Anti-Virus Advice

[nyktos]

i have been running without defenses for quite some time...
and i dont really have many (any?) tech friends - most are music & art.

so...

any thoughts on a good anti virus program thats worth the money? [or free? / yeah right]

[Treadmore]

I use avast on windoze pcs and it's good

They do android too but haven't tried it http://www.avast.com/free-mobile-security

Free too

[nyktos]

yeah, free?
has a nice ring to it...



my needs are PC related, and yes... im running windows XP.
guess that is important information when asking questions like this.

looks like i have some homework tonight.
darn bugs... *mumbles*

[Treadmore]

If you're already infected then malwarebytes is worth a try

[mirajp1]

AVG free is one of the best free antivirus out.
I use it personally

http://www.freeavg.com/?lng=in-en&cmpid=corp

[sdevaney]

The 10% of the time I am on a Windows machine, Microsoft Security Essentials, and good web browsing habits work fairly well for me.

[fiernaq]

I usually recommend Avast Free or Microsoft Security Essentials if your computer is NOT already infected and you want a free AV solution. Avira Free and AVG Free are two others you could use but this past year they haven't been as good as the first two I mentioned (this changes every year so one product might be best this year but worst next year).

If you are willing to pay for antivirus then ESET Nod32 or Kaspersky AntiVirus are my two favorites (I run ESET at home and Kaspersky at my office where I'm the IT admin).

If your computer is already infected then you can't rely one any one product to clean it because the chances of the infection carrying something to defeat several AV products is very high and combined with the fact that all AV products can miss some things means you'll need to run a whole slew of AV stuff to combat the malware. Here's a few of the ones I recommend:

1. ComboFix - Don't download ComboFix from any old site because there are a lot of lookalikes that will just infect your computer more. The post I linked from bleepingcomputer.com is one of two that I know are secure.
2. CaSIR - Cleans a few specific nasty bugs that most AV products have difficulty with and locks down a few vulnerability points to prevent future infection.
3. Malwarebytes Anti Malware Free - Excellent primary anti-malware tool.
4. SuperAntiSpyware - Another excellent cleaning tool.
5. ESET Online Scanner - The page I link actually has a couple of tools by ESET for cleaning up infections.
6. ESET RogueAV Cleaner - Another page that has several tools but the most important one for most people will be the RogueAV Cleaner which can get rid of many lookalike antivirus programs which are actually malware disguised as helpful AV stuff.
7. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool - Kaspersky's free removal tool, doesn't provide real-time protection but great for removing viruses using Kaspersky's database and heuristics engine.
8. Kaspersky TDSSKiller - Very specific removal tool but it affects a huge number of viruses because of how many of them are based on TDSS variants. Definitely one to run especially because of how quick and easy it is to use.
9. - Sophos Anti-Rootkit - I will always run this during my cleaning process as it can catch items that some of these other programs don't have access to.
10. Unhide - Another very specific tool but one that can be very useful because none of the main AV products have been able to fix what it can.
11. I won't bother linking the rest of these as I only use them when the system still appears to be infected after running all of the above listed ones and they are mostly just backups: VIPRERescue, BitDefender Free, F-Secure Easy Clean, and Trend Micro Housecall. These are all free, on-demand AV programs so again, not something that can protect you in real-time. VIPRERescue is of note as a non-user friendly but very powerful AV program that I actually use quite often.

Last but not least, I would highly recommend prevention over reaction so running browsers like Firefox or Chrome with AdBlock Plus and NoScript extensions is always a good idea. Running those browsers inside a sandbox such as Sandboxie is an even better idea although with safe browsing habits this should only be needed when visiting sites you are unsure about. Always keep windows and all of your applications (specifically Adobe products like Flash which tend to constantly have new vulnerabilities) up to date and make sure to run a real-time AV program. I would also strongly suggest that you setup a third-party domain name server such as OpenDNS as it will filter out a lot of potentially bad content before it even shows up on your screen.

[mirajp1]

I usually recommend Avast Free or Microsoft Security Essentials if your computer is NOT already infected and you want a free AV solution. Avira Free and AVG Free are two others you could use but this past year they haven't been as good as the first two I mentioned (this changes every year so one product might be best this year but worst next year).

