PRAGUE, Czech Republic, May 17, 2012 Three days after its release avast! Free Antivirus for Mac shot to first position in the ‘Most Popular Mac Downloads’ section of CNET’s Download.com, surpassing Mac security products from other vendors as well as all music, video, browsing, or other Mac apps in general. Avast offers modern antivirus for today’s complex threats. Fast, simple, and 100% free. Try it today! Avast Free Antivirus scans for security and performance issues and tells you how to fix things instantly. I run your antivirus software on both my Mac OS X and my Windows machines. You have the best products on the market, period.

I have both McAfee Security Center and Avast antivirus (free edition) on my PC. McAfee just sent me a notice saying that my subscription will expire soon and an offer to renew it at $69.99 for another year. Avast is working fine and is free. Can I do without the McAfee and just keep Avast?

Or do the other features of McAfee (anti-spam, anti-hacker, anti-abuse) worth the money? Are there other free software programs for these other features that could make up for what McAfee offers without paying $70.00/year? I'm interested in the reply about McAffee vs Avast, because I have Norton AV 2004, about to expire in a few days. I have read good reviews on the PC Magazine site, but readers are saying it's troublesome. Would I be better off going with Avast, as well? The readers on the PC Mag. Site say that they uploaded 2006 version of NAV and had complications.

Also, when you say 'for spyware you get.' Does that mean those things are included with the Avast. Thank you kindly for your reply. MJM, retired secretary. The spyware programs are all seperate programs. Avast is the Anti Virus, and only looks for viruses.

Malware and spyware are seperate issues that can do as much damage as viruses. The spyware programs that I listed (or which ever you choose) are all free. Download them one at a time and run them one at a time to check for spyware. If you also want spyware blaster(highly recommended on this site) should be installed last, after you have run your other programs,because you need to start it on a clean computer.

After you install the programs you choose, update them before you use them. Oh, another good anti virus is AVG.

I've used Avast which is very good, but right now I'm using AVG, which is also very good, and actually is easier to use. Just take your pick. Good luck with your decisions. There's a lot of good free stuff out there.Maggie. AVG 7 Free (Avast is ok too), Adaware SE 1.06, Spybot S&D 1.4,C(rap)Cleaner SLIM (!) & new free product Cyberhawk 1.1.3.2 from Novatix.

This is behavior based guard watching for dangerous behavior attempts from any source. Possibly could catch say 0 day attacks not yet defined by AV. All free & all play nicely with each other with no squabbles! Not free but important: A D-Link Wired router Dl-604 (several other brands also in inexpensive range (. I'm an AVAST fan (free version) and use most of the other mentioned free 'anti' this and that programs. I also use Zone Alarm (the non XP version). If you have XP (there are only a few of us--70 million says Microsoft--who are holdouts) Zone Alarm is a,FREE, good program.

While I'm at it, I need to install a firewall program into another 'holdout'. Does anyone know where I can locate either the OLD zone alarm program (6.1.744) or can Recommend another free firewall program that supports Windows ME? ZA versions here: I recommended some of the _45.XX & _55.XX series for ME (the _45 are about 50% smaller than the _55 s. The one you asked for may be listed there. I've also suggested older kerio 2.15 which is very small but you'll need instr.

On setting up rules. Both links are in this page about 1/2 way down: Possibly an old Sygate (if you can't handle rule making)similar to ZA: Series 55 Here: I'll note the router has built in hardware firewall (only incoming) so is not OS dependent but would need to have a LAN card installed. Hope this is helpful.