Any thoughts on what antivirus I should download?

Hi,
I have been posting about the problems I had with an antivirus program, which I finally got off my computer and now need a new one. I am not real computer literate so need a program that doesn't cause me to guess about what to do. I am also paranoid so I do want a real effective program and I want it to be free, but to offer live in tech support, free. Know of anything?:-D I do have a dial-up(well, it is safer), and limited memory as I am running big fat xp on an older machine, but a really good one. I did make upgrades.:-o sheena

 

Hi sheena, I would also suggest AVG 8.5. I and my neighbor are both on DUN (Dial-Up-Network) and we installed AVG 8.5 on hers... Works like a charm, and she is REALLY green, so if she can do it, so can you! Follow DomLuc's recomendation, and you will be fine...

 

Good stuff, DomLuc, and you saved me the daze it would have taken to research all this, such as about the support options, which these co.s are never upfront about. Worth the price of admission right there. I used AVG free once and liked other things better, but am not that confident of my skills in learning CIS. You're talking to an English major for gosh sake, and older gal who's only had the computer a few yrs. TeeCee, thank you for the tip about AVG8.5 as well. I am trying to learn more, but at my (lack of) skill level, I do need to be confident that the antivir is doing the job without my input beyond the basics, tho I am trying to improve. I did get the Windows for Dummies I think it was, a while back, but it seemed to just go into basics that I'd taught myself. It may have been another dummies book. lol I know how to email, delete things after being onthe internet, can even go into run and search and many other things. But I want to learn more about what makes the thing tick, the overall, and it seems the books only teach bits and pieces of this and that, like learning math in school, you never get the overall picture. I would also like to not be the passive one in ref. to Lurch (my computer). I'd like to be able to make some of those files with the extension thingys, and make him do things I want, whether windows has decreed it or not. But I don't know what kind of book to look for that teaches that.
Thanks to you all for your help. Sheena

 

Hello Sheena,
I certainly agree with all suggestions so far. AVG 8.5 may seem costly at £54 for two years, but you get a heck of a lot for your money. It certainly works away quietly in the background and has a very efficient Web Shield included.
Hope you manage to get what you need!

 

I've used different ones, but best free one IMHO, was Avira: good, and not intrusive, and I liked it so much I got the paid version, which was less hassle...but you can check out freebie: it's european too, and I live in U.S., but just wanted something from somewhere else....

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download955.html

I use the free beta version of Panda Cloud AV now, and like it a lot, but it's still kind of in "wait and see" mode, for me...so I don't think I should recommend it to anybody...Avira, tho, I liked...

 

We should all read opinions and reviews of Antivirus programs.
I agree with DomLuc, regarding -
"The most 'technical support' you will get is via reading the programs' online guides and FAQs, and reading and posting on their User Forums, and forums like this. That's it. literally."

I use AVG free for the most part. I use Avira at times and currently have it on one computer.

I have used Avast - installed in on a computer once, that had some malware of some sort, - un-installed Norton, installed Avast, and it found something and deleted it on a reboot - ran before Windows loaded - a cool feature.
The only hassle I had with Avast, was you have to provide your E-Mail address, and receive a license key (though free), and follow instructions of where to paste it, so you can get your upgrades.

I recently had a false positive of a rouge link via MalWareBytes, I sent them an E-Mail. They were very responsive - I was impressed. Of course I'm sure they would not offer technical support even by E-Mail as far as cleaning a system - but want their database up to date - and that is why, I'm sure they responded.

I have used Comodo Firewall - may keep an eye out for the Comodo Suite.
First I heard of the Panda cloud AV - always new things on the computer horizon.

Chronk

 

They now have a beta preview version of Cloud Antivirus, from Panda, for Windows 7, 32 and 64bit, so I'm going to try that out. I really liked the beta version I tried on Vista...free, too, of course.


http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/2009/08/27/beta3-preview-windows-7-64bit-support/

 

g'day sheena

thought i would jump in with some info i used to use avg 8 in fact i was using avg for a long time and would still be using it.i changed over to comodo antivirus + firewall simply because it is one program for both apps and as i only have 740 mb ram it use a lot less resources than avg 8.if ram is not an issue with you avg is a really good option.
i have been trialing comodo for about 3-4 weeks and it has found several infections so far and has protected my computer fairly well,i have ran various other virus software not in real time but as a backup scan just to see if comodo is doing its job they include avast virus cleaner and removeit pro and both these scans have come up clean.so comodo is doing quite well.like i said though if ram was not an issue i would prefer avg .