OT - Any suggestions for a free anti-virus program?

Submitted by Maize_and_Drew on

I'm asking for some help from the MGOBLOG community.

Just now, while surfing through the infinite wisdom that is MGOBLOG, I had a strange message pop up on my screen about a potential virus infection - second time this has happened in the last few days. Being the cheap Dutchman that I am, I'm hoping to find a free site I can download a good anti-virus program from. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

ckersh74

August 28th, 2009 at 10:33 PM ^

happen a while ago at work. As a result, I don't come here during work hours, as tempting as it may be.

I use Avast at home, with Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I'm using all free versions. Good luck.

biakabutuka ex…

August 28th, 2009 at 10:47 PM ^

Install the Firefox add-on "NoScript" anywhere that you consider security to be of utmost importance. I do this automatically at work. 95% of all malware distributed online requires scripting to be turned on. That add-on turns scripting off by default.

As a side benefit, you will also be impervious to malicious sites that turn your audio up and repeat "I'm watching gay porn!" over and over again. Yes, this happened to a friend. When he was in the library.

WildcatBlue

August 28th, 2009 at 10:50 PM ^

but one solution would be to dual-boot windows and some flavor of linux. Other than time invested in learning, there's no cost, and if you reserve all of your riskier surfing activity to the linux partition you'll be pretty well protected from viruses. (NB: not totally protected, but probably more than if you just ran Windows and some free anti-virus.)

foreverbluemaize

August 28th, 2009 at 11:01 PM ^

I inquired about anti-virus when I bought my computer and the guy told me that, the free anti's get the same info and updates but they do not get them as quickly as the pay anti's. Sort of made sense to me so I opted to buy the $40 subscription. I think if you will look into it you will find that the free anti's have pay subscriptions that offer superior protection. If the free ones are the same how would they ever make any money. If you really are a cheap-o like you say you are get the good stuff (I use Trend-Micro [formerly PC Cillin]) and think of the money you will save by not have to take your computer in to be debugged. The cheapest I have ever found for debugging was $65. Pay the $40 per year and be done with it.

Maize_and_Drew

August 28th, 2009 at 11:06 PM ^

AVG sounds like a popular choice - I'll check it out.

ckersh74, you had the same message come up while on MGOBLOG? Both times it happened to me was on MGOBLOG.

Could this be the next phase of Mark Dantonio's plan to dominate the state of Michigan?

W0lv3r1n3

August 28th, 2009 at 11:11 PM ^

I would advise against AVG, they've dropped the ball slightly lately compared to the other two free options. I would use either Avira or Avast, both of which are excellent free choices and provide better protection than many pay-to-use options. Avira has the better detection rate, although that also comes with slightly more false positives and a few ads during updates (which CAN be turned off, but they don't bother me anyways).

EDIT: This is a site that has tested the detection rates for all of the popular AV's, you should check it out: http://www.av-comparatives.org/
The tests themselves are here: http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests

After you choose an AV, make sure you pick up a firewall too. Top contenders there are Outpost and Comodo. Comodo is supposed to be one of the best firewalls around, free or paid, performance wise. Outpost is similar to Comodo but is probably more user-friendly (Comodo bothers you about normal programs quite often and can confuse normal users).

An on demand scanner is also a great idea for all the crap your AV misses (and EVERY AV misses something). SuperAntiSpyware has been my favorite for awhile now, it cleaned up my old PC quite well.

AV's
Avira: http://www.free-av.com/en/products/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antiv…
Avast: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Firewalls
Comodo: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
Outpost: http://free.agnitum.com/

Scanner(s)
SAS: http://www.superantispyware.com/

Blue Durham

August 28th, 2009 at 11:08 PM ^

(Norton's) was totally worthless. After checking around, I found a site that was incredibly helpful, was a great resource for all kinds of freeware, and solved a variety of computer problems I had. It is free, run by people who have years of experience working for computer/software companies and works on donations.

The site is http://AumHa.net/

Several things. Go through the "security" section and various threads. You may find a discussion of the problem you have there.

When you are ready, you need to go to the first scan the "Security - General Discussion" thread and then go to the "maleware removal (virus; trojan; hackware; etc), read the announcement at the top of the forum and do exactly what they instruct. Unlike this site, you only participate in a thread that you start, none others. They will then instruct you specifically what to do. Since they work off of donations only, they do not suffer fools at all. If you do not do precisely what they say, they close your thread down and that is that.

If you do what they instruct, they will link you to all kinds of very relevant, reliable freeware to solve your problem.

I had some problems for essentially a year; my computer since I used AumHa has worked like new.

tomhagan

August 28th, 2009 at 11:30 PM ^

Avast is good, Ive used it for years and it has always detected when there is a virus. It is free for 60 days or so, after which you can either buy it, or go in to your registry and delete the key and then install it again.

RockinLoud

August 28th, 2009 at 11:38 PM ^

True, OS-X is far superior to Windows. I don't think they're quite as perfect as their users would have to you believe, but I would for sure take it over windows. That said, I'd still take Linux over both, though :).

W0lv3r1n3

August 28th, 2009 at 11:42 PM ^

Your paying for a name.

They really aren't anymore secure, either. The only reason they aren't exploited like PC's is because they're much less mainstream and fewer people use them. Yes, you still get fewer virus problems, but it's not for the reasons many believe.

