Good free anti-badguys-stuff

[Drisos]

hey,

Soon I will be installing my new computer, and I'll have to use free antivirus stuff etc. Any strong recommendations? Last time I had to use free stuff I had AVG and Kerio Firewall they seemed to do well.

Lots of thanks in advance!~

[Dutch_guy]

AVG works just fine, and for the rest don't forget to install Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D and scan on a regular basis.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

AVG and Comodo Are Good (but Comodo can drive you nuts if you don't tell it what to block and not )


AVG-Anti Viruis Scan
Comodo-Firewall

[Mikeus Caesar]

Aye, Comodo is good, i use it to. It can drive you insane at first though because you're constantly having to say what you do and don't want blocked. Once you've got it up and running though it's brilliant.

[Xiahou]

Look here too. Specifically, the "Security" section.

For my part, I use AVG and only scan with Spybot/AdAware when I feel the need too. My Firefox+plugins keep me from getting much spyware in the first place. For a firewall/router, I don't think there's any substitute for a dedicated hardware device- I don't trust software firewalls.

[caravel]

A decent hardware NAT router with a built in firewall is probably your best bet. Failing that then it's Comodo, as mentioned by the others. Though the windows firewall is still better than nothing.

For Anti Virus go for AVG.

For anti spyware, those mentioned (Adaware, Spybot S&D) are good. In addition AVG anti spyware (formerly Ewido) is a good program. I also use a neat little program called Spywareblaster which has a nice up to date cookie blacklist for Firefox and IE.

In terms of browsers, just use anything that isn't IE or IE based, so preferably use Firefox or Opera. A decent browser in place of IE is worth ten anti malware tools.

If you want to take it a step further there's always the option of formatting and installing a Linux distro.

[Whacker]

Putting a PC on the raw Internet with no NAT router in front of it is tantamount to technological seppuku. The average survivability rate for a fresh install of XP sp2 on the raw interwebs with no patches installed is 10 minutes. 10 friggin minutes...

Get a cheapo NAT router, Linksys or whatever suits your fancy, and put that in front of your PC. It's worth the $20-40.

As for antivirus, I can't offer any good options, since I have legal copies of the Symantec corporate client which I use. Symantec's products have had a bad history of late of interfering with other programs and breaking things, and they don't have the smallest memory footprint, but Symantec's virus updates are second to none. Whatever you go with, set up your AV to auto-update (if it can) every evening late when you won't be on, say 3AM or so, and have your AV run each night (or every other night) shortly after the autoupdate is done.

For spyware, best thing you can do is run the Triumvirate as I call them; Spybot, Adaware, and MS Defender. It's been my (and others) experience(s) that combined these three programs offer the best range of coverage for the various spy- and malware variants out there, each seems to cover some common ground and will often catch some specifics that the others won't. Like the AV, set these programs to auto-update late in the evening and run nightly.

If you don't feel like having them run nightly, at LEAST, LEAST run them once a week at the bare minimum. There shouldn't be any reason why you can't or won't run them all nightly, but if there IS, then do it as often as you can.

Good luck!

[Drisos]

A router is no option, I'll be on my university's network, and they have rules for the type of connection you use..

ok.. something else.. anybody care to explain what spyware actually is? I heard of it a couple of times before but never used anything against it. (on my old comp I had norton internet security. (seemed effective but slowed the computer.. ) I don't know if that has built-in anti spyware stuff? otherwise, why didn't anything go wrong?

[caravel]

A router is no option, I'll be on my university's network, and they have rules for the type of connection you use..

If you'll be on your university's network, then you'll likely be behind a NAT router and firewall anyway. They will also probably have some kind of content restriction software running such as Websense. I would stick with the local Anti virus and anti spyware combination and forget about firewalls.

ok.. something else.. anybody care to explain what spyware actually is? I heard of it a couple of times before but never used anything against it. (on my old comp I had norton internet security. (seemed effective but slowed the computer.. ) I don't know if that has built-in anti spyware stuff? otherwise, why didn't anything go wrong?

Avoid expensive Symantec/Norton or McAfee software. There are free alternatives that do the job just as well if not better.

I found this description of spyware in the wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

[Oleander Ardens]

I personally would run also firefox with the Noscript ad-on. It will harden your browser well enough... of course best on Ubuntu, at least for surfing

OA

[CrossLOPER]

AVG anti virus, anti spyware, and anti rootkit plus Adaware and some Firefox add-ons should keep you safe, assuming that you are not out to surf all corners over the web, in which case AVG may not save you.

[Stig]

AVG, ZoneAlarm, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Spywareblaster and StartUpMonitor, AVG Anti-Rootkit

That's what I use, never had any spyware or virus

[Tran]

Comodo-Firewall

Is it like Sygate Firewall?

[caravel]

I personally would run also firefox with the Noscript ad-on. It will harden your browser well enough... of course best on Ubuntu, at least for surfing

OA

I forgot to mention the Noscript add-on. It's pretty much a necessity.

[Drisos]

Hmm.. seems like I"m getting a free Avast Antivirus with my pc wether I want it or not. any knowledge on that?

[Drisos]

I'm going for AVG and spywareblaster now. Sounds ok?

I'm trying to find out if the network is indeed behind a router. I hope so. If not.. I'll try 'Comodo'?

Any more tips, etc?

[caravel]

The LAN you are on will be connected to a switch which will be connected to a router. This is necessary in order for the workstations to share the internet connection between them. A firewall will be part of the set up, probably a separate one or as part of the router. You won't need a personal firewall, just AVG, a non-IE web browser, and some anti spyware programs. (as already mentioned in this thread)