Grisoft AVG free antivirus: any good?

Factual Questions
1

My ISP has recommended Grisoft AVG free antivirus program, but, cynic that I am, I wonder how it can be any good if it’s free. Any Dopers out there using it? Are you satisfied? Is it everything a personal computer uses needs? How does it compare with Norton? I already did a search og GQ and the only antivirus questions that came up related to Norton and one other that isn’t my concern right now.

I’m using Norton at the moment, and it’s about to expire. Thanks for any help.

2

Yes, it is very good. I find it better than Norton in fact. Because AVG has never caused problems with multiplayer games while Norton can frequently do that (and did to me back when I had Norton.)

The virus definitions are updated regularly and, it works, simple as that.

Ever used OpenOffice? There’s lots of stuff that is pretty good despite it being free.

3

As a matter of fact AVG is one of the stronger anti-virus packages available. Updates for new viruses are extraordinarily quick, it is well written and well behaved, intuitive, and is free for personal use on home computers.

I highly recommend it, especially over Norton AV.

Is it all you need? Probably not- if you don’t already have them, make sure you get Spybot Search and Destroy, as well as Adaware, and run them at least twice a month.

Also consider replacing Internet Explorer with Firefox.

HTH,

-Sweep

4

My security package is basically:

-Router + Firewall
-AVG Antivirus
-Spybod S&D
-AdAware
-SpywareBlaster (very cool program that actively prevents spyware from being installed)

5

Version 6 of AVG was pretty damn stable. They just released V7 and so far so good.

Here’s a recent thread on AVG. I know there have been many in the past as well - but those would have been on Version 6.

6

Thanks for the link. I thought I had seen other threads, but my search used antivirus instead of anti-virus. I guess that made the difference. I think I will be downloading AVG. It’s been suggested that I uninstall Norton at the same time so there won’t be a conflict. That sounds like a good idea, too.

Thanks to all who responded.

7

I use AVG, and have reccomened it to several friends and relatives. Before, they were plagued with viruses, now they are virus free.