Free AV, is it worth it?

[barryd]

AVG Free is fine

Avast Personal / home edition (also free) is better

Dont bother with firewall software or resource hungry security packages like Norton or Macafee, get a firewall router (you probably already have one) and stop attacks at source. That way all your computers on your home network are protected.

Beware of spyware programs as they often actually install spyware!

Keep your browsers, windows updates and other programs up to date

Watch what emails you open and sites you browse (porn sites are riddled with viruses)

Simple

 

[pappajohn]

i think most, if not all, the 'bought' versions of various AV programs use exactly the same virus database as the free version but the bought ones have more user controls.

the ability to scan more individual files, more scan scheduling options, more scan logging options etc.

i'll stick with the free versions and forfeit the extra bells and whistles.

our office has AVG8 (bought version) on the office server/router and it doesnt appear to be a lot different to my free version.

 

[pappajohn]

AVG Free is fine

Avast Personal / home edition (also free) is better

Dont bother with firewall software or resource hungry security packages like Norton or Macafee, get a firewall router (you probably already have one) and stop attacks at source. That way all your computers on your home network are protected.

Beware of spyware programs as they often actually install spyware!

Keep your browsers, windows updates and other programs up to date

Watch what emails you open and sites you browse (porn sites are riddled with viruses)

Simple

is that from experience ????

 

[hy7711]

AVG Free is fine

Avast Personal / home edition (also free) is better

Dont bother with firewall software or resource hungry security packages like Norton or Macafee, get a firewall router (you probably already have one) and stop attacks at source. That way all your computers on your home network are protected.

Beware of spyware programs as they often actually install spyware!

Keep your browsers, windows updates and other programs up to date

Watch what emails you open and sites you browse (porn sites are riddled with viruses)

Simple

I seemed to remember that the router firewall only stops incoming threats not outgoing threats. Just double checked with an ex-colleague of mine and he confirms it. So if you were unlucky enough to download a threat that was intent on sending data back out you definitely need a software firewall on each pc to protect yourself. Any of the FREE ones will do but I wouldn't recommend Zonealarm.

 

[barryd]

is that from experience ????

Not the porn (would never dream of looking, honest) no but Yep pretty much.

20+ years in the IT industry and the last 8 running my own company. I know naff all about motorhomes but a little bit about computers.

AVG is fine but we mainly install Avast now as it seems less troublesome and I know of at least a couple of customers who were infected despite having AVG installed whereas I cant think of a single one thats had a problem since we switched to Avast and it is the same database as the paid for version just less bells and whistles.

As a previous poster said dont assume because you have an AV program loaded you are 100% safe. Just follow the guidlines in my previous post and you wont go far wrong (substitute Avast for AVG if you prefer)

Interesting that there are 4 votes in the pole from users who dont have any protection. supprised they can get online to vote! Dont put your credit card details into your computer whatever you do (whoever you are)

Cheers
BD

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[hy7711]

Is your firewall spying on you?

http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=187311

 

[hy7711]

Interesting that there are 4 votes in the pole from users who dont have any protection. supprised they can get online to vote! Dont put your credit card details into your computer whatever you do (whoever you are)

Cheers
BD

In the days of win98 if you didn't have a certain ms update and you went online with no firewall or antivirus you're pc would be toast in less than 5 minutes. Been there. :Blush: Today is just too risky because some of the threats are so silent. Not only are you risking your personal and financial details online but risking being used as a server for some under handed cyber crook.

 

[barryd]

In the days of win98 if you didn't have a certain ms update and you went online with no firewall or antivirus you're pc would be toast in less than 5 minutes. Been there. :Blush: Today is just too risky because some of the threats are so silent. Not only are you risking your personal and financial details online but risking being used as a server for some under handed cyber crook.

Agree with you. Its crazy not having protection. I see your point on the firewall as most home routers will not be that sophistacted but coupled with decent AV and even the Windows Firewall turned on you should be ok.

I once was working in a business centre a few years ago that had a 10MB pipe to the councils broadband server and no firewall installed anywhere at the business centre! Some hack from the far east got into one of the mail servers and was using it to send out literally thousands of spam emails per second until the council shut the centres connection down. We stuck a decent Draytek firewall on and they never had a problem again.

 

[pappajohn]

Not the porn (would never dream of looking, honest) no but Yep pretty much.

