Free Kaspersky Antivirus from AOL

[Engineer]

I have been running on two PC's for a week with no issues. After installation, it found a total of 37 virii/malware programs between the two PC. Anti Vir didn't seem to mind them being there (and didn't find them either). Internet speed is actually a few K faster but that could be due to other factors.

Seems to update multiple times per day. So far, a :thumbsup:

 

[DasFox]

sounds good, keep this BUMPED I'd really love to keep hearing comments back on this, cause if it really rocks over AVG, then I'll use it.

ALOHA

 

[BIGFOOTPI]

been running on my pc since this thread was first posted- no problems, runs great and found crap on my system I didn't know was there.
I'd hit it!

ps- sandboxie is cool- thx

 

[handydave]

I'm sure this is good software, but I have had major system issues ever since I installed it. On my original system, IE would crash all the time and made my system very unstable with Data Exception Protection Errors all the time.

I just built a new machine with a fresh copy of XP. Once I got done installing all my original application, the machine started up with the crashing and the DEP errors again. There is something on my machine this software doesn't like. Once I deinstalled it, my machine has been running like a champ.

I will say I have this on one of my laptops and have not had any issues.

 

[Ike0069]

Of the ones whor are using this now, any complaints? How about how it compares to other Anti-virus SW you've used? I use Anti-vir now, but maybe I should give this a try.

 

[BIGFOOTPI]

Originally posted by: handydave
I'm sure this is good software, but I have had major system issues ever since I installed it. On my original system, IE would crash all the time and made my system very unstable with Data Exception Protection Errors all the time.

I just built a new machine with a fresh copy of XP. Once I got done installing all my original application, the machine started up with the crashing and the DEP errors again. There is something on my machine this software doesn't like. Once I deinstalled it, my machine has been running like a champ.

I will say I have this on one of my laptops and have not had any issues.

AH- that sounds unfortunate. I use win2000sp3 myself. Im not a fan of that DEP mess. WinXP sp2's DEP has issues with some HP officejet software/drivers too.

 

[neocor]

So do i need to have anything remotely related to AOL in my machine to have this?

If yes then I will not bother.

neo

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: DasFox
sounds good, keep this BUMPED I'd really love to keep hearing comments back on this, cause if it really rocks over AVG, then I'll use it.

ALOHA

I would reccomend that if people want to try this to use the sandboxie program mentioned a couple of pages back. I had AVG free on my computer and wanted to try this Kaspersky version to see if it detected any virus that AVG didn't.

So I did a full system scan, uninstalled AVG, rebooted and then installed this free Kaspersky version. Then I rebooted again.... right into the infamous Blue Screen of Death. I shut down and tried to boot again, this time it actually got into windows... for about 3 second and the BS od D again.

So I rebooted and my raid bios said I need to rebuild the array. I went by that into safe mode and tried to uninstall the software. It wouldn't run the add/remove programs from the contol panel to unistall it. I got my son and he tried some tricks to bypass the control panel and open add/remove by itself. That didn't work either.

At this point I had nothing to lose, so my son (who is quite knowable with computers) went into registry and deleted all the references he could find (after backing them up). We rebooted, went back into safe mode to make sure everthing was still gone, and it was so we rebooted, let the array build itself checked the registry in safe mode one more time and the let it reboot into windows. It worked, but my CD-RW drive was missing and windows couldn't find it.

Some how my son got that fixed too, but I almost trashed my whole OS by trying this program out. If not for my son I would have had to reinstall and lost everything I didn't have backed up. All in all, it took around 6 hours to get my sytem running again.

If your going to try this software, use that sandboxie program. You may save yourself a BIG headache. I should have know better then to try anything with AOL in it's name.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Of the ones whor are using this now, any complaints? How about how it compares to other Anti-virus SW you've used? I use Anti-vir now, but maybe I should give this a try.

I use Antivir on most of my machines, but have AOL kaspersky on one of my laptops. I haven't had any problems with it what so ever. I think I still prefer Antivir, but that's probably just familiarity. I don't get viruses so it's hard to tell how well they work. I'd give it a shot if I were you. You may love it, but if not it's easy to uninstall and go back to Antivir.

For the person above: This doesn't require any other AOL software. The only caveat is in the EULA. It states that it can serve advertising through the software, but I haven't seen any yet. It's probably enough for them to put the AOL name on the top.

 

[Caminetto]

Just wanted to update this thread with another thumbs up.

