Best FREE AV

Hi

From what I have read here NOD32 seems to be your choise as best AV.

But i'm a poor student so I was wondering which one you think
is the best free one?

Thanks.

 

Hi Jaxson.

AVG or Avast i would think.
Look under the free tools. There are some links for them.
Regards
Ole

 

Thanks for the advice then

I'm running Win2K BTW.

Okay well which do ypu prefer out of AVG and Avast

Also I believe having Fprot dos scanner or something
is a good idea to have installed beside one of these?

Thx.

O yea, any good free Anti-Trojan and do you think
they are really necessary?

Weird how so many good firewalls and Spyware stuff is free.

 

There is no the BEST Antivirus software!

The choice is up to you. Try AVG or Avast and see what you like best.

If you got at least $ 20 (19.95) you could go with EZ AntiVirus or Kaspersky Anti-Virus Lite.


Technodrome

 

Avast!

Yes!

Do you use Kazaa? Downloads? Warez? Porn?
BTW, there is no good free AT tool available at the moment.

Well firewalls don’t need updates (other then bugs) so developer’s cost of building a firewall is much lower, then building an antivirus or antitrojan.


Technodrome

 

ive heard good things about http://www.free-av.com/
but i never tried it myself. but its an option i guess. personally i prefer DrWeb simply cos its incredibly fast, no slowdown whatsoever

 

The only good thing about AntiVirPE is that it is free - and IMHO that is not enough for a product that should protect me against malware.

When I was a student it was very important for me to have a good virus protection because in this time I had to exchange a lot of file with my fellow students and all the files and work stored on my PC were far more important than to be damaged or deleted due malware.

IMHO there is at the moment no free antivirus software out that I really could recomment for protection. Long time I recommended F-Prot (for DOS) but as it seems the days of the famous Iceland antivirus product are over as the test results become worser each time I read a new test.

wizard

 

Trojan/backdoor(packed) or Virus Tests ? Which ones are you talking about?



Technodrome

 

Hi tahoma,

Well, in spite of the erudition of some of the contributors to this site, I must personally demur from the above post. I've been using AVPE for some years, and found it to offer excellent protection, a good user community, and fine support.
I'm a poor student too. I check with other scanners now and then, but Antivir is my main line of defence and I've never had virus trouble it hasn't dealt with. It isn't as flash, memory heavy or full of 'War-on'Bad-guys' macho metaphors as a lot of those who want your cash, and the interface is old-hat. But it works good

Use Bit -defender for ICQ if you use that aswell, and check on-line scanners now and then for back-up and you'll be ok- oh, and make use of all the good advice from the folks at Wilders..apart from when it comes to Antivir.


regards,

dqa

(Chris H. at the AVPE BBS... )

 

I agree, Antivir is an ok free antivirus, it does suffer with a few false positives but I would certainly choose it over AVG for example.

In fact I gave it a good test early last year and it performed fine, I'm not saying it will catch everything out there but for a freebie I give it the thumbs up, the support forum is pretty good too.

 

For packed malware F-Prot is no solution as of the limitation of MS DOS regarding 32-bit packers. That's why Kaspersky switched from DOS to Linux scanner for their rescure disks.

Also regardings virus detection F-Prot isn't that good as it was in previous years. Mainly this is due to the fact that F-Prot was strong on macro malware but that plays less and less a role for private users.

wizard

 

Do a good user community and a fine support protect you from malware? Nope. Here are the basics facts: AntiVirPE has no heuristics, no unpacking engine (therefore useless for trojan protection) and also to update the program you have to reinstall the whole package each time. So what is excellent about this tool? I find it a little bit scary to you have to completly reinstall the antivirus program for the detection of for example vbs malware which most other scanners would pick up heuristicly.

Lucky man so far

wizard

 

I failed to see any VIRUS test that’s showing the poor detection results for F-Prot! Oh well, maybe I am looking at the wrong places.

From my personal experience F-Prot is still top notch antivirus product.



Technodrome

 

Wizard,

Just to make things clearer, what criteria do you use when making such statements? I mean, what does it take for an AV to be 'recommendable' by you? I just wanted to check if we can do something with our piece of software so that maybe you'd change your mind... Just a little hint, please...

Thanks
Vlk

 

Various independ test results and own experience.

Reduce false positives and performe better on independ tests.

wizard

 

Hi all !
I used to be a fan of AVG. Still am, but Avast is becoming a formidable and respectable AV. I think I might give Avast the edge at this time !

regards,
bill

 

I think It's the New Kid on the block!

http://www.gladiator-antivirus.com/

 

This software is still unfinished and far away from being a reliable antivirus protection. This one could be dangerous to use if it is the only malware protection programm.

wizard

 

Yes....I have GAV as a backup right now. I can hardly wait for the finished version !

regards,
bill

 

Yes... I like there appoach! Very promising.

 

Hell, I missed an opprotunity to weigh in early on the free AV issue! This issue hits home with me because after having made the rounds of the well known and respected AV Centers, I have discovered that AVG has very weak record. Which was a bit surprising because (not this forum) this AVG is offered like the holy grail to a lot of fresh newbies at a lot of forums.

So as you may have guessed, I would recommend Avast over AVG. First let me offer you some background to make your own opinion. That way you don't have to rely on any one person's opinion.

Av Testing Centers:

www.virusbtn.com/ (click on VB100%/Search by Vendor)
VB AVG hasn't passed this test since 98 under DOS. It has never passed a single Windows based Test. Avast has shown a better record recently.

AV-Test.org. (make sure to select Category: All and Level of Details: High on on-line viewer for test results)
http://www.av-test.org/index.php3?lang=en

VTC Hamburg
http://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vtc/eng1.htm

ICSA
http://www.icsalabs.com/index.shtml
Utterly useless testing center in my opinion (at least what is published on the webpage for the lay user) but included for balance.

Vunerablities Notices (good for checking out fixed/unfixed flaws of current security products)
http://www.cert.org/nav/index_red.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1

Recommendations:

1. Here is one I don't hear often, but instead of rushing out to commit to one piece of software, why not take free ride offered by most AV houses and trial all of the good products for 30 days. If you go by the list and links provided at VB under their 100%VB listing you could easly stay in free AV apps for better than a year, all of which are better than AVG, and be one hell of an informed customer at the end of that year. Plus by then you should have enough coins, Xmas, present, whatever to get what you like.

2. Avast if it has to be free.

3. The KAVlite suggestion is a winner. $19.99 for one of the best AV engines and signatures out there and much easier to use than the full blown KAV. http://www.kaspersky.com/buyonline.html?chapter=610707

 

In Germany it is AntiVirPE who is mostly recommended. In the international forums the hype is more about AVG. It seems if something is for free most people forget about to ask questions about the quality of the product or if it fits really their requirements (this is what you see most likely in regards to personal firewalls).

I think the price is an important part (because nobody likes to spend to much ) but for security products for me 'quality' comes first.

wizard

 

I have heard Avast uses a lot of system resources though which puts me off it, this true? I need a one that has a small footprint really.

 

Not a bad Idea. The only thing is, then we will have to talk about good reg cleaners.
All those programs would leave so much garbage in the reg after deleting.

 

jaxson,

Well, avast 4 indeed takes some memory - in a typical scenario, it consumes about 12MB. If that's a lot depends mainly on your hardware...

Vlk