cheap virus protection?

[elementskater15]

Hey again. Tomorrow i gonna order my new HD and motherboard. My subscribtion to Norton just ran out. I checked radioshack out and nearly crapped myself...$60. After paying back my mom for lending me money to buy gifts, i'm left right at $300. I'd like to spend as little money as possible on an anti-virus program although I know that isnt the kind of thing to get cheap on. I was looking at these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832152210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832108282

I'm leaning toward the Panda program simply because Norton hasn't found a single virus the entire time i've had it. (Nearly 3 years) Well, it found 1 that it wasn't able to remove. Thanks. I'm gonna eat KFC and listen to Skynard now...

[Perforator]

AVG antivirus from grisoft.com seems to be a pretty good choice for me. They offer a free version for private use. I uploads a couple of new things every time I fire up ol' blinky here. If you want to delete it, it lets you. More than I can say for McAfee. Good luck!

[elementskater15]

lmao at 'ole blinky! Cool, I'll check it out. Thanks

Edit:Post 350 woot! Im a chevy! Next I'll be a ford!

[Oz]

Norton is system resource robbing rubbish, Panda and AVG don't find enough virus's for my piece of mind.

Try NOD32 www.nod32.com

[elementskater15]

Thanks, man. You know the old saying...if it's for free it's for me. (Actually I made that up just now...i think)haha

[harrymay]

once a month

http://www.trendmicro.com

housecall, works great, free, no software to install, uses your browser

if it cant fix it, it will tell you how.

['97ventureowner]

I used to have Norton on my computer, it came free when I got it, and I renewed it once, but after the next time I just downloaded free anti virus and spyware programs and have had good luck to date. I have AVG, Spybot,Microsoft AntiSpyware, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Crap Cleaner, and Diskkeeper Lite.I keep the programs updated all the time and run them at least once a week. I think they work just as good as some of the other "pay" programs available on the market, and I notice that some of the programs catch things the other programs might miss. My brother works for Microsoft, and recently recomended Trend Micro Housecall to me as well .

[03cavPA]

AVAST and a good hardware firewall are all I've used. I use the usual freeware spyware cleaners. I'm cheap, and I got sick of those subscription renewals from the majors (Norton and McAfee).

AVAST is free, and it scans my email pretty well, but nothing's 100%.

I've used AVG in the past, I was happy with it.

[Oz]

'97ventureowner - if there is malicious code running on your computer and your current suite of software doesn't pick it up, how would you ever know it's there? Have you downloaded trial versions of good quality scanners and tried them on your system just to see what they find?

You make an assertion with not too much solid testing or fact, and it comes across much more like opinion.

['97ventureowner]

Oz- that's because what I stated in my post WAS my opinion. I based it on what I saw and experienced with Norton and the other programs I use on my computer. More than 2/3 of the time, my "free" programs picked up more stuff after scanning than the Norton did, which led me to discontinue my subscription when it came due. Also, I have friends who have other "pay for" subscriptions to various major name software, ( the likes of McAfee, Norton, etc) and they always seem to be having 'issues' with their computer. I had similar issues when I had Norton, which 'mysteriously' disappeared when I stopped using Norton.

[Oz]

Cool as - my suggestion is to watch independant virus vendors, with small file sizes and good reviews, so you don't get the system resource hugging rubbish by the "industry leaders".

The Zone Alarm Pro subscription is worthwhile IMO, which includes virus protection and firewall, for home use, along with NOD32 + properly configured Windows Firewall.

Oz (/network admin / pc tech)

[elementskater15]

OK, I have another question and since I already have four threads on the first page I'll just use this one. I got all the new stuff put in my pc for free by a tech I know. He called me to let me know my CPU went bad. He offered to give me a celeron 1.7 for free if I'd hook the sytem in his SUV up, so I did. It works, but is soooo freakn slow. God forbid I try to listen to music and play solitare or surf the internet at the same time. Any recomendations? I'd like at least a 2.6ghz simply because I dont want to downgrade from what I had before. I'm willing to downgrade if it isnt really necessary to have a cpu that powerful. It has also come to my attention I need to upgrade my video card...again. I have an AGP slot now, plus PCI slots. I'd like one that could play Sims 2, NFSMW, and the like without lag. My CPU is a socket 478. Thanks

[Oz]

The celeron chip doesn't have anywhere near (only 1/4) of the L2 cache a P4 chip does, I suggest springing for a new P4 chip, or try to find a P4 chip on ebay that has been overclocked and stress tested

[elementskater15]

thanks. I'll more than likely be lookin on ebay. I need to do some oddjobs for my dad to get money for this crap....i need a job.

[elementskater15]

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merch...ricewatch&NR=1 i was looking at this video card and a pentium 4 proc on ebay...
http://cgi.ebay.com/1M-L2-Intel-Pent...QQcmdZViewItem
something like that be alright?