Looking for new antivirus software

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Michael

I've used avg for several years and have recently been unhappy with it.
Anyone have any suggestions for freeware antivirus programs that don't eat
up a lot of resources? Also, ones that update often.
 
I've used avg for several years and have recently been unhappy with
it. Anyone have any suggestions for freeware antivirus programs that
don't eat up a lot of resources? Also, ones that update often.
Click to expand...

http://www.free-av.com/

Antivir - Among freeware, I think it has good detection rates,
lightweight, but a download side is that there is no incremental updates,
worse every 2-3 weeks or so you need to download the whole program again.
Killer if you are using dialup etc.

I also find that even if you are on broadband downloads are very slow ,
servers are often down etc. AVG used to be bad in this area, but Antivir
is even worse.

http://www.avast.com/

AVAST - Good detection rates, excellent features including
"webshield"(though buggy), networkshield, plugins for instant
messangers,P2P etc Unlike Antivir,AVG, downloads are small and fast.

The catch? It is somewhat heavy in terms of memory use compared to
Antivir and AVG, though I personally find it acceptable.

Together with AVG these are the big 3, with resident scanners and non-
time limited deals.

There are(were?), one year 'trial's of other AVs out there, but I don't
think you are looking for those. On demand scanners are another option.
 
I've used avg for several years and have recently been unhappy with
it. Anyone have any suggestions for freeware antivirus programs that
don't eat up a lot of resources? Also, ones that update often.
Click to expand...

Although the downloads are frequent and soometimes large, I am finding
NEW respect for Anti-Vir each week. Lately, my scanner (real-time) has
been detecting PHISHING scam e-mails amd warning me. Not that I ever
click on a link in an e-mail (I use plain text only), but this is a nice
feature. Those Germans are really providing some GREAT software.

Happy Resurrection Sunday.

--
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El Gee <><
Know Christ, Know Peace
No Christ, No Peace

Remove yourhat to reply
Home Page - www.mistergeek.com
Blog - mcwtlg.blogspot.com
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Michael said:
I've used avg for several years and have recently been unhappy with it.
Click to expand...

I've tried Anti-vir, but took it off for some reason that I can't now
remember. No doubt it peeved me in some way.

I have also tried clamav, which is an open-sourced project.
Unfortunately, I didn't like it at all. It seemed to create a whole slew
of files, and took absolutely ages to do a scan of my hard drive. I hate
to knock open-sourced projects, but I think that this is one to avoid.

I'm currently using Avast. Having just started with it, it's difficult
to give an opinion on it. So far, so good, though.

One thing that really annoys me about some firewalls and antivirus apps
is their habit of displaying splash screens at boot-time. I feel like
saying: trust me, I know I have installed the software, there's no need
to keep reminding me.
 
Mark Carter said:
I've tried Anti-vir, but took it off for some reason that I can't now
remember. No doubt it peeved me in some way.
Click to expand...

I use AntiVir and think it is very good.

I just started it, used the update from the menu. It downloaded the new
program files in 15 seconds, and I installed the prog in the same dir as
the old version, that took 20 seconds, slightly longer than it took me to
write this sentence.

I let it run through the basic tests of memory and system areas, and
search through the windows folder with subfolders, then I stopped it.

Maybe it is not so easy to realize that you can drag-and-drop any folder
on it and it searches that folder for you.

The updating is maybe not as easy as it could be, the procedure is like
installing a new program, but once you get used to it it is easy.

It shows a splash banner for two seconds while it starts, but it is
working hard behind that splash banner, so I don't lose any time on it.
 
I've used AntiVir for some years but lately a little too much has been
slipping by. I'm now taking advantage of Computer Associates' offer of 1
free year of their product. I very much like the updates done silently
behind the scenes, and quite frequently as well. So, I'm enlarging my
internal definition of 'freeware' to include otherwise paid products that
are offered free for use for such an extended period of time. Who knows what
great new programs, or greatly updated favorites, might be offered over such
a relatively long period - long at least relative to our programming/pc
world. Hope this doesn't strike too many as heretical. Other than my Win2K
OS, there's not a single program on my computer that's NOT freeware or Open
Source.
 
Bill said:
I've used AntiVir for some years but lately a little too much has been
slipping by. I'm now taking advantage of Computer Associates' offer of 1
free year of their product. I very much like the updates done silently
behind the scenes, and quite frequently as well. So, I'm enlarging my
internal definition of 'freeware' to include otherwise paid products that
are offered free for use for such an extended period of time. Who knows what
great new programs, or greatly updated favorites, might be offered over such
a relatively long period - long at least relative to our programming/pc
world. Hope this doesn't strike too many as heretical. Other than my Win2K
OS, there's not a single program on my computer that's NOT freeware or Open
Source.
Click to expand...
Just started using BitDefender (www.bitdefender.com) works well with my
mail server !!

