Help with finding decent security software (for free, 'cos I'm tight)

Hey guys, thought I'd canvas some opinions. I've been using McAfee internet security for the past twelve months with no major complaints, however my 12 month siubscription runs out in six days time. Thanks to the stupid recession -combined with my own inherent cheapness-, I'm loathe to fork over £35 for another twelve months of protection.

With that in mind, what do people recommend I use from the various free softwares available? (For clarity's sake I'm on a PC, using 32bit Vista basic)

On my old XP system I used Zone Alarm firewall combined with AVG free, but I hear that ZA is not exactly Vista friendly, is that still the case? I also hear good things about the free version of Avira, so would appreciate some feedback from anyone who's used the various free softwares with Vista.

Cheers

I use Linux, which comes with it's own anti-virus. I did come across this while searching for you though.
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Cheers BladeWave I keep thinking of switching to Linux, but then I imagine myself being totally confounded by having to do everything via a command line, which intimidates me. I found the old DOS systems complex enough, even Windows 98 gave me trouble at times

http://www.filehippo.com/ has lists of security,Anti-virus,firewalls,anti-spyware & much more besides............all freeware

I use linux on this computer so its not a problem.
On my windows machine I have zone alarm firewall, avg anti virus and Adaware anti spyware.
All are free and seem to work ok.

My McAfee subscription ran out too! Another vote for Zone Alarm free edition, but I can't stand AVG, it just seems to have got bloated and slows my PC down. I've switched to Avira and performance wise it seems to be much better

Spyware wise I also use Ad-Aware and Malware Bytes.

mr gummidge Wrote:Cheers BladeWave I keep thinking of switching to Linux, but then I imagine myself being totally confounded by having to do everything via a command line, which intimidates me. I found the old DOS systems complex enough, even Windows 98 gave me trouble at times

On modern linux systems, the command line is only necessary for a few things.
Nearly everything can be done with the mouse these days. Its about 5 years ago since I first tried it and its just got better and better. Hardware compatibility has been the biggest problem. When I started, I had no sound for about 6 months because the sound card was not supported. Its only in the last year that all my usb wifi adapters work ok automatically. I use the gnome desktop with firefox and openoffice, which both work just like on windows. It does not take much effort to get all the multimedia sound and video working. I do all my video editing in linux. You should try it. Start off with Ubuntu.

Zone Alarm is a brilliant firewall and for a free app it is exceptional.

When needing an anti virus it is well worth paying for one if you are on windows. AVG and Avast can be so flakey at times. Half the time they detect things as a virus when they are not and they are not the best at detecting the latest threats (you get what you pay for)

I currently use bit defender, you can get 3 licenses for 1 year for £20 so I have it on my laptop, main pc and my media center.

mr gummidge Wrote:Hey guys, thought I'd canvas some opinions. I've been using McAfee internet security for the past twelve months with no major complaints, however my 12 month siubscription runs out in six days time. Thanks to the stupid recession -combined with my own inherent cheapness-, I'm loathe to fork over £35 for another twelve months of protection.

With that in mind, what do people recommend I use from the various free softwares available? (For clarity's sake I'm on a PC, using 32bit Vista basic)

On my old XP system I used Zone Alarm firewall combined with AVG free, but I hear that ZA is not exactly Vista friendly, is that still the case? I also hear good things about the free version of Avira, so would appreciate some feedback from anyone who's used the various free softwares with Vista.

Cheers

I recommend it F-Secure Client Security, all in one.
See PM...

I have Vista - I had problems downloading/updating AVG, so I decided to try Avira. So far, I find it tons better - much quicker and easier for updates and scanning. Just a whole lot more efficient, really.

EDIT: I've only had one problem where it misidentified my firefox cache as a virus, bit it's a known problem...and I can forgive it for being overcautious