OT-Virus protection

[old goat]

...Anyone here use or know anything, good or bad, about Avast virus programs? If so, please share your experences/knowledge. Thanks.

...old goat

[Billaz]

I have been using it for a couple months and have not noticed anything bad about it.... seems alright for a free one...
Bill

[mklwhite]

Not too bad. Been using it myself for a few months. I like it better than AVG. The old AVG was great, but the newer ones... not so much. Kaspersky is great if you want to pay or can get an extended demo like they sometimes do for promos. I'd drop avast like a hot potato for kaspersky if it were free.

[scr83jp]

Not too bad. Been using it myself for a few months. I like it better than AVG. The old AVG was great, but the newer ones... not so much. Kaspersky is great if you want to pay or can get an extended demo like they sometimes do for promos. I'd drop avast like a hot potato for kaspersky if it were free.

I did a google search for Kaspersky & found it for $30 & change good for 3 PC's so I told my PC tech about it and he's been telling his customers where to buy it,PC World has some sales info .

[oldmax]

Tried a few programs, karpersky seems to be the best for me...
Got my last one at Compusa before they sold out. Got 2 rebates , ( Free ) after 3 months
when I got the check...

[Buffboy]

AVG is still king if you've got an older computer with limited resources like my old P2 laptop. It seems like every update required a reboot and there are bugs out there specifically targeted to get by it. I still have AVG on it. They've just come out with the new 8 series and I don't know how much it slows things down as compared to the older version. I haven't installed it yet on the laptop.

Avast seems to take more resources to run but nowhere near Norton or McAffee. That's what I have on my desktop machine currently(about a year). I haven't had a virus make it through since and that's something I couldn't say about AVG.

[Gun Smith]

After reading the initial post I looked up Avast. I was very unhappy with AVG after about December 2007. My computer was very slow and every morning AVG wanted to do a full scan, a PITA. So this PM I changed over. It appears my computer is now faster with Avast than AVG. Is this the case with you folks who have used it for a while? I Now if I don't have any problems down the road, I'll be tickeled to death with the new system (Avast).

[coyote nose]

Okay, I am now about to showcase my stupidity about computers for all to see. Every time I log on Macafee pops up and tells me it has been ages since I did anything with it. Have no idea how to use a antivirus program. Can I get this Avast on line free, then get rid of my Macafee that is a PITA everytime I log on? How do i get rid of macafee? If I get avast, what do i have to do with it? Is it all automatic for guys like me, or do i have to do virus checks all the time with it? I also bought a lap top that came with avast but the thing ran so slow on the dialup i had at the time I was told to get rid of it so the laptop would run faster. They finally strung cable out to my house and I use cable modem now so dialup is no longer a problem, but I dont know what to do now.

[Buffboy]

Okay, I am now about to showcase my stupidity about computers for all to see. Every time I log on Macafee pops up and tells me it has been ages since I did anything with it. Have no idea how to use a antivirus program. Can I get this Avast on line free, then get rid of my Macafee that is a PITA everytime I log on? How do i get rid of macafee? If I get avast, what do i have to do with it? Is it all automatic for guys like me, or do i have to do virus checks all the time with it? I also bought a lap top that came with avast but the thing ran so slow on the dialup i had at the time I was told to get rid of it so the laptop would run faster. They finally strung cable out to my house and I use cable modem now so dialup is no longer a problem, but I dont know what to do now.

You may have the "payed for" version on your laptop. The home/free version is generally faster. Then again, it could be, your old dial up modem itself was a slug on your laptop. You can get a free (noncommercial use, only) version of Avast from here.
http://www.download.com/Avast-Home-Edit ... d=10852750
First, download that, and save to your desktop where it's easy to find.

To uninstall McAffee, you can either bring the program up via the start button then select uninstall from the drop down menu (I'm a little rusty about it so that may not be available on your version). The second option is to go to start, (win 2000, go to settings) then control panel, then add/remove programs, then from the drop down menu there select McAffee and go through the uninstall. You will probably have to reboot after.

After the reboot click the desktop icon to install the avast anti-virus.

You should have an antivirus on your computer, especially now that you are on cable.

[OJ]

I've tried McAfee, Norton, and most recently - CA - which totally failed when I needed customer service - the tech's primary language obviously wasn't English and the answer I got was unrelated to the problem I described.

Microsoft came out with a program called "OneLive" that was virus protection, optimization, adware and spyware protection (their pitch) and offered a 90 day "free trial" - so I bit. I immediately (surprise) needed tech support and found out that, for the "free trial" version, personal tech support wasn't available and would only be supplied by email.

The problem I needed tech support for was that, after installing the program, I couldn't get my email !!

I now have Sheild which has tech support live 24/7.

One other thing i've found out - most other anti-virus programs are nearly impossible to uninstall. The CA wouldn't uninstall on the Control Panel but they have an uninstall program in their "customer care". I downloaded it (but had to disable my current Sheild to do so) and ran it. It failed to uninstall CA but did give me three new programs I didn't want -

So far, the Sheild program seeems to be doing the job very well - time will tell.

[old goat]

...Many thanks for your comments, to all that replied.

...old goat

[PaulB]

There is a better way.

First, you have to recognize that Windows is not fit to run on the Internet.

Solution? Puppy Linux: http://puppylinux.com/

This OS loads onto a CD. You take your normal windows machine and set it up to boot from the CD drive (just a small change to the BIOS if it isn't that way already). Pop the Puppy Linux CD in and boot. You have safe and secure internet browsing (no need to run any virus checker, no spyware worries, just a simple firewall). You can access your windows files from Puppy, or if you want to run a windows program just reboot (although some can be run from within Puppy with an add-on program called Wine).

I use Puppy for my main OS. My computer has an ancient copy of Win98 on the hard drive that I boot up about once a month because I haven't bothered with Wine. I never connect to the Internet with Windows any more.

The best thing about Puppy, compared to the Windows experience? Peace and quiet. I feel like I control my computer, not some distant corporation, and I'm not constantly under attack. The other thing is that Puppy is extremely fast, and is good on older computers that don't have a lot of power.

Puppy is a prime alternative for Windows refugees.