Best free virus scanner?

[Amarok]

Anyone know of a good free one?

[Bartylby]

i use avast

[Shuemue]

AVG was always decent for me.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

[sekaran]

Don't laugh..

http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivi ... /index.adp?

From AOL, but they use Kaspersky, and its free. Don't install anything but the anti-virus of course.

[Devek]

Kaspersky is the best virus scanner of any type at all

I use ClamAV personally though.

The best protection is abstinence. No virus scanner will protect you if you download warez, random binaries people post on forums, and visit random porn sites and with a virus scanner most people are more willing to do those things because they think they are safe from having a virus scanner.

In other words.. I think most people are worse off with a virus scanner.

[Sigi]

>.> Devek, I disagree. Needless to say, I have had to deal with multiple systems getting hit with a trojan the moment they connect to a network... after a fresh format and WITH an AV installed (Norton/Mcaffee... both suck equally now)

If you are connected to a network you NEED a virus scanner as a minimum.

Avast! rocks. Very full-featured scanner, even shields against some network attacks.

[Devek]

That is exactly the problem..

You shouldn't be thinking "I need AV software to put my computer directly on the Internet." That is what makes AV software dangerous. Avast won't help you at all when someone comes up with a new attack, and new attacks are made every day.

You should be thinking "It isn't safe to put a windows machine directly on the Internet, even with AV software."

[Shuemue]

Devek... I liken AV software to condoms. Not 100% protection, but a damn sight safer than just dipping your wick without one.

[Elesirdur]

I use AVG Anti-Virus Pro (I shelled out the $30 and called it a business expense) for virus, Sygate Personal Firewall, Spybot Search & Destroy for malware, and Windows Defender for extra security.

[Sigi]

Unfortunately some people don't want to run Linux, and fuck paying 3k+ for a Mac. Also, has it occurred to you that if everyone was more cautious, there wouldn't be as big a need for AV software?

Oh yeah, gg on assuming that I connect straight to the DSL modem without a hardware firewall. >.> Unfortunately I don't have the cash for a major dedicated firewall, and the machine is Windows based since I don't have 1 year to teach my dad how to use Linux.

If most everyone practiced common sense and good security practices, then yes, most systems wouldn't need AV. However, people are idiots and open strange email, download weird programs, etc.

So, Shue's comparison to a condom is the perfect analogy.

[Zigma]

AVG man.

Everything else is garbage, Norton is a system hog, so is mcafee and jsut about every other antivirus software out there.

[Devek]

Oh yeah, gg on assuming that I connect straight to the DSL modem without a hardware firewall. >.> Unfortunately I don't have the cash for a major dedicated firewall, and the machine is Windows based since I don't have 1 year to teach my dad how to use Linux.

If you don't spend 40 dollars for a cheap linksys router you are retarded. You will spend more than $40 having a pc tech reform and reinstall windows for you over and over.

[Sigi]

Why would I pay a technician to format and reinstall...? Oh yeah, wait... I could write a check to myself.

PS: A hardware firewall is not the best way to protect against virii. Even with the majority of ports shutdown, there is at least one port that can STILL be exploited by a hacker/attack. (incidentally, do a little research into SOAP)

PPS: Considering how I've had a less than glowing experience with Linksys (oh, about 3 units going belly up in less than a month... random resets... and STILL getting hit with DCOM attacks which the "Stateful Firewall" was supposed to block?) why the bleeding hell should I waste one more hour or one more penny on that company?

Firewall alone does not make good security. Hardware firewall + router+ software firewall + AV is a good start.

[Fallso]

AVG/Windows defender. Used that combo for a year and a half~ and never had a problem.

[Devek]

Why would I pay a technician to format and reinstall...? Oh yeah, wait... I could write a check to myself.

No wonder you are poor, you have no idea how money works. Doing something yourself does not make it free because that is time you could of spent doing something that would of made income or investing in education learning what things like SOAP, DCOM, "statefull firewall" actually are.

If your machine is not on a routable IP address you are safe from network attacks unless they hack another machine inside your network. What ever you use as a router is considered to be "inside" your network and since most routers don't even listen to traffic on their WAN side they are safe from network attacks also. Sometimes people do silly things like put their windows machine as a "DMZ" inside their firewall settings without having a clue that they just defeated the whole purpose..

Anything else you get hit with is not a network attack because it was not initiated over the network, it was initiated by the user downloading porn/warez/smiley packages/visiting bad sites and those attacks can not be stopped by anti-virus programs either At best they could save you from a misspelled domain name.

[GSDragoon]

Use autoruns from dissabling an item from starting up again. Then use Unlocker to delete it. You can manually remove registry entries and files that you need. Problem solved. It's not hard to remove viruses and spyware from your computer. There's no need to buy software to do something you can do yourself.

[Bunnykillah]

I run winxp and don't have a virus scanner on my pc(hell I dont even have SP2). I haven't had the need for a format in like 2 years. All you have to do is be cautious on what you download from the internet. I would recommend a disk image utility though. I use Norton Ghost(the only good Norton app imo). And make a image of my pc on a few DVD-RWs once every few months, that way if I fuck it up I just pop in a dvd and am good as new. And it beats the hell out of the windows recovery utility . Also I would trust a $40 linksys router's firewall over any software firewall.

But while I'm on the subject, anyone recommend a good image utility besides Norton ghost? Prefer one that I can burn the images onto my external HDD.

[dylan1982]

going by this link i would recommend GDATA AVK. but of course, one source alone is not very reliable