I need some advice. Iam looking for a good free anti-virus and firewall program. All I have ever had is McAfee and I hate it. Due to financial reasons Im not renewing with them.I have found the people here at GAOTD to be very helpful and informative. Thanl you.
Need Anti-virus
(14 posts) (11 voices)-
Anti-Virus:
a-squared - http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
AntiVir - http://www.free-av.com/
Avast - http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
AVG - http://free.grisoft.com/
BitDefender - http://www.bitdefender.com
ClamWin - http://www.clamwin.com/Posted 15 years ago # -
Firewalls:
Comodo Personal Firewall - http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com
Filseclab Personal Firewall - http://www.filseclab.com/eng/products/firewall.htm
Jetico Personal Firewall - http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/jpfirewall.htm
NetVeda Safetynet - http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm
Outpost Firewall (version 1 is free) - http://www.agnitum.com/download/outpost1.html
SoftPerfect Personal Firewall - http://www.softperfect.com/products/firewall/
Zonealarm Basic firewall - http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/comp...reeDownload.jspPosted 15 years ago # -
http://politicallymotivated.net/freebies/2422
Free Avira AntiVirus Pro for 6 months. By that time there will be more free offers.http://politicallymotivated.net/i-suck-at-spellings/3174
Information on one of the best free firewalls + other programs.Posted 15 years ago # -
cimmind
MemberHoss has provided a very decent list of anti-virus software. IMHO jcpa, you do not need to look for commercial software at all. There are quite good freeware antivirus software available. AVG, AVAST and AVIRA are the big three. I personally have been using Avast for more than a year now, and recommend it.
Posted 15 years ago # -
Lee,
Linux has a built in 'firewall'. But you can download a GUI to that firewall. I just can't remember the damn name to it!
As for AV...ClamAV. It won't give you live protection, but it has an on demand scanner.
However, you are right to say Linux is pretty secure in that area and does not require any such things.
BTW once the Linux fad wears off, you will find out that Linux is more of a pain then anything for people who have to use Windows software every day =) But it is fun to mess around with.
Posted 15 years ago # -
Papakid
MemberI pretty much agree with Lakjin's recommendations. Except that I dont bother with the Pro version, just use the freeware.
The list by Hoss is fine but it includes free AV's that don't protect your system from getting infected in the first place (and actually A-Squared is not an antivirus at all, but an anti-malware or anti-trojan). It only makes sense to me that you would want an antivirus that removes and protects rather than remove only if you are going to install it on your computer. Otherwise you can use some online scanners or removal tools from security sites like Symantec that are designed for specific infections if you want to remove only.
The reason Antivir, AVG and Avast are the big three is because they do both protect and remove. The others remove only. Of those three, I no longer recommend AVG--since it has changed to version 8.0, which integrates the old Ewido antimalware, Linkscanner, and some other features, it is not as stable, light on resources and easy to use as it used to be. Its detection rate should be improved and it will now detect more kinds of malware with the ewido engine, but too many people are having problems with it. I just had a long time user ask me for an alternative and went with AntiVir on my recommendation.
I like AntiVir because it is light on resources, has a high detection rate, is more configurable (for example, you can exclude files to be scanned), their support forum is more helpful and, most important to me, you can schedule scans, which the other won't (except for AVG 8.0, but their update scheduler has a mind of its own).
On the negative side, AntiVir has a high rate of false positives. Also when there is high server traffic in Germany, your updates might fail and it displays a nag screen when the updates occur.
If you understand what false positives are and how to deal with them, I would go with Antivir. Otherwise try Avast.
Posted 15 years ago # -
Michelle
MemberIf it were me I would use Antivir. I have used Antivir on my old computer and think it is pretty good for the free version. They have a paid version too. On this computer I use Norton 360 but if I had to use a free one it would be zone alarm or comodo (both are really good).
Lee it looks like Avg has a free antivirus http://free.avg.com/download
http://www.techthrob.com/tech/linuxav.php (a good article to read).
http://www.linux.com/feature/22899 (some Linux antivirus programs). They are probably all free or at least I would hope they are.
Posted 15 years ago # -
AlexSJ
MemberWhile not free, Agnitum with Outpost had a great offer until the 31st. The link is still up probably because it's Sunday and not Monday or perhaps they will extend it.
(http://www.agnitum.com/lp/lifetime_for_1year_price_2008.php)
Anyway, they are giving Outpost – lifetime license for 3 PCs for the price of a 1-year! Till the end of January 2009!
Greetings, AlexSJPosted 15 years ago # -
watcher13
MemberUsing Avira AntiVir. Like it, though I haven't comparison shopped. Occassionally hits on sloppy webpage coding - believe it or not, not just John or Jane Q. Public's webpage, but sometimes scripted ads on my AT&T homepage (!) - though I'd rather have it be agressive than not. I imagine most of the scanners do the same thing. I've been lucky as far as updates. Almost never, here in EST, run into the server congestion. Only thing, I don't believe the boot record search option works on Vista if you don't use your administrator account - maybe not even then. Just running it as administrator inside your user account doesn't seem to allow the scanner disk access. Haven't researched if there's a workaround, yet, though. Haven't tried turning off User Account Control, yet.
Have used the free Zonealarm and it's a very good firewall. They say Comodo's even better. Most are superior to Windows firewall because they're better at rejecting against incoming queries. I'm a believer that your best defense on the internet is invisibility. These firewalls block your machine from returning hits on these queries, which pretty much keeps you anonymous. Tough to attack you if they can't tell you're out there. Not perfect, but much better in that regard than Windows firewall, which is decent other than that.
Posted 15 years ago # -
cimmind
MemberJust a pointer for those who may not know: Antivirus software and Firewall software are different, and usually complimentary to each other.
Two readings for the difference between the two, explained in simple terms:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc2/v12/fred12.htm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Whats_the_difference_between_a_firewall_and_a_anti_virus_systemA popular and frequently-quoted website offering the protection rating of various firewall software:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.phpPosted 15 years ago # -
I use Avast with Zone Alarm & am very happy with them.
Good Luck,
SadiePosted 15 years ago # -
MrFishy
MemberI've tried quite a few Fwalls and AV's and were I in the market, I'd surely take a hard look at the CommodoSuite, which is free for personal use.
As it stands, I'm using the last Commodo w/o the other suite tools and Avira Free AV, which seems to work well. That AVG 8 should be avoided, due to it being bloated and slow.
I'd likely change over to the CommodoSuite if I weren't dealing with dial-up.Posted 15 years ago #
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