what is the best free virus scanner/deleter/firewall???

[cheater87]

my family is getting rid of norton. we want to know what a good free firewall/virus scanner/deleter is??

[Bubba]

So we can best place your question into the proper forum....are you wanting a suite that has a firewall/virus scanner/deleter all in one neat package ?

[cheater87]

ether one

[Ailric]

I like Avast! for a free antivirus. Nice complete antivirus package. Small updates.
You can also get Panda Platinum for 1 year free.
http://www.pandasecurity.com/survey/

For a firewall you have ZoneAlarm, Sygate and Kerio 4.13 for non-experts. I like Kerio but all are good. ZoneAlarm may be the easiest.

By deleter if you mean file shredder, then I like Eraser.

[cheater87]

i heard from a friend that zone alarm and AVG are a good combonation what do u guys think of it??

[ErikAlbert]

I also use ZoneAlarm Free and AVG Free and it keeps my computer clean, not because they are the very best, but because I'm very carefully on the internet.

If you have NO discipline on the internet at all, you need the very best security softwares and most of the very best are commercial softwares.
If you have discipline on the internet, a protection with freewares will do.
I ran recently NOD32 Trial and it reported nothing after six month running AVG Free. So I don't have good reasons to buy NOD32.

Once you start buying software, you often have to pay annual fees as well for the updatings.
I noticed that some users don't have a problem with buying the software, but they often stop using the software when the license expires, because they don't like to pay a second time. I have read this too many times.
So think about this thoroughly or your security set will be a permanent cost.

I don't buy any security software, because I'm very disappointed with the actual solutions.
What I don't want is everywhere and what I want is nowhere.
The Security Industry just doesn't know what typical users really want/need.
That's my personal opinion of course.

[cheater87]

my bro goes to "bad sites" and thats why i have firefox. also i made his account limited account.

[bigc73542]

-{ Quote: "i want to have good free protection and not be paying 50 bucks a year for a piece of crap like norton" }-


cheater87, This is a very uninformed reply and really serves no purpose at all, product bashing is just a waste of bandwidth.

[tempest700]

I agree for the most part with the recommendations of others here. ZoneAlarm free for your firewall is very good for anyone, at any level, beginner to security guru.

For virus protection AVG free or Avast free are not bad at all for basic AV protection, but if your involved with p2p or surfing p0rn sites of any kind, or just surf higher risk sites, then I would go with KAV as my AV. Though not free, KAV is about the best AV that can be had imo.

Also if you again want a free backup AV there is always the MicroWorld Antivirus Toolkit (uses KAV defs with extended databases) which will scan for but not remove anything. But probably not a bad idea to use an online AV scanner for a back up AV, if you should choose to go the AV free route.

Adding a free anti-trojan like Ewido or A2 to the mix would be smart idea if your going to use a free AV like AVG or Avast.

I like Ailric's recommendation to use Eraser for deleting things. It's top notch, and I wouldn't be without it. A very very good program that I can't recommend highly enough. It hasn't failed me yet when I need to permanently remove any sensitive data from my box, or good for just a general eraser. On top of all that, it's completely free. ;) ;D

I agree with Bigc, NAV is a very good AV, and when I used it, it didn't seem to slow my other 2.2ghz cpu 512mb ram computer one bit. :)

[bigc73542]

I have had good luck useing BitDefender 7.2 free as a back up scanner, it uses the sams scanning engine and def files as the full version. And Nav is a good av but unless it is purchased at one of the discount sites on the web it is a bit pricey.

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "i want to have good free protection and not be paying 50 bucks a year for a piece of crap like norton" }-
The very best software of Symantec has always been the Norton AntiVirus scanner.
The total package of Symantec is of course bloatware, but that is IMO a hardware capacity problem.
Symantec is indeed expensive : software, updatings and phone support, but that is a wallet problem.

You always have to SEPARATE problems from one another to create good solutions.
Being bloatware and being expensive has nothing to do with the quality of NAV.

[bigc73542]

I fully agree with your assesment ;)