Computerhilfen.com: What virusscanner should i buy?

I want to buy a new virusscanner for next year, but I have no clue what should be the one that is the best buy. I did some research, but all the magazines tell me different things.

I am thinking about buying Norton Antivirus or Norton internet security. Is this a good choice? And which one of the two should i buy then?

I always used and recommended the free Avira AntiVir scanner, (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-s-Scanner.html) when I used Windows: http://www.free-av.de/

(You can change language to english in the top-left of the site)

My favourite free scanner (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-s-Scanner.html) is AVG Free Edition. You can find it here: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5

Norton Products interfere your system to a high extent and might probably make it quite sluggish (this is the case especially on older machines).

HTH

cheers ;)
JoSsiF

Thanks for the advice! Is a bought virusscanner not better than a free one then? I mean, those companies get money to develop their software, (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-s-Software.html) opposed to the companies of the free antivirussoftware. I always thought free scanners had some compatibility problems / not up to date / not as good as bought ones. I mean, why else would you spend money on it?

The basic (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-b-BASIC.html) functions in free AV software (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-s-Software.html) for detecting and removing viruses should be equal to those of the commercial products. The major difference is that commercial scanners provide additional features like spyware (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-s-Spyware.html) removal functions or dialer (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-d-Dialer.html) protection. Mostly you won't get any support for free products as well.

Just throw a glance at the 2 provided links for examplary information on the differences between free and commercial scanners.

JoSsiF 8)

if you really want to spend money on this, then i recommend NOD32 from Eset...besides, it has found all ITW (in the wild) viruses provided for tests by Virus (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-v-Virus.html) Bulletin since 1998

look here:  http://www.eset.com/

works pretty good, at least for me, but i think the freeware ones will do their job just as good, unless you got a really bad infection you can then just download (http://www.computerhilfen.de/fachbegriffe-d-Download.html) a free trial