Recommendations for a free setup?

[argus tuft]

Hi all,
My situation is that my paid AV suite (TMIS07)has become incredibly buggy, and I'm looking for a temporary replacement. My license (which cost AU$100) doesn't expire until April, and I cannot really afford to buy another at the moment.
The only free AV options I'm aware of are AVG free, and Avira free, I have no experience of either. Can anyone recommend any others? What are the pros and cons of the various free AV's?
I'm also looking for a free firewall with outbound app control.
any suggestions or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, argus

[WSFuser]

for free AV theres also avast and aol active virus shield (based on kav).

note: the following is just my experience/opinion

antivir classic

pros: high detection rates, light, fast scanning

cons: nag screen, iffy update servers, occasional false positives (from heuristics)

avast

pros: good detection rates, many shields, skins

cons: standard shield lacks heuristics

aol avs

pros: high detection rates

cons: its AOL, one year only

avg av

pros: light, very compatible

cons: average detection rates

*******************************

for a free firewall u can try comodo.

[[DSLR]poppster]

Here is what I use.....

Active Protection:
AV - AntiVir Personal Edition Classic
Firewall - Hardware with a custom rule set; Comodo rule based firewall
SpywareBlaster active protection
IE 7 with custom security settings
McAfee SiteAdvisor

On Demand Protection:
Adaware Se Personal
A - Squared Free (backup only)
SuperAntiSpyware (backup only)

You don't need that many back up programs, but I test free programs out, that's why I have 3.

[Legendkiller]

I think for time being you can use Avast Home 4.7(AV),Comodo Firewall 2.3(FW),Windows Defender/Spyware Terminator for AS...;)

[the Tester]

Comodo would be a good choice for a FW.

[C.S.J]

avg 7.5,

its free, with good better heuristics now and a better detection, and yes ... its free.

[Pedro]

If you use Firefox, get NoScript and CookieSafe. Maybe even Adblock and Mcafee SiteAdvisor. Or Opera.

Comodo Firewall
SandboxIE or GeSWall
Avast! or Antivir

[acr1965]

I agree with those that recommend the Comodo firewall. It certainly is a great product. If you would rather try something else than AVG AV and Spyware Terminator, plus if you can get a few bucks together, I would check out the following -

Trend Micro, free after mail in rebate although you have to pay $6.13 shipping. Plus the offer is only good through Dec 17th

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832286002

Zone Alarm Internet Security, $10.99 after instant rebate, plus $4.99 shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832728002

Also, F-Secure still offers a six month free evaluation of its antivirus product, although this may be only for their 2006 version. Still it is an exceptional AV.

http://esd.element5.com/demoreg.html?productid=544842&languageid=1

Personally I would go with the F-Secure evaluation and maybe add Comodo firewall and either Windows Defender or Spyware Terminator with the Clam AV not activated. I am not aware of any conflicts in this assemblage. But if there is one I am sure someone will post about it.

[farmerlee]

-{ Quote: "Hi all,
My situation is that my paid AV suite (TMIS07)has become incredibly buggy, and I'm looking for a temporary replacement. My license (which cost AU$100) doesn't expire until April, and I cannot really afford to buy another at the moment.
The only free AV options I'm aware of are AVG free, and Avira free, I have no experience of either. Can anyone recommend any others? What are the pros and cons of the various free AV's?
I'm also looking for a free firewall with outbound app control.
any suggestions or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, argus" }-
If you want something simple to use then avg combined with comodo is a good option.

[the Tester]

AntiVir would be a good choice.
Pros:
It has the best detection of the free programs.
Simple to use.
Cons:
Updates can be harder to get when a large update is released.

While I don't use Avast,I have installed it for family members and haven't had any complaints about it's use or performance.

Try these two for starters and see which one you like best.

[QBgreen]

The setup that I'll recommend will provide good protection with minimal aggravation:

Anti-virus: Avast Home - Thorough protection, good detection rates, a real workhorse. It's been on my wife's home machine for months doing its thing automatically, has nabbed several of her "mistakes". :o

Anti-spyware: Spyware Terminator - The latest release in particular is stable, offers extensive protection, contains optional HIPS. I really like this a lot.

Firewall: Comodo Personal Firewall - I'm sure this will be echoed by many posters, and for good reason. It's a very effective piece of security software that does its job very well. If outbound protection is your concern, Comodo is your firewall.

