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Thread ID: 129506 2013-02-25 21:31:00 Freeware Antivirus - current recommendations please? John H (8) Press F1
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1329893 2013-02-25 21:31:00 I have a subscription to ESET Smart Security at the moment for three computers, and it is expiring. I am thinking of going back to freeware as part of an economy drive.

This is probably a question to wainuitech - is Microsoft Security Essentials still the current favourite?

Thanks in advance.

John
John H (8)
1329894 2013-02-25 22:11:00 I'd personally stick with eset, I know it's expensive, but think of it as the "maintenance" you do for your PC. You change your car oil / filter regularly... Antivirus is about the only paid maintenance you do for your PC :)

It's a worthwhile investment.
Chilling_Silence (9)
1329895 2013-02-25 22:12:00 The relative performance of anti virus software changes every week. However MSE is still one of the better ones in my opinion. I'd suggest Avast as a second choice just be sure to pay attention to what you're clicking during installation or you may end up with unwanted bloat.

Esset is better than both of course, but I've stuck to the free ones without issue personally.
dugimodo (138)
1329896 2013-02-25 22:29:00 The renewal is not expensive at all. $40 odd a year..... pctek (84)
1329897 2013-02-25 22:37:00 I'd personally stick with eset, I know it's expensive, but think of it as the "maintenance" you do for your PC. You change your car oil / filter regularly... Antivirus is about the only paid maintenance you do for your PC :)

It's a worthwhile investment.

Fully Agree with Chills comments. Its actually not that expensive, just looked it up, the renewal for a 3 user ESS RRP is $115.46 - which means $38.48 / PC for a year.


If you want to go a bit cheaper, then only get The AV / Nod32.

I dont bother with the free ones these days, MSE has failed many times, seen plenty of PC's with MSE, AVG :yuck: or Avast all infected. While nod32 may not be perfect its detects more than the above mentioned.

Had it a few times where I have put on nod32 Trials, when its expired people take it off put on a free version, and sooner or later - back I go to clean out the PC again-- I dont mind its all work for me.
wainuitech (129)
1329898 2013-02-25 22:39:00 The email from ESET said:

Term RRP ex GST RRP incl GST
1 year NZ$100.40 $115.46
2 years NZ$180.71 $207.82
3 years NZ$245.97 $282.87

I am assuming that this is for the three PCs I mentioned in my original post. So the question for me is whether I go with:

1. ESET for all three (I am still registered for GST and have done paid work in this current tax year, so I could get the GST free figure and claim the licence as a business expense seeing two of the three PCs act as backups to my "work" PC, or
2. Retire a Fujitsu 10.6" laptop that I haven't used for months since I retired, or
3. Go with ESET for the main PC in the house, and a free one for the other two.

I feel nervous about going free for the third one, because that is the one that the grandkids use when they are here. One of them has already stuffed his father's laptop by allowing ransomware in...

Decisions, decisions (and I am starting to find decisions get harder to make the older I get - you see too many sides to a question!). Thanks for all of your input.
John H (8)
1329899 2013-02-25 22:42:00 Thanks wainuitech - yours came in whilst I was composing the above reply to the others. Seems like there is a consensus amongst the techies on here. No fulsome praise for MSE any longer I notice! I originally ditched it and went back to NOD32 because MSE seemed to be slowing everything down.

Thanks again.
John H (8)
1329900 2013-02-25 22:48:00 Yeah that's why I ditched MSE, it has a stupid habit of firing off scans at retarded times too and it just pwns the CPU / HDD. Horrible if you're trying to game...
NOD32 on the other hand, no issues like that! It's fantastic!
Chilling_Silence (9)
1329901 2013-02-25 22:55:00 Ah, so it wasn't just me then? Life became more bearable once I swapped from MSE to NOD32 - somehow I must have later switched over to Smart Security but I don't remember when. John H (8)
1329902 2013-02-25 23:43:00 Ah yeah I stick with just NOD32, I've never personally bothered with SmartSecurity. Chilling_Silence (9)
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