Best FREE Antivirus / Firewall

[b3six]

I have 2 friends, both have over 300 viruses..was wondering what is the best free antivirus/firewall they can use? and also how good are they ??

 

[mechBgon]

Of the antiviruses that are free for home use, AntiVir is your best bet. How good is it? Not good enough to throw caution to the wind and do stupid stuff :evil: full security strategy for them to consider.

 

[law9933]

Asked many times, many opinions (a forum search).
A complete setup>

Avast or AVG
Zonealarm
Firefox+addons
Spyware Blocker
Spybot (Immunize)
Windows Defender or Spyware Terminator

 

[b3six]

ive searched and had better luck with the antivirus, which i went with antivir for them. for the firewall ive heard of zonealarm and comodo. is there anythin else? which of these 2 is better? I'm on a mac..have used zonealarm a whiel ago so dont know how it is now. any suggestions?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: b3six
ive searched and had better luck with the antivirus, which i went with antivir for them. for the firewall ive heard of zonealarm and comodo. is there anythin else?

Windows Firewall? If you're looking for malware prevention by means of a fancier firewall, that's WAY too late in the game IMHO.

 

[b3six]

is windows firewall anygood for keepin out intruders and all that? i know nothin about any of this since i have a mac now..just helpin some friends out

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah. Although for keeping out intruders, I'd be using a router as the primary line of defense against attacks from computers/attackers on the Internet.

 

[Ultralight]

Online Armor has a very good free firewall plus it has HIPS. And as mechBgon rightly points a router is your first defense.

 

[b3six]

router isnt an option since they wont buy anythin..tryin to help em the best way i can! so Online armor is the best free choice? Never heard of it, what are HIPS??

 

[BW86]

My Windows machine has the following:

(all free)
AntiVir
Kerio v2.1.5.
Firefox w/ addons
Spywareblaster
Spybot

 

[b3six]

and does antivir constantly check files in the background?

 

[b3six]

Originally posted by: BW86
My Windows machine has the following:

(all free)
AntiVir
Kerio v2.1.5.
Firefox w/ addons
Spywareblaster
Spybot

what firefox addons are you talkin about?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: b3six
and does antivir constantly check files in the background?

It has real-time protection, if that's the question.

 

[KoolDrew]

Windows Firewall & avast!

 

[Azaran]

For a free anti-virus Anti-Vir and Avast make pretty solid products. For firewall check out Comodo and Online Armor. Both offer a free one that on http://www.matousec.com/ beat out the paid versions.

I've been testing out both firewalls and personally prefer Comodo. Online armor seems to like blocking some sites on my comp and they don't offer all the bells and whistles on their free version like Comodo. However since testing the paid one, I realized I don't use most of those options anyway. But since they're both free give em a try and see which ones you like.

Windows XP firewall is pretty well known to be crap so I wouldn't rely on that. A router/switch (like a linksys) makes a decent NAT layer of protection but wont help much if you've gotten nasties in your system already. As for them not buying him anything... well thats a hard one. If he does any online purchases.. ask how much dealing with a stolen credit card number or a compromised bank account is worth to them.

Comodo
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/index.html

Online Armor
http://www.tallemu.com/free-fi...otection-software.html

 

[PowerRanger]

For free programs I've preferred Antivir and Comodo.

 

[xgsound]

Even though a format and reinstall can often be more time efficient, cleaning the system should give the owners an idea what to stay away from in the future.

In addition to the A/V get Superantispyware for periodic malware scans. If they already have many viruses they probably have a lot of everything else that the viruses and trojans could download.

They will need winsockxp.exe (get it before running scans) also in case their internet access is broken by removing the malware.

Update the A/V and Superantispyware and run them in safe mode. That should give them a good start and may fix them totally. If they still have problems or can't run the programs there are more steps that can be taken, but start there.


Jim

 

[SilthDraeth]

Originally posted by: b3six
I have 2 friends, both have over 300 viruses..was wondering what is the best free antivirus/firewall they can use? and also how good are they ??

A condom.



















Sorry. I couldn't resist.

 

[keeftea]

Symantec v10
Kerio v2.1.5.
Firefox w/ addons
Spywareblaster
Limited accts

Glad i am not the only one who still uses kerio 2.1.5, I thought I was becoming a dinosaur.