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FREE ANTI VIRUS SOFTWARE


Red Hooker

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My daughter swears by "avast!" and she's a computer builder/repair person. Her computer lab uses it with excellent results. You can download it from the web.

 

She's used it for several years and finally convinced me to change cause I was having problems with McAfee and its memory hog capabilities.

 

Since I've started using it my computer performs better and I have not had a bit of trouble with viruses.

 

There might be others that are better, but I've no complaints with it. It automatically updates as well.

 

Doc McGee

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I've also used "Avast" for years and never had a problem. One of my daughter's boyfriends was an IT guy and told me about it. It doesn't look for spywear, though. For that look up "Spybot Search and Destroy."... it's free, too. :)

 

 

Miss Cubbie

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Olen:

Can you give me another link? When I tried to open it, I got something like "Internet Explorer cannot open this website."

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I use the free version of AVG and have installed it on about 25 of my friends computers and it works fine.

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I recently got a virus that removed McAfee and then made my PC useless.

 

Obviously, McAfee did not do its job. At the recommendation of my local computer wiz I went to Microsoft Essentials. Installed it for free from Microsoft, on 3 laptops and my desktop.

 

I sleep better at night also.

 

Roo

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The misses and I are in the process of buying a new I Mac and Apple tells us anti virus software is not needed on a Mac.

Just sayin

Wif :D

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I use AVG

 

AVG, Avast, and probably Essentials are all good.

Be careful when getting a FREE antivirus, firewall, and especially spyware, malware scanners. Some are themselfs, malware pretending to help you.

 

Get the above from the companies web site links only.

 

The free AV's usually only do some things and not everything the paid may do.

 

For a Firewall, try the free Comodo Firewall

For malware, get Spybot Search and Destroy and Malwarebytes

 

I use all of the above.

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I currently use the latest free version of AVG on 3 computers. Every once-in-awhile it will stop a virus from coming through. I'm more than happy with it. The price was right. Just remember this. No matter what virus software you use or how good it is, it is never going to be perfect. Some will catch viruses that others will miss and vice versa.

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I have Microsoft Essentials installed on several hundred machines. I can get other commercial AV for free but the MS product is superior.

 

 

 

Get it here:

 

http://www.microsoft...ls/default.aspx

 

 

 

Olen

I downloaded Microsoft Essentials Monday and it took two days and help from HP toget my computer working again. Be careful what you download.

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Occasionally I see someone who has bought a brand new computer. They hook it up to the net and then down load anti virus or start turning on the included firewall.

 

Remember hooking up a brand new computer to the net without setting up the include firewall and/or having your anti virus in place and setup is just leaving yourself wide open for problems.

 

If you get a new computer, use another one that has already been on the net for a while to down load and save to disk or flash drive any anti virus you plan to run. Then load it on to the new machine and set it up before hooking to the net.

---------

I do not run anti virus software. I do run a free firewall. (Zonelabs) But I also have not updated in a long time. And with all the very large update files, I doubt I will while I am on dial-up. Still running XP system. I do not open e-mail attachments unless I know in advance what is coming. I don't click on many links in e-mails or on message boards. I do my own search of the subject and try to use the direct link if I can.

 

When the net started evolving from BBS boards, I crashed a lot of pre XT and XT machines. I kept three running with only one connected to the phone. I use another that only had programs on it to re format the one connected when it crashed or got raided. The third one was by itself for my business records. Information was brought in by disk when needed. Never connected directly to any other machine or phone line.

 

Maybe I have been lucky, but I have not had a virus problem so far.

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I downloaded Microsoft Essentials Monday and it took two days and help from HP toget my computer working again. Be careful what you download.

No problem here, I still can't get on Microsoft to download it in the first place.

So,I tried AVG-NOT free. Then I tried Avast- also NOT free.

What do I do now?

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AVG is free - it is what I use.

They try to trick you that the "Free" portion is a 30 day trial and at the end, you need to purchase their product.

You simply go back to the site and download the "Free" product again.

http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free

 

For spyware - I use

http://www.superantispyware.com/

 

Between the two - I have been well satisfied.

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There has been some good advice on here. :)

 

If your issue is that you are already infected and you are being hijacked or redirected or not allowed to connect to www.microsoft.com, you are already in need of some experienced help to clean the system up. Don't make the mistake of paying for AV software in desperation after you are infected. It likely will not help nor work at that point.

 

To check for and remove existing nasties try these free programs:

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Spybot Search & Destroy

 

Then attempt to get to the MS website and download Microsoft Security Essentials again.

