Paid Subscription Antivirus Programs.....

[William33 110]

My Dell XPS 420 was purchased with a 2 year, software bundled subscription to McAfee antivirus. My Wife just bought a Dell laptop (arrived today), which only came with a 30 day subscription (option for 1 year upgrade @$70).

Are you allowed (able) to load the same program subscription on multiple computers? I loaded the program on her computer using my McAfee login account, yet the 30 day expiration still shows up.... They did offer a 1 year discounted rate of $49.95… In years past, I recall bouncing around for free antivirus programs ranging from 1 month -1 year. Although recently, it appears that 90 days is the max.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Edited October 28, 2008 by William33

[Otto 83]

My Dell XPS 420 was purchased with a 2 year, software bundled subscription to McAfee antivirus. My Wife just bought a Dell laptop (arrived today), which only came with a 30 day subscription (option for 1 year upgrade @$70).

Are you allowed (able) to load the same program subscription on multiple computers? I loaded the program on her computer using my McAfee login account, yet the 30 day expiration still shows up.... They did offer a 1 year discounted rate of $49.95… In years past, I recall bouncing around for free antivirus programs ranging from 1 month -1 year. Although recently, it appears that 90 days is the max.

Any advice will be appreciated.

In my opinion the fees have gotten ridiculous and the software over-bloated (especially McAfee and Norton)...

Avast is free and as reliable as the 'big boys.' (www.avast.com)

avast! 4 Home Edition works for 60 days after the installation in demo mode.

You will obtain your FREE license key by E-mail after the registration.

The license key is valid for 1 year. After one year you will need to just re-register.

Edited October 28, 2008 by Karin und Otto

[Teacher Mark 53]

I'm using Avira free edition. So far, so good.

http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Pers...cdlPid=10877501

Edited October 28, 2008 by Joe Six-Pack

[Kathryn41 3,205]

It depends on the software. We use Trend-Micro here and we are able to load it on 3 separate computers at the same time, although we may have had to purchase that option, I don't remember. It's a good program and I do recommend it.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Our XPS 420 came with Trend Micro for 2 years or some such.

If you have to pay for renewing your wife's laptop anti-virus run with free Avast 4 home addition. All it costs you is registering via email. No other costs, no money at all. And a fantastic anti-virus program.

[William33 110]

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciate it. We will try the Avast 4 edition, before the McAfee subscription expires.

Really sux that McAffe is not only a resource hog (although I have not noticed any degradation in performance), but charges for additional household machines...

Freeware baby!!!!

[Marilyn. 340]

I use AVG.. it is free, works great and isn't a resource hog

[Scott & Lai 12]

I won't touch McAffee or Norton; they're resource hogs, ridiculously expensive, and intrusive. There are free and low price alternatives that are as good or better.

[Reba 2]

It depends on the software. We use Trend-Micro here and we are able to load it on 3 separate computers at the same time, although we may have had to purchase that option, I don't remember. It's a good program and I do recommend it.

I had Trend Micro on my machine and found it to be just as bad a resource hog as Norton. I ended up un-installing it because it was such a pain in the ###

[Niels Bohr 72]

The New Version of Norton uses less memory space than its predecessor. Most of the paid version allows you to install it on mutiple computers, usually three.

I have McCafee, and planning on switching over to Norton when the license expires in February. I have read the terms and service agreement of both McCafee, and Norton. They both mentioned that if a virus damages your computer while you have the software running on your computer, both Norton and McAfee will cover the cost of any damages.

Although, it's good to use the free software that are suggested by many members in VJ. It's better to invest in a 20 dollar version of Norton or McAfee if you're paranoid if a repair will end up costing you several hundreds of dollars. It is entirely up to you.

Edited October 28, 2008 by consolemaster

[almaty 19]

I'm using Avira free edition also.. i used avast and got a tremendous virus downloaded from it.....

[NickD 203]

Remember way back when you purchased a computer and received a separate fully loadable Windows disk? Really a PITA with these newer computers with all that free stuff on it that really isn't that free, but can take hours to remove that trash.

Removing programs with Windows add and remove does not work, still leaves a lot of trash behind, using Windows Explorer as opposed to the Internet Explorer, guess Bill couldn't think of a different name, but did use File Manager before helps to find a bunch of this left over #######, if Windows let's you delete it, one part of it can be running in the background someplace. With Win98SE, could load a boot disk and quickly get rid of this trash when Windows wasn't running.

