November 29, 2005

Free Virus Protection Software. Yep. You Read Right

Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, Panda Software and others make anti-virus products, while they are not expensive - $20, $40 or so - they do cost money. However, there are some free anti-virus tools you can use that work just as well (more or less) than the "brand names" reports the Washington Post. While they are not perfect they do get the job done.

The Washington Post writes Avast 4 Home Edition, from Prague's Alwil Software, and AVG Free Edition, from Brno-based Grisoft Inc. -- can be installed only on home computers that aren't put to any business or commercial use. (Income from sales to businesses and organizations covers the cost of this exercise in Internet charity.)

These two programs share a few welcome traits. Both are relatively small downloads -- almost 10 megabytes for Avast, just under 15 for AVG -- that tout compatibility with systems as old as Windows 95. And both automatically download updates every day and allow quick manual updates.

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