Page 1 of ANTIVIRUS`

i`ve just bought a new laptop and am looking to install an antivirus, what is the best one available??
I have looked at norton internet security and briefly noticed macafee virus scan..
Can anybody help me out and shed some light..????? :-(
Am only looking for the hardware version, not interested in any downloadable versions(don`t traus them)
Thanks in advance guys n girls...
mike

Do you mean you want a boxed retail version (not hardware?? never heard of a hardware antivirus, only a hardware firewall). I can recommend Norton, been using it a couple of years, and just bought the 2002 version a couple of weeks ago. It updates itself with new virus definitions automatically now, and gets good reviews at stopping the most viruses. I`ve only had 4 in the time I`ve been on the net, and it stopped them all.

You don`t have to buy the Norton Internet Securities if you don`t want to, you can buy just Norton Anti Virus 2002 on its own. Then get the free Zonealarm Firewall to go with it http://www.zonelabs.com this is recommended as the best personal firewall. Even better than the Norton paid for one, and other free ones which have a few vulnerabilites in them.

Then go to the Gibson Research Shields Up site to test your security. http://www.grc.com and do Test my Shields and Probe my Ports.

Mark.

I use McAfee at work and at home, in fact at work we have just re-newed the licence.

McAfee 6 for home users is very good and eay to use and update.

Nick

This item was edited on Thursday, 23rd May 2002, 09:51

I had McAfee on my desktop, which was due a new subscription, but I went for Norton - mainly because I had it on my laptop, and have been pleased with the ease of the auto updates - I also use pcAnywhere, so the unified update mechanism appealed. The Internet Security Suite is only £5 more than the base Antivirus at http://www.dabs.com, so I went for that.

I have the Macafee no 6 and I have had no end of problems with my computer since instaling It, I find It hard to shut down and I get all sort`s of things going wrong. I am not Technicaly minded on computers and have had to get people out to sort my computer out for me at great expense, each time they have said It I to do with my anti virus, please be warned, although I would not be without It.

why pay when you can have it for free? I use AVG from Grisoft and it works flawlessly on all Windows computers and has regular updates. . http://www.grisoft.com

It may work flawlessly, as does Norton in my experience, but doesn`t offer the same level of protection as Norton. The amount of viruses it protects against is less (my Norton currently has 61126 viruses in it`s virus list). Also Norton updates very frequently, at least twice a week, sometimes more often (updates twice in once day last week), whereas AVG does it about once a month. A lot of new viruses can come out in that time.

If the free version did everything you needed they wouldn`t also sell a Professional version, which sounds more on a par with Norton by the description. I had the free versoin a few years ago before getting Norton, and it was very limited in the number of viruses it rpotected against then.

Mark.