Version 7 is Free !!
 
Although the downloads are frequent and soometimes large, I am finding
NEW respect for Anti-Vir each week. Lately, my scanner (real-time) has
been detecting PHISHING scam e-mails amd warning me. Not that I ever
click on a link in an e-mail (I use plain text only), but this is a nice
feature. Those Germans are really providing some GREAT software.

Happy Resurrection Sunday.
Click to expand...
And to you too:-)

I have just swapped over to Antivir and find the updates can be daily. So
far so good. Avast is a bit of a system hog.
 
On Sun 27 Mar 2005 15:04:59, Aaron wrote:
http://www.free-av.com/

Antivir - Among freeware, I think it has good detection rates,
lightweight, but a download side is that there is no incremental
updates, worse every 2-3 weeks or so you need to download the
whole program again. Killer if you are using dialup etc.

I also find that even if you are on broadband downloads are very
slow , servers are often down etc. AVG used to be bad in this
area, but Antivir is even worse.

http://www.avast.com/

AVAST - Good detection rates, excellent features including
"webshield"(though buggy), networkshield, plugins for instant
messangers,P2P etc Unlike Antivir,AVG, downloads are small and
fast.

The catch? It is somewhat heavy in terms of memory use compared
to Antivir and AVG, though I personally find it acceptable.

Together with AVG these are the big 3, with resident scanners
and non- time limited deals.

There are(were?), one year 'trial's of other AVs out there, but
I don't think you are looking for those. On demand scanners are
another option.
Click to expand...

Nicely stated - although Avast is not really that much of a power
hog.

Of the two I think Avast is the one to go for.
 
On Sun 27 Mar 2005 16:45:56, Bill Piety wrote:
I've used AntiVir for some years but lately a little too much
has been slipping by. I'm now taking advantage of Computer
Associates' offer of 1 free year of their product. I very much
like the updates done silently behind the scenes, and quite
frequently as well. So, I'm enlarging my internal definition of
'freeware' to include otherwise paid products that are offered
free for use for such an extended period of time. Who knows what
great new programs, or greatly updated favorites, might be
offered over such a relatively long period - long at least
relative to our programming/pc world. Hope this doesn't strike
too many as heretical. Other than my Win2K OS, there's not a
single program on my computer that's NOT freeware or Open
Source.
Click to expand...

Exactly what is the one year deal from CA?

Is it to do with "eTrust EZ Antivirus"?
 
Franklin said:
On Sun 27 Mar 2005 15:04:59, Aaron wrote:


Nicely stated - although Avast is not really that much of a power
hog.



Of the two I think Avast is the one to go for.
Click to expand...

I got tired of the update problems with AVG so I tried Avast. I found it to
be too much on the bells and whistles. So I dumped it and went back to AVG
and worked out, finally, the updating thing.

--
He released government from the restraint of law.
____Lord Acton on Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), George W. Bush, and
the Straussian neocons

Ellis_Jay
 
Of the two I think Avast is the one to go for.
I got tired of the update problems with AVG so I tried Avast. I found it to
be too much on the bells and whistles. So I dumped it and went back to AVG
and worked out, finally, the updating thing.
Click to expand...

I switched to Avast a few weeks ago, and it seems to be running
fine. It is not quite as light as AVG, but is acceptable. I was
having problems where the updates for AVG were corrupting my
program, forcing a reinstall, and I finally said the hell with it.
 
On Fri 01 Apr 2005 06:23:07, Al Smith wrote:
I switched to Avast a few weeks ago, and it seems to be running
fine. It is not quite as light as AVG, but is acceptable. I was
having problems where the updates for AVG were corrupting my
program, forcing a reinstall, and I finally said the hell with
it.
Click to expand...

If you use Avast then you might find this free 3rd-party utility
useful:

"Avast External Control"
http://freeweb.siol.net/razor256/downloads/avast_external_control.zip

It is referred to a lot on the offical Avast forums. EG:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=9;action=display;threadid=4818


----------- BLURB FOR AVAST EXT CONTROL -----------

"Avast External Control (AEC) tool was designed to extend Avast
Antivirus functionality and security. AEC gives you almost full
control over Avast Home Edition or Professional Edition.

You can fully disable/enable and Auto-Restart Avast, change update
and VRDB generation intervals, tweak many hidden settings and view
detailed Avast Antivirus status.

External Avast component launcher gives you ability to scan files
externally or even schedule Boot-Time scan directly from AEC. Avast
Status Info function can be used to dump status log, so Alwil staff
can easily help you on Avast Forums. Most functions is limited to
Windows 2000/XP only."

----------- END BLURB FOR AVAST EXT CONTROL -----------
 
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