AVG, Avast, or Avira

Personal preference, I think, is the real determining factor. I always used paid-for AV programs, but I was convinced to try Avast about 2 years ago - and I have been a lot more impressed by it than with rest I have tried before. That said, I know that they are all pretty much relatively the same. One thing to keep in mind that is that the best way to avoid infections of any kind is to be a smart user. Keep in mind that no AV and security programs are 100% effective! Sorry, I'm not really giving you a straight answer, but that's because there isn't one to this topic. Stick with what you like, what you feel comfortable with. If one day it fails you, move on and try something else. Good luck!!! Ciao!

For what it's worth, here is an independent (hopefully) comparison of 3 free products. Personally I suspect that they are much of a muchness. I use Avast, but it's never caught anything (and I've never had any reason to suppose that I've picked up anything nasty). The very best all round a/v software (imho) is F-Secure, but I don't think they do a free version.

I used to recommend AVG but switched to Avast because it cleaned out an infected AVG system. Then I switched to Kaspersky because it cleaned out an infected Avast system. Now a Kaspersky system in the office got beat up by a nasty rootkit so now I'm recommending Avira because it was rated high at this site:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2008_0...

You'll be back to AVG soon at that rate and the cycle can continue! Seriously, all anti-virus products are pretty good (well - except Norton, spit, hiss), but they have their little individual quirks and can miss something from time to time. I've settled on Avast, but each to their own.

I must say one thing about ijack's comment about Norton - I really did give norton a fair chance a few years back, but when I removed it and installed Avast in its place, a whole bunch of stuff were detected by Avast's boot-up scan, so I decided never to trust Norton or invest into any of their products - but given my work, I got a few free cd keys for Norton Internet Security 2009, but before I activated any, I installed the trial version. I was shocked by just how many of the typical Norton issues have actually been fixed by Symantec. Honestly, the thing installed in under a minute, without the need for a restart! The computer did not slow down whatsoever, and it just looked slick! That said, I did go back to Avast only because there was not enough feedback on its engine, and mere speed/aesthetic improvements will not suck me back into the Norton universe... Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is to anyone who has long ago written off Norton, at least give it a try because my impression was that the 2009 edition is unlike anything they produced before (in a good way) and that's worth mentioning.

Fair comments. My experiences were with earlier versions of Norton; I'm glad to hear that they have now been fixed.

Norton did actually produce excellent utilities many, many years ago. That was before Symantec bought them out and they were still run by Peter Norton. (His books about low-level DOS programming used to be my Bible.) It's encouraging to think that a once great name might be regaining some of it's former glory.

A couple of good links:

1. http://av-test.org/

2. http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02

Keep in mind that these rankings change constantly, but AntiVir and Avast are both excellent. AVG has become second-tier, at best. One note, Avast Free Home and the paid Pro versions both use the same virus (Vps) data base.

I have run avast for years with no problems.
It has caught several things for me as some of the places i go are well
seedy shall we say.
I will say this though I still use the three free online scans just to be sure
F-Secure
Trend Micro Housecall
Secunia Security Scan

There is one more from Mcafee and I cant remember the name off hand as I cant put my hand on the disk right now But it is a bootable disk virus scan that can be found on their site.

Some excellent and free on-line scanners: (Note: Most are active X based, thus requiring IE to run - but worth it!)

1. http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

2. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

3. http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

4. http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.asp...

5. http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/active... (Haven't used Panda in a few years - but it used to be good)

6. http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm (Haven't used the MS onecare scanner - just know about it)

7. http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner

I, personally use the Avast Free (Home) - but most are decent, some just slightly better than others (depending on the date of the testing) - http://www.avast.com/

Good post Jake.
There is a few I havent seen before.

This is a highly rated AV solution, and is FREE for personal use: http://www.free-av.com/

Well, I've used AVG-free edition, Avast, as well as Avira and personally, all of them are good, in that each of them has their own weaknesses and strengths.Currently, I'm using ESET for, it's adequate use of system resources as well, it does a good job of protection from viruses in the wild..

iam planning to buy a new antivirus , at the moment am using kaspersky IS 2009 , but i noticed that the computer is freezing more while playing games , i want a software with good antivirus and firewall !! i was told that Avira and Avast are good ? i want something also that wont slow my pc down

Like I said Avast is free and I dont even know its there

There are a lot of good AV/anti-malware solutions out there, but check carefully - many don't include firewalls. I use Avast (Free) on one machine and ESET Nod32 on another. Nod32 is not free, but I like it's small footprint. I still use the free version of Zone Alarm as a firewall on both. I just don't think too much about firewalls - I'm a creature of habit, I suppose. Oh, I do have both machines connected through a D-Link router with a good hardware firewall. Both are wired (Cat 5e), so I don't really use the wireless feature, but could if I elect to get a laptop.

Hey Jake
Youre running 2 firewalls? How come?

Two reasons:

1. Link

2. ZA gives me desktop "alerts" - and I like to see who's "calling home". The router may have log files, but I'm too lazy to run those down. And, I'm not that confident in things I don't see working (router). I don't seem to be slowed by having both, so what the hell.

I love the link!!
Pretty much says it all.
Im running ZA and the windows Firewall (speaking of things I dont see worKing)
I have the Spybot Tea Timer going as well.
Funny thing, I have theTrend Micro RU Botted running and it says I have one but it wont clean it. It just give me a number like _42 for the name and no info available otherwise. I watch my traffic and nothing is moving so go figure.

one time i used avira + avast and they was friendly and worked perfect 2gether, now avira, but never used avg so can say nothing about avg, avast or avira, must be no big difrent, now i more like avira, mb will be nice avg or symantec, i dont know, so use avira security and use just guard kernel+proactive+heuristic, firewall function on other softs, for global and aplications settings, one of this 600kb, other about 1,5mb  and all of this work perfect, well  this is avira security suite+ghostsecurity+ghostwall, and some time scanning by malwarebyte's and superantispyware, and some register cleaners,
and some task managers and autoran guard in winpatrol plus, some time say me about autoran and i can see what exactly was add 2 startup, so if now i change avira on avast or symantec or avg, it will just new headaich with settings, bu no difrent of security 

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