Is avast free antivirus enough

[0strodamus]

I suspect your problem is coming from browsing sessions which Sandboxie would help. Or upgrade to Pro and use the built-in sandbox.

[Gargamel360]

I also don't know if you're aware of the fact that when you do a manual (and most likely a scheduled) scan with SAS, your AV is also scanning every file at the same time unless you turn it off. I have confirmed this by getting a detection from Comodo's AV while doing a manual scan with SAS which did not detect the same file as bad. The AV detection turned out to be a FP but it still shows that they do run at the same time during manual scans. The same thing happens with a manual scan by MBAM and suggests to me that the same behavior would occur in real time scanning by the paid versions of MBAM and SAS. I have never seen anyone recommend or even say it's okay to have more than one real time scanner running. It's always stated that this can cause conflicts and slow down the system.

 
I have run into problems before, yes. 
Similar to this post>>http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=57533.0, one was.
Nothing tragic like when I had 2 resident AV's, i.e. blue screens.
The additional active shield is more for my own piece of mind, as in I would spend more time worrying/digging/scanning without it than I do dealing with any problem that it gives me.(rare)

My paranoia is further highlighted by the fact that I run Mbam quick-scan every 24 hours, and full scan with it twice a week
If I did run scheduled scans, then I would likely leave WD off, or more likely scrap it altogether; plan to anyway once I budget enough $$$ to get mbam pro(bah, don't laugh, I'm poor! )

[Light Archangel]

Avast! free is an excellent Antivirus.

My pc don't have an infection since i have avast!

But If you want forget about viruses, Spyware, etc. you must:
► Use common sense (this is crucial) keep informed about new threats and dangers of internet.
► Use layered protection, for Example in my signature you can see that i use Spywareblaster
http://www.filehippo.com/download_spywareblaster/
That is a Free program that inmunizes your browsers against Malicious Activex, Installation of Spywares and Tracking Cookies.
► Use a Browser Like Firefox, Opera Or Google Chrome (Internet Explorer is the most attacked browser)
► Be careful =)

Greetings!

[Dch48]

 I just don't agree that you can't use Internet Explorer. I like IE8 and I don't believe any other browser is inherently any more secure. They all get attacked and I have tried all the others and always come back to IE because I like the way it works and I can manage my cookies easily. I also greatly prefer the download interface of IE to any of the others. The only one I kind of liked was Opera but I couldn't manage the cookies correctly so I dumped it as well. I also have never found any of the others to be any faster than IE7 or 8 in the way I use a browser. I only open one tab at a time and never have more than three open at once. I'm staisfied with the security setup I currently have because I very rarely even encounter a threat and have never been infected in over 11 years on line with anything stronger than some spyware things that were relatively harmless. I haven't even gotten any of that kind of stuff in over 6 years.  I don't worry about tracking cookies because I only allow cookies from specific sites and clean them out with CCleaner every night leaving only the few login cookies that I want to keep. I think Avast! coupled with a 2 way firewall (The Windows 7 one is good enough), plus a good on demand scanner like the free versions of Malwarebytes and/or SuperAntiSpyware is enough to keep you protected from 99% of the threats at least. The chances of a home user encountering new malware before  a good AV or malware cleaner are able to detect it are very small.

[PapaSmurf]

I just don't agree that you can't use Internet Explorer. I like IE8 and I don't believe any other browser is inherently any more secure.

Now, now Dch48, no one is suggesting that you can't use internet explody..er..explorer,
it is just that more malware was written for that browser because it was the most common one.
However, since others such as FireFox came along, the script kiddies have been all kiddy about
having something to do again.
The difference is, and I use FireFox as an example, alternative browsers for the most part came
out with plug ins right away in order to keep the code safe..like the ones in my signature.
Now it took a couple of late version changes before internet explody..sorry..explorer jumped on
the band wagon and figured they need to participate in closing the script kiddie gap.
I am sorry explody...sigh..explorer was such a late bloomer, even though it SHOULD have been the leader.
Ahh well, easy come, easy go   

[SafeSurf]

@ Jowin,

I think we are all pretty much saying the same thing about using layered protection since no one software will protect you.

