advice on antiviras program

[tree]

hi,

i need to get an antivirus program for my computer? What is a good antivirus program. How does a free one compared to a pay one? Thanks for any help.

[Gee]

I recommend Avast.

As for free vs Paid.

They are all the same. As long as the updates are regular.

Try to find one that is unobtrusive, light on system resources and has automatic updates.

Stay away from Norton.

[othy]

I recommend Trend PC-Cillin (http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/personal.htm) (internet security 2005). Does everything, anti-virus, spyware protection, windows security alerts and has a good firewall too.

As for free vs pay, well, I've used free before (AVG free version) and you definitely get what you pay for.. The updates are much more limited and when I switched from the free AVG to the pay trend, it found a bunch of stuff (viruses and spyware) that AVG had missed. You can try a free version of the trend scanner (web based) or download a trial version. Also, if you use the trial version they will let you buy for 50% off, good deal! I got the 3 pack and installed onto a couple of my computers and one of my friends'..

[CodecX81]

I'm not picky about AV.. just don't go out and buy Norton Antivirus 2003-2005.. It slows up your computer A LOT!

Symantec Corporate is great, but hard to find in stores..
McCaffee seems to be pretty decent, if you want to check out a free one, check out this thread:

Free Software (http://forums.redflagdeals.com/showthread.php?t=74983)

^^ This so should take over from the "free online games" sticky.

[Chrispy]

Another vote her for Trend Micro PC-Cillin...