I uninstalled Norton Anti-Virus, due to the subscription expiring soon, and this morning installed Active Virus Shield. I have lots of old and new hardware and software and was expecting the worst, so I imaged the hard just before installing.
The program installed just fine and everything seems to function properly. Looks like a keeper to me.

BTW, it found no additional viruses or malware, so Norton must have done a fairly good job (and Norton has indeed caught more than a dozen this year).

Thanks again episodic.

 

[BIGFOOTPI]

I have installed AOL AVS on like 20pcs since it came out and none had bad side effects.
98, ME, XP, 2000. I install it for customers that have slow PCs that can't handle the drag that is norton and mcafee, but need something stronger than Free AVG (as free AVG has no ad/spyware file detection capabilities). Although I set the startup object scan to only scan changed files and to quit after 60seconds. A non-bad, yet slightly anoying side effect may be it tends to cause floppy seeks at odd times.

 

[John]

The download for AOL Kaspersky has been updated to version 6.0.0.308 and fixed some of the minor bugs.

 

[Bellgoody]

Thanks, I'll give a try. Number of clients still stuck with Symantec.

 

[cr2250]

Was there something wrong with this, since I thought it was a great deal. Should I download it, or just buy kaspersky?

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: cr2250
Was there something wrong with this, since I thought it was a great deal. Should I download it, or just buy kaspersky?

I'm still using it with no problems. I'd just download it and save the cash.

 

[Mattd46612]

Avast has always been free and one of the best...

 

[Todd33]

I am running it, I bought Norton 2006 and still decided against installing that bloated POS.

 

[Gilby]

Originally posted by: Mattd46612
Avast has always been free and one of the best...

Erm, but it's detection numbers don't really come close to Kaspersky. Nor do the other existing freebies like AntiVir and AVG. That's what made this such a hot deal--instead of settling for a good-for-free antivirus product because it's free, you get the best and it's still free.

 

[azoomee]

Thanks -- using it to scan my computer now.

 

[WildHorse]

Does the AOL/Kaspersky include a firewall?

The McAfee I use now includes an excellent firewall, but if I uninstall the McAfee VirusScan then I automatically lose its companion firewall too.

 

[AAjax]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
When the hell did I suddenly get sucked into Bizzaro world??? AOL is starting to be cool, giving free cool content, free cool tools, free cool video....WHAT'S GOING ON?????

Its called adapt or die, funny what a corporation will do when it has to.

 

[Bozo Galora]

I use, and have used a lot of dif AV, and clearly Kaspersky will find stuff no other program does. It will go as deep as you want, depending how you set the preferences. NOD 32 is also as good, but too many false positives.
People having bad experiences are prob using conflicting AV or firewall - especially O/S firewall, or the non execute hardware based stuff. Obviously, a blue screen means you have to turn SOMETHING off to make KAV work
For example:
How to disable DEP

To disable DEP, perform the following actions:

Click Start -> Run
Enter: Notepad %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Boot.ini
Under [operating systems] replace the parameter /NoExecute=xxxxx with /Execute
Save the Boot.ini file
Restart your computer

Also, I believe many folks with XP SP2 have GiantAntiSpyware installed.
And, since KAV uses a proxy server, some XP service disabling may affect it's ability to connect.

Having said all that, I dont seem to be able to use KAV at the present time. I had been using an old version of KAV, and manually updating the defs with d/l over at http://www.majorgeeks.com. They appear every couple of days. Through a convoluted set of steps, you can create a folder (updates) and steer the update action to manual and then to the folder path (after unchecking the KAV server). In this way I could use KAV as an on demand manual scanner. However, I recently updated my version to the Jun 2006 .303 version (not the .308??? given now by AOL), and decided to "light everything up" and see how it did. I immediately started getting all those annoying nag messages that I hate so much with Norton. O.K. so I ran a full scan and updated to latest defs. Then, little by little, I turned off everything but the files protection. I could live with this, but a new prob appeared - KAV was blocking certain websites, "server not found". I dont know if they meant KAV proxy server, or it was blocking the website server. Immediately after closing KAV, I could get into the sites. Turning off html/web scanning did not help. This happened with firefox, greenbrowser and opera.
To make matters worse, everytime I stopped the KAV proxy server from the startup que, it replaced itself at the next boot. So I cant even use it as a scanner. Hmmmmm. I had to uninstall, and will need to explore this when I have more time, perhaps trying the .401 beta. Shoulda left things alone - lol.

Thusly, its back to AVG (Grisoft) for me, nice clean interface, trouble free, about 90% as good as KAV.

