Best Virus Scanners, pay or free?

[Poppa_Meth]

I'm going to be ditching my old version of norton soon and I'm looking for a good V-scanner. I've used AVG, but lately its had no end of trouble connecting for updates since the free version only has one server. If I'm going to pay for somethign I'd like to know if there is anything better. I've heard good and bad on avg and avast. I'm wondering on Kapersky maybe. Any input appreciated.

[fritzi93]

I've been happy with Avast, went to it when it killed a nasty that AVG couldn't. Boot scan works well. The program does has a pretty big footprint and is always prompting me that it's found updates. It's only slightly annoying.

[jackal70058]

avast! Anti Virus works well for me. I like it a lot because I don't have to pay for it or its updates. Why don't you give it a try?

[mattyboy]

I went from NORTON 2003 (so so) to AVG free and it only has trouble connecting to the server very infrequently. I just try again in the morning (depending on time of day) and it updates. No biggie. Works really well too; never had a problem. Ill always use it unless something changes for the worse.

[Garibaldi]

I've been happy with Avast, went to it when it killed a nasty that AVG couldn't. Boot scan works well. The program does has a pretty big footprint and is always prompting me that it's found updates. It's only slightly annoying

I use and like avast too... works welll and has regular updates. Plus its free.

[gummyAvenger]

F-Prot. $50 for 10 licenses and it works great... I know a lot of server admins who use it on their web servers.

[Soopafresh]

I recall something bad I read about Kapersky. I think it was a CPU or RAM hog. In a pinch, I like to run the web based scanner from

http://housecall.antivirus.com

You'd need to connect with IE, however.


Anti-Virus:
AntiVir - http://www.free-av.com/
Avast - http://www.avast.com/i_idt_1018.html
AVG - http://www.grisoft.com/
ClamWin - http://www.clamwin.com/

Anti Spyware:
Ad-aware - http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
Bazooka - http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html
Diet K - http://www.dietk.com/
SpyBot Search & Destroy - http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
SpywareGuard - http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html

[pyrate83]

Everything that soopafresh said is good. I use a combination of AVG, spywareblaster, and Ad Aware.

Works great.

[Skith]

ESET's NOD32 (Fast, Low resource usage). VB100 (Virus Bulletin 100 award).

Comparative Table

Click on of the reviewed products in the table to see how it scored.

[redwudz]

I have been happy with AVG free. No problems with connections on cable internet or Netzero dialup on my work machine. I know I should cough up the $ and go for the paid version.

I had Norton, and used the updates. Then I found a bunch of viruses it didn't catch. I don't mind updates, but they should be up to date. Bought the 2004 edition. It found more viruses. More updates. Tried AVG and it found viruses that Norton missed. I quit Norton.

I'm happy with AVG, Spybot, Protowall and Adaware, occasionally Spyblaster. Hardware firewall. No viruses, no trojans. No problems. No Norton.

[VenGeanCe]

well i got avg installed on 1 puter and panda on other.both r quite god alongwith spybot.btw i use avg pro

[Poppa_Meth]

Thanks guys. guess I'll stick with AVG for now. I'll see how it updates on this PC. I haven't so far had any issue with it on a highspeed connection but on dial-up it gets denied access almost every time.

[Poppa_Meth]

AVG is working like a charm all of a sudden. No more update problems. They must have upgraded the free server because it's lightning fast now.

[steve2713]

I use Bitdefender, free edition. I hardly ever see anyone mention it, but it works very well for me, and it is not bloatware like most of these Virus programs are. I did see a recent review of it in Computer Shopper or one of those magazines, it got a very good review, the review said it was more of a European used program, so maybe that's why I don't hear people using it so much (I'm in the U.S.).

[vitualis]

I prefer AVG.

Regards.

[Hardcoreruss]

Avast here, scares the shit out of me when that ladies voice comes on saying its detected a virus.