All AV's should be offered free!

Seeing as realtime AV and AS scanners are ancient technologies compared to Defensewall,Sandboxie,Geswall,Greenborder and similar I reckon the only way for an AV to survive is to offer an updatable free on demand scanner which many can do online anyways.

 

Re: All AV's should be offerd free!

Dr.Web already do, Dr.Web Cure it

and there are a few online scanners which will scan and REMOVE.

 

IMO these new technologies should be offered for free, to offset the time/energy a user has to invest in answering all the pop-ups / solving all the problems...

Give me a good AV/AS scanner anytime...

 

I guess I have to disagree somewhat. I think folks have to make a living, and those who develop and support AVs are no exception. It is nice when they make a free version available, but I do not expect such.

Yes, I have some free applications, and appreciate them, but that is just a benefit that I have no right to expect.

Regards,
Jerry

 

It will depend on the case. If they only make AV's, i don't expect them to be free. It takes time to not only build the program/engine, but continuously improve them, and add signatures every day It depends on their business model.

Although i have a free AV, and prefer that, people have to make a living.

SandboxIE and those you mention are different approaches, better at prevention, sure, but they will not detect and clean anything. And they do not need so much "maintenance". The concept and engine are built, and do not need signatures that take time and effort. Not saying that the ones you mention don't take time and effort, but it's different, you have to agree. For the signatures alone, they need more than one guy

 

I agree, security should come at a free price ...

But, too bad the world doesn't work like that, like, in reality, security comes from the police who are funded by taxes (mostly), and thats a price. Anyway, people make a ton of money off programs. Compare Bill Gates to Linus (who are both famous, but one is obviously 'bout more than 2 times more rich). Computer programs, as long as money is involved, will never be free anytime soon .... Sadly .. .

 

Hmm. Linux distros on a booting cd is free for a virtual ride. Linux and other kernal look alikes are mostly free when installed on a hard drive.

The occassional trojan that delivers windows files while in a virtual sandbox is pretty scary but, as of yet, Linux types aren't affected by viruses, trojans, and other baddies except for a few corporate mismanagement slips.

The way I see it, if you plan on using a Microsoft OS you ought to shell out the bucks for protection. Lord knows the Gates kids are concerned about security with all the hype about Windows Defense, Live Care, lowered rights, Vista, etc. maybe we should be just as concerned.

 

That is exactly their plan of course.

Thank Goodness for those other many thoughtful security developers who thru life and experiences choose to S H A R E freely and openly without demand or constraint, based with attention mostly on your living/household budget, it is to those generous persons who deserve FULL SUPPORT & COMPENSATION even as it is thru voluntary donations.

Microsoft wields a big pocketbook/revenue indeed but not exactly for their or our own good.

 

Weird discussion....

Seeing bread and butter are ancient inventions I guess farmers, bakers, dairy product manufacturers should also work for free, since after all a bit of bread and butter does not offer the same amount of chemicals as a bleeding-edge Triple-Fat-Burger(TM) (real styrofoam bread!), which seems to be expected by modern customers. Industrially employed pork meat engineers (Extra Fatty!) will of course still be paid, since they're needed for the Triple-Fat-Burger(TM).

There are hundreds of people working on these products, and most offer something for free. I wonder when the last time some of you guys worked for something on a daily basis for years which does not return you any money in your purse (and then deal with the complaints about it).

 

Hello,
Do you work for free?
Sincerly
Cadoul from France

 

"All AV's should be offered free": a ridiculous and unreal opinion.

Regards,

Smokey

 

And if they were all free, who is going to pay and support the people it takes to maintain and keep the av's up to date. They sure can't do it for free.

 

Well, perhaps Franklin is talking about free for home use, paid for business/companies.

 

You only pay for bread if you eat it at work?

 

Good analogy, although I can find flaws in it, but I´m only trying to understand Franklin´s claims.

 

lucas1985,

Let's keep in mind Franklin's explicit suggestion - which is rather different than the title:

This is different than a free AV. It's almost equivalent to Dr Web's CureIt! (as already noted), not a bad suggestion, and probably a more powerful tickler/enticement than the majority of online scanners.

Blue

 

Which online scanners are there that scan AND remove malware?

 

trend micro,bitdefender.
most except kaspersky and f-secure i think.
lodore

 

F-Secure is the best for that IMO; finds and cleans all types of malware including rootkits.

http://nod32sse.com/scanners.php

One thing to keep in mind with online scanners is they don't have quarantines (except A-Squared), so if it gets a detection that is actually legit and deletes it, it could mess your system up. Most of them require you to click "next" to begin disinfection so that gives you time to find each files location and check them via virustotal. Online scanners as a backup are the bomb! Using them in conjunction with all free security software is the way to go. Just me speaking, but I don't know why anyone would spend any money, let alone hundreds on security software when you can get the same protection for free. 100 bucks a year in a retirement account over several years earning a good rate of return...............well, you get the picture. I'm a cheapskate!

 

Thanks, I'll look into some of these scanners.

 

I was thinking more towards the approach of BitDefender. A free, installable, slightly outdated, AV engine coupled with manual updates. If you want the full product, pay for it.
I´m against online scanners too.

 

why are you against online scanners?
are you only against online scanners that remove because if they want to remove the malware they should try the trial of the av then buy it?
i think its nice for vendors to have online scanners like kaspersky do have a second opintion to see if your pc is clean.
its a shame that most of the online scanners have to use IE and an active x control thou.
some can use java instead such as thr trend micro online scanner.
lodore

 

They are slow, almost all are Active-X based (except Housecall), most of them only detect and not clean and

 

they are slow because they have to load from a server.
its better than having to install a few on demand scanners and without having to worry if you accidently install the realtime protection of the other av by mistake.
i think more companys should make a product like dr web cure it
aka a stand alone scanner that you download and have to redownload to update it or if you have a spare license code you can put the code it and update it as an on demand scanner.
dr web cureit is very useful, e.g. at college someone brought in there home pc because it was running slow so i got my usb pen out and downloaded autoruns,process explorer and dr web cure it to the usb pen.
i cut down on the autoruns and checked for dangerous proecesses in process explorer. i then run dr web cure it which i downloaded about two minutes ago aka with lastest defs and it found lots ot trojans and adware and spyware and got rid of the infections for me. all you need is a pc with internet access and a usb pen,cd or floopy disc then you download it and run it and remove the infections without installing anything.
more companys should make on demand scanners like r web cureit without needing installing.
lodore

 

I'm not against them either, but if you are really in a fix, you may not be able to achieve a viable link and obtain the download. With an independently downloadable and executable application, one may obtain it from a friends or public PC. At least in my opinion, a standalone executable is preferred over an online scanner for this scenario.

Blue