 

As mentioned above AVG (free or paid) and Avast (free or paid) are also good alternate choices. None will stop all of todays nasty malware. The user is always the first line of defense. I get systems in for cleanup no matter which security system they have. My main recommendation is to NOT get McAfee or Norton. They are mostly useless and slow your system down. Also we aren't fond of Webroot Spysweeper. Avoid Those.

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No problem here, I still can't get on Microsoft to download it in the first place.

So,I tried AVG-NOT free. Then I tried Avast- also NOT free.

What do I do now?

 

 

We have been seeing a lot of malicious software called a "rootkit" . It is particularly difficult to remove because it limits your access to any tool that might help you (such as MS Essentials).

 

If you can get to a clean machine on another network try this:

 

... to disinfect a system infected with malware family Rootkit.Win32.TDSS using the utility TDSSKiller.exe.

 

go here for the directions and download:

 

http://support.kaspe...s?qid=208280684

 

You need to unzip the file and copy TDSSKiller.exe to a jump drive or CD/DVD or floppy.

 

Keep the infected machine off the network

Uninstall any anti-malware, anti-spyware or anti-virus programs that you have installed. ALL of them!

 

Run TDSSKiller and let the program clean your PC.

 

Reset your browser to the default settings. In Internet Explorer that is in Tools>Internet Options>Advanced tab>Reset Internet Explorer Settings>Reset

 

Then run the deletes in Tools>Internet Options>General tab>Browsing history>Delete (be sure ALL of the boxes are checked) then hit Delete again.

 

When the history delete finishes you should be able to connect to the Internet and download MS Essentials. Run the update and run the Full scan.

 

You should now have a clean PC.

 

If you are not comfortable doing all this then you need someone local to help. No warranty expressed or implied, your mileage may vary...

 

Good luck!

Olen

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September of 2006 I caught one of the early rootkits on my WinXP laptop. Spent three days trying to do an excorcism, with no joy. Sat there in the middle of a roomful of wreckage thinking "even if I nail this thing, this could happen again".

 

Jumped to Linux, never looked back.

 

Linux is a completely free replacement operating system. It's a cousin to the Mac OSX family but doesn't cost a dime and runs on any standard PC that can run Windows. It's basically a worldwide upraised geek middle finger to Bill Gates. The guy who wrote the original "core" (kernel) almost 20 years ago said "you can copy this, you can modify it, you can do whatever you want - but whatever alterations you made also have to be passed on free - not just free in terms of cash, but in terms of freedom to alter it even more".

 

And it basically spiralled out of control from there.

 

If you have an old "junker" PC laying around with more than 512megs memory, 20gigs of disk and a Pentium4 or better processor (this is basically a six+ year old critter I'm describing), that can boot from a DVD drive, go download what's currently the best, most full-featured Linux around - Linux Mint 11:

 

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

 

You want the 32bit DVD version. You'll download it as a single giant ".ISO" file of almost 900meg - you then use any number of Windows-based tools to burn that to a DVD. A .ISO file is basically a disk "image", complete with what it takes to boot. Instructions on dealing with .ISO files are at:

 

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto#Windows

 

The weird part is that once you boot this DVD in a computer (set it to boot from the DVD drive instead of the hard disk) it will (slowly) load into a fully functional system - that is, it will be able to access the internet, run Firefox, OpenOffice and all the other free Linux apps it comes with, etc. You can just play with it, poke around, kick the tires, all without actually loading it to the disk. Hell, you can run it this way with no hard disk in the computer, if you want - can't save anything except online to something like google docs or the like of course. Whenever you want, you can double-click the installer.

 

Support for audio/video playback is included. There's even access to a massive library of freeware built into the OS.

 

You will be flat amazed...and completely, totally immune to all that Windows malware floating around. Yes, in theory there's such a thing as Linux malware but in practice? The community has rapidly stomped on the few attempts that have cropped up, and for a number of technical reasons it's a LOT harder to write Linux malware.

 

Note: Linux Mint is a "fork" (or "derived from") a Linux variant called "Ubuntu" out of South Africa of all places. Ubuntu in turn is forked off of the Debian Project (and there's one Mint flavor that's directly forked off of Debian, you'll see that at the main Mint page but don't go there yet).

 

What else do you need to know right away...ah. "OpenOffice" is the complete MS Word/Excel/etc. clone that we've been using. Works great. It too has recently forked - "LibreOffice" is now gaining steam and that's what's in Mint. No biggie.

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