anti-virus recommendations

[skysurfer2010]

Whats the best out there? I've been hesitant to use my new PC on the internet until I purchase an antivirus program. Are there any good free ones I can download?

Also, I have an old Symantec antivirus from 2000 or so. Would I be able to install that and just pay for an update?

[Mushroom_Farmer]

It seems Symantec prefers not to support thir products after about 3 years or so. They want you to upgrade and subscribe rather than update and maintain an older program with subscription only. Norton/Symantec AV may still update, but it will not offer maximum protection.
Nod32, Avast, & AVG are some of the most popular pay/subscription virus programs. AVG is also a free use program. It's also wise to run a spyware program in conjunction with an antivirus tool. SpyBot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware seem to do a decent job.
My advice to you would be to research all of the current AV programs out there and make a decision based on performance and reliability, and not so much on user reviews.

[Politically Incorrect]

NOD32

Based on both performance and reliability, and user reviews.  
Wouldn't leave home without it  ;D

[eno]

AVG all the way for me ........even in  it's free form it is better than most payware equivalents and now also has an anti spy/malware program too.

[ashaman]

I'm trying out NOD32 and seems good, only I can't get it to recognize Eudora nor Thunderbird. NOD only wants outlook and rather than use that mail viral vehicle from M$ I'm going to change antivirus.

Does anyone of you know of a way to make NOD32 work with either or (preferably) both Eudora 5 and Thunderbird? It's quite urgent as I have to decide on the destiny of NOD. :-/

[Politically Incorrect]

EMON will scan MS Outlook and also mail programs running the Microsoft Exchange Extension, NOD won't install EMON if your programs don't support it.
If you receive email through the standard POP3 protocol, IMON will take care of scanning it.

[ashaman]

Of course EMON is installed. I must bear the weight of outlook on my hard disk even if I never use it. Only it doesn't serve me to nothing, as I HATE outlook.

Didn't know about IMON dual function. Really it doubles for mail scanning where EMON doesn't reach? I'm rightly curious, because I'll have to fork money to keep NOD beyond the tryout period.

You mean that I'm reasonably safe using both Eudora and Thunderbird even if EMON doesn't seem to support them?

[flymo]

NOD32 or AVG, currently on NOD32 and thats awesome, but for free you can not go wrong with AVG one of the best anti virus's out their

[Politically Incorrect]

Of course EMON is installed. I must bear the weight of outlook on my hard disk even if I never use it. Only it doesn't serve me to nothing, as I HATE outlook.

Didn't know about IMON dual function. Really it doubles for mail scanning where EMON doesn't reach? I'm rightly curious, because I'll have to fork money to keep NOD beyond the tryout period.

You mean that I'm reasonably safe using both Eudora and Thunderbird even if EMON doesn't seem to support them?

Yes, even if you had a virus laden email as soon as it tried to do something NOD will let you know and kill it
I never used Eudora but if I remember Thunderbird supports POP3 email. Web Based emial such as Hotmail is scanned by IMON just the same as every web page you visit. That is what I like about NOD even on a dial up connection it doesn't slow down the internet even though it is scanning every image and all the content as the page is loading.
Outlook isn't a bad email program, I too never liked it but that was Outlook Express full blown outlook is rather nice program IMHO.

[Kaworu]

Out of all of the different programs i have used, i would say that i really like Avira AntiVir. The personal addition is free for home use, but I would recomend that you also have a anti spyware/ firewall running at the same time as AntiVir.

Today, I finally ditch Norten AV for good. Don't buy anything from McAffe or Symantec! They suck!

[_526th_Fireman]

Lots of good ones. It will be up to you to pick which one suits your needs AND you are happyand confident with.

Personally, I use Avast free edition and also run Windows Defender plus my Windows firewall in XP SP2.

So far, never a problem in a long long time.

Good luck on finding the right one for you.

[skysurfer2010]

something i was hoping to hear about, but nobody mentioned was how much certain programs bog a system down. or do you guys just turn the antivirus programs off when you fire up flight sim?

[Politically Incorrect]

something i was hoping to hear about, but nobody mentioned was how much certain programs bog a system down. or do you guys just turn the antivirus programs off when you fire up flight sim?

NOD32 is the only AV that I have used that doesn't bog anything down, any other I would shut down before any gaming whatsoever.

[ashaman]

something i was hoping to hear about, but nobody mentioned was how much certain programs bog a system down. or do you guys just turn the antivirus programs off when you fire up flight sim?

I'm rediscovering how really fast is my work PC without NIS. It's almost like I made a free upgrade.

My sim PC is another one, is on a home net with static IP and connects to internet using my working PC as a gateway by the use of Proxy. Seen that on that PC I rarely if at all browse the net but only allow some programs (like AS6.5) to access the internet and screen beforehand with the work PC's antiviral every file I install there, on my sim PC I don't use antivirus of any kind, so I can't really say. But the sensation of superior speed and promptness on my work PC is tangible and very much real.

Avoid NIS. It's a resource hog. AVAST  could not use because froze my PC, refusing to live together ZoneAlarm. NOD32 is a lot more well behaved and if you install a good firewall, or even the default WinXp firewall (if you manage to efficiently use the poorly user-friendly interface of this service) you are as sure as any user of NIS (or even more) with less resource waste.

[DizZa]

Get Panda AntiVirus or NOD32, they are both exellent! As for me, hell, I don't need a virus scanner