Originally posted by H8TOOWORK Dear Queenie, I have always belived in "You get what you pay for" If something is free, I would be suspecious. I am a computer network technician, and I have always trusted MacAfee or Norton Anti-Virus. For the money, I belive it is worth purchasing a copy or the Name Brand Anti-Virus. In Norton, you can turn off the option of scanning in and / or outbound mail. Personally, I turn off scan outbound mail, but leave the inbound on. I hope this helps Robert (AKA H8toowork)

Thank you for your input, I appreciate it. I have the expired NAV too, Would you justify paying for something that is that expensive when all we do on our puter is regular surfing, checking email and chat?

Dear Queenie,

I would personaly justify the expense of the software. The headaches that can be caused without Anti-virus software can be headbanging. I have had to reload several computers that did not have up-to-date software.

I know this may be expensive, but the cost of lost software, date, and the time involvement to format and re-load all of your software can outway the cost of Norton Antivirus / MacAfee.

My preference is Norton, but that is my opinion.

Good luck.



Robert (aka H8toowork)

Originally posted by H8TOOWORK Dear Queenie, I would personaly justify the expense of the software. The headaches that can be caused without Anti-virus software can be headbanging. I have had to reload several computers that did not have up-to-date software. I know this may be expensive, but the cost of lost software, date, and the time involvement to format and re-load all of your software can outway the cost of Norton Antivirus / MacAfee. My preference is Norton, but that is my opinion. Good luck. Robert (aka H8toowork)

Thank goodness, B/F mother is very high tech computer savy. we got a virus a couple years back and thank god she put it all back together for us. (N/charge of course but we got her a little something anyways because her time is worth something)
Thanks

Peace of mind is worth something. If paying for anti-virus protection lets you sleep better and reduces your stress, then by all means, pay for your protection.

For the rest of us cheapos, we'll use the free AVG, Ad-aware, and Spybot software, and keep our computers up-to-date with the free Windows Update, and when we have to time, a free firewall. And never have any troubles, living happily ever after.

Dave.

Dave.

I agree with Ad-aware, and Spybot free software. However, on the professional side, I need to be able to run efficiently, and not look cheap.

Personally, I am tighter then tight when it comes to opening of my wallet, but for clients, and my profession, I do need to be efficient.

Everyone has their priorities, and if always using free software with the attached ads, and pop-ups is what is for you, the go for it. If you want to work quickly, and have things run smoothly, then you do need to look ahead, and decide how you want to do it.

I am not saying the free software is the best, nor the worst. It is up to the user to decide on how they want to operate their systems.



Robert (aka H8toowork)

I've used AVP and Nortons over the past few years. My business is web development and maintenance therefore can not afford for my computer to be out of commission. My words of advice is virus protection is an absolute must. If you can afford a computer, internet access, why can't you afford adequate virus protection. It is the most important software that is on your computer. Do you want someone logging your keystrokes, accessing your computer, or shutting you down? A few bucks a year is well worth the risk in my opinion. You get what you pay for sometimes and I think that virus protection is way better when you pay for a service like nortons, AVP or other top of the line programs.

Originally posted by Queenie So, I downloaded Grisoft, I have a question. With NAV, a pop up came saying it was scanning outgoing and incoming email. I read that Grisoft does too, but how do i know it really is? I had no pop-up telling me it was working.

if you go to the avg control center, and select the "e-mail scanner" tab, you'll see the options to "certify incoming messages" and "certify outgoing messages". that'll add a few lines of text at the bottom of each e-mail to show that it has been checked for viruses.

btw, there's a lot of wonderful free software out there to dispute the "you get what you pay for" theory.

I have got to agree with Dave and ghoti here... AVG has no pop-ups or ads for that matter. I have run it with other "pay" services like NAV and AVG caught stuff that NAV hasn't. Personally I can't see paying for something when IMO a better service is available for <gasp>... free

Sherry it's not a matter of not being *able* to pay for antivirus software... It's more a matter of why pay for many of us. By the way, AV software is not going to stop a " accessing your computer or shutting you down"... That is where a firewall comes into the picture. As for a key logger, although one *can* be installed remostely the cahnces are slim to none. It's more likely going to be installed by a wife or husband who suspects a case a e-love.....

Originally posted by CSK'sMom Sherry it's not a matter of not being *able* to pay for antivirus software... It's more a matter of why pay for many of us. By the way, AV software is not going to stop a " accessing your computer or shutting you down"... That is where a firewall comes into the picture. As for a key logger, although one *can* be installed remostely the cahnces are slim to none. It's more likely going to be installed by a wife or husband who suspects a case a e-love.....

Many viruses do different things. And with a virus your computer may malfunction causing you to be shut down. You could contract a trojan and different things like key strokes and access to your computer becomes a viable threat. All I know is, before I set up a computer with windows updates and other software, Nortons is what I add first before connecting to the internet.

Go with what works for you, but for me and my business, norton's is my pick at this moment in time and you have to pay to get it. I don't have time to save $75 with the risk of a full days work of setting up my system again. To me its not worth it, but to someone who can spare the time, and doesn't have clients wanting work done yesterday can afford the chance. Here on dial up (I wish high speed would speed up and get here!), those windows updates take forever!

Originally posted by ghoti if you go to the avg control center, and select the "e-mail scanner" tab, you'll see the options to "certify incoming messages" and "certify outgoing messages". that'll add a few lines of text at the bottom of each e-mail to show that it has been checked for viruses. btw, there's a lot of wonderful free software out there to dispute the "you get what you pay for" theory.

Thanks ghoti, I have those checked in the right tabs but I do not have the message on bottom of email saying it has been checked. Any idea?

Originally posted by Queenie Thanks ghoti, I have those checked in the right tabs but I do not have the message on bottom of email saying it has been checked. Any idea?

apparently outlook express doesn't allow the addition of the "certified" message for incoming mail. it'll work fine with outlook, but not with outlook express. see http://www.grisoft.com/faq/us_faqte...id=18&sid=9

i have message rules configured in outlook express to sort my e-mail into several folders when it's downloaded...and i noticed that if there's a virus-infected message in one of the messages routed to a folder other than my inbox, the virus notification dialog is shown when i access that folder rather than when the e-mail is downloaded. so i believe that avg's scanning of incoming messages is done when a message folder is accessed, rather than at the time messages are downloaded. either way, avg has been catching everything thrown my way.

Interesting arguments. I also switched from the paid virus scanners to AVG (Grisoft) and I've been using it for I don't know how long and I've never myself, or known anyone to get infected by a virus while using AVG. And to clear things up, it's not free in sense that the company writing it is not getting any income from it at all. It's only free to home users, they charge for businesses, so in essense, it's businesses that are paying for my free software and the work that goes behind identifying new viruses and finding ways to remove them.

And for the record, all these people that I'm referring to that use AVG are 'geeks', so they surf all the sites that tend to have viruses, get spam like there's no tomorrow and download apps left and right.

It is, by far, the most quiet virus scanner I've ever used, and it uses a heck of a lot less resources than it's costly peers.

But from a business point of view, I can see why they don't want free software. Because then there's no one to blame if something goes wrong. Well, in the case of AVG, it's not free for commercial purposes, so that's not any issue anyway.

Originally posted by MaxPower2000 But from a business point of view, I can see why they don't want free software. Because then there's no one to blame if something goes wrong.

i work as a consultant to develop software systems for a multibillion dollar company, and that's exactly why they frown upon free software. the concern is not so much trust in whether the software does the job better than other packages (free or paid), but the ability to point fingers and call for help in case something goes wrong...

There is a pay version of AVG too, with support etc etc..