Simply enter your email address and confirm you're not a robot. You will be emailed a code within a few minutes, as well as a link to the download. Please note this is not the 'normally free' version. If you experience slow connection with the site, it's most likely due to being hammered here so please be patient. Enjoy :)
There's a link in the description which compares the 3 types :)
Thanks, from that I don't really see a benefit over the free version with the extra features
Much better than MS Security Essentials. One of the best free ones and you get extra things with the paid one. Very worth while. (Im a computer tech and get the chance to see how lots perform and keep my eye on comparison tests.)
Care to elaborate?
I'm a PC tech too. One of the local PC shops here uses Avast and BY FAR most of the heavily infected PC's I see have Avast installed. A good number of them the paid version.
Have seen a good number of stupid HTTP/HTTPS issues caused by Avast as well.
First thing I do when I get a PC with Avast in the workshop is uninstall it.
I haven't checked the detection rate tests in quite a while now, but whenever I looked at RELIABLE comparisons Avast scored pretty consistently in line with other rubbish AV's like Norton's/Trend Micro/Mcafee for both detection rates and false positives.
Avast hasn't been good for 3-4 years now. Ever since 4.0? I think? when they introduced the new rubbish GUI and started flogging the paid version.
With these comparisons/lab tests for Anti Virus, it is important to note that there are very few testers out there that produce reliable results. Many, MANY A"tests" are skewed to make whoever is paying the testing lab's program perform better.
What free anti-virus do you recommend?
how is AVG?
@diddy50:
AVG used to be the most popular free one twinned with Spybot, but that was years ago. They aren't anywhere near as good now.
Bitdefender is very good as shawnsmaggot said. I like Avast for ease of use for clients, along with Malwarebytes (worth installing for everyone).
I do try to suggest if they do anything requiring better security (data or online activity that really want to protect) that Kaspersky is worth buying.
DrWeb - a little known (in the western world) Russian one is interesting and the only one that can unlock Cryptolocker files. Not sure how it rates as antivirus though.
@wfdTamar: DrWeb only decrypts a specific variant of Cryptolocker. Anyone can decrypt the original Cryptolocker virus themselves as well.
Well, not just anyone. The average client hasn't got a clue how to do it. Yes, they don't unlock all variants, but some - and that's more than a lot of places can do. It really cheap (I got 18 moths for about $11). Includes Android software too. Seems a good package.
Terrible.
Much like Avast, AVG was good 5-6+ years ago but went downhill quick once they got popular and started putting all their effort into the paid version.
The free AV market is very cyclical. Basically a good Free AV goes on the market, they build up their used base then move all their development onto the paid version. Every 1-2 years a new Free AV pops up or takes the crown.
Which are RELIABLE comparisons so I can check for myself? Anectdotal evidence is fine but it doesn't carry much weight with me. I don't know the sample size or what these infected users are doing.
AV Comparatives
I think so too but Avast consistently scores >98% there. It was up to 99.4% in June:
http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php
I was more wondering about the reliable comparisons where Avast scores poorly because it's done well in all the ones I've seen.
Never used an antivirus, never had any problem with virus.
but for some reason keep getting these strange charges on your credit card… can't figure it out??!
In some cases you probably wouldn't even know. That's the main reason for Internet Security - to identify what's lurking that you aren't aware of.
The best malware doesn't make itself known
Like I said never had any problem, If I had unknown changes to my account I would have said that in my comment.
@Spectator: How can it be unknown when I keep track of how much money I have in my account, I would know straight away if it was being charged for unknown reasons. I only pay to trusted stores on line and check how much I was charged after purchasing the items. Most of these stores use Paypal so I never share my bank details apart from Paypal login.
@Jimmy007: Lol, chill, I was just jokingly pointing out the fact that you can't comment on something that you don't know about. (as in that you don't know what you don't know)
I see you're talking about "unaccounted for" <> "unknown"
@Spectator: I was just replying to your comment, nothing against you personally. Hard to chill when temperature hits 30 degrees :D
Not everyone gets a virus. Probably unless it's serious it's not going to be detectable by the user.
There's some stats, such as 16 million US households had serious virus problems in the past two years. This is only 10% of households. Percent of all US households that have been affected by viruses - 40 %. So 60% have never been affected. http://www.statisticbrain.com/computer-virus-statistics/
So there's a good chance that you won't get a virus. Similarly, not every smoker (or sunbather) develops cancer. And not every vacationer has been pickpocketed. The unfortunate thing is that if you get a serious virus and don't have backups, you could lose some valuable data. It could be quite annoying, just like if you got cancer or had a vacation ruined by theft.