[argus tuft]

Hi everyone, and thanks for all your advice :-)
Whilst I'm still undecided about AV, I have gone ahead and installed Comodo, and I'm very impressed!
How long should I leave comodo in learning mode for the component control? Is the default network control ruleset adequate?
Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and opinions :-)

[Tarq57]

Hi argus tuft.
I've used all three of the freeware AV's, they are all good, and I'd echo the opinions expressed above. I did get a bit annoyed with Avira's updates after a while, and now run Avast. It's been totally problem free, and has a good help forum, plus I like the "funky" interface. (This takes a little getting used to...is not that intuitive.)
You might want to also consider installing a hosts file. I recently installed http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm and update it using Hostsman: http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0413933601/abelhadigital/hostsman.html
Acts a bit like a bad site blocker. Also tends to prevent quite a lot of the ads in web pages displaying. Some don't like the result, I don't mind it.

[Firefighter]

-{ Quote: "Hi all,
The only free AV options I'm aware of are AVG free, and Avira free, I have no experience of either. Can anyone recommend any others? What are the pros and cons of the various free AV's?

I'm also looking for a free firewall with outbound app control.
any suggestions or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, argus" }-Setup that works in my laptop with limited RAM, 448 MB.

Firefox 2.0 with Netcraft ToolBar
COMODO Free Firewall
Cyberhawk
AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus Free
AVG 7.5 Anti-Spyware (I have a licence to the payed version, but Free works too.)
SpywareBlaster

You don't need anything else in my mind.

Best regards,
Firefighter!

[TAP]

These are the free setups that have been working fine on my laptop for almost 2 years

1. avast! Home Edition
2. Windows Firewall
3. Limited User Account
4. Online malware scanner or installed antispyware (e.g. Ad-aware, Spybot) from time to time

Yeah, it just works for me but maybe not for others.

[Macaroni]

Active Protection:
AV - AntiVir Personal Edition Classic (free)
Firewall - Comodo Firewall (free)
SpywareBlaster active protection (free)
Firefox (free)


On Demand Protection:
Adaware Se Personal (free)
Spybot Search and Destroy (free)
AVG Antispyware (free trial)
Comodo AntiVirus (because their firewall is so good I am happy to run it as a test on demand) no problems yet. :)

[C.S.J]

-{ Quote: "Active Protection:
AV - AntiVir Personal Edition Classic (free)
Firewall - Comodo Firewall (free)
SpywareBlaster active protection (free)
Firefox (free)


On Demand Protection:
Adaware Se Personal (free)
Spybot Search and Destroy (free)
AVG Antispyware (free trial)
Comodo AntiVirus (because their firewall is so good I am happy to run it as a test on demand) no problems yet. :)" }-

free, id say

avg 7.5
IE7

and use dr.web cure it on demand whenever you like, to be safe than sorry.

its just as safe as the above, not as many programs and it will run sweetly. ;D

[Patrician]

-{ Quote: "free, id say

avg 7.5
IE7

and use dr.web cure it on demand whenever you like, to be safe than sorry.

its just as safe as the above, not as many programs and it will run sweetly. ;D" }-

Not really as safe because your running IE7 rather than Firefox. And it would be a very good idea to have a backup AV, such as Bitdefender Free, as AVG just isn't that good at detection.

Trev

[C.S.J]

-{ Quote: "Not really as safe because your running IE7 rather than Firefox. And it would be a very good idea to have a backup AV, such as Bitdefender Free, as AVG just isn't that good at detection.

Trev" }-

well i think IE7 is just as safe as the very buggy firefox,

and avg 7.5 has great detection actually, with the added ewido sigs.. and unlike most if not all free av's, it has real-time protection.

[lodore]

i would use dr web cure it as a backup av since you dont need to install it.
i have nothing against bitdefender and you could use eiether.
lodore

[Frank the Perv]

I've been thinking about this as I'm going to put some sort of free set-up on my girlfriends computer.

AVG (I like antivir better, but the nag screens..)

Prevx (remember, you don't have to pay until you need to use it)

Comodo Firewall

-{ Quote: "Spyware Terminator
Cyberhawk
WinPatrol
Arovax Shield " }-
Of this group, all have some sort of active protection. Maybe an expert here can tell me if all four have different added value.

And there is also always...

