PC virus protection

Just got a new Dell, it came with 30 days free protection with McAfee. I'm wondering if I should pay the $60 to continue the updates for the next year.

I've never had a computer virus on any of my old PC's. I use Yahoo as my email and never open anything unless I know where it came from. Yeah, I know $60 isn't a lot for "peace of mind." But I'm sick of getting nickel and dimed to death for things like this. And frankly, being the cynical guy that I am, I wouldn't be surprised if McAfee, Norton, Symatec, etc are all behind sending out viruses in the first place just to get us to by this shit.

Just wondering what you guys do about virus protection. I'm running XP, and just downloaded service pack 3 today. I have verizon dsl, if that matters. Thanks.

 

Verizon offers MSN VirusGuard free with DSL, which is rebadged McAfee v10 AFAIK. AVG Free does the basics.

 

i use avast, its free, and has found numerous virus's before they could launch, and shut em down.

 

McAfee, nortons...thay all suck.

i use the free stuff. scan it myself.
i DID have to pay for spyhunter, got a virus, and it was the only one that would FIND it.

but, ive since found SUPERantispyware(freeware) to detect even more than spyhunter...

 

AVG, spybot, and ad-aware. Never had any problem.

Also, depends on the sites you visit....

 

yea no porn and you'll be fine. after i got a virus even with paying for norton i said screw that and have run avg.

plus i reformat my computer every summer and winter so some seasons i dont even have virus software.

 

Hilarious!

Oh mighty WERA BBS! I literally just logged on to ask exactly the same question! Just got a new Toshiba laptop a couple of weeks ago, loaded with Vista, as well as a number of "trial" software.

The trial Norton 360 software has just expired, and I'm looking at the same situation that stickman is. I've not heard one good thing about Norton 360 so far (at least for my simple application); it's slow, takes up too much RAM, it's too "all encompassing, " etc.

I've got spyware & adaware on my desktop. I also have a mcAfee biz subscription that should have run out almost two years ago, but I still keep getting "updated" from McAfee!

I'm liking the "freeware," but don't mind paying $50 for real protection, so to speak...

Anyway...looks like some good advice so far...anyone else?

 

I've been running the free AVG anti-virus with thier spyware blocker and a Comodo free firewall for a couple years with no problems. The Spyware blocker is kind of annoying because of the many alerts when surfing. Between those and the Open Office stuff, I'm really learning to like this freeware.

 

AVG Free

 

norton, mcafee, all junk, and will eat the shit out of your system resources. get rid of that crap and get the good stuff for free. AVG here for the last 5 years and never a single bug (and i visit some.....well, NOT so reputable websites. )

 

I'm hearing a chorus of "AVG" out there....looks like time to uninstall the Norton crap and do that. R Acree's set up seems to be right on...anyone with specific comments about that?

Thanks for the help!

 

I still load AVG whenever I set up a machine for someone. Personally, I fork out the cash for ESET nod32. Check the reviews and see why.

Also
Spybot Search and Destroy
Adaware

CCLEANER. This is one of the only products that will wipe the index.dat file present on windows products. Removes password history, typed urls, precached files, obsolete registry entries, you name it. Its pretty amazing.

 

So does everyone use a firewall also with AVG? I use zone alarm but it seems to slow things down a bunch!!! That and Norton make my pc take about 5 mins to boot up

 

I use Commodo (also free) for the firewall.

 

I'm not a big fan of software firewalls, you can do better with a hardware solution that doesn't put a drag your machine. SonicWALL SOHO's and TELE's on eBay are dirt cheap and will protect your entire LAN, not just one machine.

ESET nod32 is good, but of the commercial offerings I like BitDefender and Kaspersky better, YMMV.

 

For firewall I use my router in conjunction with Windows XP Pro's firewall which in itself is adequate for inbound connections in a pinch. Not so good for outbound connections like say a trojan sending your keystrokes to its home machine. Hardware will always be your best bet for a firewall since software firewalls tend to impact traffic somewhat. Routers are cheap.

Norton is second only to AOL in terms of bloated, useless, crappy POS software. Get rid of it.

PS:What he said

 

Anyone know anything about Windows Defender? Does it work? Does it slow down your computer? That's the one thing I hated about norton, it made my computer slow at everything.

Frank, I looked into the Verizon stuff, looks like now they charge you $5/month for antivirus stuff.

 

Does this mean I don't need anything more than my Linksys router as a firewall?

 

AVG ftw, its been compared to the pay ones and has always ranked right up there with the bloatware ones pre installed, and causes a lot less conflicts...I've done over 300 builds this year and have had it conflict with 2 of them

 

For most users that is correct, i prefer dlinks firewall, but again, for most end users this is all most need, if your super paranoid grab zone alarm firewall