FREE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE AND FIREWALL

[ultimatehandyman]

Hi,

After nipping to the library yesterday and listening in on the IT guy telling people new to computers that "you must get a good antivirus software, I recommond P C cillin , for £20 at pc world", I realised that people are paying for what you can download for free (for personal use).

AVG antivirus is fantastic and is totally free for personal use and Zonealarm is also a great free firewall.

Both of these are in my free downloads section and are both completely free, problem is that I link to their site and they then change the page so that it is hard to find the free version and so you buy the other version.

To make it easy here are the exact url's that you need-

AVG FREE antivirus

Zonealarm


The links work today but might not tomorrow, so you may have to browse a few pages to find the free versions.

FORGET ALL THAT go to www.avast.com

This is the best one you will find and its free. bugger paying for antivirus
i have been fixing computers overs 10 years!

Both of the links that I provided have totally free versions available.

The links that I posted used to link directly to the pages with the free downloads on. The software manufacturers know this and have re-designed the pages in order to confuse people into buying the paid for versions. The free versions are there if you look for them

One of the big problems of having a website is linking to external content. One day the information is there and the next day it has been deleted or moved, one of the worst offenders of this are the Govenrment, this is why I try and never link to one of their approved documents as they get moved and deleted so often

[Chris_J]

Another vote for Avast, not as hungry as AVG.

If you pay for any, then Kaspersky isn't too bad on a standalone and Sophos is good too.

[gas4you]

Just to add my tuppence worth.

I used to use Norton a while back. Missed a couple of virus'e and caused me hell

Tried AVG 8, at the time on one pc and Kaspersky on another. AVG 8 missed a couple of things as well.

Tried to un-install it and it wouldn't. Ended up having to wipe and re-format my hard drive

Now use Kaspersky 10 suite on a 5 license and the new AdAware professional. I also run Malware bytes as recommended by DaveM.

All brilliant.

I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for.

[swarfendor437]

Hi Peeps,

My personal preference is COMODO Anti-virus and Firewall with built in Malware detection; you need more than one malware checker - Malwarebytes is good as is Super Anti-Spyware.

best regards,
swarfendor437

[chat_to_rich]

If you regularly fix machines that are infected with viruses etc. this AVG Rescue CD could be a useful tool. It looks like it'll be quicker to setup and use than boot CDs like the UBCD4Win if all you want to do is clean a machine. http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd[/url]

[dave.m]

Cheers for the link, Rich.

Looks a handy tool.

dave

[jez69]

Well, while I'm here I may as well stick my oar in too. I've been building and maintaining PCs for the last 20 years (:shock:); it's part of my job.

And I should just say before I start that you can argue the toss in favour of your personal preferences - take out a full page ad. in The Times - but at the end of the day, it is personal preference and they all do a reasonable job.

In the past I've used Avast and Avira AV and ZoneAlarm and Kerio (now Sunbelt) Personal Firewalls. I've not really had any major problems with any of them.

For me, the acid test is, "what shall I put on [older|younger|less capable] family member's PC?"

I'm currently running with Comodo Internet Security because it's a one-shot, one-icon deal; it doesn't post pop-ups at every update; and the alerts it presents to the user seem to make more sense than many of the others.

Another interesting point to note is that CIS is also free for business users.

I also have Windows Defender installed and use Spybot S&D and Malware Bytes Anti-Malware occasionally.

Ultimately, it's what you're comfortable with and what works for you. If you're happy to pay for something and it's not giving you any grief then by all means go ahead. But there really shouldn't be any need.

[James Morris]

I was using all the freebies in one version or another, but kept getting the odd Zbot trojan creeping in (it´s gone now - you don´t have to worry ). I found that the Spyware Doctor plus anti-virus package on PC Tools was really good. Costs about £30 from their site, but a lot lighter on RAM than AVG or Norton.

P.S. Spybot picked up the bug, but couldn´t clear it!

Happy ´Pooting.