Spybot w/ teatimer
SpywareBlaster
SpywareGuard

[argus tuft]

Hi everybody, and thanks for all the input :-)
I put Avira in, updated it (first update seemed bigger than avira itself) then immediately rebooted into safe mode, to 'disable' the nag screen
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=148503&highlight=antivir+popup
The next update avgnt.exe didn't restart itself afterwards and the icon dissapeared. a reboot fixed it... I guess /hope that's the update problem that everyone is referring to...
I don't really feel I can go to their forum and say "well ive disabled the nag screen, and now it stuffs up after updating"
Has anyone who hasn't disabled avnotify.exe encountered this problem, or is it Avira's revenge...
by the way, my pc runs so much faster it's like a new machine!
I'm also running spybot w/ teatimer + immunization, spyware terminator (rt + HIPS), spyware blaster, firefox w/ noscript + comodo firewall. I should be right now?
@ patrician re bitdefender free - is this just an on -demand scanner? like dr web cureit?
@ frank the perv, Is spyware guard still a 'supported' program? I installed it a while back, and at that stage it hadn't been updated in at least 18 months?
thanks, argus

[Firefighter]

-{ Quote: "Hi everybody, and thanks for all the input :-)
I put Avira in, updated it (first update seemed bigger than avira itself) then immediately rebooted into safe mode, to 'disable' the nag screen
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=148503&highlight=antivir+popup" }-Actually I think that you have to do this "trick" in safe mode about 2...4 times a year, depending on the upgrades to the "avnotify.exe" file.

Best regards,
Firefighter!

[Firefighter]

-{ Quote: "Actually I think that you have to do this "trick" in safe mode about 2...4 times a year, depending on the upgrades to the "avnotify.exe" file.

Best regards,
Firefighter!" }-Unfortunately, I think that AVIRA has already "fixed" this modifying trick by forcing to reinstall the original notify.exe again during updates. :'(

Best regards,
Firefighter!

[Legendkiller]

-{ Quote: "well i think IE7 is just as safe as the very buggy firefox,

and avg 7.5 has great detection actually, with the added ewido sigs.. and unlike most if not all free av's, it has real-time protection." }-
i will second that avg has come leaps and bounds after acquiring ewido and their detection as close as 93-95%,which is quite good..

[waters]

How does avg free have added ewido detection in realtime?

[Pedro]

No, they are 2 different things. AVG Anti-spyware and AVG Anti-virus. The free Antispyware only scans on-demand.

[waters]

Exactly

[the Tester]

-{ Quote: "i will second that avg has come leaps and bounds after acquiring ewido and their detection as close as 93-95%,which is quite good.." }-

How are the heuristics in AVG?

[C.S.J]

-{ Quote: "How are the heuristics in AVG?" }-

no idea, but avg said they have made good improvements here, its one of 2 major selling points for the new version, that and ntfs data stream scanning.

[Firefighter]

The more I was thinking about the total protection issue, the more I am convinced about that every av which has more than 90 % overall detection is enough, because the HIPS solutions will patch the rest. ONLY that matters which has as low CPU usage as possible or maybe that too how effortless this combo is to use. So, check those combinations out in your system and that's it. Here are some 9 combinations to check out.

AntiVir Classic
Avast Home
AVG Free
=======================
Cyberhawk
Dynamic Security Agent (DSA)
Spyware Terminator
etc.

Best regards,
Firefighter!

[Durad]

I do not recommend F-secure 2006 because he already switching because of bugs with Trend Micro.
F-Secure in my expirience crashed several times with no reason. That icon just become with red cross on it .......

This is my recommendation:

1 - AOL ActiveVirusShield without security toolbar
2 - SpywareBlaster
3 - IE-Spyad
4 - Spybot Search Destroy (immunize feature)
5 - IE 7
6 - Jetico Firewall v1

bakup

Ewido Micro
DrWeb CureIt without heuristic module

[theflamingbush]

-{ Quote: "Active Protection:
AV - AntiVir Personal Edition Classic (free)
Firewall - Comodo Firewall (free)
SpywareBlaster active protection (free)
Firefox (free)


On Demand Protection:
Adaware Se Personal (free)
Spybot Search and Destroy (free)
AVG Antispyware (free trial)
Comodo AntiVirus (because their firewall is so good I am happy to run it as a test on demand) no problems yet. :)" }-

this is a solid free piece of advise!.....good choises macaroni!

I would add one other piece of active protection, and that would be:

SSM (free edition) as an active HIPS, it is excellent and will stop any unwanted process violation.

you might also wish to employ sandboxie (free), as a browser addon, it is small excellent and will protect your system if you are browsing dodgy sites or nefarious area's of the net!....best security addition this year outide of SSM.

