Free Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware and Firewall products thread

2Dead · Mar 3, 2006

Spybot Search & Destroy
Adaware
Spyware Blaster
and AVG Free edition.

Giving Bitdefender 8 free a tryout though

g8wayrebel · Mar 5, 2006

I have never had a problem getting into Anti-Vir myself. It is much better than AVG.
AVG doesn't even know what a Trojan is , and doesn't play well with other security tools.
No one has mentioned the teatimer for SPYBOT. It does a great job protecting registry against unwanted changes ,for a free product.
Spyware blaster is good , but couple it with Spywareguard. http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

craftech · Mar 5, 2006

I was happy with AntiVir 6 until AntiVir 7 came along. Then I started getting lockups and conflicts with other software right and left. Despite what it claims, it is not optimized for W98SE and 800x600. Even though there is a final version out now I won't go back to it because the forums on their website and the Google forums indicate that lots of people are still having system problems with version 7 and wish they hadn't messed with version 6 which worked for everyone.

Lemodular · Mar 5, 2006

q]Originally posted by: TrandM
Spybot Search & Destroy
Adaware
Spyware Blaster
and AVG Free edition.

[/quote]
:thumbsup:[

2Dead · Mar 6, 2006

Originally posted by: TrandM
Spybot Search & Destroy
Adaware
Spyware Blaster
and AVG Free edition.

Giving Bitdefender 8 free a tryout though

forgot to mention also using sygate personal firewall.

Spyware blaster is good , but couple it with Spywareguard. http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

I've used spywareguard in the past and liked it. Haven't reinstalled it when i built my new rig last year and have still been spyware free.

2Dead · Mar 6, 2006

Originally posted by: hawk82
while bitdefender does have a free edition, the free edition does NOT include realtime virus scanning. the paid version includes that. so that really doesnt make for a good free virus scanner in my opinion. i'll stick with avg free which includes the realtime virus scanning.
bitdefender does have a free antivirus scanner online. check it out.
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
(have to load it in IE)

Didn't know that. That sucks. checking their website yields the following

"BitDefender 8 Free Edition is an on-demand virus scanner, which is best used in a system recovery or forensics role. If you are on an "always-on" Internet connection, we strongly advise you to consider using a more complex antivirus solution. "

I'll stick with AVG, maybe give Antivir or Avast a try...

HGC · Mar 6, 2006

I'm using the free 3 month trial of SpySweeper. I also have Microsoft anti-spyware. Is there any conflict using both in real time? Thanks.

Analog · Mar 29, 2006

Added eTrust EZ Antivirus

John · Mar 30, 2006

There's a couple of dead links in the OP.

1) Spy Sweeper
2) MS Anti-Spyware

You can find the free versions of Kerio Personal Firewall here:
http://download.kerio.com/archive/

Analog · Mar 30, 2006

Originally posted by: John
There's a couple of dead links in the OP.

1) Spy Sweeper
2) MS Anti-Spyware

You can find the free versions of Kerio Personal Firewall here:
http://download.kerio.com/archive/

Thank you John, MS has what is now called 'Defender'.

Links are now fixed.

kwo · Mar 30, 2006

Good thread - if you had to run some type of antivirus and firewall on a little 'ol 740CDT Tecra laptop (P166mhz!!!) that was running Win2k, what would you suggest?

There's no way resource hogs can run on this thing......(only 144mb memory)...so I'm looking for something fast, small memory footprint, and does a fair job.

I'm thinking Kerio firewall..but for antivirus? I'm afraid that AVG might be too much for this thing......

Maybe I should just do online scans on a weekly basis? Not sure.......

yelo333 · Mar 30, 2006

Originally posted by: kwo
Good thread - if you had to run some type of antivirus and firewall on a little 'ol 740CDT Tecra laptop (P166mhz!!!) that was running Win2k, what would you suggest?

There's no way resource hogs can run on this thing......(only 144mb memory)...so I'm looking for something fast, small memory footprint, and does a fair job.

I'm thinking Kerio firewall..but for antivirus? I'm afraid that AVG might be too much for this thing......

Maybe I should just do online scans on a weekly basis? Not sure.......

I think what you've suggested would work well.

As far as AVG goes, you can remove the control center from loading on boot with AVG and it will still auto-update and have a real-time scanner fully functional. That saves a couple megabytes of ram. To disable the control center, you can use any app which disables boot processes -- it is not listed as an option anywhere inside AVG. You can load the control center from the start menu whenever you need to change a setting.

For firewall, I've found Kerio 2.1.5 (go here to get it) works nicely. I supplement it with the BZ Kerio 2x Default Replacement Update filter rules.

I have been using this setup (AVG with control center disabled + Kerio 2.1.5 with BZKerio2xDefaultRepl) on two older win2k computers with no issues for several months now.

HTH,

yelo

kwo · Mar 30, 2006

Great, thanks for the info, yelo...

I'll try that out.

Thump553 · Mar 30, 2006

A quick user report from a semi-longtime user of AntiVir. The dificulty in connecting with it's update server has not gone away. Apparently it is way overloaded. While the latest version has automatic updates (in theory) it only works for me maybe 50% of the time. Even doing manual updates, sometimes it takes me a couple days of halfhearted attempts to get through.

It's still a good product, just be prepared to babysit it by doing, or attempting to do, manual updates. Which is a shame because you really shouldn't have to touch an antivirus program after it's initial configuration, in my opinion.

thescreensavers · Mar 30, 2006

I use Avast Home Becuse of its boot time scans and gets alot of stuff

Analog · Apr 4, 2006

Rootkit revealer added.....

BriGy86 · Apr 4, 2006

you could just look at schadenfroh's thread

N8399 · Apr 5, 2006

Originally posted by: Thump553
A quick user report from a semi-longtime user of AntiVir. The dificulty in connecting with it's update server has not gone away. Apparently it is way overloaded. While the latest version has automatic updates (in theory) it only works for me maybe 50% of the time. Even doing manual updates, sometimes it takes me a couple days of halfhearted attempts to get through.

Manual updates ~1530EDT/Standard: UTC/GMT -5 hours almost always work for me taking into account peak server load in Standard time zone: UTC/GMT +1 hour

Also with the always fast download Update IVDF file at the bottom right one can manually update/replace files in <drive>:\Program Files\Antivir PEC folder. Periodic online updates assure Antivir PEC integrity.
Thanks Schadenfroh and everyone for all the useful info

Analog · May 14, 2006

Originally posted by: BriGy86
you could just look at schadenfroh's thread

The Mods should lock his thread.

This predates his thread by quite a bit, and then if he's really concerned about threats, he should append his material to this thread, or at the very least, ask me to incorporate them. Instead, bandwidth is wasted. That's what lifer's do.

benlewis · May 26, 2006

I was in the tech biz for over a decade. Love the Panda online scan and love the AVG as a front line defence!

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