Worth it to pay for antivirus?

[Thready]

My friend got a new laptop and I was going to get him a 1 year subscription to an antivirus app for Christmas. Is antivirus worth paying for or does Avast do the job? 

 

Thanks

[Metallus97]

NONONONO!

 

These days an anti virus is not realy needed if

1. youre not silly and klick on the ads with „some hott af girl next to you wants....“  you know them lol

2. you keep your OS in good and updated shape

 

But an free antivirus cant hurt. Avast free is pretty nice.

 

Why not the payed?

1. Thread detection/protection engine is the same

2. you pay for silly features you dont need or can get (some times even better) from elsewhere 

[Thready]

Just now, Metallus97 said:

NONONONO

No what? No to pay for it or no that Avast is not good enough?

[Metallus97]

1 minute ago, Thready said:

No what? No to pay for it or no that Avast is not good enough?

Sorry my iPad ate the text, post is now updated 

[Jumballi]

I pay for something light like malware bytes and use a free ad block which covers most of my mistakes, anything over $30 a year is a scam though and honestly isn't worth the headache they make.

[Thready]

1 minute ago, Metallus97 said:

Sorry my iPad ate the text, post is now updated 

 

4 minutes ago, Metallus97 said:

NONONONO!

 

These days an anti virus is not realy needed if

1. youre not silly and klick on the ads with „some hott af girl next to you wants....“  you know them lol

2. you keep your OS in good and updated shape

 

But an free antivirus cant hurt. Avast free is pretty nice.

 

Why not the payed?

1. Thread detection/protection engine is the same

2. you pay for silly features you dont need or can get (some times even better) from elsewhere 

Oh damn. I didn't know all the engines were the same. That's good to know. Thanks

[Metallus97]

4 minutes ago, Thready said:

 

Oh damn. I didn't know all the engines were the same. That's good to know. Thanks

Well for one vendor 

[Murasaki]

paying for an AV?

 

[Thready]

Just now, Murasaki said:

paying for an AV?

 

And then he says get out of here doesn't he?! LOL

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, Thready said:

My friend got a new laptop and I was going to get him a 1 year subscription to an antivirus app for Christmas. Is antivirus worth paying for or does Avast do the job? 

 

Thanks

No and no. 

 

Use Windows defender + Malwarebytes (free version,  if you wanna get hand holding get the paid version, though it's unnecessary imo)

 



 

Otherwise those two options are most reliable,  actually don't need much resources at all and are free.  Most (or all) paid AV are trash and behave like malware themselves.

 

 

[burrows]

I would suggest BitDefender.

[Metallus97]

15 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

No and no. 

 

Use Windows defender + Malwarebytes (free version,  if you wanna get hand holding get the paid version, though it's unnecessary imo)

 



 

Otherwise those two options are most reliable,  actually don't need much resources at all and are free.  Most (or all) paid AV are trash and behave like malware themselves.

 

 

Malwarebytes is overrated 

IF you want a AV avast is the best free

 

10 hours ago, burrows said:

I would suggest BitDefender.

Hella expensive and the detection rate is pretty much on pair with avast

[edvin_johansson]

I don't use a anti virus software and I'm fine. As long as you don't click any sketchy ads or visit weird websites, you should be fine.

[homeap5]

Sometimes is worth if additional features are good. Like Vipre - his firewall is only in paid version. But usually not - you can find free firewall too.

[Metallus97]

48 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

Sometimes is worth if additional features are good. Like Vipre - his firewall is only in paid version. But usually not - you can find free firewall too.

For almost every user the windows firewall and especially the one in your router is fine!

keep it up to date and your good to go

no need to pay for it 

[homeap5]

1 hour ago, Metallus97 said:

For almost every user the windows firewall and especially the one in your router is fine!

keep it up to date and your good to go

no need to pay for it 

You're wrong.

For users who want to control what is going on, Windows firewall is not enough. It control only incoming connections, outgoing are always allowed. That means - if you have any virus that wants to connect to internet somehow, Windows don't give you any notifications. Firewall can detect more threads than antivirus, because it doesn't care if program is a virus or not - it only notify user that SOMETHING (with description of course, so you can identify it) wants to connect to internet. Is nice to have that kind of protection.

 

Router firewall works a little different - it doesn't notify you about anything, just prevents some popular attacks, nothing so complex.

 

I don't recommend any AV software, but firewall - for sure.

[Metallus97]

2 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

You're wrong.

For users who want to control what is going on, Windows firewall is not enough. It control only incoming connections, outgoing are always allowed. That means - if you have any virus that wants to connect to internet somehow, Windows don't give you any notifications. Firewall can detect more threads than antivirus, because it doesn't care if program is a virus or not - it only notify user that SOMETHING (with description of course, so you can identify it) wants to connect to internet. Is nice to have that kind of protection.

 

Router firewall works a little different - it doesn't notify you about anything, just prevents some popular attacks, nothing so complex.

 

I don't recommend any AV software, but firewall - for sure.

With most routers you can block that stuff. Allso you can do with windows firewall. But yess thats more complicated to set up than some of the payed firewalls. BUT most users dont need that level of control or don’t know neigh about this topic to even put such tools to propper use

[homeap5]

14 minutes ago, Metallus97 said:

With most routers you can block that stuff. Allso you can do with windows firewall. But yess thats more complicated to set up than some of the payed firewalls. BUT most users dont need that level of control or don’t know neigh about this topic to even put such tools to propper use

Windows Firewall can block outgoing connections if you set it that way (you must choose program first, then block connection). But can't block outgoing connection if program is unknown / new / not previously added.

 

I don't think that, for example, Comodo Firewall is more complicated than Avast or AVG (I know, Firewall is not AV, I'm talking about complicated gui only and options). People can learn more complicated programs in few days, it's not AutoCAD or Lightwave that needs months to learn and years for master.

[Dat Guy]

On 12/14/2019 at 1:04 AM, Metallus97 said:

But an free antivirus cant hurt.

In fact, it can. Avast is known for hurting you.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/12/09/are-you-one-of-avasts-400-million-users-this-is-why-it-collects-and-sells-your-web-habits/#2e0aff872bdc

https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/09/avast-distributes-malware.html

[DoctorNick]

Just use Windows Defender (built into windows 10)

Don't use avast as it's very bad and use alot of CPU without doing anything useful. Get your friend a years supscription to PH premium instead lol (or something else)

[Metallus97]

4 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

In fact, it can. Avast is known for hurting you.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/12/09/are-you-one-of-avasts-400-million-users-this-is-why-it-collects-and-sells-your-web-habits/#2e0aff872bdc

https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/09/avast-distributes-malware.html

Simply not install the plugin