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jute

A Good Free Antivirus Program

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Can anyone recommend a good free antivirus program?

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Avast antivirus home edition. You need to register though.

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The top three in such kind of threads are usually Avast, Antivir and AVG Free.

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AVG is what I've been using for at least 5 years, and I've never had any viruses that I know of.

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Scet said:

Common Sense 2009


I agree. One of my co-workers, however, seemed to take offense to my statement yesterday that "I've never had a computer virus" and launched into a tirade about how it's virtually guaranteed that my computer, despite any security measures I may be taking, is riddled with undetectable viruses that don't give away their presence with immediate harmful symptoms so that they may steal my credit card numbers and recruit me into botnets.

So in other words, some people would recommend upgrading from Common Sense 2009 to the Extreme Paranoia Deluxe Edition.

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Creaphis said:

Stuff about having no viruses and the Wesley Willis-like stream-of-consciousness reaction of a weird coworker


Heh, I've seen people taking it to the other extreme, too: they claim to have never got any viruses or spyware and that they don't use any antivirus, antispyware etc. program. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but we're talking Windows here :-p

When asked how they perform such a "miracle", they adamantly answer that "they are careful what they put in it". When asked how they can confirm whether they really don't have a virus if they don't use any software that can at least detect them....they give weird answers, dependent on their actual level of technical knowledge.

There are a few restricted scenarios where you may (or have to) get by without an intrusive on-line antivirus scanner, but having at least an on-demand scanner would not be such a bad idea.

Oh, and BTW, Avast rocks in the following respects: it's modular (so can turn off unwanted crap), detects network threats too, and has one of the best handling of USB viruses I've seen. The update mechanism is also nice, and unlike e.g. NOD32, there are offline updates officially available. It's not as lightweight as NOD32, but much better than Norton.

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Ive been using avast for two years now, and the whole house uses it now. Its awesome, if you register it and keep it registered.

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AVG seems to run quite a few things in the background so I'm migrating away from that. Avira is a bit easier on your system but it pops up ads every time it updates.

ClamWin seems to be the best for me. It doesn't offer live protection but you can check downloaded files and schedule a system scan. It's got the smallest footprint, which is really all I care about.

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AVG Free is good enough that I bought the paid version for my work computers. The current version is far slower than the previous one that I based my decision on though; some of the other programs mentioned in this thread might be better these days...

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When installing AVG Free, choose a custom install and uncheck the linkscanner. The slowdown issue will disappear, and you won't have that Firefox plugin installed either.

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I stopped using virus scanners because they simply don't work. Years ago my dumbass family installed several spyware programs and a USB rootkit. After noticing them I ran AVG and ClamWin and neither detected a damn thing. SpyBot solved most of it and I got rid of the rootkit via instructions online.

I still have SpyBot installed, but IMO anything else is a waste of resources. I only really care about information theft, since all my files are backed-up. I also monitor my bandwidth, so I think I'd know if I where on a botnet.

Edit: Should also point out that SpyBot hasn't found a damn thing since then. I only keep it due to paranoia.

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I have Avira and its petty darn good, except the frequent updates and popup ads that come along with the updates. I guess this is a good thing because they keep it well updated, but the ads are annoying :/

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Scet said:

Common Sense 2009


That. It's amazing how even more advanced users get viruses and spyware still. It boggles my mind.

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Definitely Avast. For a few years the only computers that I've seen not running it were my mother's ages old Win NT box (running Avira, which hasn't been updated for over a year :P) and my university's patriotic systems running shitty F-Prot, and I haven't heard a single bad word about Avast. It has also noticed each virus that I could have got when downloading or trying to run the infected file; never has anything actually sneaked past it. Okay, the only "issue" was that on my old computer the automatic virus definition updates might cause a short slowdown regardless of what I was doing, but once I upgraded my system that disappeared.

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Nomad said:

It boggles my mind.


I actually wondered how come the autorun vulnerability took so long to be exploited. The mechanism was always there since Windows 95, but only became really popular with removable thumb drives (and then, I only had to face the phenomenon en-masse during the last two years).

The viruses that use this mechanism often go to great lengths to conceal what they're doing: one even went as far as moving all actual content of a pen drive into hidden system directory, and replacing all files with fake replicas actually being exe files that ran the virus and then passed the real file to the OS. Even directories!

Another one even infected a floppy disk with autorun.inf, but luckily (or sadly) the mechanism doesn't work automatically on floppies.

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I ended up switching away from AVG after the upgrade to version 8 (which included the linkscanner).

Switched to Avira Free for a while and ended buying a license for my laptop. Use Avast on everything else.

