I bought a Dell Inspiron 1521 running on Vista this last year. McAfee was already installed as a trial preview (don’t know what the correct term would be) I used that for the first few months and when the trial ran out I just couldn’t afford to buy the full version so I decided to try so other free trial options. I’ve used AVG (didn’t like it much) and Norton (I do like this for what I use my computer recently for) I now have the funds available to purchased a anti-virus/protection program for my laptop but I’m not sure of which I should use. I’ll go into detail of what I use my laptop for and what I like/dislike (looking for). Since it’s almost been a year since I used McAfee I can’t recall if I absolutely loved it or had issues that were so minor that I didn’t notice. and that’s what is making this choice so hard.
I use my computer for mostly internet and downloading (file sharing) I don’t have a personal internet connection and use public wireless networks for access. Since I’ve had Norton I enjoy that if i’m downloading something virus/spyware contaminated it blocks the file and lets me know. I also like that it blocks and informs me of any attempted attacks/unauthorized access to my computer. I can’t remember if mcafee did this or not because I really didn’t do a lot of this when I first got the computer. I need to know if mcafee does this in the same manner as norton or not. and would like some personal views/issues with these programs.
Avast is one of best anti-virus programs and completely free Avast works for 60 days after installation you will obtain your FREE license key by email after you register, the license key is valid for 1 year after one year you will need to just re-register.
Avast home edition is free and effective, it scans your downloads and emails for viruses (unlike AVG) and also includes anti-rootkit and anti-spyware, it can also run a boot scan, I use Avast along side Comodo Pro firewall both are free and have been independently tested and proven to be more effective then Norton or Mcafee.
Avast Anti-Virus: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
Comodo Pro: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
Why Avast is better then AVG:
AVG themselves state that the free version of their Anti-Virus does NOT scan downloads for malicious content where as the free version of Avast DOES, whats the point in having anti-virus software that can’t prevent viruses from being downloaded to your computer, I’ve also tested both using the EICAR test viruses, AVG allowed all the viruses onto the computer Avast blocked them instantly Avast offers far superior protection. test your anti-virus: http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm
Avira AntiVir: http://www.free-av.com
Highly rated and award winning with a 99.8% detection rate
IMHO; If you’re using fileshare on your new computer, don’t bother with any protection…filesharing is probably THE most risky behavior you an do with a Windows system, aside from omitting a firewall.
Bit torrent and other file sharing sites being used to get (free) music and videos with can be total disaster for your Windows machine.
Because they use multiple ‘peer contributors’ to feed bits & parts of a requested files (music, movies, etc.) back to you, there can never be any kind of certainty about the status of the sender’s file.
Whatever they have = you get: intentional or not.
Once downloaded to your machine, all bets are off about it’s safety to open, transfer, use or re-send; and size of a file has little bearing on what it may or may not contain.
To get an idea of how prolific and devastating this can be just look at the number of ‘Yahoo Answers> Security’ requests for help about virus/spyware.
Most of these Yahoo users are younger & more likely to be using the trendy socializing sites and peer-2-peer services (Limewire, etc.). Hackers know this and target efforts to infect machines by these sources (aka ‘vector’).
Once infected, a long cleaning , endless aggravation & malware prevention steps will not guarantee immunity from a re-infection.
Use @ your own peril…
Norton Internet Security 2009 is a great program. It will serve all of your needs. Sorry to say if you do file sharing sooner on later you will probably get infected. It won’t be your anti-virus programs fault. If you download some new malware that your av hasn’t seen there is a good chance that you could become infected. My son downloads a lot from limewire and always scans his files before opening and hasn’t had anything get past his AV yet. Here’s a link to Computersworth. They have Norton Internet Security 2009 for $23 one user license.
http://www.computersworth.com/category.cfm?cat=124&catname=Norton%20%2F%20%20Symantec