Anti Virus Software

Currently purchasing a D820 and trying to decide on an Anti Virus package and have several options

Option 1
Either Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition v10.0 [add € 40.00]
or
McAfee Security V7.0 15 Month [add € 42.00]
that come with the laptop when selected (can also select no package)

Option 2
I have the Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition CD from a desktop I purchased recently and was going to use that and purchase subscribtion

Option 3
Get one of the free packages off the net such as AVG Anti-Virus, Kaspersky

Option 4
Can get F-Secure through my college

As keeping my new laptop very secure is primary aim for me, I am looking for others opinion please.

 

Do yourself a favor. smash options 1 and 2 and throw them out the window. Your laptop will thank you.

Then go with option 3 or 4.

If you really want to pay for an AV, then go with Kapersky or NOD32 (by Eset)

 

Can i ask why you think this? Are these products really that bad?

 

It would probably be better to use Kaspersky, or some other virus scanner like it rather than usung options 1 or 2. Norton, Mcaffee, and Symantec aren't really the best choices, and your money would be better spent on other stuff.

 

avast antivirus rocks my socks.

 

As a computer tech with years of fixing things that norton and mcafee break; Yes.
norton and mcafee are the microsofts of Antivirus. Their software is bloated, chews up system resources, difficult to manage (for the avg user), and often refuses to uninstall. Their "success" in the market nowadays is solely because their size allows them to force their way into the OEM market and onto your PC. They consistenly miss threats that even free programs like AVG and Avast catch within hours of release.

There are way too many alternatives that do the job cheaper, faster and easier to justify wasting your money and time on them.

 

I would go with AVG free. It works pretty good and has saved my laptop once.
Tim

 

Thanks for everyone's help.

Any advice on a firewall product?

 

The best firewall is the ZoneAlarm Firewall (available as a free download from www.zonelabs.com).

Another good firewall is Sygate Personal Firewall, also free.

 

I would recommend a Kaspersky solution, as I have used their AV for a few years now and the new security suite for about 2 months and i find it to be both a highly effective AV solution and a capable firewall (Although if you like to micromanage, the firewall may not be as granular as you'd like; still effective though). You could also feel safe with the Kaspersky AV and one of the free firewalls mentioned above.

As anecdotal evidence, my girlfriend was in need of a new "complete solution." I convinced her to dump Norton in favor of Kaspersky, and although she was skeptical, she was soon converted after her first scan found 31 questionable files when Norton had discovered zero only a day prior...Haven't had time to judge the heuristics yet, however.

 

I like AVG for antivirus, for firewall I've found Kerio to be be my favourite, rather more configurable than zone alarm (although it's been years since I last ran zone alarm, so this may have changed) but I love the features of Kerio.

 

But...Kaspersky and AVG are only "free" for 30 days,right ? Seems AVAST is really free ?

 

There is a free version of AVG at http://free.grisoft.com. This one won't expire after 30 days. For firewall, i'd pick ZoneAlarm, but that's just my opinion.

Cheers.

 

AVG has a few different editions....one of which is free. You can find it here. (dihan beat me to it )

Avast also has numerous editions, with one of them being free for personal home use. You can find it here.

I don't know much about Kaspersky, though some people here like it fine.

Of the three, I use AVG and have had no problems. It has good configuration tools/options like email scanning, resident shield (option to scan whatever file you want...like when you need to verify you aren't getting a virus from a downloaded file), shell extention, update manager, etc. I'm sure Avast has something very similar....my point is simply that these free antivirus programs are just as complete as anything you can buy (for personal use), and don't come with a lot of the problems that Norton and McAfee give you (as noted by Elminst).

 

Norton (Symantec) = Satan

McAfee = Prince of Darkness

Run, don't walk, as fast as you can from both!!!

I switched to NOD (Eset) anti-virus and Zone Alarm firewall about 6 months ago after Trend Micro 2005 failed on me. My system has been running clean and smoothly since the switch.