It's not only believable but also likely that he has never had serious problems from a virus. But probably he's also being a bit safe, like not downloading programs from the Internet or doesn't have any valuable data to begin with.
@Jimmy007: not sure why jimmy007 is getting negged. He has valid point. There is no reason to use antivirus if you can manage to do it without it. No slowing down of the pc and one less thing to worry about.
@Jimmy007: You seem to be completely oblivious to the reality that many strains of malware will not reveal themselves because your hijacked computer is more valuable being co-opted into activities you won't notice such as acting as a reverse proxy that gets rented out to anyone who wants to pay.
Revealing that you have an infection is the absolute last thing the malware developer wants to do.
You have no idea how often I hear this in my line of work.
These are usually the same people who one day come screaming for help because they've opened an attachment to an email and had all their data encrypted (Cryptolocker).
Doesn't even have to be obvious things like that, or even be related to money/banking theft.
By far the most common silent infections are keyloggers & silent bot-net clients. The number of home PC's compromised by either, or both of these is astonishing - and most of these use outdated, simple to detect exploits that almost any current AV will pick up on.
Just because you don't see any obvious signs of infection doesn't mean you have never had an infection. You could have a keylogger installed tracking all your passwords; or anything else you type. They can have full access to all your data - pictures, emails, word documents etc.
You can have someone compromise your email address using a keylogger and use your email to send out literally thousands of spam emails a month FROM YOUR COMPUTER and not even notice.
Exactly, the 'I've never used it, never had a problem (therefore never will?)' logic is just plain ignorance and pretty foolhardy. What's the harm in a bit of protection?
The same applies to people doing online transactions (banking, shopping) - to pay a small amount for a more competent security suite is cheap protection. Often you can string together years of free offers like this one of good software. Bitdefender often has 6 month trials every time they bring out new versions.
@wfdTamar: you can get scammed over the home phone as well if you are stupid enough you will end up getting scammed any way. No antivirus will protect you when a scammer makes a phone call and you give them your team viewer or other details. It's all about being cautious. Who knows these companies create viruses and then create antiviruses to make their living.
@Jimmy007: The comparison is stupid: you will not notice anything different at all if you are infected by a driveby download, you will just visit a webpage like any other page and leave it none the wiser.
I think by his comments he has shown his level of knowledge. If he is happy with his choices that's fine - just hope no one considers his opinions as good advice.
top notch, TA
Thanks TA, would someone know if this could be installed on two computers? Also, the code went to my spam folder in gmail, so check there if you can't find it.
Cheers for the post TA.
Avast has a VERY poor detection rate. In my opinion it's not even worth installing for free. It is notorious for all kinds of internet/local PC speed issues and is an all-round horrible AV.
If you want (arguably) the best Anti Virus, go for Kaspersky http://www.saveonit.com.au/products/productdetails/65130687 For just $8 you'll have pretty much the best consumer-grade AV on the market.
Heard a lot of good things abouy Kaspersky. Might check this out. Cheers
Can't recommend it enough.
I've installed it on dozens of PC's this year through my business. It is very unusual that I see one of them come back with an infection. Even with users who try their hardest to install all the crap they can!
SaveOnIT are great too. I've bought dozens of keys off them and never had a problem. Always respond to emails etc.
Actually Avast has a good detection rate and scores well in most areas apart from false positives and heuristic behaviour (no anti phishing test). Graphs and details can be found here for some of the common AVs: AV Comparatives. How it interacts with Windows and other software I can't say as I've never used it.
Agree re Kaspersky. One of the best around along with Bitdefender, ESET and usually FSecure, although they seem to have dropped off a fraction in the latest tests. Malwarebytes is another good AV, esp as a backup detection and removal tool.
I had McAfee for years when it was actually good (hasn't been for nearly a decade now) then moved to Kaspersky after Mcafee let through a common enough virus and I had to rebuild a laptop. Went to BD when I couldn't get a good price for Kas renewal (only reason I jumped ship).
Have some ongoing problems with BD which could probably be fixed via a reinstall but I've been lazy and just deal with them as they arise (can't be bothered contacting support).
About to renew on three devices so I might give your link a shot. Don't mind paying ~$10 a pop for 12 months because someone has to, and IF we ever have problems support is guaranteed, although I may need to check if that's the case from the linked saveonit product.
Danke ,das ist gut
Great thanks, been using Avast since 2002. Still rolling the last free 1Yr. Vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage!
Web protection and the sandbox do a very good job of breaking banking websites from my experience. Fortunately it's none of the big banks.
Another GREAT share from TA!!
