Are free anti-virus programs worth the money?

Free? Worth the money? What's this guy on about? Well hang in there and all will be revealed.

There's a common misconception that it doesn't matter what anti-virus (AV) software you've got on your computer, any will do. After-all, why should we pay £50-60 for the market leader when all it does is slow our computers down? There are plenty of free AV apps that don't slow the computer down and provide just the same level of service. Well, that might not actually be the case and what you might be doing by using some of these free programs is actually leaving your computer, the valuable data that's stored on it, and your identity open to abuse.

Let's start with these slow and 'expensive' AV apps. Have you ever sat down and wondered why they appear to slow your computer down? Well it's usually because they're doing so much compared to some of the freebie apps that actually do very little.

Let's take Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2008 for example - it's one of those 'killer' apps that everybody warns you against. But let's look at what it's doing. OK, it's checking for viruses, but it's also checking for worms, trojans and Spyware. It checks your emails for spam and helps keep your kids safe when browsing the Internet with it's parental controls. It checks that web sites are what they say they are and not spoof (phishing) sites designed to empty your bank account at the first available opportunity. Whilst you're working away, and even when you're not, it's checking and making sure that there are no hackers accessing your computer over the Internet and it's checking for root kits. Finally, its two-way firewall replaces the one-way firewall that's built into Windows XP. It's beyond the scope of this article to explain these features in more detail suffice to say that Av apps like these are working really hard to protect your computer, its data and your identity - and all for less than £40*.

Now let's have a look at a very popular free anti-virus program, AVG. This is not a slagging off of AVG, it's a decent product. But AVG produce it to introduce you to their range in the hope that you will pay to upgrade to their security suite which does, more or less, what NIS does. what we're trying to detrmine here is whether using free AVG is actually a cost-effective option.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition makes no bones, it does what it says on the tin and it does it well. It checks for viruses, worms and trojans in files and emails, and that's it. OK, you can add separate free Spyware detectors, firewalls, parental control software and Internet Explorer 7 contains anti-phishing, but they're all seperate applications that need regular attention and which their providers usually produce to get you to purchase their more powerful sibling.

So the questions is, is the data on your computer and your identity worth £40 and a slight drop in your computer's performance? Ours is.

You can purchase AV software for your home computer at any good computer shop or on-line store. AV software for your business may need a little consideration to ensure that it protects your complete system. In either case, dynanti is able to supply and install AV software and show you to get the best out of it to ensure maximum protection. Contact us for more details.

*Priced on the Symantec web site on 20/02/2008.