Can free anti-virus be trusted?

I have been reluctant to trust the free software (the old "you get what you pay for" syndrome). My concerns now are motivated by the economy. I need to learn frugal living in this day and age, so, if AVG, Antivir et al are as reliable as advertised I'll give them a try. I trust the advice I get on this forum because you guys have proven yourselves to be trustworthy.

 

In a nutshell, yes, you can trust free anti-virus programs.

BUT ther are many many many many, bogus/fake AV programs out their!


AVG and Avira antivir are both very reputable trustworthy programs (AVG is just not very good IMO)

Avira
Avast
Comodo
AVG
McAfee
Norton


To name but a few are all well known and trustworty antivirus prog's. (and i have listed them in the order i would recommend them)

And unless you have a reason not to use it, i recommend Avira, as it is a lightweight, well equipped AV that i use on many rigs myself.



Q

 

Never have more truthfull words been spoken

Especially my bold, keeping things upto date is so important (OS and AV being paramount)
Your AV is almost useless if it doesnt have the right database of updates!

I update Kaspersky Three (3) times a day if im on the computer all day, and it is usually the first thing i do when i boot up.

Now i run all my updates manually, but if you are not willing and able to keep everything up to date daily, hen they should be on auto update!


Q

 

After using annoying Norton for many years, I was very happy to switch over to Avast, and have been pleasantly surprised by its performance. I have it set to automatically update "Definitions" and I manually install all of the updates + new versions when they come out.

It runs quietly in the background, very unobtrusively, and doesn't seem to noticably slow things down (unlike Norton, which did). So far it has been able to rid my system of all viruses, worms and other malevolent creatures, and I do a lot of web surfing, sometimes to sites that could be infected --- so I have no complaints about Avast. It does a good job.

 

Just coming to this site a couple of years ago, and reading both the Malware Forum's "Read and Run Me First," http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 and also "How To Protect Yourself From Malware," http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525 changed everything about my computer practices and knowledge. It taught me so much about protecting my own computer, and made me a much more reliable source of information to my friends.

Most of them, when they *do* have problems, it's because of not knowing the basics of taking care of their computer, which the aforementioned links show how to do. I'm on the malware forum right now, once again, seeking help for a friend...when it comes to computers, this site changed everything for me.

 

I trusted Nod32 (paid)for 4 years and recommended it to all who asked until the day i opened an e-mail attachment ( i know it was my fault) and some beast got into the PC and i ended up formatting the drive.

Since then i have used AVG free and (touches wood) have not had the slightest problem, it just tends to be over protective in that it throws up some false positives, at least i know it's working.

 

Thank-you to everyone who responded to my post, I knew I could count on well reasoned responses. I'll get to downloading and seeking which is best suited to my needs.:wave