We bought a new computer but are keeping the old one for the kids. I bought Mcaffe VirusScan plus for it yesterday because my sub had run out. Dh seems to think that we need "other"things to. My friend recommended AVG which is free? But I don't know if I want to have both on my computer? I told him I would ask for the expert ladies opinions! I have another questions specfically about Mcafee so I think I will do a seperate post.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 08:09 am:

We LOVE AVG, on our computers. We have a 5-site license, because we have a few computers. It doesn't seem to have as big a footprint, on the computer, as Norton's or Macaffee(sp). With Norton's, all of our computers seemed so slow. The free one works well, but with a paid version, you can schedule scans and updates, for the middle of the night.

Everytime Gary fixes a computer for someone, he usually puts on AVG.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 08:10 am:

Oh yeah. You should only have one Anti-virus program, at a time. It can cause problems, I guess, to have two programs at the same time.

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 11:23 am:

Definitely only one program on your computer as they will fight with each other. A lot of people speak very highly of AVG, and if you are going to use that I'd use the paid version and get the updates (part of your annual subscription fee).

I personally prefer Norton Internet Security to McAfee. Norton IS has a firewall which blocks both incoming and outgoing programs other than those you authorize; Microsoft's firewall only blocks incoming programs, which I don't think is adequate. Norton also has a popup blocker, ad blocker, and you can set it to let you know if any program is trying to put a cookie on your computer and decide on a case-by-case basis (or check the box to always permit cookies from a specific site). I like to have options for cookies; one of my many gripes about spam is that when I open an e-mail so I can label it spam (when it is) the spam emails often try to put a cookie on my computer. If I didn't have the notification function checked, I'd be getting lots of tracking cookies. (You can also set this cookie notification function in Internet Explorer, but it doesn't seem to catch as many as Norton does).

One of the reasons I'm not fond of McAfee is that when I had it, I had serious problems trying to download updates I had paid for. Another is that even though I stopped subscribing to McAfee over 6 years ago and have asked them several times to take me off their customer list, I keep getting e-mails about updating my software. If they can't keep their customer lists up to date, what happens with their anti-virus lists? But, I know a lot of people use and prefer McAfee.

By Unschoolmom on Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 05:33 pm:

You just need one. We use AVG Free. You also need a firewall and, I'm with Ginny on this, NOT the Microsoft one. Either Zonealarm free or Comodo (the one I now use and am very pleased with). You should have more then one anti-spyware program however and maybe that's what your husband is thinking of. I have Adaware and A-squared free. Two other good ones are Sbybot and Webroot Spysweeper (the only one that's not free).

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 10:01 pm:

Zonealarm is a very good firewall program, and I used it until I got Norton IS. (Just like you don't want to anti-virus programs on one computer, you don't want two firewalls, because each tends to block the other. So if you do download ZoneAlarm and you are using WindowsXP, or, I suspect, Vista, you need to disable/turn off the firewall in the Windows program. AdAware is very good anti-spyware (be careful, don't get AdWare, which is spyware). Spybot is also good. Both are free (although Adaware has a pay program, but you don't need it), and you can get them from the download pages at PCWorld, and Zonealarm also. PC World is a reliable source. Both AdAware's and Spybot's free programs have updating capability and I think ZoneAlarm does also. You really do need more than one, because sometimes one will catch something the other misses - I've had that happen.

By Karen~admin on Sunday, June 17, 2007 - 09:44 am:

I'm a *Norton girl* here. I've tried McAfee and several others, including AVG, which IS a good one.

We also use CCleaner for cleaning temp files, cookies, etc. daily and have been very happy with it.

On the morning news here, once a week there's a *techie* guy who does a spot about new computer/tech/digital stuff. Recently he was comparing virus programs, and there is one that updates hourly, Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus 6.0. Like all the others, there are some cons to it, but it's supposed to be VERY good.

I talked to DH about using it, but we just renewed our Norton subscriptions so....not this year.