The time of paying for these type of programs is over. I think AVG is the best - I've had it installed on two machines for three years, and have had a total of 0 problems.

As for a firewall, I suggest ZoneAlarm.

I recommend avast anti-virus. The home license is free and they offer solid protection without many of the headaches caused by Mcafee and Norton.

I've used ZoneAlarm, which works well, and something called Panda AntiVirus.

And don't forget AdAware... that's a great program too.

All free, by the way.

Back when I was a Windows user, I used Avast. It was free for home users and relatively inexpensive for business use.

Third for Avast. It's free. No bloat and auto update. What more can you ask.

I'm fond of AVG personally, but the important thing is not Norton or McAfee, both of which are poisonous at best.

The best is to learn how not to get a virus and use nothing!

AVG or Kaspersky have served relatives well.

And yeah, I'm going to go there... get a Mac!

Norton or McAfee?

I have 2 pc laptops that I use every day. One came with Norton and one came with McAfee. I find them both equally effective and equally annoying. The one with Norton seems to take for bloody ever to bootup. And I do disk cleanups and defrag at least once a day.

Windwolf

Windolf, I ditched Norton off of my Dad's machine a month ago. Shaved a minute and a half off the boot up time.

I was the one who posted this question. I'm so happy to find out from all of you that I don't have to pay for a virus protection program. I didn't know I could get them free. I just installed Avast and AdAware (I had that on my old computer). I'll let McAfee expire and hope all of you are right and that I don't get any viruses. Thank you so much for this valuable information.

I used to have McAfee but discovered it was the reason my computer was running so slowly. When I tried to uninstall it, I developed all sorts of operating system errors and ended up just reinstalling the OS. Now I use nothing (as DaveD suggests) and just run a scan from one of teh free programs online once a week just in case.

Anne,
I would uninstall McAfee first (and hope that it doesn't trash your computer like it did for Green Cat) before installing Avast. There might be some conflicts with two antivirus programs on your computer.

Anne,
Jabber is right on this...you really, really need to uninstall McAfee before loading up the other programs. Conflicting antivirus programs is not a fun situation.

Well, I've already installed Avast. McAfee's free trial ends on Wed. I don't want the issues that Green Cat had so I'm afraid of uninstalling McAfee since it will end anyway in a few days.

Any thoughts on this?

Oh, and I wanted to get a Mac when shopping for a new laptop but they're so expensive. I couldn't afford it.

With most ISPs they do give a free security software. Charter, Comcast, AOL and most of the more popular ISP do have packages.

So, just ask your ISP.

...follow the white rabbit...

AVG... hands down. avast for a second.

What happens when you have conflicting anti-virus programs? I forget which one is active now (I'm at work at the moment) but I don't think I uninstalled the old one before installing the new. I wonder if this might be causing my infuriating, mysterious problem - my computer runs PAAAAAAAAAAAAINFULLY slow online. Dell swears the wireless card is fine, Qwest swears the connection is fine, and my roommate's computer (which is inferior in every other way) runs at normal speeds online. Could it be software related?

Chiming in to get on the AVG bandwagon.

If I had to pick one of these two, I'd go with Norton over McAfee.

However, I would rather use AVG. I used Norton for quite some time, but my current employer uses AVG, and I've grown to like it better.

Also, be sure to use two important tools: AdAware and Spybod: Search and Destroy. No PC should be without these!

**That should have been "Spybot: Search and Destroy".