Hi all.

I can no longer afford the upgrades for McAffee (I'm out of work, and have been for some time).

I don't need much since I have a hardware filrewall, don't EVER open unsolicited e-mail attachments (and anyway, my e-mail provider has AV checking installed), and very rarely download any new software without doing a check as to possible ramifications.

However, I also feel uneasy running without an anti-virus prog that "calls home" regularly to check for updates.

None of my previous progs have ever reported a virus, so I'm not panicking, but I want "belt'n'braces". Except I can't afford the braces at the moment...

I had AVG for a while, but it was running a scan every morning that lasted for nearly two hours, even with nothing else running (I have 2 80-gig drives with a total of about 120 gig data all told).

Any input on what's the best FREE AV program to go for?

All and any help appreciated.

Cheers,
Diolma

avast,,, just google it and it will take you to the site, it is one of the best I've seen

why not set AVG to run at night when you're in bed?

Mine runs at 2am and  is normally completed by 5am.. no hassle at all...

I dropped Norton on my wifes computer and McAffee on my desktop and laptop in favor of AVAST. the updates come thru regularly and it's all free. 

mike

I have AVG and if I am bothered by the scan I just stop it or pause it...

@Khai: I had the free version of AVG. I was unable to find any way to change the time/schedule. Plus I always shut down my PC overnight (Global warming and all that). But thanks for the input anyway:-)

Am now off to look at AVAST...

Cheers,
Diolma

**diolma
**just click on test center
Scheduler
Edit schedule
change the hour

Yeah I only have the free version of AVG as well.  Also have mine set to run sometime in the middle of the night.  
Also keep spybot on my comp and use once a week.  Free as well.

I'm using AntiVir for years now. Scans in realtime while a file is accessed. Complete scans are done only on demand.

http://www.free-av.com/

@pitklad: I (think) I tried that, but I couldn't find any way to shut the scan off so it only happened on demand. Like I said, I shut down my PC overnight. I want to be able to scan on demand, not always daily.

Also I want something that will lurk in the background and keep a watchful eye out for new files arriving...

I have just (due to previous posts) downloaded and installed AVAST. Seems to be working OK so far. (I've just quarantined 3 "Ad-ware" files that AVG didn't pick up on. OK, they're not "viruses", but it's nice to get rid of them...)

And, yes, I do have "Ad-aware" and run it regularly..

But thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated!

Cheers,
Diolma

AVG 
Spybot search and destroy
Spyware Blaster 
Ad-aware 

All free - just be carefull when downloading. there are fake download sites for these packages. Google will often flag them as risky.

I don't think you can shut it off for ever... just make it at a late night hour than
Also while the test is running an icon is created on the task bar where you can right click and pause or stop...
As for on demand scans you should change the time every time you want a complete scan...
Or right click on your hard discs or "my computer" icon and choose scan with AVG...

I think that only the commercial version has more options on those things...

Avast has a screen saver option, that will scan your computer whenever it goes into screensaver mode, and stop when the screensaver stops. It's kind of handy for performing a full drive scan.

mike

If you set AVG to scan at a time when the computer is going to be off (mine is set for 3am} it can't scan because it's off :)

....the PC has an off button???

(Mines on doing things.. scans, defrags, downloads, renders...... all while I sleep....)

"....the PC has an off button???" 

Yep. It's called forgetting to pay your electricity bill because your too busy rendering :)

I use Avast, Spybot and ad-ware. I got so tired of norton. I really like Avast it does a good job and updates almost daily.

*"....the PC has an off button???" 

Yep. It's called forgetting to pay your electricity bill because your too busy rendering :)

*I knew I got married for a reason....

I too use AVG and am very happy with it - much more so than when I paid for Norton or McAfee.

As Dave-So says, scheduled scanning CAN be disabled by going to Test Centre > Scheduler > Edit

Quote - *"....the PC has an off button???" 

Yep. It's called forgetting to pay your electricity bill because your too busy rendering :)

*I knew I got married for a reason....

Quote - ....the PC has an off button???

LMAO It's amazing how different similar cultures are sometimes. It's such an 'American' thing to leave your computer on continuously, whereas the 'Australian' thing is to diligently turn it off each night before bed :)

I always turn mine off before bed.