WildcatBlue

August 29th, 2009 at 12:20 AM ^

The Mac premium is less than it once was. While there is no cheap Mac, the cheaper Mac laptops are priced competitively with similarly outfitted Windows PCs at the moment.

Honestly, the safety through obscurity argument is true, but there are other reasons OS X is safer. Not the least of which is that you have to enter your admin password to do anything at all.

I say this not as a Mac partisan, but as someone who uses OS X regularly but also uses Windows and Linux. If you're looking to buy a $1000 laptop, a Mac isn't a bad choice. If your budget is smaller, go cheap and learn a little about how to keep yourself safe.

Sommy

August 29th, 2009 at 2:11 AM ^

What reasons are those then?

It is possible to exploit a Mac, but not to the same degree as a Windows-based computer. I've run both Mac OSX and Windows XP on the same computer on different partitions, and there's no question that the Windows partition begins to slow down significantly in less time than the Mac partition.

Granted, I work in audio, so I'm biased, but I've found that Mac OSX has run far more smoothly than Windows in almost every case -- and it took me a while to come around. The first Mac I ever bought, I regretted for half a year given the amount of money I spent, until I realized how much more efficiently it runs.

Blue Durham

August 29th, 2009 at 10:47 AM ^

This was from about 1987 through the mid to late 1990's. Needed it for graphics (chemistry drawing programs) and PC's didn't run the program that I really needed.

But PC's could in the mid 1990's, and since I had other compatibility problems with co-workers, I had to switch to PC's. Thirteen years later I still regret it though. I preferred the Mac operating system; I might switch back on my next purchase.

aenima0311

August 28th, 2009 at 11:49 PM ^

Usually if something pops up and says you have a virus, and you don't currently have an antivirus, it's a virus/spyware itself.

I work in computer repair, and the latest trend is malware that masquerades as legit antivirus software. You can usually tell them because they have a name that sounds like a legit AV program. Ex. Antivirus Pro XP, Antivirus 360, etc.

Just some food for thought.

Maize_and_Drew

August 29th, 2009 at 12:19 AM ^

I don't currently have anti-virus since I let my subscription to Symantec run out. When this window popped up saying I had a potential virus, and then automatically started running a "Scan" to detect said potential virus, I was like WTF?!? I immediately closed the window, and then closed the next 2 pop-up windows that came with it, and all was well again. I'm still nervous something has taken over my PC. Living without MGOBLOG, especially 1 week before the opener, would be like a slow, painful death.

Since you work in computer repair, do you have any suggestions for a good anti-virus?

aenima0311

August 29th, 2009 at 12:27 AM ^

I personally use free ones. I've used Avast and AVG in the past.

Kaspersky has the most up to date virus database, but it's also the most expensive. I also like BitDefender and Trend Micro if you decide to spend money.

If you do have an infection as I described above, just google the name of it, ie "Antivirus Pro 2009 removal instructions"

Even if it's a really bad one, it shouldn't take more than an hour, hour and a half to remove. Even for a novice computer user(not saying you are).

Any links to removal instructions on BleeepingComputer.com are usually safe, and in my experience the best.

Sommy

August 29th, 2009 at 2:06 AM ^

Glad someone else asked about this.

I was just SO AMAZED that I had this virus alert pop up and a random Windows XP folder appear when I use a Mac.

MGoMike

August 29th, 2009 at 2:53 AM ^

The point of this is that MGoBlog has some really serious malware advertising on it's site. No advertising should be able to 'detect' viruses.

Brian, you need to have some standards with your site.

Franch Dressing

August 29th, 2009 at 3:02 AM ^

It scans your computer and erases a lot of the mess!

Google: Trend Micro - Housecall - Free Scan.

victors2000

August 29th, 2009 at 7:03 AM ^

the rest of the free products. I use it myself and while there is popups it's only like one or two and I think that is a small price to pay for better protection. I think Maximum PC rated it the best of the free ones.

ckersh74

August 29th, 2009 at 8:38 AM ^

IMO You need something on that machine soon. My (uneducated) guess is that something is on your machine waiting to pop up again.

About a year and a half ago I was playing around one morning at the office, and Mgoblog was taking forever to come up, and all of a sudden, boom, AVG informs me of a virus. Pop up ads and fake scans everywhere, even after I got off the internet. Everytime I got back on the net I'd have problems again just trying to open up my homepage.

I've also had Norton in the past here at home. Absolute resource pig, especially after I downloaded the update sometime around 2007 or so. It would take 15 minutes for my machine to boot up. Right after that I downloaded Avast, Spybot and Adaware and away I went.

Good luck whatever you do, and if I were you I'd do something, and soon.

virgilthechicken

August 29th, 2009 at 10:28 AM ^

You may be able to get virus protection for free from your ISP; for example, comcast offers McAfee. Another route is through your employer; for example the U of M also offers Mcafee for students/employees.

Regalro

July 19th, 2020 at 2:30 PM ^

Hello. As I know there are several good free antivirus applications, but they won't provide all necessary features and possibilities. So if you want to get 100% security from viruses and scam, you should choose some premium software. For example check info about McAfee antivirus https://antivirus-review.com/mcafee-review, in my opinion quite good decision.