You have been given a few good names of browsers to pick from; Firefox, Chrome, Opera are the most popular.  Privacy Add-On's for Firefox to help protect you are Better_Privacy and NoScript.

Use and scan your machine daily for spyware with something like MBAB http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php or SAS.

As others have mentioned, there are many other software available to help scan for malware and many are free.

Do you have a firewall?  Does your firewall have a blacklist (a list of sites NOT to enter when surfing)?  If not, I highly recommend it.

Surf safely and use common sense.  Figure out how you got those other malware and learn from your mistakes.

Update your Avast definitions and scan daily, doing a Full scan weekly, and Boot scan perhaps weekly depending on your use.

Doing all of the above will become second nature to you and you will be happy that you did it rather regret it and deal with the headaches.  But you are doing the right thing by asking now how to deal with the problem now to avoid future disasters.

[Jowin]

Malwarebytes Pro is the way to go, if you want to pay. I use to get spyware when using IE and when I switched to SRWare Iron and added Fanboy's Adblock List no more spyware, so a quality web browser is also as important as anti virus, etc.

I tried SRWare Iron it says it is like chrome but it is very much slow compared to chrome

[Dch48]

Update your Avast definitions and scan daily, doing a Full scan weekly, and Boot scan perhaps weekly depending on your use.

I think this is a bit of overkill. Yes make sure the definitions are kept updated but I have scheduled a Full scan for the first day of every month and I'm thinking about adding a weekly quick scan. You can actually probably get by without doing either for a much longer period. I don't think a boot scan is necessary unless you are seeing problems that can't be explained and regular scans as well as Malwarebytes don't find anything.

[EntitY]

Jowin, maybe try SRWare Iron Beta. I use the standard version of Iron and cannot tell the speed difference from Chrome. http://www.srware.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1482

[SafeSurf]

Update your Avast definitions and scan daily, doing a Full scan weekly, and Boot scan perhaps weekly depending on your use.

I think this is a bit of overkill. Yes make sure the definitions are kept updated but I have scheduled a Full scan for the first day of every month and I'm thinking about adding a weekly quick scan. You can actually probably get by without doing either for a much longer period. I don't think a boot scan is necessary unless you are seeing problems that can't be explained and regular scans as well as Malwarebytes don't find anything.

I don't think it is overkill -- I think it depends on your PC usage and what your machine is used for.

Everyone has their own way of what will work for them, and if this keeps me clean despite doing a few extra scans while I'm doing other things I'll live with that rather than extra headaches.

[comsats]

Hello,
        I have been using avast 5 for quite some time and my PC got infected many times especially with spyware Is the avast inbuilt antispyware enough or should we use another antispyware software with it?

well i think if u a regular internet user internet security is best. If you cant use it, then only free antivirus not only avast, any free antivirus cant stop , but i know avast free also got some special weapons to fight but of course not enough. i would recommend you to use some other tool with it like, pc tools "THREATFIRE"  with your antivirus, i am personally not impressed with windows defender it do nothing but it just tells if theres any problem in system softwares. so i will recommend you to install internet security

[Jowin]

Jowin, maybe try SRWare Iron Beta. I use the standard version of Iron and cannot tell the speed difference from Chrome. http://www.srware.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1482

SRware iron is just as fast as chrome somehow it became fast in my PC but it crashes many time It will take few more versions for it to become stable

[bo.elam]

Jowin the answer is no. If you want to never see Spyware/Adware,
just learn and use Sandboxie and you ll achieve that.
Bo

[SafeSurf]

@ Jowin,

SRware iron is just as fast as chrome somehow it became fast in my PC but it crashes many time It will take few more versions for it to become stable.

If it seems unstable, why not try something different as mentioned in earlier post suggestions?  The last thing anyone wants is a system that is unstable and crashes all the time.

[rdmaloyjr]

Jowin, maybe try SRWare Iron Beta. I use the standard version of Iron and cannot tell the speed difference from Chrome. http://www.srware.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1482

SRware iron is just as fast as chrome somehow it became fast in my PC but it crashes many time It will take few more versions for it to become stable

I have the latest version of Iron (5.0.380), it's very stable.  No problems.

Opera is my default browser, it is faster & better than any other browser.

IE is my main alternate, I don't why I have Iron on this computer.