Thanks folks, My earlier query regarding the anti virus v/s. internet security has recd. a tremendous response.
However most of you recommended free anti virus or spy removal tools progs.to be downloaded from various sites.
I wonder ! if the sites providing free virus/spybot/adware etc. removal tools are so effective. Then how come the Mcaffe's & Nortons & Kasperskys etc's. are charging for their Computer security programmes?
I mean to ask, are these sites offering free anti virus/spyware/adware etc. removal tools really trustworthy?
I would like to know if any of the users have any negative experiences after having downloaded any of the these free comp. security progs.?
My belief is nothing comes for free, everthing has a pre-condition attached to it even if its provided without any charges.
Can any of you experts enlighten me?
2006-12-12 22:09:41 · 7 answers · asked by shashi s 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
How many times have you heard "you get what you pay for"? Fact is "free" programs aren't as good or effective as ones you pay for. Consider that literally hundreds of new threats are introduced on the net every week not to mention the spyware that vendors use. To effectively put up a fight against this you have to have a way of knowing when these things hit (and time is critical so the sooner the better) and a team of programmers constantly on hand to figure out how these new threats work, figure out a "cure", then write a program to fix it. Do you really believe this can be done for "free"?
Now admittedly I don't know much about "free" internet security programs but here's what I've found during my brief research. Most of them don't "prevent" you from getting the infections. They only offer a free scan to try and clean up "after the fact" (which all of the paid ones offer for free anyway by just visiting their sites). I know from experience it's better to not get them in the first place than to get them then try to get rid of them. And the one's that do offer some sort of "protection" from getting them don't release updates on a timely basis leading me to believe they wait until the "paid" companies figure it out then they simply "copy" the fix.
The other thing about the freebies is I don't know of not a one of them that offer a complete internet security package (virus, firewall, spyware, anti-phising, etc) all in one. When you mix and match software to get the whole package you sometimes end up with them fighting each other and slowing you down just as bad as the viruses themselves.
Since internet security is so important to me I ALWAYS BUY a program that has a COMPLETE package and my experience says that Panda Internet Security is by far the best on the market. It also offers parental controls if you want to install it. It doesn't come piecemeal. When you buy it you get it all. It updates automatically every day and has a technology called trueprevent that detects threats not just by definition but by the way they act so that if a threat hits you can be protected even before an update is posted.
Just my opinion based on over 20 years of experience.
2006-12-12 22:41:18 · answer #1 · answered by Mike W 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The free scans are on demand services . We always scan when some problem has already damaged or slowed our system , sometimes thats too late. While Norton etc are real time scans and detect problem before they can cause damage (most of the time) . I think the best combination is
Windows Defender (Free download from Microsoft) Updated regularly.
Norton Internet suite.
Right now one scan live scanner is a good one because its free for sometime
http://safety.live.com/site/en-US/default.htm
2006-12-12 22:41:29 · answer #2 · answered by uzair 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The free viruses may not get updated according to lattest viruses definitions. If you get a paid service they update the virus status daily.This may be the reason. You can download free or paid antiviruses/spywares . I can give a few links that offer freeand paid virus and spyware removers...! Norton, AVG , Avast are antivirus software. Ad-aware, Ewido are spyware removers. You can download free/paid versions of softwares at
http://fixit.in/antivirus.html and http://fixit.in/spywareremover.html
2006-12-13 00:38:07 · answer #3 · answered by BU1 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some of the free stuff is ok if you aren't doing a lot of net surfing. but the McAfee and Nortons update all virus and worm definitions daily and a lot of the free stuff doesn't. There was a question on here just a day or so ago by a person who had all kinds of viruses and she was running AVG I think it was.
Ron
2006-12-12 22:20:17 · answer #4 · answered by Ron75 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Generally more support/updates means more time and staff are needed, which means it costs more to produce the software which means it has to cost money. So generally the pay anti-malware software is better.
Personally I use Kaspersky and then run AVG occasionally as a backup
2006-12-12 22:41:31 · answer #5 · answered by Tom :: Athier than Thou 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The programs you said are not "freeware". They're only "free for download". Just download AVG or Avira AntiVir. I'm very sure both are free.
2006-12-12 22:16:35 · answer #6 · answered by ß!ߤ¥ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well u wont regret if u get free kaspersky will you..us to believe i am a very old user of their products.. activevirusshield.com
2006-12-12 23:48:38 · answer #7 · answered by Neo 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