I had Norton anti virus and found it toooooo controling and slowed my computer to a snails pace, even with DSL. I switched to McAvee and find if just as bad, if not worse..

Is there a reliable Antivirus that does not take over your PC????

It has cost me money to find this out, too. Isn't there a freebe out there or a cheapy?

I'm sorry if this is a repeat question..

Thanks

I sampled the free trials of the top 5 or so Internet security suites - they all have those free trials.
It really helps to sort out which program workers best for you and your machine.

I do suggest having at least 1 gig of Ram or more if you are able to add it -1 gig ram around here is as low as 20.00 now.

The nice thing about getting the suites is that it covers so much instead of having 3 - 5 separate programs.

I ended up liking the Zone Alarm suite best.
This year they offered a free upgrade to the extreme version, so that was really nice.

With 30 day or so trials on each you can cycle though each brand till you find the one you like best.

here's the sticky thread with some freebies suggested and more -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread4535.html

I would only download any freebies from a site like cnet.com or other well known safe site.
cnet link to security suites page - you can click "free" on the left to show only those -
http://download.cnet.com/1770-2023_4...dows&tag=ltcol

I do suggest having at least 1 gig of Ram or more if you are able to add it -1 gig ram around here is as low as 20.00 now.

Duh...dummy here, how do you do above, what does that do and how do you know if you can??

Thanks Jo..

Ram is the same as Memory for your computer.
here's some explanations that are better than I could give-
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-RAM-Af...-RAM&id=832188

http://computermemoryupgrade.mysuperpc.com/

and some videos on how ram is installed-
http://video.google.com/videosearch?...8&sa=N&tab=iv#

It's pretty simple really - but if computer is under warranty opening the case could void that. You probably would need a approved tech person to do the job in that instance. But I'm not sure since I build my own so I'm the warranty person LOL.

You can see the amount of Ram you have by right clicking on "My Computer" and a pop up will come up with the General page.
in the lower part it should have Computer
and show the processor type , Ghz and MB or GB of RAM .

I did run with 512 for many yrs but just upped my ram last fall to 1.5GB

I have 1.4 GHz and 248 MB Ram. I have a Dell laptop..windows XP.

I have DSL ( not the super fast one) The slowness of DSL doesn't bother me as much as my computer speed itself. I have defragged, cleaned my disc and anything else I can think of to speed things up, to no avail. It takes forever for my computer to get up to speed, when I first turn it on.

Other than replacing McAvee with a less intrusive antiviris, what can I do?????

Thanks for all your help, Jo..

We have the free version of Avast....it has been great. Even catches things! The alarm will knock you out of your chair! LOL

I have tried several but ended up with Live One Care. Obviously, you will want to have antivirus, antispyware, and a firewall. This product gives you all three. I do like Zone Alarm's firewall best though and have opted to keep their free firewall in addition to my Live One Care.

So here is the thing with free vs. a bought product.

1) Antivirus: they require very frequent updates. Hackers are constantly developing new viruses. Some do it for sport others do it for profit. Either way antivirus OEMs have to keep full time staff that are constantly working against the clock. While some of these companies may have creative revenue models (e.g. Zone Alarm's Trial Pay), the bottom line is that their product will only be as good as the professional researchers that they can employ. Having said all that, AVG makes a good free product, but you have to manually update it yourself (daily).

2) Antispyware: like antivirus requires some updating and for the same reasons.

3) Firewalls: they need some updating from time-to-time. Hackers eventually find new ways of compromising security.