JUst a mention, the firefox extensions you want, to ensure maximal protection, from activex, javascript, attacks are:

Adblock Plus
Noscript

I dont know Netcraft ToolBar, but it might be worth a look.

apart from those already mentioned, you might want to stop the avirataskikon from acting as a server, this will stop it using a port as a continual connection which can be a little annoying, but the guard will keep working and is top of the range! ( that includes paid AV's)

AVG AV (free) is also an interesting addition, but you must be sure to either turn off the resident shield or manually configure when downloading and DONT download the rresident shield, so that it does not conflict with the far superior Aviragaurd you get with your other AV. The reason i mention having a second AV on demand is that you can always double check your system this way, as well as ensuring that you have an active email guard working, as AVG has one but Avira doesnt.

enjoy, and surf safe! ;)

[Tarq57]

-{ Quote: "AVG AV (free) is also an interesting addition, but you must be sure to either turn off the resident shield or manually configure when downloading and DONT download the rresident shield, so that it does not conflict with the far superior Aviragaurd you get with your other AV. The reason i mention having a second AV on demand is that you can always double check your system this way, as well as ensuring that you have an active email guard working, as AVG has one but Avira doesnt.
" }-

Macaroni was referring to AVG Antispyware, not AV. The antispyware should live well with any AV.

[joao_proscrito]

Well, I have an entirely free setup, and I'm currently very happy with that. It's light as a feather, and that's the most important thing to me. The thing I hate the most is security programs slowing down my pc.


Active:
AVG Free
Kerio 2.1.5
Arovax Shield (If my wife didn't use my pc I would use SSM Free)
Sandboxie (for p2p and ocasional unsafe surfing)
Spyware Blaster

On Demand:
Spybot
A-Squared Free
AVG Anti-Spyware
SUPERAntiSpyware
Avira Antivir

Plus I run some hardening tools like Secure-It, Safe XP, WWDC, etc...

Some don't like AVG Free, but I love it. Sure it has standard detection rates, but is soooo light and doesn't have update problems and stupid advertising screens. Plus using Firefox with NoScript, CookieSafe, and Adblock Plus gets ride of the bad spyware boys.

[duke1959]

I'm back to using the full AVG 7.5 Internet Scurity Suite,(AV, AS, FW)but was wondering how Arovax is working for you joao_proscrito? I liked that program and although I see the benefits of SSM, I think this is more in my league for added protection.

[joao_proscrito]

Well I had no problems with arovax shield. It's very very light, and does it's job. I absolutely recomend it, and it works very well with avg free.

[duke1959]

So you don't think it would be too much adding it along with the AVG Internet Security Suite then? I was thinking since I use FF with NoScript I may remove the Spyware Component and just use Arovax Shield instead.

[C.S.J]

-{ Quote: "So you don't think it would be too much adding it along with the AVG Internet Security Suite then?" }-
i dont think you should add anything else with AVG ISS

[The Hammer]

-{ Quote: "i dont think you should add anything else with AVG ISS" }-That begs the question why?

[joao_proscrito]

I don't know if you should disable the anti-spyware component. Arovax Shield protects the registry, windows policies, hosts file and the startup. I don't think that AVG ISS does that, so I'll stick with both programs because they complement each other.

[C.S.J]

-{ Quote: "That begs the question why?" }-
cos you just dont need it.

if you have a suite, you shouldnt have anything else installed for security, thats why its bought.

if your gonna disable the firewall or whatever in the suite, why bother buying the suite?

a suite will keep you secure, adding crapware as i like to call it, and gimmicks like HIPS are just not needed.

[duke1959]

I can see both sides to this debate, and although I won't uninstall the Antispyware. I still wonder why I need anything more than an AV and FW with FF and NoScript. If anything though, I would think that Arovax Shield with what all it covers would be a better choice than an Antispyware. I read what AVG Anti-Spyware is suppose to do, and as far as scans gp it most lilkely does what it says, but for RealTime protection,what does it do for Firefox?

[joao_proscrito]

The only problem here, is that you should have a program that protects against 0-day threats, something not based on signatures. And Arovax Shield is like a very small, microscopic hips, that doesn't affect the speed of your PC and gives you basic coverage of several important things.

The thing is, in reality I never had an infection on my PC, only two years ago on my old laptop when I downloaded a crack from a warez site. I never done that again, and it was that experience that made me want to learn about security. So, in fact, were all a little bit paranoid freaks, and you'll be pretty safe with just AVG ISS, but I feel a little safer with Arovax, despite I know it's a very small app, with very limited protection. It's a mind thing... ;)