avast! as anti-virus? Thread poster: Mara Ballarini
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Mara Ballarini 
Australia
Local time: 14:04
Member (2006)
English to Italian
+ ...
Hi everyone. I've always used Norton, but now that my licence is expiring, a friend has suggest to use download avast!, which is free, and use it together with ad-aware. The fact that it's free but, worries me a little bit, I must say, so I was wondering if anyone uses it and is happy with it, or if you have any relevant suggestions.
thank you all in advance!
have a good day!
Mara
| | | | nordiste
France
Local time: 06:04
English to French
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| one of the best s- higly recommended | Nov 13, 2007 |
I've been using it for 5 years or so - very reliable and easy to use.
The free version is for non-commercial usage. It has all the basic features to protect your PC.
You can buy a pro version - at a very reasonnable price - it gives you additionnal features like reports, statitistics etc.
| | | | Damian Harrison (X)
Germany
Local time: 06:04
German to English
| Avast is great | Nov 13, 2007 |
Avast is much better than Norton. It contains less bugs, will not clutter your computer with undeletable files and does not disrupt the functions of vital programmes ( as Norton is sometimes prone to). It provides the same degree of security as Norton, if not better, and it does this for free.
Avast has also won a whole pile of major awards:
* SC Awards 2006 Finalist - Secure Computing Awards are the world’s leading awards program for the information secu... See more Avast is much better than Norton. It contains less bugs, will not clutter your computer with undeletable files and does not disrupt the functions of vital programmes ( as Norton is sometimes prone to). It provides the same degree of security as Norton, if not better, and it does this for free.
Avast has also won a whole pile of major awards:
* SC Awards 2006 Finalist - Secure Computing Awards are the world’s leading awards program for the information security industry and Avast beat out some, formerly, leading companies for top honors.
* avast! won SC Award for best anti-virus in US part of SC awards. Additionally avast! won anti-virus and anti-malware section of European part of SC awards. avast! is the only product which won the same section in both US and European parts of the SC Awards.
* avast! won the Review Centre Award 2006 for Best Anti-Virus software. The award was given based on consumer reviews from Review Centre
In addition you might like to bolster your security measures by running spybot every now and again, just to double check. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Marcelo Silveyra
United States
Local time: 21:04
Member (2007)
German to English
+ ...
| Go for Avast! | Nov 13, 2007 |
I'll be honest and say that I actually use NOD32 on my computer (Kaspersky was a close second option), but also know from experience that Norton is such a dreadful program that any other standard choice is bound to be at least equally as good. Couldn't have said it better than Damian.
Another free choice out there is AVG, and I know plenty of people who are happy with it, so you might want to check that one out too.
BTW. You can, and actually should, run both Spybot a... See more I'll be honest and say that I actually use NOD32 on my computer (Kaspersky was a close second option), but also know from experience that Norton is such a dreadful program that any other standard choice is bound to be at least equally as good. Couldn't have said it better than Damian.
Another free choice out there is AVG, and I know plenty of people who are happy with it, so you might want to check that one out too.
BTW. You can, and actually should, run both Spybot and Ad-Aware (both are freeware) on your computer every once in a while. Unlike AV programs, these two spyware detectors work perfectly fine within the same system, provided you don't run them at literally the same time.
[Edited at 2007-11-13 14:10] ▲ Collapse
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avast! is only free in the Home Edition, whose license terms prohibit the use in a commercial environment (such as the workplace of a translator who makes a living using the computer avast! is supposed to protect). The Professional edition is shareware, which means you have to buy a license after 60 days that costs $39.95 per year.
See http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
... See more avast! is only free in the Home Edition, whose license terms prohibit the use in a commercial environment (such as the workplace of a translator who makes a living using the computer avast! is supposed to protect). The Professional edition is shareware, which means you have to buy a license after 60 days that costs $39.95 per year.
See http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
"avast! Home Edition is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. [...] If you are not a home user, or you use your computer for profit, the avast! Home Edition is not licensed for such use, and you are asked to use the commercial version - avast! Professional Edition."
The same applies to a lot of other supposedly "free" antivirus packages which a lot of people here on ProZ.com like to use. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Pavel Blann
Czech Republic
Local time: 06:04
English to Czech
SITE LOCALIZER | Damian Harrison (X)
Germany
Local time: 06:04
German to English
My post was rather misleading with regard to the cost of avast. Sorry
But irrespective of that issue, avast remains a top-notch prog and IMHO is better value for money than Norton.
| | | | CMJ_Trans (X)
Local time: 06:04
French to English
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My IT expert recently put Avast on my machine in the place of Kaspersky (which was good but had expired). Since the guy does a lot of work for hospitals and banks and swears by Avast, I was happy to take his advice.
I have only had the system for about 6 weeks, so it is a bit soon to tell but the signs are good
HTH
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 06:04
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Don't be afraid of free stuff... | Nov 13, 2007 |
Mara Ballarini wrote:
A friend has suggest to use download Avast!, which is free, and use it together with Ad-Aware. The fact that it's free but, worries me a little bit, I must say...
I don't use Avast (I use AVG) but you don't have to be afraid of free stuff. Just remember that technically speaking Avast (and AVG) is only free for home use and not for professional use. If you earn a living off the computer that you had installed it on, stritctly speaking you should pay for it.
A really, really free antivirus for private and commercial use is ClamWin. The only thing about ClamWin is that it doesn't scan files as you open them (but you can download Winpooch for that, which is also free).
Also note that Norton may have included a firewall, a malware detector and a spyware detector. For the latter, Ad-Aware would do nicely. For the malware detector, BO Clean from Comodo will be fine. For a firewall, the Comodo personal firewall is an option, and so is ZoneAlarm (and even Kerio, if you can find the free version somewhere). AVG has a free rootkit detector, if you're really really paranoid (does Norton detect rootkits?).
| | | | | A completely different and very effective strategy | Nov 14, 2007 |
http://www.sandboxie.com/
***********************
Sven Petersson
Medical translator
Web site: www.svenp.com
***********************
| | | | milinad
Local time: 09:34
German to English
| Can also recommend AVAST | Nov 14, 2007 |
I have been using Avast for last 3 years and am quite happy with it
| | | | Mara Ballarini
Australia
Local time: 14:04
Member (2006)
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | thank you very much... | Nov 16, 2007 |
...to all of you guys, for the valuable advice and comments.
Seeing how appreciated it is, I think I'll give Avast a try. Even paying, it's cheaper than Norton.
Well, thank you again!!
have a nice weekend!
Mara
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