I know I said that I don't like recommending one software over the other, however many keep asking for the most economical way to protect their system, so here it is:

If you are into Free for your anti-virus needs then I can't really recommend anything for you other than what any major ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides it's customers. I used to recommend AVG antivirus free edition as the anti-virus, however the 'free edition' it is no-longer available. AVG now has a 30 day trial version, after that you buy it or remove it. However like I said earlier some major ISPs offers it's customers free anti-virus, firewall, and spam filters software as long as you remain a customer. Actually if you think of it, it is a good deal for both the ISP and you. You don't worry about paying for a separate subscription to keep your computer safe and the ISP has one less computer to worry about being a zombie pumping out spam and viruses using their network. If your ISP does not provide security software, then your only choice is a subscription security software. Take advantage of the 30 day trials, and try all the major anti-virus/security software, avoid the 'no-name' unknown programs. Ask your ISP or your local computer place for suggestion on security software to try out. If you find a security suite you like, then your reading is done. If you went for an anti-virus only solution then read on.

Viruses are not the only threat, so a good anti-virus is just not enough, SpyBot Search and Destroy (with Tea Timer) is still free (actually donationware) for your protection from spyware. However the problem with Free or Donationware is that if the author is not making money on it by selling a subscription fee, then the author has to use his/her time time on things that do make them money. Because of this, it is likely that you will not have the latest and greatest updates and signature file that is essential to your system security. Again it is better to get a security suite if you can.

Use the Google Pack for your pop-up blocking and other miscellaneous security features. In the 'Google Pack', if you are going to download and use the 'Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition' then don't download the AVG and if you are going to download the 'Ad-Aware SE Personal' then you will not need to download the 'SpyBot Search and Destroy'. It is NOT recommended to double-up on certain security programs as they may interfere with each other. The last but not least piece of the protection pie is ZoneAlarm firewall (the free version). These are the programs I install into customer computers after I cleaned or restored their system and they don't already have up-to-date tools available to protect them.

The above will provide the minimum required protection and should do if you also practice safe surfing (staying only within reputable well known sites). With that in mind, you get what you pay for, in other words if you want the best protection, then you are going to have to shell out some dough. It is a lot of blood, sweat and tears to develop software let alone software that does any of what the above software does and when it is all done there still updates and support to worry about. I don't blame programmers for saving the premium stuff for the paying customers, however it is nice that they still keep the free stuff as well.

The reason I don't like recommending one software over another, one is that each software has a different way of doing what they do and they all have there strong and weak points. To make things harder, I am not an expert software tester, nor do I have a lab full of computers test them with.

Well... OK, I will tell you what would be on my Computer (if I had the money) and why. Despite the fact
my older brother (a computer tech) is a 'Norton' fan, I myself would like to use Panda Internet Security (currently I use F-Secure provided by my ISP) and Ad Muncher to protect my computer while I surf (actually Ad Muncher is licenced and installed in my system).

First the Ad Muncher. Ad Muncher is cool for one major feature, it looks for and eats ads before they get to the browser, messenger, and anything else that serves ads via HTTP. Yep, even kills the ad banner in MSN Messenger! (the older messengers - they found another way to pump ads into the newer ones)

Second Panda Internet Security - First of all their web site is full of relevant information on viral threats, you can subscribe to their free email news letter and viral alerts, and free 'threats' scan from their web.

Their software 'Panda Internet Security' has a cool feature they call 'TruPrevent' that detects new/unknown threats based on viral behavior rather than depending solely on a signature file. This is good considering there are dozens of new viruses/variants/threats every day being unleashed on the net every day. Also their software covers Anti-virus (duh), Anti-spy-ware/Anti-ad-ware, anti-phishing, Anti-spam, Firewall, and has Parental Controls to name a few.

Well that's it, you decide what you like whether it's Norton, McAfee, AVG, PC-cillin, BitDefender, Kaspersky, Panda, etc., etc. Like I said earlier cover the four bases at least. You are welcome to post a reply to this post and tell me and the others your favorite combo and why.