Need an Anti-Virus program

Hi Gang,

I deleted that McAfee trial program.. and wow... my computer is so fast now!!! hahaha. But, I'm not naive. I'm looking for a FREE anti-virus program that will keep my precious XPS 1210 safe!!! Any recommendations?? Please let me know where I can get it too!!

Cheers,
Jake

 

I've used the free version of AVG for a while and been pretty pleased. However, I started doubting the capability of a free AV program (even though I've never suffered from an infection). I'm currently trying out NOD32 after seeing some pretty good comments about it. It has a pretty small footprint, and costs $39 for a 1-year subscription.

 

i second AVG or you could try Avast -- > www.avast.com

 

I use AVG free as well. Updates fairly often enough and scan times aren't terribly slow (I think). Been virus free since I've had my laptop.

Ben, is the footprint of NOD32 comparable to AVG? I don't want anything close to McAfee's or Symantec's monsters.

 

AVG Free here as well.

 

I use AVG, not CPU hungry and hasn't failed me.

 

I actually forget what the footprint was for AVG. Just to be safe, I removed it before installing the trial of NOD32. According to their site ( http://www.eset.com/products/compare.php, at the bottom of the page), the NOD32 takes 15-22MB of memory. Looking at my processes now, I see two nod32 processes (nod32krn.exe and nod32kui.exe). nod32krn.exe is using 20,488K of mem and nodkui.exe is using 3,452K of mem.

 

i'm using nod32 also, with a kerio firewall (you'd need a firewall too). nod32 has the smallest AV memory footprints i have eve seen; its user interface only consumed 500 K at the least according to windows task manager.

if you don't have the spare money and feel that you don't have critical files to protect; then go with AVG. Paid AV is still better than a free AV.

 

AVG is pretty good.
I run Norton 10 corp and it's pretty good with little system resources.
However, you can't really get that for free.
I remember when McAfee used to be awesome.

 

In all my experiences Avast blows everything else away as far as actually protecting your computer from viruses and locating any that you have. And I've never had Avast slow down a machine after I installed it, so I would assume it doesnt use much system resources (I've never looked at exactly what it uses, maybe I will).

 

Avast! 4.6 is excellent - free and out-of-the-way. It updates itself automatically and doesn't hog system resources. I've been using it on two different machines for two years now without any problems.

 

Yeah, I use it to clean up all the machines at work, it has yet to fail me. Hey, you know they have a 4.7 out now too.

 

I use the free Avira AntiVir. It uses three processes, 28K total. AntiVir along with Windows Defender has served me well, no problems.

No cost / no virus / no malware = cool!

For one review of FREE virus tonics try here; http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/a/freeav_2.htm

 

since were on the security topic, a free or paid personal firewall? ive used zone alarm but since it was bought by the checkpoint company its slowed down my connection. also whats a good firewall for a wireless connection?

 

The Windows firewall should be sufficient. Firewalls don't help you with wireless security either.

For wireless, turn on WPA encryption and choose a VERY strong password. You only have to enter it once, so just get something really long and random (mine is 63 characters) put it in notepad and just copy and paste.

Like I was saying, the Windows Firewall should be enough, let me explain. No one ever talks about the most important layer of security, YOU! Changing habits is the most important thing to do. No AV or firewall or anything else protects against stupidity, and once you are infected the only way to be sure you are clean again is to format and reinstall Windows. So habits to practice:

Never click a link in emails. They may not always be what they say
Never download email attatchments, even if you know the person.
Never click ok when a website asks to install something.
Do not use Internet Explorer, use Firefox.
Do not use Outlook Express, use Thunderbird.
Be wary of the shdy area of the web. Crack sites and porn.
And lastly get a router.
Turn on automatic updates

If you do those things you will be fine. I do not have an anti-virus, nor a software firewall, nor anti-spyware on my PC. Behavior is enough to keep you clean.

 

but I love the ad blocks that comes with the firewalls.....

an independant firewall can be set aside, but a good AV is always needed. I know you can trust yourself; but sometimes you might just get forced to open an unknown link, or file or run a program because you need something from it, and who knows if it infected? what if you borrowed a doc file from your friend and its infected by a virus without him knowing? you plug it in your pc..... poof! infected. not even a gate to stop it form entering, nor a guard dog, nor a door! you just letting it go inside your pc without any protection at all.

If you love your files, you value all the hard work you give into producing those files/ your memories / your data collections into your computer; you'll need an anti-virus.

Well if your computer is isolated with no modem, no network card, no floppy drive, no USB ports, no any ports and no c drives; then you probably don't need an AV.

 

I'm using NOD32! Verry good and no problems! And like they all said it's not using tons of memory.

 

You are paranoid, it is not that bad. Good habits go a long way trust me. Have not had a virus since Windows Me, and that was a friend that got a hold of my comp, which does not happen anymore. You NEVER have to click links in email btw. Just copy and paste it, or put the link in by hand. You are never forced to do anything, there are always alternatives.