20+ years in the IT industry and the last 8 running my own company. I know naff all about motorhomes but a little bit about computers.

AVG is fine but we mainly install Avast now as it seems less troublesome and I know of at least a couple of customers who were infected despite having AVG installed whereas I cant think of a single one thats had a problem since we switched to Avast and it is the same database as the paid for version just less bells and whistles.

As a previous poster said dont assume because you have an AV program loaded you are 100% safe. Just follow the guidlines in my previous post and you wont go far wrong (substitute Avast for AVG if you prefer)

Interesting that there are 4 votes in the pole from users who dont have any protection. supprised they can get online to vote! Dont put your credit card details into your computer whatever you do (whoever you are)

Cheers
BD

i have AVG8 free and avast free.

dont seem to have any problems as it flags up dodgy sites and attachments.

when i bought this lappy it included Norton (on disc).
if id known back then i would never have installed it.
yes it is good but only because it slowed down the lappy so much there was no memory left for anything to get through anyway.

 

[pappajohn]

Doug,

on Windoze I used the free AVG.. no idea if it worked or not, Vista seldom ran long enough to catch a bug

No poll option for 'None' , not required on Mac .. :thumb:

jim

maybe the 5 voters not using any AV are using a MAC Jim. :thumb:

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[barryd]

i have AVG8 free and avast free.

dont seem to have any problems as it flags up dodgy sites and attachments.

when i bought this lappy it included Norton (on disc).
if id known back then i would never have installed it.
yes it is good but only because it slowed down the lappy so much there was no memory left for anything to get through anyway.

Best not to have 2 AV on the same PC unless you are talking about 2 different PC's. The Problem with Norton and Macafee is that when you buy a new PC or laptop they nearly always pre-installed and will try and configure themselves when you set the machine up so if the end user doesnt know any better they just go ahead and run them. They are free for 30 days or so and yes I guess they offer you firewalls and parental control gubbins but they dont half slow the machine down and interfere with lots of programs you are trying to run. First thing I do when setting up a new PC is take all the pre-installed crap off including Norton or Macafee the stick on Avast pro for a business or home edition if its a home office user.

 

[scotjimland]

maybe the 5 voters not using any AV are using a MAC Jim. :thumb:

Before Doug added the 'No AV' , I voted free AV as I had it on the Sony, so that makes 6

To date, no virus has been found that infects OS X .. that doesn't mean there won't ever be one, prior to OSX there were 60 - 80 Mac viruses that infected OS9, so I'm not complacent and Macs can pass Windoze viruses, so installing AV on a Mac may well help to stop the spread via emails.

The best anti virus is common sense ..

 

[scotjimland]

I use Commodo on my machine. My son told me to use it. He is a 24 hour 7 Day week computer geek.

He will not use ms products whever he can avoid it. He ripps the likes of norton etc to bits.

I have never had a problem since I started using commodo.

Jim

I was having problems with AVG 9 on the Sony so I tried Comodo ..

I am very impressed, not only a good virus/malware/trojon detector ( today it stopped two trojans and one malware ) also an excellent firewall .. a bit of a pain at first until it 'learns' what is safe and what isn't ..

http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/

thanks for the info Jim :thumb:


jim

 

[American Dream]

I use Kasperski Internet Security courtesy of Barclays Bank.

3 user licence if you Bank with Barclays ....

Seems very good so far.No Problems and has blocked quite a few trojans and DOS Attacks.:thumb:

 

[Crafty-Camper]

I Use the Avast free one as well, seems to work fine. Using firefox used to be safer that IE, but have noticed more alerts recently as it becomes more poplar.

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[acdcdave]

Wot free malware/virus protection???

Doug

I totally agree with you and am a big Kaspersky fan on all our machines. The regular security test surveys in the magazines always confirm that 'you get what you pay for'. If you scout around you can get it cheaply or even free in the magazines sometimes. Costco has a cheap 3 copy version on sale a the moment. I got burned on free AVG which I used temporarily when I had a glitch with updating Kaspersky - I picked up a Trojan from a US forum trying to sus out circlip pliers for a failed A class drop down bed!! Ended up as a total rebuild which is OK - but two days of my time is a lot of money!! Good software engineers are bloody expensive and code always needs updating and extending.

Let the non buyers beware!!

Regards, Dave.