Freeware Security Applications Thread

[John]

Originally posted by: Muse
Indeed, and among the free ones, AVG Free (the latest version is 7.5) very handily won the poll at:

Thread polling for best anti-virus programs

Actually "other" is in the lead with 12. Even then 34 votes is rubbish.......

Here's a better poll w/ 250 votes: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=160734

Since NOD32 has it's own forum on Wilders they have a lot of support from the forum members.

 

[Drunkentig3r]

Many thanks OP for the wonderful thread-after seeing the mediocre test results for Zonealarm Free Firewall, I quickly jumped ship to get the excellent Comodo Firewall Pro (free, which kicks ass). I stuck with my long-time AV though: AVG Free Antivirus. I know some guys have been burned by AVG in their previous editions, the 7.1 version being known for bad detection and response, but Grisoft has really stepped up and improved their product. If you check the Virus BTN link though, you'll see that the current edition scored 100%, alongside the likes of Kaspersky.


I've been wondering though-being a stingy person (I am a student after all), how does the AOL Virus Shield compare to the original Kaspersky? I know Kas probably has some better features, but given that the AOL version is free, how is it when it comes to things like detection rate, system resources, updates, etc?

 

[John]

The VB100% award suggests that the tested products are capable of detecting 100% of all viruses. This is simply not true since no product is able to detect all viruses. These vendors have come to realize the marketing significance of these tests, and the effort they put into their products to pass the VB100 tests may not reflect the effort they put into detecting viruses outside of those included in the VB100 test set. It's possible for an AV product to pass all the VB100 tests but still have mediocre virus detection.

In regards to AVG free it has mediocre virus and trojan detection, and poor adware/spyware detection. However the (not free) AVG Anti-Malware, which includes Ewido (aka AVG Anti-Spyware), has a very respectable detection rate for all forms of malware. AOL AVS is based on Kaspersky 6.0, uses the same definitions as the full version of Kaspersky 6.0, so it carries the same exceptional detection rate. In a nutshell AVG free doesn't hold a candle to AOL AVS.

Wilders: AOL AVS much better than AVG Anti-Malware

 

[Marm]

Thanks OP I have been looking for a firewall and was not all that impressed with Zone Alarm free one and now I can get one of the best for free. I will have to do some more looking for a antivirus program after doing more reading.

 

[dolsey01]

Originally posted by: Bu11itt
The CA Anti-Virus is free (1 year FREE trial) to every one, not just to Microsoft Vista customers.

My CA install shows that the free trial expires on 7/05/2007 which is only 90 days. I did not get a full year, but it is installed on Vista Enterprise so that could possibly break it.

 

[evanthood]

Don't see any mention of it here but eEye now has a free (1 year trial) personal security suite that includes Norman Anti-virus. They also have a "neighborhood watch" version without the AV so you could use Kaspersky or something else for AV and this for host based intrusion/firewall/etc. Getting rid of the MS OneCare crap this week and am trying to decide between using eEye for everything and the kaspersky/eEye combo. It looks like you don't get the vulnerability scanning function with "neighborhood watch" version that you do with the free personal version.

Be curious to see if anyone else has checked this out. details at www.eeye.com

Oh, and having dealt with CA at work, all I can say to the above poster is never in a million years would I willingly install any of their software on anything I ever cared about.

 

[mingsty]

I would have to respectfully disagree with evanthood. I've had really good luck with the eTrust suite of programs. I really like the fact that you can "snooze" the AV protection to take a load off your pc when gaming and such. I have used all the big company brands (Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro) eTrust is my personal favorite. I did some IT work for small companies and didn't really get into CA until I left but constantly had problems with symantec and McAfee. I'm all about the free and I'll probably try some of those but will more than likely purchase the CA products again.

 

[PSUPef2k]

This thread is a PC technicians dream come true.

 

[evanthood]

My comments on CA are based on my experience with their Corporate products. They certainly aren't the only company that does this but they just buy other peoples products slap them together, release it as a product and then release tons of patches to fix all the bugs. The patches are never easy to install, require large amounts of down time, and rarely fix the problem you are having. The products are so difficult to setup and maintain that you have to pay CA to come in and install it at rediculous rates and inevitably you get a guy who knows less about the product than you do and botches the whole install job.

None of this has anything to do with the consumer eTrust AV product which admittedly I have no experience with but you can understand from the above why that company might leave a bad taste in my mouth.