I rarely ever get viruses, and I put that down to Common Sense, but I think it would stupid not to have Antivirus software.

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Rootkits are scary because some can hide from antiviral software etc.

Is it seriously safe to use the same computer for online banking (and such) that you also use for gaming or general casual internet/etc use?
Maybe it would be safer to make a separate windows XP 'user account' and only use that account for secure stuff (if that would even help)? Or maybe its safer to have a completely isolated separate computer just used for that?
I guess the main threat is a keylogger getting your passwords and stuff (even through an https site?)

Other things I've read (but I'm not tech savvy):
*keep stuff like quicktime/flash/etc up to date since those can have exploits
*use a software firewall (also I think a router is a hardware firewall or some shit I don't understand)
*not sure how much this matters, but I remember reading its better to have internet access wired instead of wireless, I guess to prevent war driving or whatever its called
*keep current with windows update (for windows obviously).. but then you often have to deal with crapware from microsoft like 'genuine advantage' and whatever stupid plugin they actually somehow put in firefox one time
*spyware blaster seems pretty good to me (kinda old, maybe there's something better by now) and is a really small program/not a resource hog
*not really sure about this but remember reading its better to not use the 'administrator' xp account for everything (just windows update or whatever).

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gggmork said:

(even through an https site?)


Yes, only the information sent to/from the https site is encrypted. A keylogger logs keys as they are pressed. One way to beat a keylogger is to not enter usernames/passwords in the correct order. For example type the end of the password before the beginning(and use the mouse, not the home key), or alternate between entering the username and password. Basically anything to make it difficult to figure out the real text from keystrokes.

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Used to use AVG free until it started popping up 'Hey you should buy the full version' all the time, so now I use avast.

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Haha! Antiviruses! When they malfunction the side effects are often as nasty as a virus and sometimes worse. Dell sells a lot of copies of Norton, McAfee and Trend Micro. Not only do they not work, but we used to spend thousands of man hours fixing them, removing them, working around them, etc.

I'll be kinder to Symantec's corporate AV. It's far less bloated and stupid than Norton. I'm not sure if it can find any more crap, but it's nicer to work with.

AVG doesn't seem to be much more effective, but at least it doesn't seem to fry computers as often. I did once have to surgically remove it over a remote connection though.

It's been a couple years since I've used an AV. The only virus our computers got was a trojan from a pirated game my brother grabbed. The whole game was on the disc image and the installer was replaced with a clever little trojan. I removed it by hand.

Then there are those anti-spyware programs. Some of them are close to full-blown antiviruses. Which ones work best seem to vary from month to month. Last time I bothered to look, Lavasoft still had a good free edition of Ad-Aware. I haven't tested anything againt any nasty threats in a year though. Others that have worked well at various points include Spybot Search & Destroy and Super Antispyware.

I'm with the guys on the common sense thing. That, a router, a secure browser, and regular updates seem to work fine for most people I know.

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gggmork said:

*spyware blaster seems pretty good to me (kinda old, maybe there's something better by now) and is a really small program/not a resource hog


Spywareblaster is useful because it sets 'kill bits' on known crapware so it cannot be loaded onto the computer through malicious ActiveX, cookies and other methods. A great layer of passive protection if you ask me.

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Interesting point about scrambling the order of username/password to make keylogging more difficult. I've seen a video where password crackers can nail even some 6-8ish digit passwords in a pretty short time (especially if your password is 'password' or '123456'..), so probably mixing up stuff like that wouldn't be that much of an obstacle (harder for them to automate though maybe without a human looking at the keystrokes, unless that's how they already tend to work anyway).

I was wondering if it might be good to put all passwords/usernames in a txt file located in a password protected zipped folder. Then copy paste to avoid hitting keys. (but uh.. then they could key log your zipped folder password instead.. plus maybe the 'clipboard' or whatever its called that was copied to can be spied on)

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gggmork said:
(especially if your password is 'password' or '123456'..)

That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!

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Maes said:

Heh, I've seen people taking it to the other extreme, too: they claim to have never got any viruses or spyware and that they don't use any antivirus, antispyware etc. program. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but we're talking Windows here :-p


Yeah, that extreme is definitely also insensible. My own security strategy is quite centrist by comparison. I use AVG Free with Linkscanner, E-Mail Scanner and ID Protection disabled. Thanks, AVG, but as long as you keep doing your job I'll keep doing mine. I also have Spybot on this computer, which I haven't updated or even run in quite a while now, come to think of it, and I always have Teatimer running in the background, which has already proven valuable in the fight against viruses, as I was able to use it to prevent registry infection by Apple Quicktime.

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