 

anyone know how good kerpersky(sp?) is i was looking at it always seems to be in the top 5 of all ratings.. i just dont know...everyone and every site says something different...why does it have to be so hard

 

Well, there all fairly similar, and they will for the most part do the same thing. Don't ask yourself which one is the best, ask yourself which antivirus will serve me the best. Reading reviews is always helpful too, but I see youve been doing that.

 

Still, it's best to be protected. You should at least have an anti-virus program. There's always that chance your computer will become infected no matter how safe your actions are.

A good analogy to your behaviour would be never locking your car or house doors simply because you live in a good neighborhood or nothing has ever been stolen from you before. You should still do it.

 

Good habits should always be developed, and should be your first line of defence, however...as far as these alternatives go. Wouldn't it just be much easier to instal an antivirus program once and then not have to worry about the alternatives). But I must admit I COMPLETELY agree with you on using Firefox and the like.

 

I don't need one. If you talk to security experts, none of them run AV or any other programs. If you feel you have been infected, or you want to scan your system there are several good online options that are free and do not require putting another program on your system. TrendMicro's HouseCall is one. If you find an infection, format your system and reinstall. As for loosing your hard work and memories, etc, don't you back up?

 

What type of security experts have you spoken with, mac enthusiasts? Telling someone that an anti-virus software isn't needed, especially on a Windows OS, is foolish.

How can you "feel" if you've been infected? Most viruses and trojans are made to stay hidden from the user, and they do that pretty well.

What makes you think TrendMicro's HouseCall or any other online virus scanner will detect everything? The software anti-virus solutions are definitely more reliable at detecting and cleaning, and they have the ability to detect immediately after the virus is downloaded or executed.

And lastly, why should a user have to format and reinstall everything if he/she is infected? A good AV software will actually detect the virus as it's being executed or downloaded and delete it on the spot -- that's all there is to it.

I don't know why you're so adamant about not installing AV software, but if it's purely because you think you don't need it, I hope you soon come to the conclusion that you're making a big mistake.

 

my votes for AntiVir

 

2 thumbs up for AVG and Nod32

 

I had Norton AntiVirus and when i removed it and installed AVG Free, i noticed that my boot up was faster. AVG is OK, but u know what they say: you get what you paid for.

 

i also use avast and i have never had a problem with it.

 

Well Steve Gibson is one expert who does not use any anti-virus software. You should check out his site: www.grc.com Let me make one thing very clear, NO antivirus will FULLY clean your system if it has been infected. If you have one piece of malware, you have several. With things like root kits there is no way to be certain you are clean. The only way to be safe is to not get infected in the first place. Good behavior and common sense will kepp you clean. Like I said before, I have not had a virus since I had a Windows ME machine about 6 or 7 years ago. As for TrendMicro's Housecall, it is the same scanner that is used in their regular AV, it is solid.

 

well, the trick to security is layers, allways have multiple systems in place in case one of them fails, redundancy, redundancy, redundancy. for example, even though i'm behind a router, i still have a hardware firewall on my computer, as well as NOD32 anti-virus, and a free anti-virus that came on my flash drive from mcafee, if one doesn't catch it the other one will. same goes for spyware, i run Ad-Aware SE, Spy-bot S&D, and Hijack This!, if one of them doesn't catch the spyware, one of the others will, then, just becase an anti-virus or anti-spyware program catches most risks, it doesn't mean that it will catch ALL risks, therefore contingincy plans are needed.

 

All I see on that poorly designed site are ads to buy his software. You should visit this site: http://www.grcsucks.com. If that person has a -sucks website dedicated to him, it goes to show how credible his preachings are. There may be some useful things on his website, such as the random password generator and port scanner, which are also available elsewhere, but the rest are all personally useless.

This statement is completely false. No offense, but you obviously don't know much about what you're talking about so I won't argue any further.

 

Rofl, bogart knows what hes talking about, I'll second everything he said.

 

Just to clarify my original statement, I was not ver clear. I personally do not run any ant-malware programs on my system. I do not think inexperienced users should do this, or those that are uncomfortable with it. If you need an AV I would say NOD-32 is the way to go.

But, for me I don't need them. The proof is in the pudding, no viruses in the last 6+ years. None on XP. Also, and I wish I could find the article, many major AV programs don't catch all incoming viruses because their heuristics are no good.

As for you thinking an anti-virus will get rid of a virus infection, I really truly feel sory for you. Have you heard of a root-kit? Google it. When your almighty AV program finds a virus and cleans it, don't think it is over. Most simply won't be removed, they are smarter than that. Even if it is, most open new holes in your system and allow new malware in. If one is a root-kit, you are done. An anti-virus will help the less sophisticated, but don't try to make them feel bullet proof.

I''l tell you what bogart, go ahead and run your AV if it makes you feel better. I will go ahead and continue my practices.

 

NOD32 and Kaspersky are the 2 best

 

I know about rootkits, but I don't think they're that dangerous and stealthy enough to get past the better AV software. However, I want to know first hand that what you're claiming is true. Instead of quoting some article you've found on the web, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me the link to any rootkit that you think can't be detected and cleansed by AV software, and I'll download and run it myself and see what happens. I'd love to see what type of "holes" and malware it leaves on my system.

