{"id":10075,"date":"2009-08-24T17:15:50","date_gmt":"2009-08-25T01:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=10075"},"modified":"2009-08-24T17:15:50","modified_gmt":"2009-08-25T01:15:50","slug":"do-i-have-to-pay-40-a-year-for-virus-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=10075","title":{"rendered":"Do I Have To Pay $40 A Year For Virus Protection?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I asked a bloke who graduated from Harvard and he told me:<\/p>\n

No. There are free anti-virus packages out there that you can download.<\/p>\n

Also, at least some of these commercial packages have gotten big and bloated to the point that they slow down one’s machine, etc.<\/p>\n

So, I go with free.<\/p>\n

The one that I’m using now is Comodo’s–as you’ll see here they have a bunch of separate products as well as a suite, all free:
\nhttp:\/\/www.comodo.com\/home\/<\/wbr>free\/free-protection.php<\/a><\/p>\n

There are others, too, like AVG and Avast!; I’ve chosen Comodo because,  unlike most of the others, it’s free for personal and business use and since I do both with my machines, it’s helpful to have that.<\/p>\n

And the Comodo stuff does seem to work.<\/p>\n

There are many comparisons online of the various programs, here’s one from 2007 (obviously, the more recent, the better) — Comodo I think comes out pretty well:
\nhttp:\/\/freesoftwarecomparison.<\/wbr>wordpress.com\/2007\/07\/16\/free-<\/wbr>antivirus-comparison\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Whatever you do, make sure you’re only running one anti-virus on your machine or you can run into trouble–be sure to uninstall McAfee before installing anything else.<\/p>\n

P.S. FWIW, I also periodically run the free Spybot program (Spybot Search & Destroy), available from its maker here:
\nhttp:\/\/www.safer-networking.<\/wbr>org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

P.P.S. Microsoft will be releasing Microsoft Security Essentials at some point, I assume as a freebie (in beta now): http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/<\/wbr>security_essentials\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I asked a bloke who graduated from Harvard and he told me: No. There are free anti-virus packages out there that you can download. Also, at least some of these commercial packages have gotten big and bloated to the point … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[18611,18610,18614,18612,18613,18615],"class_list":["post-10075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","tag-antivirus-comparison","tag-free-anti-virus","tag-microsoft-security","tag-safer-networking","tag-security-essentials","tag-virus-protection"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t