A friend of mine has the Kaspersky Antivirus and Internet Security stuff loaded on her computer. They are hounding her to renew at a price of $35.00 and I believe she would be equally protected by the free version of AVG, even though I know nothing about Kaspersky. She also has some version of Norton loaded on her computer.
She has a Toshiba laptop, model unknown. She has Windows 7 and is using Firefox as her browser.
Should she renew Kaspersky or let it lapse?
Firstly, if you mean she’s got Norton antivirus running then she shouldn’t have that going at the same time as Kaspersky. Never have 2 antiviruses running as they interfere with each other.
I always think that paid for ones are better than free ones on the grounds that I envisage the paid ones will be able to employ hordes of computer geeks to combat new viruses and malware as they appear. I have no knowledge as to whether this is true it’s just a notion I have.
Also I read somewhere that AVG isn’t good at spotting trojans whereas kaspersky is good at everything. Again though I don’t know how true that actually is.
The free version of AVG has caught everything I’ve hit in a year of wandering aimlessly around the net.
Now, I’m not opening emails from people I don’t know, and I don’t click on any ads, or even copy links from posts or emails into my address bar.
I use Firefox, the newest version.
If it’s a choice between free and paid, AVG has a paid upgrade level as well.
I didn’t know she had Norton until I started this thread and I didn’t start this thread until she became paranoid about renewing Kaspersky. Until she mentioned it, I hadn’t even heard of it. Based on a lot of what I’ve read on the SDMB and some personal experience I’m strongly prejudiced against Norton. Also based on personal experience, I’m strongly prejudiced towards AVG. I think I might advise her to have a pro strip both from her computer and then download AVG unless I get more information advising against that course.
Thanks to both of you for your inputs.
I’ve used free versions of AVG or Avast (combined with AdBlock and NoScript) for the last 6 years and never gotten a virus or malware. IMHO, safe browsing and clicking habits are just as important as any software solutions you might choose to employ.
Antivirus programs are all roughly equivalent to each other. The big difference between paid and non-paid is automation.
In general the free versions will not automatically update. I used to use AVG Free till the last update. For some reason it turns makes my Windows Security turn off.
The free version are just as good PROVIDED you update them manually daily. This is a big deal. Every person I found with virus problems and the free versions of software is not updating them manually EVERY SINGLE DAY.
I switched to MSE this one does update automatically. I found it to be just as effective and alot less bloated than AVG.
If you do use AVG Free and find your computer running slowly, make sure to turn off link checker. This slowed my computer to a crawl. AVG was literally scanning every link on every web page BEFORE it downloaded it.
I would get MSE or AVG Free. Then I would supplement it with Malwarebytes AntiMalware and you may want to throw in Spybot Search & Destroy.
But remember the key is to UPDATE the free ones and run scans at least one a week.