What is the best freeware antivirus software?

  • Thread starter Thread starter n o s p a m p l e a s e
  • Start date Start date
n said:
WHat is best out of the following?

a.. www.avast.com
b.. www.bitdefender.com
c.. www.grisoft.com
d.. www.free-av.com
Thanx
Click to expand...

Depends on:
your (computer) enviroment,
your priorities and expectations for a virusscanner:
low resources,
auto update
update frequency
language
ability to scan email
ability to scan archives
abilty for heuristics (finding mutated virusses)
Used for non-profit organisations
allowed with multiple computers at home
ect...

Frankly: none have all of the above, and all have some of the above.

I will advice/install AVG (grisoft) most of the time, since you can auto
update it, and most of the users wouldn't be trusted with updating the virus
definitions them selfs, even if it only required one louzy key press.

On the otherhand, I like to include free-av's commandline scanner with every
bootable cd I create. for just in case.

I use NAI's stinger to get rid of most worm dammage.

For businesses I recommend <OT> McAffee Enterprise </OT>

The others have their own strengt and weaknesses.

So it is mostly personal preference.


MightyKitten
 
ive looked at avg, avast, bitdefender.

lately avg's auto-update hasnt been working for me very well. even after i
added the 2 extra servers. only way i could update was to manually download
the files to the update directory.

also it wont protect a eudora email setup i use.

avast has an update utility. but when i tried using the message facilities
on its outlook protection it wiped incoming and outgoing emails. they showed
up and sent blank.

plus i couldnt get it to cover outlook express utilising a hotmail account.
it wouldnt accept the settings so therefore wouldnt check mail.

bitdefender ive had less exposure to so cant comment.

but i agree with looking at what you need.
 
Thank you all those who responded to my query. I tried AVG and AVAST. I
requires more memory usage than AVG.

Currently I am trying AVG. I checked outlook express plugin but it is
wiping out sent messages. What it sents is the following:

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.648 / Virus Database: 415 - Release Date: 3/31/2004

Any suggestions! How can I stop AVG wiping out sent messages while
appending the virus free certificate?

AVAST works fine but I feel it sucks resources. It works great on
POP3/SMTP/IMAP but does not work on hotmail.
 
Thank you all those who responded to my query. I tried AVG and AVAST. I
requires more memory usage than AVG.

Currently I am trying AVG. I checked outlook express plugin but it is
wiping out sent messages. What it sents is the following:
Click to expand...
Any suggestions! How can I stop AVG wiping out sent messages while
appending the virus free certificate?

AVAST works fine but I feel it sucks resources. It works great on
POP3/SMTP/IMAP but does not work on hotmail.
Click to expand...

I've recently tried both AVG and Avast, but I had problems with both in
Outlook. I run Outlook minimized 24 hours a day so I can hear any incoming
email. After about 4 or 5 hours, Outlook suddenly can't access the mail
server, sometime going out and sometimes coming in. Watch out for this
problem if you use Outlook in this fashion. So anyhow, I had to remove
both programs and use Norton. In the final analysis, Norton is the only
one that works right.
 
n o s p a m p l e a s e wrote in
WHat is best out of the following?

a.. www.avast.com
b.. www.bitdefender.com
c.. www.grisoft.com
d.. www.free-av.com
Click to expand...


Don't know about best, but my current preferences are:

d.. www.free-av.com
b.. www.bitdefender.com
a.. www.avast.com
c.. www.grisoft.com

C (AVG 6) I no longer trust as a resident shield on its own, only if
running separate Trojan detection. B (Bitdefender) offers no resident
shield in the free edition, scanner only (but a good one it seems to
me).

All teh best,
Bjorn Simonsen
 
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