Which is the best Antivirus?

[shaunx]

Hello there,
Right now i had formatted my drive because of virus. So regarding about antivirus installation, which one is the best now and for free. could you please post me details for it.Thanks.

[monaghan]

As this is a business forum, why would you want free when you can get better with paid for versions and you can offset the cost against your tax liabilities?

We resell AVG, they have just released AVG 8 which is much improved.

[lin robinson]

I use AVG, originally picked it up from a pal who's a Microsoft-annointed tech or whatever when I bitched about how messed up McAfee and Norton are.

The AVG free edition is far superior to both of them in my opinion.

[monaghan]

Just to note, AVG Free is only free for home use, business use in any way is in violation of the license agreement.

[lin robinson]

Ah, good point. I use it on my personal (and only) computer, which I use for business as well as anything else. I don't consider that a violation any more than getting a call from a client makes my home phone a business account.

If I installed it on an office computer I would use a professional version.

[monaghan]

The thing being is that you define your PC as a home PC, but you run your business on it, therefore using Grisoft's definition (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/28394/us/frt/0), you have commercial use and therefore need a commercial version. Your phone provider may not apply the same rules (Presumably when you use your phone for business you recover this cost against business expenses showing the real cost of the business?).

In the case of software it's the vendor that defines the license not the user.

This is not a pop at you, but...

The full version of AVG is so cheap (retail for a single PC is just over 50p/week for the 2 year license) and offers more features than the free version, it surprises me how many people would rather violate the license agreement on the free edition than spend a few tax deductable £'s of their business money. There was major outcry a while back when Grisoft put in some code to detect whether the PC was standalone or in a domain and point out the licence violation to the user!

[lin robinson]

So you check your email and there's a business notice it's a business computer? You drop some samples off somewhere and your car is now a business car? Your desk makes your home an office space?

I don't think so. And it's my definitions I go by.

I'm not really arguing with you here (and didn't we do this before? :-) and I agree on this program's high value and low cost. If somebody asked me about a virus program for their business, I would recommend you.

[monaghan]

I'm not trying to argue you into a sale from Monaghan Consultants Ltd, the slim profit on each sale would not be worth the effort

The problem with going by your own definitions is when things go wrong. Using your examples, if you have an accident in your car and you have business samples in it your insurance company may well class your use as business use, should you have not declared this, then they have every right to not pay as the car was being used for a purpose it was not covered for. Storing samples in your house may invalidate your house insurance in the same way.

My observation was not aimed specifically at you, but at the fact that many people conduct business without the required tools even when they can pay for these tools and deduct the cost from their tax bill (in effect keeping the bottom line profit the same as cutting corners).

[harding125]

I've tried both Norton and McAfee over the years and neither are brilliant. Both are good at the antivirus and email cleansing. However, eventually Norton crashed the machine good and proper - missed the point there I think. McAfee has been good to the machine but is very resource hungry

I'm now trying out a Linux machine to see how that goes.

Gary

[JANE]

Oh My,

My grandson installed AVG free on my new computer, whilst I was away. I'd no idea I was breaking the rules. Although I use my computer to build my websites etc., is it really a business until I'm making a living at it? As I'm not in profit yet, I suppose it's still a hobby.