Anti virus software

[Patches]

Help

I am currently using Norton anti virus which is due to expire in 7 days if I dont renew the subscription, which I cant cos I dont have a spare £40.  I may try to reinstall the disc but I have a feeling that it won't work, they probably hide a file on pc that will not allow me to do this unless I cough up.

Does anyone know of  any good FREE anti virus software that I can download.

Thanks

Patches

[RJ_Paton]

AVG Anti Virus from Grisoft is available free for personal use from
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

You register the package with the company and they will send the serial number for use.

[newbie]

HI, don't know exactly if I'm right, but I had Norton Anti Virus installed and when it expires you do not have to pay for the whole program again, you are paying your subscription for the updates to the program i.e. "Live Update", you can still use your program you just won't receive any more updates to your virus list.  It shouldn't be £40.00 p.a. to renew the subscription.  However I didn't renew because I purchased Norton Internet Security program which I didn't have before (includes anti virus).
If you check through Symantec you should be able to find out how much the subscription will be I think its about £15.00 p.a.
Hope this helps,
Newbie

[RJ_Paton]

newbie you are quite right in what you say about Norton ..... the continued payment is for continual updates and technical support.

AVG which is available from the link I gave above is a completely free program for non-commercial home users ..... this program is updated on a regular basis again totally free of charge.

If you don't like AVG another source for a free antivirus program is
http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html

Avast software ..... again this is totally free for non commercial home users and is also updated free of charge.

I have no connection with either company I have used AVG for several years now and much prefer it to some of its commercial counterparts.

[suttontrust]

Can I also recommend Antivir.  It updates very regularly and is free.

[RJ_Paton]

Antivir is available from
http://www.free-av.com/

[newbie]

Bob- do the other anti-virus programs also have the Internet Security options i.e  firewall?
Newbie

[RJ_Paton]

No generally the firewall application is a seperate entity

However there are a few free firewalls which are rated very highly.

I'll try and dig out the addresses and post them here

[RJ_Paton]

Outpost Agnitum is available from 
http://www.agnitum.com/download/

zonealarm is available from http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp

Sygate is available from
http://smb.sygate.com/download_buy.htm

kerio is available from
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

In addition to these many of the commercially available firewall programs provide a free trial period before you buy the final products but on a purely personal note I have found zonealarm and outpost agnitum excellent products