Commercial vs Free antivirus/firewall

**boybi** · April 11th, 2009 09:02 PM

There are lots of free versions of popular antivirus/firewall brands. What are the advantages of their commercial counterparts? Do we really need those additional features?

If my business uses a software that needs to be connected to the internet, should I really need to buy those antivirus and firewall? Will the free versions offer enough protection already?

**renzo_d10** · April 11th, 2009 09:12 PM

Based on my experience, ok naman ang free anti-virus. I just don't know if the commercial anti-virus softwares protects more.

**ans_lim168** · April 11th, 2009 09:31 PM

For me the free anti-virus program is okay but if you want a more secure computer for your peace of mind use a commercial anti-virus program that will suit your needs.

**rion** · April 11th, 2009 09:33 PM

afaik, avg free sucks, bitdefender free version doesn't have resident shield...

**ManicMan** · April 11th, 2009 10:41 PM

Over the last 15 years I've always made it a point to use only licensed anti-virus software. I've used the best McAfee, Symantec and, lately, BitDefender products. All full-featured versions. And yet an occasional virus, trojan or malware still manages to slip through. You can just imagine the amount of infestation you'll get with the free, limited-featured versions. Nowadays the only sure way to keep your computer virus-free is to never turn it on.

**Jun aka Pekto** · April 11th, 2009 10:43 PM

For my personal computers, I use a combination of Symantec Client Security and Spybot: Search and Destroy.

The former is the enterprise version of Norton's and is free from work. It handles the firewall, intrusion prevention, ad-blocking and privacy. Part of it too is Symantec antivirus, the enterprise version.

Spybot: S&D handles added realtime protection via SDHelper and Tea Timer.

There seems to be no conflict between the two. So, I just run them together.

I also have Symantec Antivirus (also free from work) for the Mac. I normally don't need antivirus with OSX. But, I transfer work files between Mac and pc.

"Free" is relative. My ISP offers McAffee security software as part of the subscription. It's pretty much the norm with US ISP's.

Add: It's hard to tell if they work as advertised. I have yet to see a virus/trojan horse/worm/rootkit get through to my computers. It also helps not to just click happily away without looking at what you're clicking at..... *cough "damn kid" cough*

**donski** · April 11th, 2009 11:26 PM

sir, boybi try the comodo free products here halos andiyan na lahat... or try the latest beta of comodo internet security works perfect for me

Originally Posted by boybi

There are lots of free versions of popular antivirus/firewall brands. What are the advantages of their commercial counterparts? Do we really need those additional features?

If my business uses a software that needs to be connected to the internet, should I really need to buy those antivirus and firewall? Will the free versions offer enough protection already?

**1D4LV** · April 11th, 2009 11:50 PM

there are lots of free software available. i for one use Avast and Spybot. For firewall, I've been using Endian. Suits fine.

the problem with commercial software is sometimes, their support sucks, which makes you think why did you have to use a commercial software anyway?

**tidus1203** · April 12th, 2009 12:04 AM

I use Avira. Its a free antivirus. I don't like AVG mabigat sa resources. Sa mga commercial naman pinaka gusto ko yung ESET NOD. Its cheap and its so lean...

**boybi** · April 12th, 2009 12:11 AM

I'm currently using ESET NOD32 in my room computer (which will expire in a few days), ang pinagtatakhan ko is bakit 1yr na e 0 ang number of blocked attacks, while dun sa iba kong mga PC using different free firewalls, marami nang blocked attacks.

Kaya napapaisip ako kung mag renew pa ba ako sa ESET or mag freeware nalang ako.