So, as you all probably know, a while back NCSU switched their free-to-students AV from Symantec to Trend-Micro.

I'm still using my out-of-date Symantec, which (as far as I know) is working fine at keeping out viruses, and since it's expired, it isn't constantly bugging me, popping up notifications, or hogging system resources for things related to updating. This is refreshing, as my main problem with most AV programs has not been related to any ability or inability to keep out viruses, but with how they seem intent upon annoying the user as much as possible with various notifications and consumption of resources (Norton and McAfee specifically).

I would like a cheap or free AV program that does its job as silently as possible (even if it might not have the supposed ultimate 100% always-updating mega-coverage of more expensive programs that I don't really need) while still being good enough for someone who generally knows what they're doing when it comes to the internet.

I've heard good things about AVG Free, anyone used it? Any other good free/very cheap antiviruses out there I might not have heard of that some of you have had a good experience with?

8/16/2009 7:26:42 PM

AVG Anti-virus free is what I use and it's fine.

8/16/2009 7:31:18 PM

AVG Anti-virus free is what I use and it's fine.

8/16/2009 7:32:43 PM

My free Symantec from NCSU still pulls updates. Gonna ride that until it dies.

8/16/2009 7:37:18 PM

My free Symantec from NCSU still pulls updates. Gonna ride that until it dies.

8/16/2009 7:44:10 PM

The only thing about AVG Free is the lack of rootkit protection. Probably not that high on the priority list, I'm pretty sure NCSU's Symantec isn't doing that for me. I don't know what Trend-micro does - I've read some reviews for T-M that didn't paint it in a very good light.

I planned on uninstalling Symantec and replacing it with T-M but, as others have said, Symantec hasn't stopped updating for me yet. I'm going to move to Windows 7 here shortly so I figured that would be as good a time as any to finally make the switch. Now I'm having second thoughts about installing T-M on Windows 7. Maybe AVG Free.

I've heard good things about ESET NOD32, but it ain't free.

8/16/2009 7:50:10 PM

^The reason I hadn't switched to T-M already is because I've heard a bunch of bad reviews of it... And someone mentioned something notable about it on here a while back, but I don't remember what exactly, and I probably wouldn't be able to find the thread.


^^Wow, I feel stupid. I hadn't even tried clicking LiveUpdate on my NCSU Symantec for two months (up until a few minutes ago), and now I realize it's still working. Looks like I, too, will just ride that until it dies.

Though if I end up getting a new laptop, there's a very good chance it'll get AVG Free.

8/16/2009 7:56:21 PM

The one thing I've seen in T-M reviews is that it can detect viruses, but not remove them.

Going off this, I think I've just talked myself out of ever installing T-M (points 3b and 3c).
http://www.antivirusware.com/trend-micro/antivirus/

I don't know how much to trust the site though, they've got Norton as the best AV for memory usage. If that's the case I imagine the others were using a full gig of memory?

[Edited on August 16, 2009 at 8:21 PM. Reason : -]

8/16/2009 8:06:14 PM

Malwarebytes/Combofix/SpybotS&D your root kits aren't a problem.

8/16/2009 8:12:06 PM

Avast! --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antivirus_software

8/16/2009 10:40:43 PM

using Avira right now, I like it better than avg personally, no real justification though

8/16/2009 11:11:47 PM

AVG or Avast free, NOD32 not free

TM the university deployed is an enterprise class solution which doesnt work for personal machines, as its also got a firewall and other crap in it.


You guys sure symantec is still updating? If it is, im downgrading...

8/16/2009 11:24:55 PM

AVG still taxes my system really hard. everything feels like it's on a split second delay. ive sorta gotten used to things opening right when i click on them. maybe im spoiled

ill try avast and see how it goes down

8/17/2009 12:10:24 AM

My free Symantec from NCSU still pulls updates. Gonna ride that until it dies.

8/17/2009 11:12:00 PM

Quote :

" it isn't constantly bugging me, popping up notifications, or hogging system resources for things related to updating"

doesn't sound anything like symantec antivirus...perhaps you installed norton antivirus by mistake

Quote :

"Now I'm having second thoughts about installing T-M on Windows 7. Maybe AVG Free"

I run TM with 7, works fine

8/18/2009 12:06:58 AM

AVG Anti-virus free is what I use and it's fine.

8/18/2009 12:09:39 AM

Free: AVG Free (do not install link scanner or email scanning to speed it up)
Free: Comodo AV
Paid: ESET NOD32

8/18/2009 1:54:03 AM

avg is nice, but ive never seen anything (besides firefox) eat up 8gb of ram instantly

set scans for like 1 am

8/23/2009 9:06:38 PM

Does anyone know how to add a url exception in the NCSU provided Trend Micro Officescan client? It just started randomly blocking a site.

9/10/2009 2:51:59 PM