Thank you Minstrel and Grump, I will go for AVG. My Norton Trail version expired longback. Now Iam at Risk. Prevention is better than cure. Something better than nothing. Let me use for some time this freeware....I personally will come to know disadvantages (if really existing) of freewares. Any way thanks MASTERS for this conclusion. Regards Ramakrishna
If you where planning to buy Anti-Malware software you should really considder buying this since freeware is only a supplement to your computer system safety and is not a very strong defense. http://www.av-test.org/ check this site out for comparisements and not the vendor sites since they will of course not dispute the ''quality'' of their own product.
Thank you Edz. Iam going to download "cross-reference list of all virus names" from site http://www.av-test.org/ and think what to do.
Nonsense. If this is what you were talking about, Grump, you were right. AVG is freeware as well as a paid version. So is NOD32 (correct name?). They are both very good AV programs and they are far from "supplementary". Zone Alarm free version is also an excellent stand-alone firewall. There are at least three or four excellent freeware anti-spyware programs out there -- I have AdAware, Spybot S&D, and the Microsoft one. They also are not "supplementary" in any sense.
Minstrel wrote: I am not saying all freeware is not any good and AVG does give out a very nice AV for the price (free) but one should not considder this as a good line of defense relying solely on a freeware program such as AVG. Nod32 is not a freeware AV when i last visited the site, they do offer trial versions to download. Yes Minstrel, Zonealarm free version is a excellent stand-alone firewall but i was not refering to firewalls or freeware Anti-spyware applications. And i still stand by the fact that you should really implement paid versions on a computer system such as Nod32. To write it off as nonsense? that is nonsense in my oppinion. After visiting numerous security forums it's my conclusion that only a freeware as AVG is not sufficient to hold a strong defense against Malware. It helps... I do have to say AVG free is an exeption and is not a bad AV, but to rely solely on this alone? I wouldn't do it if i had the choice and still considder this as suplementary since there are better ones out there.
You're right. I've never used it but I have seen it recommended and thought it was freeware. I know many people using AVG free version. The only difference beteen the free version and the paid version as far as I can tell are (a) more than one update daily and (b) free tech support with the paid version. I see no reason why anyone needs to use a paid AV program as long as AVG is compatible with their OS and other installed software. Anything beyond that is just personal preference. Many people do so and are quite happy with the results. Also, see above - there is no real difference between the free and paid versions of AVG as far as protection goes.
redQueen, that could cause problems. Correct me if I am wrong, but I've come across information many times that said never to have 2 anti-virus programs installed and running at the same time. May be a security issue or something, I don't exactly remember why.
You're not wrong, Colleen. You can use more than one antivirus program if you wish but you can create some problems if you have more than one running in real time (background scanning). Same thing with firewalls or antispyware programs. So if you want to install more than one, just make sure only one is enabled for real time AV scanning. Then you can feel free to do periodic drive scans with the others if it makes you feel safer.
Thanks Minstrel. I don't want more than one, I was concerned about redQueen having more than one and not knowing the possible problems it could cause. Sounds like she has them both enabled for real time AV scanning.
I wonder if her brother uninstalled NAV when he installed AVG... the other Systemworks components might be still there with NAV disabled. Orr it's possible she's been lucky. I know many people have Windows Firewall and a third party firewall both running apparently without incident but I have also seen conflicts arising from that.
I have Windows Firewall enabled and our router has a firewall built in, luckily there hasn't been any problems there. Do you mean maybe he accidently uninstalled NAV and they just think it's still running?
Geez, again it's not me, it's redQueen. I have enough knowledge not to do these things. I read a lot. But you can help me with other things.
Colleen, you are absolutely correct. Minstrel is also correct in that you should not use 2 different antivirus programs on the same computer if they scan files in real time. The reason for this is that the antivirus program needs to lock a file while scanning it and if two different pieces of software are trying to lock the same file at the same time, it can (and most often does) bring your computer to a grinding halt. The same can be said for any other type of software and that includes anti-spyware programs IF (and only IF) they attempt to lock files for scanning in real time. Most free versions of anit-spyware (AdAware, Spybot are the main big 2) do NOT conflict with each other because the free version of AdAware does not offer real time scanning. It is an "after the fact" removal tool only. This is also, incidently, the same reason why some viruses can only be removed in SAFE mode. That's because while operating in normal mode, Windows will have the infected file open (and locked). So, it is necessary to boot into SAFE mode to remove some of the more stubborn viruses.
Is this a problem then, I have NAV running, and recently installed and have running, Microsoft AntiSpyware. I never stopped to think maybe they're the same type of protection. Not sure but haven't seen any problems, they've been running together for about a week.
They should not interfere with each another, I run both w/o any problems at all myself.. One seaks viruses, one goes for spyware, they go great together IMO...