If it works well for you then great! Just keep a close eye on their detection rates. They might have been good at one point, but after CA acquired them you can bet they'll get worse. (but I'm not bitter)

 

[compman25]

Looks like AOL has Vista support now for active virus shield.

 

[mharrison]

Any suggestions other than ClamWin for Server 2003 A/V? I don't like that it doesn't do real-time scans.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: mharrison
Any suggestions other than ClamWin for Server 2003 A/V? I don't like that it doesn't do real-time scans.

Check under "others to note"

 

[Marinski]

Whats a good free firewall to use with the free AOL active virus shield?? Something easy to configure for somebody who's not very good with computers. This is for a friends laptop. I tried the free Zone Alarm and was getting error messages during the install, not sure what the problem is, almost no info on it when i did a google.

 

[mharrison]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: mharrison
Any suggestions other than ClamWin for Server 2003 A/V? I don't like that it doesn't do real-time scans.

Check under "others to note"

I looked there. The CA product (the only one for Server 2003) is only free for 90 days, not a year. That is all but useless for me. The others don't apply.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: mharrison

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: mharrison
Any suggestions other than ClamWin for Server 2003 A/V? I don't like that it doesn't do real-time scans.

Check under "others to note"

I looked there. The CA product (the only one for Server 2003) is only free for 90 days, not a year. That is all but useless for me. The others don't apply.

Hmm, webpage says "FREE 1-Year Trial" and yet when you click on it tells you it is for 90 days. Anyone have a working link to the 1-year free etrust? Or do they no longer do that?

 

[GMY]

Originally posted by: Marinski
Whats a good free firewall to use with the free AOL active virus shield?? Something easy to configure for somebody who's not very good with computers. This is for a friends laptop. I tried the free Zone Alarm and was getting error messages during the install, not sure what the problem is, almost no info on it when i did a google.

I have used Comodo for about a month on two home computers and am pleased with the interface and results. I previously used ZoneAlarm free version. Comodo is said to be the best free firewall.

 

[fierydemise]

Antivir is now fully Vista compatible and working just fine so far

 

[dman]

I don't see it linked explicity, but, panda has a beta online scanner called 'nanoscan' which uses some new technology and works fairly well. After you run it it'll take you to 'totalscan' for a full system scan. I find it works well as a second opinion. You have to register to use totalscan (give them your email info).

Panda Nanoscan

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: scott
This new file recovery tool is announced on the CCleaner web site:

Recuva - File Recovery

QUOTE
Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
END QUOTE
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...?catid=33&threadid=1837696&STARTPAGE=7

In case of a Virus, this should help.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Googer, check out the Freeware File Recovery Applications Thread

 

[Dizzymon]

Anyone notice AVG is not scanning all the files on their latest updated versions? I'm not sure if it's my system or AVG's update is limiting it to scan only files that can be infected instead of scanning all files.


Update: The update messed it up so I had to go back in to reconfigure it.

 

[baius]

What would be good - and I know it would impose a burden on somebody - would be a few "if you have this OS, you should this, this and this installed" type statements, within or close to the inital post on this thread.

For instance, I've got Vista 64bit (Ultimate version), which is currently running with the Vista Firewall, SpyBot (1.4) and Windows Defender. I'm sure it's not completely safe. Then again what is?

It woud involve one of the experienced users writing something like:

Win 2000 (open): "[firewall], [AnitViurs], [ScumWare], [RootKit], [Spam ???]"
Win 2000 (paid): " "

... (2003, xp, xp64, vista32)

Vista 64 (free): " "
Vista 64 (paid): " "

Linux " " (???)

(... where free means open source, supported by donations, etc, and paid mean a combination of free (if they work as well/better), or paid software).

You see where I'm going?

This thread is already useful, but it could become VERY useful - imho.

BR,
MC

 

[harobikes333]

Do you guys know of a firewall that supports vista 32 bit? comodo didn't support/wouldn't install.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: harobikes333
Do you guys know of a firewall that supports vista 32 bit? comodo didn't support/wouldn't install.

Free? Windows Vista's Firewall, not free, see the appendix of the CST in my sig.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: harobikes333
Do you guys know of a firewall that supports vista 32 bit? comodo didn't support/wouldn't install.

The current best net is, http://www.pctools.com/firewall/download/