[the hog]

My sub to Macafee has just expired. Can anyone recommend a good, free anti virus program? Thanks in advance.
Ron

[glen]

MS Vista (free security with purchase of operating system)


Okay, bad joke!

[uday]

What's wrong with the one from http://www.grisoft.com/ ?

[paulg]

uday, on Jan 12 2007, 04:25 AM, said:

What's wrong with the one from http://www.grisoft.com/ ?

I also use AVG and it is excellent. However the free version is licensed for a single system so we have AntiVir Personal Edition Classic on our second computer.

I recommend using AVG first as its update mechanisms appear more controllable.

For reference, I maintain a list of software used at home.

Paul

[the hog]

Thanks Uday and Paul. (And Glen).

[Gpm_bg]

How about Anti-Spy or Malware software ?
I have MS Defender, but not enough statistics so far for that program. ( It's free with the latest AutoPatcher for Windows )
Any advices in that subject ?

[paulg]

I use the following (free) tools:

• Spyware Blaster - prevention tool
  
• Yahoo Anti-Spy - detection tool that is part of the Yahoo Toolbar
  
• SpyBot - Search and Destroy - detection tool
  
• Ccleaner - ensures registry is consistent and removes unnecessary files. An advanced tool so use carefully.

Paul

[csdenmark]

Gpm_bg, on Jan 12 2007, 10:49 AM, said:

How about Anti-Spy or Malware software ?
I have MS Defender, but not enough statistics so far for that program. ( It's free with the latest AutoPatcher for Windows  )
Any advices in that subject ?

I also use Windows Defender. Looks like solid part of Vista project.

Here two links for good free software downloads:

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/

http://www.download.com/

[Miron]

I use Avast.
I have experiences it is slightly better then AVG. The price is the same as AVG (small differences, AVG was cheaper), it is free for home use.

[macaw]

I use Linux

[1eyedjack]

Miron, on Jan 12 2007, 02:47 PM, said:

I use Avast.
I have experiences it is slightly better then AVG. The price is the same as AVG (small differences, AVG was cheaper), it is free for home use.

I use Avast also (for about 2 years). No complaints at all (yet!)

[pclayton]

cardsharp, on Jan 12 2007, 12:33 AM, said:

uday, on Jan 12 2007, 04:25 AM, said:

What's wrong with the one from http://www.grisoft.com/ ?

I also use AVG and it is excellent. However the free version is licensed for a single system so we have AntiVir Personal Edition Classic on our second computer.

I recommend using AVG first as its update mechanisms appear more controllable.

For reference, I maintain a list of software used at home.

Paul

I have AVG running too. No issues for a year since I bought my laptop .

[the hog]

Thanks all.

[GeeGee]

Just to endorse, AVG is excellent,

Geoff

[DrTodd13]

Free AVG is going away so I switched to McAfee which I got for free with my ISP subscription but it is a huge resource hog. It ran like 10 processes and was constantly popping stuff up in the middle of me doing something in directX and of course scanning at inappropriate times. So, I chunked it and switched to avast.

[DJNeill]

Since when is free AVG going away? I thought it forced you to upgrade to 7.5 soon but that it would stay free.

link to AVG 7.5 free

Dan

[DrTodd13]

Hmmm. That is odd. It kept popping up a screen saying AVG is going to a subscription model and didn't say they would maintain a free edition. Why go through all that effort when they could just have easily auto-upgraded you to version 7.5? Seems silly to me but their website does seem to confirm that they aren't going away. Maybe they changed their mind? I don't know.

[csdenmark]

I also run AVG free edition. 7.5.432 latest update release today.

[helene_t]

Maybe a stupid question, but are those anti-virus things really necesary? My impression is that if you don't use IE, Outlook and similar virus-inviting applications and you don't download exe-files from random sites you're safe.

Anyway, I use Linux, not so much because I'm afraid of viruses, just becausse it's faster and more useful software is available.

[paulg]

helene_t, on Jan 16 2007, 11:13 AM, said:

Maybe a stupid question, but are those anti-virus things really necesary? My impression is that if you don't use IE, Outlook and similar virus-inviting applications and you don't download exe-files from random sites you're safe.

You have just described 0.000001% of the people on the Internet.

And I don't blame people for using IE, Outlook Express, etc as the alternatives do require computing expertise (and confidence) to know what is best, how to install them, etc. And I've often found that the non-technical people working in the IT industry are often the worst when it comes to virusing their personal systems!

So I believe anti-virus products are necessary.

Quote

Anyway, I use Linux, not so much because I'm afraid of viruses, just becausse it's faster and more useful software is available.

If Unix systems, like Linux, become as widespread as Windows then perhaps the script kiddies will target it. Although the stronger privilege model and stack execution protection helps, it is far more difficult for a the public to maintain than a Windows system and so this will create virus opportunities. I always think that Linux is also more susceptible to someone establishing a back door by sneaking bad code past the gatekeepers into the source.

Paul