AV + firewall (freeware) needed for old pc!!!

Tring to help out a friend here who is losing his AOL/McAfee security suite soon. I'm trying to find the best FREEWARE security suite combo (firewall + AV) for his system (which is pretty old).

Here is the system info he provided:

-Windows 98 Second Edition
-Intel 667 mhz Pentium III Processor
-511.0 MB of Ram

Besides a firewall and AV....does he need anything else?

Thanks.

 

AVG might fit his anti-virus need. It is free, light and according to their website it supports win98.

For a free firewall light on ressources, not sure, Comodo is good but not exactly light and I am not sure it support win98. Sunbelt Free firewall might be better suited and the Pro version is only 10$ right now for even better protection.

Kin

 

I have a similar set up on an old PC.

Avast free and Kerio 2.1.5 run just fine on that kind of set up.

 

Id try AVG for antivirus and Sygate for firewall.

 

I have used Avast Home, and Kerio 2.1.5 on W98 machines in addition to XP.
I would suggest either Avast or AVG along with Kerio or another free firewall.

In addition I would install the free version of SuperAntiSpyware for periodic scans.

Regards,
Jerry

 

@Birdman

Perhaps the best would be if you or someone of this family makes him a present - buy a new computer which is Vista capable/compatiable You can't live for long with this Win98se - it is so old and the list of the application that cease to work on it is growing every day. Win98 is very unsecure by itself and so buggy especially for internet stuff and (new/modern) applications installations

 

Perhaps Opera browser too!

 

I vote with Fuser Avast & sygate light combo good protection...

 

I used to run that combo on a 98 machine (AMD K-2, 333 Mhz, 256 Mb RAM).
Worked great. Can't say how newer builds of avast! would work, though.

 

While true, it still works fine, and is actually immune to many of the newer exploits. As it is less targeted and they don't work on it.

@OP I would definitely recommend using either Firefox or Opera, as IE has not been updated for win98 for a long time. I recommend AVG and either sygate 5.5.2710 or zonealarm 4.5.594

 

I have this hardware setup on a PC that I still have used since 1999. It has Antivir 7 (which is no longer supported) and Zone Alarm 6.1 and used to use McAfee VirusScan (before they blocked further updates).
For AV, Avast and AVG still support Win 98. If you want to use Antivir, you will have to use an unsupported version.
For Firewall, I don't know of any free program that is still supported. There are numerous old programs (such as the older Zone Alarm, Sygate, Kerio, Outpost, etc.) that can be used on a Win 98 system.
A lot of Antispyware programs are still compatible with Win 98 (such as Ad Aware, Spybot, SuperAntispyware, A-squared, Spyware Blaster) which you might be interested in.

 

Hi all,

A more tight setup : Antivir free, Jetico 1 and FF or Opera as browser

I think light and secure

Regards,

MaB

 

I've ran it on XP pro, runs light & well...

 

Avast+ jetico1 or kerio 2.15

 

Thanks for your help guys. I recommended him Avast + Kerio + Spybot.

As for the browser, he uses AOL.

Also what's the best way to completely remove the McAfee/AOL security suite from a system? I know that McAfee does not have a removal tool like Norton/Symantec.

Thanks.

 

http://downloads.digitaltrends.com/...tall utilities/195895/McAfee Uninstaller.html ...they do now!

 

As I'm going to do exactly this with ny elderly Ma & Pa's 98se dialup puter.

If an AV & PF are required & on a 98se, I'm not so sure.

I'll go Avast home & Sygate.

Heres the thread about my ~parallel situ.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=184868

 

AntiVir-PE is light on resources and free as the air.

Kerio 2.1.5 is light as a feather, free, & there is lots of hand-holding hither & thither & yon.

 

On a similar machine of a friend of mine, I installed Avast! Free (only standard, mail and network shield enabled), Jetico V.1 and an older version of Opera (I don't remember exactly wich).

Not a resource hog and fairly good protection, IMHO.

 

AVG Anti-Virus
Jetico 1.06
Very light, very strong

 

Ooops! I didn't know that.

In that case, & IAW with the thread's prerequisite for freeware, the main choices among *proven* antivirus freebie programs are: AVG & Avast.

Both of these antivirus programs did poorly on handling polymorphic viruses, according to recent tests by AV-comparatives. However, a recent update to Avast has reportedly improved its performance against polymorphics. There, Avast is probably the better choice.

 

Netvada is still supporting Win 98

http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm

 

What, you have to pay to get rid of a program? Totally unacceptable.