AOL has quietly stopped offering its free Active Virus Shield software in favor of a competing alternative from vendor McAfee. The free anti-virus software, based on technology from Kaspersky Lab, had been available for the past year on AOL"s Activevirusshield.com Web site, but it apparently was pulled some time in the past week.
AOL"s free AV product is now McAfee VirusScan Plus, which was introduced last month as part of a new AOL portal, called AOL Internet Security Central. AOL also offers Internet filtering software for parents, as well as identity theft protection and pop-up blockers, through the portal.