Hopefully free or fairly inexpensive. Can't seem to find Norton now with JUST the antivirus and I won't run the other stuff they sell. Says I can upgrade but I have to have my original s.n. and that's still in a box somewhere.
Marque

I got rid of Norton anything...full of holes.

I use, and have been using other programs for quite awhile now.

AVG Free Personal for virus scanning
AdAware
Spybot S&D
CCleaner

I use exactly what jumpstart uses too.

I tried most of 'em (Norton, PC Labs, McAfee)...

I finally wound up with Spy Sweeper with Virus Checker, which is head and shoulders above anything else I tried.  Unlike some of them, you can actually turn it off when your not on the web, and the settings actually work- if you set it to only check for updates manually, it doesn't still go out and check for them anyway.  Some of the others are EXTREAMLY aggressive on doing what they want to do, as if the only thing your computer exists is to run anti-virus programs.

It also cleaned out a really bad virus which the others coundn't touch.

You have to buy it though, it isn't free, but it is pretty cheap.

Attached Link: Get Avast Free here:

I used to have Norton Internet Security. Last year I paid for a 2 years antivirus updates. Last month I had to change my computer for the 3rd time. Guess what happened? I can't use Internet Security anymore because I have already activated it 3 times. So I lost not only the money I paid for the program but also the money I paid for the updates.

Conclusion: NO MORE NORTON anything!

I downloaded AVG free for antivirus and Microsoft SpamFighter for email spams. SpamFighters does not work on my computer. It keeps freezing Outlook Express. Do you know of any good free or cheap antispam software? I will have to replace my computer again in a few weeks/months as the one I use is a spare one while my own is being repaired (hopefully). I'd like to have my decisions made by then so I can install these software only once on my new computer. ;o)

I agree Spy Sweeper's among the best at keeping trash off your PC, which is why I'm cheesed off right now at having to uninstall it. The latest version does not play well with Roxio CD/DVD Creator -- at least not if you're still running Roxio 6, like me. Broke the darn thing so bad it couldn't find or remember where my DVD burner was. And since they don't support # 6 now but keep telling me to upgrade to 9, there just ain't no other fix.  AVG has a spyware add- on to their free antivirus I could use, and since I had a trial copy which just expired, I know it works very well.  But goshdarn it all, I only bought Spy Sweeper w/Anti Virus a couple months back, drives me mad to think I'll have to buy a product I really shouldn't need.

Or even more expensive, buy Roxio 9. Which still might not work right with either Spy Sweeper or AVG. :-(

@JimBurton:
" Spy Sweeper with Virus Checker, which is head and shoulders above anything else I tried.  Unlike some of them, you can actually turn it off when your not on the web, and the settings actually work-"

Now that sounds REALLY good.  I've been wondering if any AV application existed
that would actually OBEY the user's orders ... and just sit there when it's not being
used, instead of taking over like Nurse Ratched. 

Think I'll try Spy Sweeper, since ZoneAlarm has decided (for my own good of course)
that Poser 6 is not an appropriate use of computer resources.

= = = =

Edit: There seem to be a couple different products named Spy Sweeper.
Are we talking about the one from Webroot?

Yep, Webroot's got the one you want. Just type www.spysweeper.com into your browser and that'll take you to their homepage.

Okay, thanks. 

Ok just picked up the one from Webroot so I hope that's the right one. Installing it now.
Thanks,
Marque

Byrdie, have you ever tried Nero? I used to use Roxio all the time, until I discovered Nero 6...have never looked back, and never upgraded as the StartSmart feature does all I need...and it plays well with everything I have on my machine :)

I use mafee security sweet and keep everything on while downloading from web or checking sites, when i do an online game i wait till loaded and if on another server for scripts to download.
After  mins shrink game window and tunr of most protection and have no probs though every couple days run spybot, as forget crap about microsof i.e 7 being secure.
It is not as spybot finds stuff but some of the adware from companies has support from microsoft, but if you use google you can find the site where you have option to disable and from having some of them download.
Check names of stuff spybot detects an go to software site and sign up to have your ip adday protected as some of those tracking companies allow you to pemanently disable them.

Ok got the Spy Sweeper with what I thought was the virus protection but it popped up a window saying if I wanted virus protection I had to pay another $10. That was pretty lame. At any rate I bought the extra so hoping I'm protected. Have to buy it for my other systems as well...though might go the freebie ones on those.  Have to back up a bunch of stuff today. I've used Nero for quite a while and love it. Roxio caused too many problems.
Marque

I use AVG Anti-Virus, Zone Alarm Fire Wall, Adaware & Sypbot Search & Destroy. They are all free and I am happy with them.
I also use Spyware Blaster and Spyware Guard which are designed to stop spyware from installing in the first place.

Spyware Guard
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

Spyware Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

All are freeware programs

I use Kaspersky AV, old horse but very solid. Norton used to be one of the best AV for PCs, but recent versions are worse then virii themselves. Also use Outpost firewall, which has an integrated spyware checker and works well.

Oh and Firefox of course, no amount of AV and spy tools will help you if you are still using IE.

Incidently, I go through a hub to connect my two computers to each other and to the web, and it is supposed to have a hardware firewall.  I think that is the nature of these things.

So I don't currently run a firewall, other than that.  Software firewalls are a MAJOR pain to keep current.

I don't see why ? Outpost automatically downloads a patch once a month or so and updates itself. No worries at all.

Feedback: I bought and installed the Webroot app.   Sure enough, it stays
out of the way of ordinary programs, even while watching the web.

I was really tired of waiting 30 seconds for simple things like Notepad
to start up, which is how ZoneAlarm does it.   That's -almost- as much
fun as the 1965 routine of submitting your punch cards to the
Computing Center and waiting three days for the Electronic Brain
to give you an illegible printout.

Now my computer is back to real-time again.  This is wonderful!

Quote - Byrdie, have you ever tried Nero? I used to use Roxio all the time, until I discovered Nero 6...have never looked back, and never upgraded as the StartSmart feature does all I need...and it plays well with everything I have on my machine :)

My old computer had Nero and I hated it.  A cousin who knows more about computers that I do introduced me to Roxio and it worked like a dream, so when I bought The Monster I upgraded to version 6. Have never had any trouble at all till recently and the only new programs I added were Spy Sweeper and Avast Anti virus. But I've since found that forgetting where the drives are is a bit of a habit with versions 7thru 8 of Roxio. Darn thing worked perfectly fine last night,  when I turned on my computer today it didn't have a clue. Luckily I was able to get a patch and now it's working again.  But I just might try Nero if this keeps happening, they've probably gotten rid of all the bugs it had when last I owned it some 5 or so years ago.

I am using Nero 6.6.0.15 and haven't had any problems with it.