But the real big mess is in the registry, leaving tons of junk behind. With Anti-virus programs, most only let you run one at a time and if any junk is left in the registry by Windows, you can't even load the new program until that ####### is completely removed.

Sometimes the AV program has a special program buried someplace in their web site that automatically removes this #######, have to search for that, otherwise it can take a couple of hours with skill to clean up the registry. Yeah, there are programs for that too.

PC use to stand for Personal Computer, with XP and even the worse Vista, now stands for Public Computer, no one uses my box, carries with it a death sentence, can get rid of most of that public ####### with XP, Vista is a major challenge, but you can find remnants of your old programs all over the place in the many users directory that can prevent you from installing a purchased version of an AV program. Suspect you still have remnants of that 30 day trial that can screw up your new load.

Wife wanted a new Vista box, before I even clicked it on, made a complete backup of whatever was on her HD, used a second computer for that, then I spent a full day getting rid of all that sample #######, and cleaned up the registry that got rid of over 20 GB of pure junk, and made a backup of that. The first original backup was in case I screwed up, but with the second cleaned up backup working, quickest way to restore a computer after all that work. Then installed our own software and made a backup of that. HD's are cheap today.

Use to like Nortons, but they are smoking crack today, make a dual core 3 GHz box run slower than a 8086, have been using Iota System Mechanic Pro that comes with a firewall and AV program, they talked me into it with a 16 buck e-mail offer, say you can license up to three computers, so far, have it on five. I have backup computers as my work depends on it. Actually, my main computer is not even connected to the net, do a virus check on anything that I have to put on it, then use a memory stick to transfer those files, that computer is as clean as a whistle. Software firewalls are also a PITA, you can get a hardware firewall that is much quicker.

I open my e-mails at my server, we all have well meaning friends that send us stuff, much of it can contain a virus, even photos or *.jpg files, delete about 99% of this stuff, it never makes it to my e-mail program. Haven't had a virus in years, but can't say that for my family, each of us has our own computers, keeps peace in the family.

Stepson in Venezuela got a BIOS virus, new that, but he took his to a tech that told him he had an electrical problem, ha, spent four hours with him and wife as an interpreter, told him where to download the correct BIOS program, step by step, and his computer is working again. He was very happy. Step daughters computer is messed up again, watch out for MY SPACE, loaded with virus's. Least for my step daughter, made backup's, take about twenty minutes to get it working again, and I don't have to sit there and watch it.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Stepson in Venezuela got a BIOS virus, new that, but he took his to a tech that told him he had an electrical problem, ha, spent four hours with him and wife as an interpreter, told him where to download the correct BIOS program, step by step, and his computer is working again. He was very happy. Step daughters computer is messed up again, watch out for MY SPACE, loaded with virus's. Least for my step daughter, made backup's, take about twenty minutes to get it working again, and I don't have to sit there and watch it.

Very good.

Very rare to get a BIOS virus nowadays. I don't hear from them as much.

[Ban Hammer 13,620]

william, from what i recall on this subject, it depends on the vendor. some allow you to load it on more than 1 computer up to a determined limit, others allow only one computer.

just food for thought - any chance you can get programs due to your job? here we get norton corporate and a few others to load on our home computers as we occasionally do work from home and have to touch government computers. pm me for more info.

[NickD 203]

Stepson in Venezuela got a BIOS virus, new that, but he took his to a tech that told him he had an electrical problem, ha, spent four hours with him and wife as an interpreter, told him where to download the correct BIOS program, step by step, and his computer is working again. He was very happy. Step daughters computer is messed up again, watch out for MY SPACE, loaded with virus's. Least for my step daughter, made backup's, take about twenty minutes to get it working again, and I don't have to sit there and watch it.

Very good.

Very rare to get a BIOS virus nowadays. I don't hear from them as much.

He likes to download MP3's, warned him about that, most are loaded with virus's. Only only that, but a student gal in Duluth got hit with around $280,000 in fines for sharing MP3's, took all that stuff off my wife's and daughter's computer, and paying $14.80 a month so they can have legal fun, cheaper in the long run. Still like my LP's, LOL. Watch out for those Russians.

Regarding AV programs, found it very unusual they can come up with cures so quick for a new virus, my paranoid brain tells me they have the motivation to put this ####### on the web. How would a hacker benefit from going through all this work? They have nothing to gain.