I pay enough for fuel for my car here, I don't need to be paying a higher electrical bill because I left my computer on all night.

Prob takes more to power down and up than it does to continue running.  Just set it to sleep.

The computers I got from Dell along with the one I got locally came with the free version of AVG antivirus.

I use e-Trust anitvirus and firewall so I uninstalled the AVG and used my preferred one instead.

btw..AVG found a virus in one of my emails I got yesterday and quarantined it...thanks you AVG !!!

It was called feebs   came in an attachment called msg.zip

For my money (or lack of) I'd have to say Avast. It was totally free - updates itself on a regular basis - and also scans the computers memory for viruses. Before I had heard about it - my system was running sooooooo painfully slow I didn't know why. Avast found a Win32 polip virus that both Norton and McAfee DID NOT SEE.!

Here's two catches (at least for me) - While it has customizeable levels of scanning depth - it is pretty slow. I have 200+ gigs of hard drive space so I usually set it an forget it over night.

The other catch is the memory scan which really should be set to be done BEFORE Windows fully boots (something you can set the program to do easily) but it requires you to have PS/2 keyboard an mouse connections (it won't work with USB)

I run the active scanning all the time (even when i'm rendering in poser or d/s) - it makes little difference on render times.

And one final word on Anti-Viruses: Before you install a new one - make sure the old one is fully gone. Nothing mucks up a system faster (from experience here) then having bits of an old AV program hanging around when you're trying to install/run a new one.

Hope this helps. :)

I have used Avast,  ZoneAlarm and Spybot for quite some time now and have had no problems since. I've the settings on 'high' and have total control over what cokkies, writing to registry and what connects to/from internet. (Yes, I need to be in control...)
Recently I installed it on our other computers as well since one of them ran into virus/malware problems using a commercial antivirus app.
 

Quote - Prob takes more to power down and up than it does to continue running.  Just set it to sleep.

Considering that it takes less power to shut down and turn a light back on (.33 seconds worth of power according to Mythbusters), I'm kind of doubtful about that.

And leaving the computer off for 6+ hours more than makes up for any potential power spikes when shutting down or starting up, since there's none being used. Doesn't sleep mode still use some power?

LOL! And thanks to all!

I've already installed Avast, and uninstalled AVG (there was another problem with that had stopped it from updating properly - I think it was caused by a registry-cvleaner I tried to use 'cos I was having problems with some  miss-matched .dlls for an old version of MSDEV - that's still not fixed but it's another topic entirely).

I'm just going to see how Avast works for me for a while.

Int the meantime, feel free to chat amongst youselves:-)

Cheers,
Diolma

I'm using Active Virus Shield http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/get_started.adp it's from AOL, yeah yeah I know ;) & it's based on Kaspersky, it's free with daily free updates (if needed) & I hardly ever see the thing except if it finds a bad file & it wants me to decide what to do with it.

aah to explain ;)

I got used to just turning off the monitor with my last motherboard. the damned thing was hard to get going..

ever have a car or bike where you'd turn the ignition over and over and over to get it started? that was this motherboard. once took me 30 minutes of : Power on. fans start Power off. Power on fans start power off. and so on until Power On fans. IDE Drives turn over. DVD Cycles Beep

changed cables.. PSU... checked the Ram and the CPU... was that darned MB. so once I had it running I did'nt turn the damned thing off unless I REALLY had to..

I'd save up for a new motherboard myself.

I'd have to say AVAST is your best bet.  Though i also have AVG, which i had first, i kept them both on to see which caught what.  Nine times out of ten, AVAST will pick up on something that AVG doesn't.

Quote - I'd save up for a new motherboard myself.

at the time that was not an option.. I was struggling to pay for food, rent etc let alone a new PC. but since then, my situation has improved... to the point I'm running 3 PC's (1 Sempron 2400, 1 Sempron 2800 and an Athlon 64 X2 5600) I still have that MB tho.. emergency backup lol

I've just switched to Avast from norton as that was giving me problems.  I really like it so far.  its found a few things on my PC that Norton never alerted me to and removed them. Not sure why but My PC also seems to boot up and close down faster now.  Could have been norton slowing down.