Virus protection?

at the moment i am using mcafee Security centre and its about to run out, i hear alot of people say the mainstreams like mcafee /norton are not worth the money,
is this because they are not as good as other antivirus
or is it just because they cost more

and if they are not as good as other antivirus which would you recommend,
(not just because of the price, which gives the best protection all around.)

thanks for advice.

 

There are several free antivirus products that do as good as a job or better than the mainstream costly products, and they won't load your PC up with unneeded "extras" and they don't eat up system resources by running 10 different programs at start up. Personally, I use AntiVir (link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/AntiVir_Personal_Edition_7_d955.html) for my active virus protection; I use Comodo's BOClean for spyware/malware protection (link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Comodo_BOClean_Anti-Malware_d5616.html) and I use their firewall too (link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Comodo_Personal_Firewall_d5033.html). All are 100% free and do an awesome job of keeping the nasties out. For antivirus, I also recommend Avast and AVG and Comodo. All are free and available here at MajorGeeks in the AntiVirus section. Check this link for other recommended security apps and general good security practices: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525

 

I hate this internet(resorcehog)internet security progs.dlb,just said the right thing.I use Avast,BoClean Comodo---AWESOME.

 

I know there are some free apps out there, but I just wanted to say what I use and how much I like it.

I use Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare. It costs $50 bucks for one years subscription, and you get three licenses. It doesn't slow my computer down to a crawl like Norton, and I don't get a million annoying notifications and unnecessary firewall blocking like McAfee. I think it is worth it, and I have been virus and spyware free for quite some time. It's easy to use to if you do need to allow a program or open a port in the firewall, plus it has backup capabilities, etc.

However, if I was broke and needed something now, I would choose AntiVir.

 

Using a security product shouldn't be as hard as McAfee makes it though. Perhaps you are right that there are certain settings you need to accomplish to get things right, but you normally don't have to go through that with other apps.
At least I haven't had to. I have been happy with OneCare, I think its better than Norton or McAfee anyway.

 

In your opinion, of course.

I disagree that its the easiest to configure, by the way. I've fought with it on my cousin's machine, and it wasn't nearly as intuitive as it should have been. Symantec is just as bad.

By far the easiest I found to configure was Sygate.

 

oops, sorry.

I must have misquoted this copy and paste....

Help me with this...does that not say 'any'?

 

If McAfee and Norton were not worth the money? Then how is it that they are the most used in Internet Security?
G

 

Misinformation and advertising I guess Grumbles

A lot of people do not even know that free apps exist, and if they are aware of them they just assume they are not as good especially when it comes to security

 

That argument would be akin to Microsoft and WIndows.

Who has what market share, who has the most reources to market thier product, and who is the most visible by the public eye on the store shelf.

Ask the average Joe off the street who Trend Micro is, and they could very well give you a :confused. Ask that same person who Mcafee or Norton is, and the proverbial lightbulb will click on in their brain.

 

Thank you both Adry and Shane for these answers. As always, I get excellent answers to my questions.
G

 

so.....

the free protectors do just as good of a job protecting my PC as the paid ones?

 

It is possibly a matter of opinion as to which is the best
There are a lot of reviews around, but unfortunately a lot of reviews are paid for

I'm sure there are reputable reviewers, I am just not aware of too many

There are good applications to be found here - How to Protect yourself from malware!


You will find a lot of the members here use applications that are on that list

 

I think most guys think that if you not pay for something ,it's a crap with less security,firewalls leak,antivirus soft's don't scan verywell,but if you pay-you have garantied protection and everybody is happy.