If you are willing to pay for antivirus then ESET Nod32 or Kaspersky AntiVirus are my two favorites (I run ESET at home and Kaspersky at my office where I'm the IT admin).

If your computer is already infected then you can't rely one any one product to clean it because the chances of the infection carrying something to defeat several AV products is very high and combined with the fact that all AV products can miss some things means you'll need to run a whole slew of AV stuff to combat the malware. Here's a few of the ones I recommend:

1. ComboFix - Don't download ComboFix from any old site because there are a lot of lookalikes that will just infect your computer more. The post I linked from bleepingcomputer.com is one of two that I know are secure.
2. CaSIR - Cleans a few specific nasty bugs that most AV products have difficulty with and locks down a few vulnerability points to prevent future infection.
3. Malwarebytes Anti Malware Free - Excellent primary anti-malware tool.
4. SuperAntiSpyware - Another excellent cleaning tool.
5. ESET Online Scanner - The page I link actually has a couple of tools by ESET for cleaning up infections.
6. ESET RogueAV Cleaner - Another page that has several tools but the most important one for most people will be the RogueAV Cleaner which can get rid of many lookalike antivirus programs which are actually malware disguised as helpful AV stuff.
7. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool - Kaspersky's free removal tool, doesn't provide real-time protection but great for removing viruses using Kaspersky's database and heuristics engine.
8. Kaspersky TDSSKiller - Very specific removal tool but it affects a huge number of viruses because of how many of them are based on TDSS variants. Definitely one to run especially because of how quick and easy it is to use.
9. - Sophos Anti-Rootkit - I will always run this during my cleaning process as it can catch items that some of these other programs don't have access to.
10. Unhide - Another very specific tool but one that can be very useful because none of the main AV products have been able to fix what it can.
11. I won't bother linking the rest of these as I only use them when the system still appears to be infected after running all of the above listed ones and they are mostly just backups: VIPRERescue, BitDefender Free, F-Secure Easy Clean, and Trend Micro Housecall. These are all free, on-demand AV programs so again, not something that can protect you in real-time. VIPRERescue is of note as a non-user friendly but very powerful AV program that I actually use quite often.

Last but not least, I would highly recommend prevention over reaction so running browsers like Firefox or Chrome with AdBlock Plus and NoScript extensions is always a good idea. Running those browsers inside a sandbox such as Sandboxie is an even better idea although with safe browsing habits this should only be needed when visiting sites you are unsure about. Always keep windows and all of your applications (specifically Adobe products like Flash which tend to constantly have new vulnerabilities) up to date and make sure to run a real-time AV program. I would also strongly suggest that you setup a third-party domain name server such as OpenDNS as it will filter out a lot of potentially bad content before it even shows up on your screen.

I will try avast free and see what it offers more than AVG.
AVG gets annoying sometimes

[fiernaq]

Avast and AVG both have a lot of notifications. This isn't a bad thing but some people prefer something that just sits in the background and quietly takes care of them. MSE (security essentials) is a lot quieter and does a pretty decent job of protecting you. Personally, I'd take Avast over MSE but that's coz I'm an IT guy and like to know what's going on.

Also, I forgot to mention that if you plan to use any of the free versions anywhere other than your home computer you need to know the license structure. Some of them allow it to be installed on 10 business computers while others are only for home use.

[mirajp1]

Avast and AVG both have a lot of notifications. This isn't a bad thing but some people prefer something that just sits in the background and quietly takes care of them. MSE (security essentials) is a lot quieter and does a pretty decent job of protecting you. Personally, I'd take Avast over MSE but that's coz I'm an IT guy and like to know what's going on.

Also, I forgot to mention that if you plan to use any of the free versions anywhere other than your home computer you need to know the license structure. Some of them allow it to be installed on 10 business computers while others are only for home use.

but sometimes AVG gives lots of notification sometimes..annoying

and as you said I loved Kaspersky. Though it increased my boot time but the protection was amazing.
I had 1 year subscription from my bro
now its too costly for me