Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Free Anti-Virus Software...clever marketing ploy or useful software?

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Free Anti-Virus Software...clever marketing ploy or useful software?

Posted in Programming.

Ben Cordingley forwarded me a link where eTrust (CA) is giving away a free Anti-Virus and Firewall package, no doubt to capitalize on the SP2 release. Clever, but it's only free for a year as you'll have to update your subscription for presumably $50 in 12 months.

Regardless, it could be just the ticket for your Mom or family.

Another thought for Virus Protection while continuing to use the built-in firewall is GriSoft's AVG Free Edition.

Posted at 2004-08-14 06:34 PM by Scott
Comments [5]
Permalink

Sunday, August 15, 2004 3:05:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

That offer is up all year long already, so I guess it was not SP2 that triggered that move.

David

Tuesday, August 17, 2004 2:17:25 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I use AVG at home, but I've heard good things about Avast as well: http://www.avast.com/eng/free_virus_protectio.html

Jon Galloway

Tuesday, August 17, 2004 6:11:27 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Why use the built-in firewall when you can have Kerio (http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html) for free?

Diego Mijelshon

Tuesday, August 17, 2004 7:41:05 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

What is that better than Tiny Personal Firewall or Zonealarm?

Scott Hanselman

Wednesday, August 25, 2004 8:33:46 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I'd stay away from ZoneAlarm 5. Too many people have experienced system freezes and have reinstalled version 4. They even made the link available on their site since the problem was so widespread.

AVG is excellent (both the free and Pro versions). I've been using it for a few years. I always let my Norton AntiVirus expire when I get a new machine since AVG has always caught everything that Norton has.

Mark Freedman

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