Best free anti-virus program

[pstokely]

what do you recommend? I've already tried AVG Free 8.0

[Redneck Socialist]

1. I'm using Avast these days.

Switched from AVG after some problems downloading updates. No problems with Avast so far.

[CountAllVotes]

14. I just switched to Avast!

It is great (installed it on my very old A20 ThinkPad with a 577 GHZ Celeron processor - it couldn't efficiently handle AVG). I believe that it is much better and more efficient than AVG and is much faster at running virus checks as well. It caught a virus that was trying to be sent to me while I was online (sent off an actual audible alert) and I was able to simply delete it. I was impressed!

I just changed my old PIII desktop to Avast! as well. I have another laptop I intend to uninstall AVG on and I plan to install Avast! on it as well. It is great as you can also dump ZoneAlarm. You don't need this added firewall with Avast!

Avast! FREE edition rocks IMO! :D

[Gore1FL]

2. I still use AVG.

I am finally getting around to download AVG 8 free edition.

[RC]

3. AVG is good, but - - - Read this first.

AVG scanner blasts internet with fake traffic

Exclusive Early last month, webmasters here at The Reg noticed an unexpected spike in our site traffic. Suddenly, we had far more readers than ever before, and they were reading at a record clip. Visits actually doubled on certain landing pages, and more than a few ho-hum stories attracted an audience worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winner. Or so it seemed.

As it turns out, much of this traffic was driven by the new malware scanner from AVG Technologies.

Six months ago, AVG acquired Exploit Prevention Labs and its Linkscanner, a tool that automatically scans search engine results before you click on them. If you search Google, for instance, and ten results turn up, it visits all ten links to ensure they're malware free.

Then, in late April, AVG rolled Linkscanner into its anti-virus engine, which has about 70 million active users worldwide. The company estimates that 20 million machines have upgraded to the tool's new incarnation, AVG version 8, and this has already cooked up enough ghost clicks to skew traffic not only on The Reg but any number of other sites as well.

Adam Beale, who runs a UK-based internet consultancy, says that across his small stable of clients, traffic has spiked as much as 80 per cent on some sites. And this is more than just an inconvenience. After all, sites live and die by their traffic numbers. And net resources aren't free.

>MORE<

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/avg_scanner_skews_web_traffic_numbers/

[hobbit709]

4. Youcan just turn it off.

[RC]

5. I did.

[madokie]

6. sorry to be a bother but how?

[hobbit709]

7. Click on components

Link scanner and disable it

[madokie]

8. Thank you

[pnorman]

12. I have AVG 7.5 (paid version)

Where/how do I find "Components"?

pnorman
On edit: I just found "Components", but see no "Link Scanner". Is that because it's not in my Version 7.5? As far as I knew, mine is the latest version.

[Hokie]

9. This has been kicked around here before

The consensus seems to be AVG and Avast. I used to use AVG and I switched to Avast about 3 months ago because Windows Vista did not seem to like AVG Free 7.5. I like Avast. I think it found some things when I ran the first scan after removing AVG.

[CountAllVotes]

15. I just installed it last night on the laptop I am now on

gee no wonder it had been running like sh*t! Avast! found 4 viruses that AVG did not find! YIKES.

:kick:

[Jersey Devil]

10. AVG Free 8 doesn't protect email after 30 days

Also, you cannot scan for rootkits with the free edition.

I disabled the link scanner because my searches slowed down and resulted in a lot of blank pages that required me to go back and search again before getting a result in Google. I also keep getting a popup that says the AVG toolbar cannot connect to the net.

I am going to give Avast a try because the new AVG has some bugs.

[hobbit709]

11. BS-Email scanner does not quit

http://free.grisoft.com/ww.news

[mwooldri]

13. As another thought, see if your ISP provides anti-virus.

I'm a Roadrunner customer and they supply CA's Security Center with antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and firewall. Seems to work well for me.

Otherwise it's AVG for me - Avast! didn't work too well for me on a laptop; it slowed the machine down. Well, anti-virus programs do that, Norton is dreadful for that, but AVG in my opinion is better than Avast! when you have limited system resources.

Mark.