I often receive questions about this subject.  Today as I was writing about another topic I got the question from a reader who recognized me and asked it yet again.

Here it is…again, “What is the best free anti-virus software?”  I always have to start with the standard line which is, “If you are paying from several hundreds to a thousand plus dollars for something, don’t you think it smart to spend $39.95 on insurance?”

That usually does one or two things to the conversation; stops it and they walk off, or it evokes a thoughtful look and more conversation.

So here are my thoughts which you are welcomed to disagree or even agree with if you choose.  Drop me an email either way.

I do think that McAfee and Norton are both good at what they do; however, I also think that they have a tendency to slow a system down since they both do a great deal.  There is another one which is called NOD32 which I have never tried but many professionals say it is one of the best.  However, the previous three all have a current price of $39.95 so they aren’t free.

Now in the free category I recommend either of two, as both seem to score pretty high in the tests.  WARNING:  Run only one anti-virus software on your system or it could cause major headaches.  The two freebies are AVG and Avast! of which I use Avast! for no particular reason other than I installed it the last time I wanted to try out something new.  Next time I may switch to AVG.

Additionally, here are some suggestions that will keep your computer virus-free even if you don’t use anti-virus software.

If you are on high-speed fulltime connection, make sure you have turned your firewall on and set up your router to defend your system.  Next, if you receive any email attachments don’t open them unless you are expecting them, even from friends.  Friends’ computers may be infecting and sending out the virus to everyone in their address list unknown to them. I also advise turning off your preview pane in your email program as occasionally a virus can attack from just opening an email, although this is fairly rare.

Finally, stay away from any questionable sites.  You know the ones that promote hate, porn, how to blow things up and the ones where you get something for nothing even though you know you should pay for it (software & music). They are sometimes bad and won’t play nice with your computer either.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 5:33 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.