When it comes to trying to keep your laptop protected from a virus it can be very expensive. I have tried some of the 'best' ones out there, like Norton. That was until I heard that it isn't very good. I didn't have a good experience which is why I won't use it anymore. I know that you can get free ones, but I'm not interested in those just because I'm afraid that they won't be able to protect my laptop. I have heard from many people that they are okay, but I don't believe that. So, what is a good but cheap anti-virus?
Norton and good shouldn't be used in a phrase. Ever. It's just bad and unproductive. It slows down your computer faster than if you had just left your viruses there "suntanning". My best recommendation for you is Bitdefender. It's the best antivirus I have ever put my hands on, and you get it for free the first 30 days! Good deal.
Spywear? Are you going on a mission sometime soon? As rightct points out, Bitdefender is a great antivirus program, and I'd recommend MalwareBytes for malware and real-time protection. Kasperky's antivirus offerings are decent and affordable, too. You shouldn't assume that free antivirus programs can't get the job done, though, because that's the opposite of what's true. The best solutions are paid, but some of the best free programs can stand toe to toe with the paid programs.
I've tested Panda anti-virus and would recommend it any time. It uses cloud-based technology to detect and neutralize even the newest viruses on the net unlike the other anti-viruses which must be updated from time to time. Good as it is, you may find it surprising that it's free. Need proof? Log In With scores on par with the best paid antivirus tools, the easy-to-use Panda option is a no brainer.
Huh, that seems like it would be a good one. Right now I have to buy a new laptop so I'm looking for one besides Norton because I wasn't happy with them. It's easy to people who put a virus on your laptop to overrun it. So then I tried another one that I got through Staples, and it wasn't good either. I think it made my laptop worse. But yes, I'll have to look into this one.
I've been using Kaspersky internet suite for many years and I must say it's best both price wise and performance wise. I've also heard good reviews on Bit defender free version. If you can't afford a paid anti-virus solution, you may go for it. However, have BitDefender, Malwarebytes/Ad-aware and windows firewall in tandem to get complete protection.
There's a bit of a loophole with Malwarebytes currently, where you can get a years worth of it's premium version for free. Basically, if you install it then register it with a pirated license key, when it eventually detects and notifies you that your license is pirated, it will then offer to assign you a new license and give you a free years worth of it's premium protection. I was kind of shocked to see them do this actually. After reading up about it a bit more, I guess the developer who created the program had made some mistake with how it generates valid license keys for its paying customers, causing valid customers licenses to not work, so he had to update the whole licensing platform. In the meantime, a lot of old licenses got out in the wild on various pirating sites and rather than try to sort out who is a real customer and which licenses were stolen, he's just hooking everyone up with a free year's license.
Hmm those do sound like they would be good ones. Right now I am planning on buying a Mac, so would those work with that? I mean I'm assuming that they would, but I would like to make sure. I know that the Mac's come with one installed with it, but you can never be too safe. I don't know if my parents have one on theirs, but I'm sure that it would be worth it to have one on my laptop when I get to soon enough. I mean I would hate to spend all that money and then have something bad happen with the laptop.
I've always just used AVG and it has always worked great for me. From time to time in the past I'd get specific viruses that I'd have to look up and on occasion I've had to download a specific program just to look for it and delete it but nowadays it's not so prevalent anymore and just having a regular free version of avg is already enough for me as a security measure since it is mostly just there for a bit of protection and filter instead of actively having to search for specific types of worms.
Just stopped by to learn a few things from all the posts here. I use a library netbook and it does get a whole bunch of troubles too such as it's so slow, cursor jumps all over the place and some sites doesn't load fully, so I came by to learn about security. Thanks everyone!
Yes, it can certainly be very expensive if you don't know where to look. Many people who are just getting into using computers will end up spending a fortune because they don't know what they are doing, and just to be safe they spend a fortune on getting what the sales people who sell them the device tells them would be best. Bear in mind that most of those people get paid on commission. But there are plenty free and very capable programs that will protect your computer.