 

Now consider this cashmonee, if your not running any AV software how do you know your not infected? Many times I have seen computers that have something on them, and if I hadn't run the AV software no one would have ever known. You are right in one area, but wrong at the same time cashmonee. Once your computer is infected, often times it is very difficult, if not impossible to get it tottally clean. However, this is all circumstantial, some viruses just are not that bad and are no problem to get rid of. Then once in a while you may come across one that is real tough to get rid of, and its ussualy easier to reformat than spend a few hours getting rid of it completely (you can always get rid of a virus without reformatting, its just how dedicated you are and how much your willing to sacrifice).

 

Exactly. I agree entirely

No viruses in the last 6 years? Congratulations, and of course intelligent internet use will help infinately

Now I presume you will be able to install an anti a/v at any time to verify this and not be worried by the results?

 

Actually, Cashmonee is probably accurate.

I recommend running A/V, but I've probably only had it pick up two viruii in about the same six-year period (actually more like ten-years) without as careful computing practices.

 

Of course common sense is going to help and eliminate MANY instances in which you may become infected. My point is, no one is perfect, your going to screw up once in a while, or maybe you don't even have to screw up, maybe there just better at getting to you than you are avoiding them. No one is perfect in there habits, and why go through all the trouble of trying to be when you can just instal the software with no loss to you.

 

diggggggggggg

 

i concur. btw I'm not paranoid, I'm actually sitting here surfing porn. And I know the chances of me getting infected would be 1% because I use FF, NoScript ext, Disabled cookies, updated windows, AdBlock Ext, A good Anti Virus, a good Firewall and I don't download any executable file. and I'm very happy and at ease. its ok for 'us' to break the habits once and a while.

 

I take it you don't have a third party cookie manager?

Just wandering, as even if I make an exception, gmail refuses to work until I turn 'allow sites to set cookies on'. I know the chances of anything happening are low-ish, but I'm just wondering

There are a couple of sites - legit (no porn ) that also do this

 

GAHHHHHH! i JYNXED MYSELF! NOOOOOOOOOO! Rofl, I just got a virus on my pc, a BAD one. Hahahaha, I can't believe it. Well, thats what I get for trying to pirate System Shock 2 (best game EVER, but you can't buy it in stores anymore). Ha, its a REALLY bad one, its using ALL of my cpu and ram, its making my hard drive spin up to full speed at random times, the fans are going nuts on my computer. Haa, what luck huh? Well avast can't kill it, even with a boot time scan, and houscall65.trendmicro.com cant even save my ass this time. Haaa, well, time for a reformat, thats alright, I wanted to instal linux anyway, whats the best version (Ubantu, Debian, etc)?

 

The most famous example was the Sony Rootkit that was included on dozens of Sony CDs. As soon as your optical drive autoran it, it installed a rootkit without your knowledge. The hole that opened by this one was very bad. Any file that started $sys$ would be rootkitted. Here is the blog entry about it from the guy that makes Rootkit Revealer and found the Sony rootkit. He sold his company SysInternals, to Microsoft last week, so I would say he knows what he is doing.
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

What makes rootkits so dangerous is that they cannot be seen by the OS they are operating in. Things like rootkit revealer are actually tiny OS's that run within Windows. The sony Rootkit was around for presumably several months before it was found, no AV software found it on peoples system. They have improved, but so have hackers:
http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-6095762.html?part=rss&tag=6095762&subj=news

You will also note that rootkit is working on Windows Vista. Unfortunately it seems as though Vista will not be anymore secure than XP.

 

You are simply summarizing what you read on popular news articles and podcasts, yet you've still not provided any solid evidence of a rootkit or virus that can't be detected and cleansed NOW, today, at this very moment - not whenever a certain article you provide was written - by AV software. Yes, I'll admit that new malicious code is being created everyday and once its released there's a short timespan when it becomes undetected, but the real security experts, eg not Steve Gibson, working at various anti-virus companies usually develop an awareness and solution way before said malicious code is publicized. The Sony and Mailbot.AZ rootkits that are mentioned in your articles are already detected by AV software.

I said that I wouldn't argue any further and I'm sorry to eat my words, but the misinformation and outright lies that you spread about anti-virus software and its inability to disinfect viruses is preposterous, and I have a hunch you've heard that from Steve Gibson, which is sad. It would be a real disappoinment if anyone here actually believes what you say.

 

Kaspkersky all the way. Excellent product and excellent customer support.

 

repeating - firewalls anyone? a good one for a notebook wont slow me d own terriblly and for wireless connections

 

I'll throw in my votes for AVG Free and Nod32 if you want to pay.
At the computer store I where used to work probably 40+% of our daily work was machines infested with viruses and spyware. We went through Norton, Mcafee, Panda (which is pretty decent) and TrendMicro online scans before settling on NOD32 for our customers. It was the only one that found everything.

 

no i don't; wouldn't need one since i know which cookies to allow and which are aren't. I have a common sense.

I don't use gmail btw.

 

I'll second that. AVG all the way. Best AV I have ever used.