I also use protectx for my registry (on), HiJackThis for BHO scans (manual), Webroot spysweeper (manual scans), and Adaware 1.06R1 SE pro (on), and of course, ZoneAlarm. I would not connect to the web without Zonealarm Pro (with the popups that tell you whats being blocked). I have heard Kerio is also good, but I have no pressing need to change.
ZA has some "troubled" current versions (the 6.5 series), so I use old 6.0.631, anything between that and 6.1.744 is gold. Do not confuse with ZA Internet Security Suite.
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

Also the AOL "version" is the "lite" version of KAV which doesnt have all the most advanced features, but may be actually better for everyday use. Its basically free KAV with ads.

Edit:
FWIW: Grisoft (AVG) bought Ewido, so now there is AVG anti virus, AVG+ (with ewido), and AVG Security Suite (w/firewall)

 

[BOLt]

Hawt.

@Bozo Galora
I run Windows XP SP2 (Security Center/Automatic Updates disabled and I connect to the internet through a router with a firewall) I use the following security: Windows Firewall, Spybot S&D, and HijackThis! Only Spybot needs to be installed. The others do not affect the registry at all and there is no installation necessary.

I have Trend Micro PC-Cillin, Kaspersky, NOD32, CWShredder, Webroot Spy Sweeper, Ad-Aware Professional, ewido anti-spyware, Windows Defender, TrojanHunter, Spyware Blaster, and Spyware Doctor installation files on my computer. I do not use them. Why? At some point having so many security applications is detrimental to your system's performance. I have 30 processes running at any one time. With an AV/firewall and an active anti-spyware application, that number jumps by 10 or more. Even with the lightweight ones.

I download using torrents a lot, surf the web, etc. I still do not get anything more than tracking cookies. Even when I used to have PC-Cillin, Ad-aware Pro, Spy Sweeper, in addition to Spybot, I would never find anything more than tracking cookies. Maybe the reason my computer is so clean is because of it's my router's firewall, maybe it's the fact that I am somewhat careful what I download. Whatever the reason, I figured I'd respond to your (Bozo Galora's) post with something a little more contrasting.

Meh.

 

[Pulsar]

Bolt,

You must be one of the very very lucky few.

I get virus emails from spam sources on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. On occasion, websites referenced from THIS site have tried to install malware on my computer.

If you do anything important on your computer like tax returns, banking, or budgeting, you'd be insane not to have 1 good firewall, 1 good anti-spyware program, and 1 good virus scanner. It also helps to move to slightly less exploited software like Firefox for the web and Thunderbird for email.

Based on my experience over the last 20 years, I wouldn't run a computer that was plugged into the net without these things.

I hope you continue to be lucky. I, on the other hand, would rather be prepared.

 

[Bozo Galora]

@Bolt

Welllllll.........
As was just mentioned, there literally are a million people out there who want in on your computer, for various reasons - to sell you something, see where you have been and what you are doing, steal personal info, use your PC as a bot, or, most of the time, just to screw it up for the fun of it, giving the little script kiddie a sense of power.

Basically, your best chance of getting something nasty is by going to pron sites, going to w@rez sites, downloading and or using cracks/keygens/patches, and having idiot friends (or customers) who send you virus laden email. And you will not get anything DOWNLOADING torrents, but you might by opening some of the misc. files in them. You MIGHT get a whopper of a trojan from an emule or edonkey (now gone bye bye) bogus fake file. Of course a REAL hardware router, like the standard Cisco 2501, when propely configured is better than any software firewall, but its a bit of overkill for a home PC.

I do a little dance with the javascript option in my browsers, by turning it off anytime I go to a questionable site. This neuters the script kiddies most of the time. I also watch my modem activity light like a hawk. And I have virtually nothing bloated running as far as AV, and no nonvital processes on my whole system as it were, just AVG and adaware and ZA. I can assure you my computer is not slowed down to any degree, as a matter of fact, my overclocked 6300 conroe is so fast it is actually scary sometimes, never ceases to amaze me.

I can only assume you do have a correctly configured router (you didnt specify which), you only go to bible study websites, never buy online, have no friends, never give out your email address, dont do anything with AOL or Yahoo or Dell, dont use IE, dont use Outlook or Outlook Express, or use MS messenger, or any of the 35 other generic messenger programs that come with software. And I would love to do a full scan of your PC with Kaspersky with the latest (todays) defs to see if you computer is as clean as you think it is -

Meh.