Thank you Very Much,
George
Don't tick the little box though, just verify the captcha. Ticking the box means they will contact you to send you offers and promotions. NICHT MIT MIR!
Great advice.
A common practice with these "free" software promotions is to include third parties in the tick box for sharing your information, thus monetizing you and your usage data.
Guten tag alle Deutschen ;)
Done, didn't tick the box, cheers TA!
Done, just translate the page if you're confused!
How does this compare to eset nod32? It was giving out free key for free use 12 months.
Danke, dass Sie engen Arsch!
Hey guys, Personal story of how avast fixed my PC where a bunch of other AVs failed.
I had windows 10 a while and a bunch of services wouldn't start, like spooler and BITS… copying files and things like installations of tiny programs like a media player took ages even though I recently got a new PC with a fast SSD and previously things installed near instantaneously. Windows update couldn't connect and defender wouldn't update. The printer wouldn't work and couldn't be removed/uninstalled. I tried out many different anti-virus programs that were free such as panda antivirus, sophos home, avg among others. No luck.
I was at the time using a free trial of bit defender total security from a previous ozbargain offer when the issue began. Bit defender couldn't find anything and I started to worry that installing bit defender may have caused it, one thing for sure was it couldn't fix it. So I uninstalled it and then I scanned with malwarebytes and one or two others they didn't find anything either. From symptoms and issues I was having and the services that were not working googling a bit said it may have been some sort of tcp/ip issue but nothing I tried could fix it and sfc /scannow didn't find a thing wrong. I couldn't reset the stack in command prompt as access denied errors happened. Win 10 different from 8 so i didn't know where to edit the registry to possibly allow access.
Not sure where the issue stemmed from but I had installed a bunch of random plugins/extensions for youtube in firefox so anything could have happened really. I just couldn't find a fix for the issue but I was 100% certain something was wrong. Eventually I put in free version of avast. It found the network problem and fixed it right away only I don't know anything more than it was a network problem. Suddenly my PC was back to normal. After trying out heaps of different AV and antimalware software that were free I discovered a lot of them are either antivirus or anti-malware like two separate things, but it seems avast is fairly ok at doing both and actually fixes things it seems a large number of software can't and even warned me the password on my adsl router was too weak. At the time I was worried about simply reinstalling as it could happen again or if it was a virus may be brought across with my backed up files. But now that I know avast fixes whatever the heck it was I've sinced backed up and done a reinstall and put in avast free. I saw this post and it makes me happy I can try out even more features from avast. Thanks a million for the post and I know avast may not be hailed as the best, but after trying so many and this being the only one to help me I would recommend at least trying it if others aren't fixing a problem.
TLDR: avast seems to be better than a lot of leading AV and antimalware programs when it came to fixing my computer.
Sorry…I'm struggling to find the part where Avast fixed your computer?
That sounds like you had a Windows issue that was completely unrelated to Avast.
In avast when I did a scan, it said network and checked the network and then showed up network problems with a red cross in the list of things when scanning.. I told it to fix problems.. avast fixed it. My download speeds, file transfers and installation times were back to normal.. windows would update defender would update. The services which couldn't start before like the printer spooler then did start I could successfully uninstall the printer then reinstall it and print the documents I couldn't before. So yes Avast fixed the problem for me, it found it and fixed it when everything else I ran and threw at it didn't find a thing wrong when I was CERTAIN something was wrong obviously.
Um no it doesn't it sounds like he had a strain of malware known as a downloader/dropper whose job it is to install other malware such as toolbars and get paid per installation. Downloader/dropper's often use advanced techniques to avoid AV such as continuously updating infected components so AV never detects it.
Often the scum running these campaigns will do as many toolbars as possible to make their food off you - and then sell "installs" to other criminals where they place the new criminals crapware on the already own crud-laden (therefore less valuable as as fewer crapwares can be installed on it) on top of the already crud filled PC - leading to a myriad of issues as you describe.
This is very common type of malware infection, be grateful you didn't get banking nasties or worse foisted onto you.
Would 2 codes give 2 years rego?
Please try it and let us all know.
Looks like the vouchers are all given out.
Yes, looks like it has expired.
Sigh. I have ESET, TREND MICRO, BITDEFENDER and now AVAST. Which one should I use.
Bitdefender consistently scores higher for AV tests, ESET and AVAST are also solid.
Some say Avast is too much of a resource hog. Either BD or ESET are soild choices but I would use BD if I was you. Like I er do.
Dammit, I woulda grabbed this if I coulda …
any idea about good AV for Mac?
what is the real benefit over the free version anti-virus I have been using for 5-10 years?
Is this better than the inbuilt MS security program?
thanks