[Archived] Free Anti Virus Software

[Billy Castell]

I was wondering whether anyone knew of any free downloadable anti-virus software. The laptop I have is a couple of years old, and has no protection yet, as I ditched the old version of Norton because the modem was locked by BT, thus I had no internet. Now I've got round that, I need an antivirus programme, yet I'm short of money and obviously passing bank details via an unsecured line is a bit risky.

I have looked at Norton's offer of 'free' 2008, which was crap. You had to pay to remove any problems that the scan brought up.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Avast! or AVG would be your best bet.

[Cocker]

Avast! or AVG would be your best bet.

Yes, as Tim says I would use AVG which you can find here - Click

[LeChuck]

I've actually been playing with the free antiviruses on offer recently because I had problems with AVG, so I'll give you a quick summary of my personal experiences and all the reviews I've read over the last week or so.

Personally I'd stay clear of AVG (most reviews will also tell you the same), it has a relatively poor record at catching viruses/trojans etc (usually under 90% in tests, compared to 94%+ for the others) and the update screen that comes up nearly every time you turn on your computer is annoying.

Avast! is alright, but it's horrible interface is memory intensive, something which you really don't want for a program that's going to be constantly running in the background. It's also a bit confusing, many reviews question the need a 'scan thoroughness' slider bar.

The best I've found is Avira Antivir. It has a clean interface, isn't intensive on system resources, and all the reviews point towards it being one of the best at spotting dangerous files. The only drawback to this is that it shows an advert every time it updates, but it's very easy to disable using this guide, it only takes about 20 seconds to do.

[stuwilky]

AVG has proved faultless for me. You can change the setting if you dont want daily updates, but Im not sure why you wouldnt.

[Billy Castell]

I went with Le Chuck's suggestion. It has found 5 infections (mainly trojans which sound bad), and I've quarantened 2 or 3. What is slightly odd is that when I did Norton's scan, I had 6 infections. Oh well, I don't think I have any files here that are vital.

[Alan75]

I was wondering whether anyone knew of any free downloadable anti-virus software. The laptop I have is a couple of years old, and has no protection yet, as I ditched the old version of Norton because the modem was locked by BT, thus I had no internet. Now I've got round that, I need an antivirus programme, yet I'm short of money and obviously passing bank details via an unsecured line is a bit risky.

I have looked at Norton's offer of 'free' 2008, which was crap. You had to pay to remove any problems that the scan brought up.

Can someone explain for me what I highlighted in bold. - in simply english please Im IT illiterate.

My work laptop will only connect through my 3g Orange mobile. When I try to connect via wireless to broadband I cant get an internet connection although the wireless connection shows as connected with exellent strength.

thanks

[Cocker]

Can someone explain for me what I highlighted in bold. - in simply english please Im IT illiterate.

My work laptop will only connect through my 3g Orange mobile. When I try to connect via wireless to broadband I cant get an internet connection although the wireless connection shows as connected with exellent strength.

thanks

Could be wrong but that sounds like the wireless security to me. You will be able to see the router but it will be locked down by who ever manages it. Probably all that needs to be done is to add your address to the router and it will let you connect to it.

[Alan75]

Could be wrong but that sounds like the wireless security to me. You will be able to see the router but it will be locked down by who ever manages it. Probably all that needs to be done is to add your address to the router and it will let you connect to it.

What address would that be. Told you I was IT illiterate

Its a bt hub.

Ive put my bt password into the laptop.

[Cocker]

What address would that be. Told you I was IT illiterate

Its a bt hub.

Ive put my bt password into the laptop.

Well I am totally guessing on the type of set up here but the router might need your mac address.

You can get the address by going to:-

Start

Run

Type: cmd (press return)

A black screen will now come up

Type: ipconfig /all

You will see your address in this list (it will probably be listed as physical address) There will be 6 spaces of numbers in it - 12 numbers in total.

[Alan75]

thanks cocker, problem is ....theres no run button on works laptop

looks like another lengthy debate with it dept over telephone

[Cocker]

thanks cocker, problem is ....theres no run button on works laptop

looks like another lengthy debate with it dept over telephone

This will either be:-

Only your works admin has rights to use it. If so, they need to come and have a look for you

or

Its just not enabled - right click the start menu and goto properties. Under the start menu tab that comes up click the customise button. Now tick the box for 'display run'

[Alan75]

Thanks cocker for all the advise.

There was no run button on my laptop, so took it for a visit to our IT people yesterday.

They said its something to do with security preventing connection to BT HOMEHUB which also runs BT Vision.

Anyway cutting a long story short theyve stuck in an orange GTMax 3G+ card into the laptop. so that I can get broadband connection anywhere.

[joshbrfc]

Just download antivirus from rapidshare etc.. kapersky is supposed to be good..

[LeChuck]

In my experience, AVG seems to have caught and healed any viruses whereas when I had Norton, it failed miserably (I remember at least two occasions where Norton detected a virus but had no solution for it).

Ah, but in all the tests conducted in magazines/websites it always comes near the bottom. Since I switched to Avira Antivir I've noticed I've been catching a few trojans, I can't remember AVG ever catching anything other than one major virus in the few years I had it. The thing is, how do you know if AVG is catching all the small viruses that simply steal data and live in the background unnoticed? You have no way of knowing, really.

I'm not surprised it's performing better than Norton though, how they have the cheek to ask money for that piece of crap is totally beyond me.

While we're at it, can I throw in a vote for COMODO Firewall. I switched from Zonealarm after reading some reviews and I'm very happy I did it. If you have more than one computer in your house sharing the same connection then you really need to get this, it's a much smarter firewall at detecting which are safe devices and which aren't.

Zonealarm basically just blocks anything without thinking, this is a complete pain if you want to share files between two computers because you have to set-up everything manually using IP addresses etc. COMODO doesn't do this, but instead gives you options about whether you can let them through without permission/ask for permission etc.