Antivirus s/w - Kaspersky Internet Security - 10 devices, 1 yr - £14.99!!!

Most of need a/v s/w for the PC's, tablets, phones & other devices (but not yet for most cameras, thankfully) - and this is one of the best deals I have ever seen, from Ebuyer weekend special - http://www.ebuyer.com/759822-kaspersky-internet-security-10-devices-1-year-fpp-k...

I use Kaspersky because it's well recommended by most of the PC magazines - and this is a better deal than I have (although I won't be buying this time as my existing subs for 8 m/cs have long periods to run)

Windows 10 has good anti virus and firewall built in for free.

Most Internet providers provide free protection suites. Mine is Plusnet Protect which is actually McAfee's full suite including software updates, browser protection, temp file cleaning etc.

Bill

"All the reviews" say that the built-in MS a/v is "OK" but the 3rd-party supplier packages are rated considerably better (and KIS consistently gets the 5* ratings). OTOH, McAfee consistently comes near the bottom of the pile (never again in my case, as with many of the Norton/Symantec packages)

Maybe I'm a bit paranoid about malware but I had a few intrusions a few years ago, and I don't want that to be repeated as the clean-ups took a long time - especially as I now have 5 networked PCs, network attached storage and so on + a couple of tablets.

There's an independent test of Windows Antivirus packages here:
https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/
For general home use it seems the free versions from Avast, AVG and Avira are rated nearly as highly as Kaspersky and BitDefender with regards to virus detection. The Microsoft one doesn't fare so well!
It's still necessary to block/check for malware and spyware for which the excellent Malwarebytes program proves useful.

John

I used to use AVG but it got rather clunky, and AVAST had some annoying prompting habits which were difficult to switch off - never used AVIRA, but I also used Zonealarm Security Suite which unfortunately stopped me accessing my NAS unit. Agree with you about Malwarebytes if you get the free version (be very careful not to sign up for the trial period, or you can be locked out of getting the free version!) and I also run that from time-to-time as a double check on KIS - but the latter handles the day-to-day protection on all the PCs.

Frankly at £15 for 1 m/c then it's quite good value (and a lot cheaper than BitDefender) and you can often get 3 m/c's covered for that price - but I have never seen a 10- user licence for anything like this price (and would buy one except for the length of the existing cover that I already have).

That Kaspersky price is the same as in Currys.
I tried Avast and found it was tediously slow to do anything.
I have a son-inlaw who is "something high up in IT" in a major international bank - he recommends Kaspersky.
For a spyware checker, I use SuperAntiSpyware (free) and SpyHunter (subscription).
The backup support on the latter is superb

Geoff

FWIW I use Kaspersky all the time. Get it free with a Barclay's account, but I also buy these multi licence deals when I see them at the right price.

I've found the good thing with Kaspersky is that even if you buy an old package, you can download the latest version and apply the older version licence with no problems.

I have a small stockpile of licences that'll keep me going for years.

Geoff - hate to correct you, but the current Currys/PCWorld price of £14.99 is for 3x machines (just checked as I could not believe what was said), not 10!

J
Have you yet tried using a licence that you bought some years ago? If that does work, then I am going to buy one of the "10 packs" after all!

Well, with one PC and one laptop that need serious protection 3 is enough,
Apart from that I stand corrected.
Geoff

There seem to be many potential interactions, which make it difficult to recommend one make over another. I used to use Kaspersky, and it was good, but when I switched to a different backup software it seemed to interact with the Kaspersky, so I deleted the latter. I replaced it with the free Avast, and that worked OK for the free year. However, when I tried to install Avast on my wife's downmarket Dell Inspiron running Win 8.1, her computer crashed really badly within 15 mins of installing Avast. I can't be sure that it was cause and effect, but as our university provide us with free McAfee we are both running that now. No problems with incompatibilities, but we are aware that McAfee rates poorly, so we run Malwarebytes (free version) from time to time. For the sort of things we do, malware infection risk is small, and I have only had one link blocked by my AV software in about a year.

From everyone's experiences, it does look a bit like horses for courses - but KIS is pretty much fine for me.

The only problem I find with Kaspersky is anything to do with money. Its Safe Browser is a slow, cumbersome pain in the parts which sometimes won't let you into a site you've used for years. It must be a known problem because there is a feature that will let you turn it off for websites you specify.