Free AV programs

[Bernie]

In about 60 days, the Free AVG anti-virus program will no longer be available.  Does anyone have experience/recommendations for another free AV program?

BigToe, I believe I have seen you mention using Avast, and I presume you would recommend it.  I've also seen high praise for a free one called Avira (http://www.free-av.de/) and would like to hear from anyone that has used either of these, or maybe some other free AV programs.

[bigtoe]

Hi Bernie.... I used both AVG Free and AVAST! Free on different machines.... I was going to change from AVG to the AntiVir program, as it is the top rated of the 3 different top of the line products... In independant testing AntiVir was #1, followed not too far back by AVAST! .... AVG was rated quite a bit further down the test results, but still adequate.........

I'm on cable connection, was also paying Earthlink a small monthly fee to have available dial up while traveling and to keep an old email address for some reason (gets ton of spam), but never used the dial-up since WiFi is so readily available... My cable comes with F-Secure Suite which is rated at the top of the pay programs, and I figured "Gee, I'm paying for it anyways...so why am I not using it?"...duhhh.... OK, OK - the brain cells are not quite as quick as they were a few years ago (many few years at that  )

AVAST! for Home, the free one, updates almost every day.. works in the background.. and is really very simple to use..... I wanted to try AntiVir because it was so highly rated in independant testing (I notice you don't see a lot of listings about it, but I think that is because they don't pay to advertise on abundant sites like Norton/Symantec or McAfee and that is why I don't trust some sites for their rankings -- I just have this thing against payola and graft....just a personal hang-up..sorry   ). I have read that AntiVir may not update as frequently as AVAST!, but I don't know that without trying it out... Should my cable stop offering F-Secure, I am certainly going to give Anti'Vir a try.... I went to their website, as the one you linked, and it was a bit hard to understand at first (the Dutch language).... then I saw the language down arrow, selected English, and ...well, I did mention the brain cells slowing down a bit??? 

I would recommend a trial of AntiVir (since price is right) to be sure it doesn't use to many resources and to be sure it stays updated......... and then if not satisfied, delete and install AVAST!.... AVG is still a good AV program, lots of family and friends use it as it is great for dial-up accounts, using negligable resources.... but AVAST! For Home was no problem resource wise, as far as I could see, and I notice that in testing, it rated higher than Norton and McAfee pay programs, and it's price is good at $0.00 USD........

[Bernie]

Ha Ha Ha !  Can't stop laughing.....but I'm laughing WITH you, not AT you!  I, too, had a big scowl on my face trying to read that page in Deutsch, until I realized it could be translated. Whew! 

Appreciate your input on this.  I guess I thought FREE AVG would be there forever, but all good things must end.  When the shut-off date arrives in January (or maybe sooner) I will give one of these a try.   Have always been happy with AVG so I'll be expecting equal or better performance. - Bernie

[bigtoe]

You are quite welcome.... I am wondering if by 'it will no longer be free' just means that it is reaching the one year expiration??? Or that might have been the AVAST!, but I just updated when one of them reached that expiration period and it just updated for another year... One of them supposedly was a free one year subscription, but I can't recall which one.... i haven't heard that AVG was going to do away with their Free for Home use program, but I agree it was a good program... It might have something to do with M$ coming out with VISTA at the first of the year; and so far, from what I read, M$ has decided not to share the programming and wants folks to buy into their One Live protection offering... more $$$ for them...And hurts the AV programs already in use... but that just might change if they realize that folks will just go to Opera or Firefox2 or FF3 by then.... or just go to the open source programs all the way like Linux, etc., and just skip the M$ O/S completely.... M$ has to be careful about getting too greedy... ;

[Bernie]

I may have jumped the gun on this one.  Now that I think back to the notification from AVG this morning as my computer was booting up, I believe it said that the free 7.1 version would be discontinued.  Now looking at their website, it shows they are introducing a new FREE version 7.5.  Might have hit the panic button too soon as it now looks like I will just need to get the newer version.