[Potemkin]

For those who use Wintel boxes various "trials" for various AV and firewall programs.

Also available is XP SP2

12 month free trial for CA's product isn't too bad of a deal.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/downloads/default.mspx

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[pentachris]

Here are some "free forever" options, just in case folks aren't aware they're out there.

AV
AVG Free Edition (http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/) (what I use)
Avast Home Edition (http://www.avast.com/eng/free_software.html) (also free)

Firewalls
ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp) (free - I no longer use it, I now use Sygate)
Sygate (http://smb.sygate.com/download_buy.htm) (my favorite free firewall)
Kerio (http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html) (free firewall - after a trial period some extra features are dropped like popup and script blocking)

[Potemkin]

I also use AVG Free and while I have never had a problem I am a little uncomfortable that they don't update signature as often as I would like.

Norton AV will turn them around in about 4 hours, CA within 12. AVG is about 1 week IIRC.

Like I said, no problems. If is free forever and I certainly don't expect 4hr virus signature turn around for a free prodect.

Firewall? If you are sitting at home I prefer a hardware firewall/router. Notebook computer plugging in anywhere? Sygate will do it.

[SmartAZ]

Microsoft? No thanks, I don't want to be bothered with incessant updates to fix stuff that should have been done right the first time.

[Potemkin]

Microsoft? No thanks, I don't want to be bothered with incessant updates to fix stuff that should have been done right the first time.

No, they are just special links to the web pages of the original vendor of the product.

[SageTheRage]

Pote, the newest version of AVG 7.0 (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5) that came out a few weeks ago, updates daily now; although I've had other programs that updated several times in one day if need be, but still, this version of AVG is still better than it's former self in the frequency dept. It has a fancier interface and best of all - still FREE!

When you click on the link above, scroll down to the orange dialog box and click on the link for AVG 7.0; IIRC, it will automatically uninstall the previous version of AVG and retain your settings but since it has a few more bells & whistles, some manual settings will need to be done as well.

[pentachris]

Norton AV will turn them around in about 4 hours, CA within 12. AVG is about 1 week IIRC.

I get several updates a week with AVG. Major new threats rarely go 24 hours without a new definition.


...I prefer a hardware firewall/router.

Agreed! :yes:

[Brihard]

My computer security consists of the following...

Cable internet coming in through a hardware router.
Sygate Personal Firewall
Windows XP firewall
AntiVir XP (actively blocks evil crap)
Spybot Search and Destroy (actively blocks trojans etc. from downloading, quarantines bad web pages)
AdAware SE
HijackThis! (As a redudancy in case I introduce something myself)

Overall, my security is strong enough that NOTHING has ever gotten in on its own- the one incident where something did was when I tried to downlaod a crack for a computer game off the 'net. Dumb idea. HijackThis! Found it immediately, though AdAware and Spybot failed to. I went registry hunting using the info from Hijack, and took it out manually. I like to think that my machine is relatively secure. ;)

[Ought Six]

Check out this real-world test of various antivirus programs, and you will see how badly AVG sucks.

http://www.suggestafix.com/index.php?act=ST&f=16&t=13303

[pentachris]

06:

I used to do in-home computer repairs on nights and weekends. I saw many computers that didn't have up-to-date virus protection; they used the trial period of whatever AV software came with their machine and didn't think it was worth their money/time to keep it going when it lapsed. They were very happy when I told them there was a free, easy to use AV program that they could use. I would venture to say that close to half of all PC users fall into this category. Anything is better than nothing.

I practice safe surfing habits. I don't use IE (unless I have to - Windows Updates) or Outlook Express. Anyone who does the same should feel reasonably secure with AVG - especially since The Price Is Right (come on down... :P ).

It should also be noted that after a few sketchy years, they are improving and have put out a pretty solid product recently. (http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/products.xml?avg.xml)

[edited to add:]I'm not trying to be AVG's little fanboy. If you want the best, I'd suggest NOD32 (http://www.nod32.com/). I just believe that AVG is a reasonable product at a very reasonable price.

[Potemkin]

Check out this real-world test of various antivirus programs, and you will see how badly AVG sucks.

http://www.suggestafix.com/index.php?act=ST&f=16&t=13303

With respect:

Who is this guy? What is his CV in the AV industry? When he refers to testing what is his criteria? What does his "zoo" consist of? How does he define "in the wild"? (What he has captured or does he have one of the certified sets?) How "clean" are the test viruses? What are the "goat files" he uses? Does he test "find" separate from clean?

I would prefer depending on ICSA certification to determine if an AV product is good and bad. All of the previous questions have been answered in development of the testing and have been discussed at the major AV conferences.

The ICSA testing site is here: http://www.icsa.net/html/communities/antivirus/index.shtml

Look under Certification Criteria and Certified Products. Note they separate certification for "detection" and "clean". Quite a few products are certified against their test zoo, but not a lot are certified for clean.

BTW, Pentachis' AVG gets a certification for "detection".

Each his own and you won't get out of me which is "best". Only an educated person, with sufficient knowledge can make their decision with that and their billfold in mind.

Using something, updated with some regularity is better than something mainstream, whose signatures are allowed to lapse.

[Ought Six]

If you wish to trust AVG, then go on ahead. Avast! anre AntiVir also free, and far better rated by SuggestAFix.com, a forum that has a lot of extremely knowlegable people. If Interceptor was a goober, he would have been exposed on that forum long ago.

Why take a chance and assume AVG may be okay when there are better alternatives? That makes no sense to me.

[Ought Six]

I PMed Interceptor at SuggestAFix.com. Here is an excerpt from his PM response to me (reposted here with his permission):"I did say in there I didn't care if ppl took my advice or not. That's up to them. Enough have read and linked to the thread and have found it to be accurate and useful. I don't give a sh*t if AVG gets an ICSA cert or not. They've handed that award out like it was candy and it means very little. I did these tests on a user level, for normal users to be able to get information that is unbiased and uncomplicated. I have my own established IT business and deal with viruses, both on a home user as well as corporate level, everyday for a living.

"I've been virus chasing since 1999 and involved in IT since 1986. I was a contributor to SecurityPortal (Atomic Tangerine is now owned by Red Siren). My information and findings found their way into regularly written and published articles by several well known security experts, Sean Boran, author of "The IT Security Cookbook" being one of them. I'm MCSE/CompTIA Security+/SCP certified and teach Internet Security courses (starting in Feb) at a local community college. I'm also a member of several Internet ethics and security associations who include members like Vinton Cerf (co-designer of the TCP/IP protocol and considered one of the founding fathers of the Internet). My tests date back to 2000 and have been recognized at some point by most of the av industry to include David Perry, Global Director of Education of TrendMicro. I had several phone conversations with him just before he addressed the National Security Council at a White House Cyber-Incident Steering Group discussion. This was due to an article I wrote that covered what they discussed a week before they discussed it."