer down on start up. This is probably so.
It also seems to scan slower than AntiVir does. But it seems to catch a lot
and operates transparently, so I prefer it now to AntiVir.

Hope this helps.
 
David wrote:
....
I now use Avast! free program and like it uch better. The updates are
automatic when you boot up, audio messages tell you when the virus database
has been updated or a virus has been detected, and it has separate functions
for scanning e-mail, internet browsing, instant messaging, etc. Some users
have said it slows their computer down on start up. This is probably so.
It also seems to scan slower than AntiVir does. But it seems to catch a lot
and operates transparently, so I prefer it now to AntiVir.
Click to expand...
....

All right - _and_ the on-access scanner of Avast! can easily be
switched ON and OFF which is important for me (installing SW; gaming
etc.).

Roy
 
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