James

[smithdwsn]

I have download it and use. It is very effective for use. It includes great features and functionalities. It is very fast and easy to use. It is easy to install, effectiveness and scope of protection is very high. This is the best anti-virus software.

[thescruff]

For what it's worth since I uninstalled AVG free and installed AVAST free, my computer is at least a 100% faster.

[lukespalding]

For what it's worth since I uninstalled AVG free and installed AVAST free, my computer is at least a 100% faster.

Both of them in my opinion are really good free anti virus but if your going to pay for it then i recommend ESET Nod 32.
Its a very very good anti virus, one of the best but google search for the cost I dont know cause mines free. :D wink wink

Luke

[straight edge]

NOD32 is as good as it gets for paid pc protection.

But even that won't catch everything. By the time a new rootkit/trojan/virus comes to light it's already too late, it will have already done its thing. It could have been sitting on robot hosts for anything up to a year before being activated and revealing itself.

As well as having a firewall installed and regular anti virus scans check at regular intervals that you have no open ports on your pc. ShieldsUp is the best site for checking you are secure against port scanning or back door attacks. It's free.

The latest viruses aren't viruses in the true sense, they don't do anything but open a port on the host pc on a given day and time for the real netbot attack to start so skip through an anti virus scan because they look harmless.

[tooltraderdirect]

As well as having a firewall installed and regular anti virus scans check at regular intervals that you have no open ports on your pc. ShieldsUp is the best site for checking you are secure against port scanning or back door attacks. It's free.

These days, most people have routers running NAT (which effectively hides your PCs from the outside world) so all they see is the router. So Shields Up is effectively testing your router. By default, most routers have all inbound ports closed. Most routers run some kind of Unix /linux variant which makes them less vulnerable to attack, however there are a couple of things you can check to improve their security. Firstly, change the default password, this is often "password" or "administrator" or something totally insecure. Secondly, make sure remote admin is turned off, unless you need to administer your router from a site outside your local network. Thirdly, turn off uPNP (universal plug and play) There are a few applications that need this, mostly online games, but it makes you more vulnerable.

Some routers have been found to have vulnerabilities, for which there are updates, so it might be worth upgrading your firmware.
Wireless routers should also be using WPA or WPA2 for encryption. It is surprising how many are still using no security at all, or WEP, which is easily cracked.

If you are still using one of those Speedtouch USB ADSL devices, give your ISP a call; they will often send you a free or subsidised router, if you agree to extend your contract.

[tooltraderdirect]

Also, I wouldn't recommend ZoneAlarm these days, it has gotten quite bloaty. It was great in the days before routers which have in built (usually linux) hardware firewalls, and before Windows Service Pack 2 which installed its own built in firewall. Now it is simply unnecessary, and a system hog. I just let the router do the work, and use the Windows firewall, which is light on resources.

[swarfendor437]

Search for COMODO free products and download the free Anti-Virus and Firewall.

For Spyware I use Malwarebytes and Super Anti-Spyware.

Have issues with S&D (Spybot etc) as this did not remove a bad Virtumonde attack correctly and the advice from someone to download another removal tool led to another virus being installed! If you have AV etc and still get hit the best free place to go is bleepingcomputer.com - you may have to wait before a techie gets back to you but they know what they are doing - you can get a free account and the service is totally free.

Norton has always caused me headaches in the past - especially in the old days of dial-up. When a 'gift' of Norton was due for renewal I went for an Internet Security upgrade from the plain AV and it corrupted twice and over an hour of updates later I gave up.

I used to like F-Secure but soon left after being a beta-tester for a new product (you got a discount at final release stage) - the beta was fine - the latest upgrade at final release was a disaster - no gui - they admitted they knew of the problem - only affected renewals but a full version would be fine - I got my money back.

Then tried Panda Internet Security - was pleased with that - especially with parental controls. Then when finances were tight switched to Comodo.

If I was paying I would go back to Panda - for Free Stuff - Comodo.

swarfendor437
swarfendor437