What's the best antivirus / security software?

[Jays]

Cheesed off with Norton 360 as it keeps blocking internet & emails, and does other uncontrollable things - can anyone recommend an alternative that will run happily with XP pro sp2?
Are bought software packages better than the freebies?

[Spyder1942]

A-squared free
superantispyware free
ad aware
spyware blaster free
AVG 8
i have all of these and they are all quite happy together.Dont forget to get microsoft patch 3 for XP.My compurer got the CoolWebSearch virus yesterday and AVG 8 got rid of it after a fight.

[Spyder1942]

Oh by the way norton is a bother to get rid of.There are programs that clean up after it.Some one will be along with more knowledge then me.

[Jays]

Thanks Spyder - I'll go take a look at the one's you mentioned. As for getting rid of Norton - I hear you have to run their own downloadable removal tool at least twice. 360 doesn't do what it says will in my opinion.....

[Spyder1942]

http://www.computeractive.co.uk/downloads/ you should find most on here.

[heatemyfather]

I only use clamXav to check periodically on my Mac, I don't think it's found any yet. I don't think this is because it's not working, more that I simply do not attract viruses or am sensible enough to avoid them online. ClamXav is available for unix, linux, and Windows too (called clamav). It's free and regularly updated.

http://www.clamav.net/ - for linux, unix, etc
http://www.clamwin.com/ - for Windows
http://www.clamxav.com/ - for Mac OS X

[Lush_Designs]

Be careful to fully remove norton before installing another as it can mess up your computer running a different one with it, happened to me a while ago, took me days to sort it all out!

AVG is supposed to be good and I think its free to download.

[Batfreak]

Guys and Gals, I recommend Bitdefender, www bitdefender com it's a great product and they have a live online scan that is totally free and uptodate. last time used here at work on one of the machine (With Norton) it cleaned over 3000 files that Norton missed.

[exoticincense]

avast. Free and real time.
adaware. Free.

[papagran40]

HI there , for what it is worth...I use ..ad-aware , avg , spybot and windows defender....all free and they work very well...but be advised ...I am convinced they make things run a bit slower...and some scans can take ages...but you have to balance it out...do you want speed or safety...some of these are running all the time so it is up to you...I do not know anyone who has kept norton...hope this helps....Papa.