Last month, I wrote about the free anti-virus software called "Avast!". In that article, I wrote that I was currently using it on my laptop only and would keep testing it. In about three weeks, my main desktop computer's subscription to Norton Anti-Virus will run out and I will have to make a decision whether to re-up my Norton subscription or switch to Avast!.
Well, the decision became much easier yesterday. Let me give you a little background that will help you understand.
On my e-mail server, I am also running Norton Anti-Virus. Its job is to pick off viruses in incoming e-mail's before they are sent on to anyone having a corkrum.com mail address. Since late October when I set it up on my new mail server, it has worked just fine. No infected e-mail got to any user...that is until yesterday.
I was sitting down in my office working on a new painting on my main computer with the large 19" screen. My laptop was also on and was sitting off to my right, monitoring the stock market. All of a sudden, I heard a series of alarms go off on my laptop as I have never heard before!
When I turned to see what was going on, there was a large notice on the screen that Avast! had detected an incoming virus attached to an e-mail. It was a virus whose name I didn't recognize, so I assumed that it may be a new one.
So what had happened? Obviously a virus had slipped through the Norton Anti-Virus protection, but it was caught by Avast! How had that happened? All I can figure is that Norton was not up-to-date with its virus definition. I don't know if that is true, but usually Norton updates its definitions once a week, while Avast! does it on the average of 4-5 times a week.
Again, I don't know if any of this true, but whatever happened, I am certainly impressed with Avast!. I also recently read that Norton is a system's resource hog and will slow down all but the fastest computer.
I think I am very close to making my final decision now. Any guesses as to which I will choose?
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