I have had Norton in the past but switched to AVG last year and have been happy with it.

The renewal is due is there any better/ cheaper alternatives? I need to buy a license to cover three home computers – PC plus two laptops.

Cheers

Try the search for multiple threads on this. Microsoft Security Essentials is your friend, and free.

Tbh the newish Microsoft solution is pretty highly rated. Have moved all my systems over to it now. It’s free too…

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

MSE here too.

Stable, thin, free.

WHat’s not to like?

I used to be an AVG fanboi, but it’s got so sluggish and heavy and disrupting processing on anything but the fastest computers.

Stoner – sounds like TSY’s ideal woman!

Another MSE convert here.

LOL

My mother in law recently bought a netbook from PC World. They persuaded her to buy 3 anti virus software packages!

I suggested she should go back and tell them that they can be replaced with MSE for free. She got a full refund…

nod32 if you want to pay or Avast

Thanks for the advice does the MSE offer the same protection and install firewalls etc?

I’ve just renewed my AVG although it’s a lot cheaper to buy a copy off Ebay rather than renew through AVG. For a comparison, through AVG the price was about £35 for one PC for one year. Off Ebay, I got a one year license for 3 PCs for £18. As we’ve got two PCs and a laptop in our house it works out at £6 a computer and as AVG doesn’t affect the speed at which they function and has never failed me, I’m happy to pay.

scotabroad, Assuming your router is less than 10 years old, there’s no need to purchase a software firewall.

If I was paying I’d probably get nod32. I don’t actually use antivirus any more though, other than superantispyware/malwarebites to do a scan every now and then.

Avast or MSE no need for a firewall for home use.

yes AVG free 😉 to be honest, i think and found most of them to slow down my machine and ive still got virus’s etc so i would go for a good background one like avg

MSE, MBAM and Spybot S&D for the Immunization feature and you’re laughing, Ccleaner slim is useful too.

i have Avast on mine, it’s free. i have never bought one. are they necessary? i wouldnt have a clue tbh.

I’ve always used AVG free and never yet had a virus so why pay money?

MSE

Sorry for numpty question but why do you not need a firewall for home use?

Because modern routers have one built in.

Rockhopper – Member
I’ve always used AVG free and never yet had a virus so why pay money?

Technically of course, the response is “not that you know about” 😉

I use avast. Used to use AVG then switched to avast and found a few viruses that AVG didn’t find.

do you not need a firewall for home use

If you’re using a recent version of Windows it has one built in that’s more than enough. And as others have said, chances are your router has one too. Whatever you do don’t try to run more than one software firewall on your PC – they tend to fight.

Can’t add much to this other than to pretty much +1 the entire thread. Good work.

AVG used to be the best, however it’s got progressively worse since about v7.5.

MSE is the best of the free outings currently. If I were paying for AV I’d go for Kaspersky but, in honesty, there’s little point.

Firewalls, if you’re behind a router then there’s little point in an additional “personal” firewall. It’s considerably easier to punch through a software firewall than it is a hardware offering running on an entirely separate device.

Any sort of “total internet security” offering is typically more trouble than it’s worth. They’re often resource hogs, stop things working, and either don’t tell you why things don’t work or ask you pointless questions every five minutes (“process ehej53.dll is requesting access to your computer – [allow | deny]” – who knows?!).

As Rio says, run one and only one AV unless you want a world of hurt. Make sure you completely uninstall AVG before installing MSE.

Packages aside, make sure your system is up to date. Run Windows Update until it stops offering you patches.

Make sure that you’re using the latest versions of Java and also Adobe Acrobat Reader / Flash / Shockwave / Air if you have them installed. These are probably the most common attack vectors I’m seeing at the moment. Java installs separate copies every time it updates – it’s worth removing all the old ones.

Secunia PSI is a neat way of checking for non-MS updates. It’s a little “ZOMG YOU HAVE TEH INSECURES!!!” but so long as you ignore that, it’ll highlight what can be updated.

Stay off the pron sites, don’t click on things you don’t recognise no matter how convincing it looks. By a country mile, the single biggest security hole in Windows these days is people.

Well that is two of the machines converted to MSE, it took a while to uninstall AVG on one of them, and windows live one care on the vista machine. The latters performance has lept up.

Cheers folks, very helpful and educational. 🙂

The latters performance has lept up.

Yeah, funny that.

(-:

hmmm… willl give mse a go on the netbook, currently has comodo.

MSE look like a decent alternative but i’m just slightly bothered by Microsoft intensions.
Call me paranoid but have a read of their privacy statement which includes “In some instances, personal information might unintentionally be sent to Microsoft”
Now if i actually had the option to see whats being reported about me i might not be too concerned…
I could ramble on about this further but life’s too short, i’ve un-installed it.

AVG or lob windows in the bin

get windows up to date and working properly, then go and get linux mint or ubuntu (the standard version) – download it onto a CD to try it out, then you can easily install as a dual boot (linux sets this up for you nae bother)

no viruses 🙂

AVG The free one is great
Dont get Norton thats a Virus in its own self.

Avast for me.

Not a big fan of MSE. I’m sure it’s good and all, but it was Microsoft that left the security holes in the first place, so I’d rather trust someone else to plug them properly. 🙂

Stay off the pron sites

does tumblr count as a pron site?

the single biggest security hole in any operating system these days is people.

Fixed that for you. 😉

edit: As for the original question, for once I’d almost entirely agreed with everything said on a single thread so far. It’s unusual for the STW community as a whole to provide good computing advice particularly around security but this one is quite good. Follow cougar’s advice and you can’t go far wrong.

it was Microsoft that left the security holes in the first place, so I’d rather trust someone else to plug them properly.

MSE was built on Giant Antispyware which was well regarded in its day, so you’re ok there.

Follow cougar’s advice and you can’t go far wrong.

Aw, shucks. (-:

it was Microsoft that left the security holes in the first place, so I’d rather trust someone else to plug them properly.

That comment is also somewhat missing the point. Any piece of software as large and complex as a MS OS is pretty much bound to have some holes in it to exploit – Linux doubtless has plenty too, it’s just that the user base is that much smaller and generally far more likely to use protective measures that there’s far less to be gained by the bad guys targetting that, hence they don’t really bother. Not to mention that as mentioned above, a lot of the holes being exploited right now are in Acrobat, Flash etc. (now Adobe is a company I really wouldn’t trust AV software from!) rather than Windows. Also MS is a vast company with completely different teams on different products – I doubt anybody working on MSE has any direct involvement in Windows development.