| Author | Message | ||
     Aeholton |
Just cobbed together a PC (running XP) for my dad out of some junk I had laying around. Need free reliable anti-virus software to run on it. Any sugestions? (Message edited by aeholton on December 02, 2009) | ||
| Jramsey |
AVG Free | ||
| Daggar |
http://www.avast.com/ or http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage | ||
| Drkside79 |
If you have Comcast they offer free MacAfee | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Avast +1 | ||
| Andymnelson |
Mac OSX.  But I always install AVG free on friends and families computers. | ||
| Froggy |
I don't use antivirus on any of my windows Vista/7 machines. The best paid for AV is Eset's NOD32. Can't really comment on free ones, I am yet to find one I am happy with. | ||
| Aeholton |
Mac OSX. That's what I have on my MacBook. My dad has been here since Thanksgiving and saw all the old PC's I have stored in the front bedroom. He asked if he could have one, so I built one out of 2 I had. | ||
| Nvr2old |
I kinda like the reviews and stuff on this site: http://www.techsupportalert.com/ | ||
| Sphere79 |
http://www.pclinuxos.com - just upgraded my grandparents old system (that was running Windows 98!) with it tonight. I used the LXDE "light" desktop because it only had 256MB's of RAM. No antivirus needed, ever - and all the software is free. It's too bad retail will never push Linux as they like folks spending hundreds on MS Office and bringing their system in every year to have Geek Squad clean it up. | ||
| Fahren |
had no issues with avg free - worked like a charm. i'm trying out avast now, just to compare. | ||
| Zane |
As an every day anti virus I use AVG. When that doesn't work I load Avast. That will catch things that AVG doesn't. My last bad infection was a root kit virus. Could not get rid of that till I used trojan remover. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
It's not free, but over the past year I've become a huge fan of Kaspersky Internet Security. It includes Antivirus scanning, email, website monitoring, spyware prevention, etc.. I just renewed for $50/one year (can use the same subscription on three computers) | ||
| Odie |
Avast works great for me. Just found a Trojan this morning in a file converter I use for my die cutter/sticker maker. | ||
| Fahren |
Update on my experience: I think AVG is a good everyday program over Avast, but Avast seems to scan more aggressively - to the point that it was interfering with the loading of basic sites (yes, even Badweb). So I just removed it and re-installed AVG. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Funny timing on this question. Avast went haywire last night, flagging and deleting programs as trojans, that are completely virus free. It's happened all over, and it appears that Avast itself has become somewhat virulent. Programming glitch in the update, corporate sabotage? Who knows? Avast is strangely silent about all this. | ||
| Milt |
Get rid of Windows. The best virus protection for old PCs is a Linux OS - free, fast and industrial strength. (Message edited by milt on December 03, 2009) | ||
| Reepicheep |
AVG will pop up a false positive once or twice a year as well. I've put it on a bunch of peoples systems. None have gotten popped by a virus, but some still have gotten popped by spyware. | ||
| Bikerjim99 |
Microsoft Security Essentials. Good and free virus protection. | ||
| Ezblast |
AVG combined with Malwarebytes - both free - does the trick nicely. EZ | ||
| Aesquire |
I had the win32.vitro bug. AVG & malwarebytes failed to get it, so a networking buddy told me to get ESET. That worked great, but my trial ran out & I'm back to avg. I may have to actually pay for ESET. | ||
| Mikej |
"No antivirus needed, ever" Just because it hasn't been targeted doesn't mean it can't or won't be targeted. Speaking of which, I need to check into phone/mobile browser AntiVirus tools. | ||
| Gohot |
DAGGER'S got it.....AGV, its free and works really well. I went with them for a year or so before that particular tower died. (unrelated) | ||
| Fdl3 |
Microsoft Security Essentials. Good and free virus protection. +1 Don't overlook this one. I have it running on my work laptop and home computers (all XP). Pros Free Fast (quick scan, update downloads) Frequent Updates Ability to submit potential threats Good turnaround time for proven, submitted threats Simple user interface Virus and spamware protection Cons Microsoft controlled May not always support XP in the future? Slow full scan (but then, most are slow) (Message edited by fdl3 on December 04, 2009) | ||
| Sphere79 |
> Just because it hasn't been targeted doesn't mean it can't or won't be targeted. That is technically correct, however there are no known Linux viruses "in the wild", and with it's massive penetration of 1% (home use desktops) I doubt there will be any soon. I'd expect Macs to be targeted first - I know of at least one Mac trojan that was embedded in a torrent file. I guess "no virus scanner needed, ever" could possibly be false as I cannot tell the future. There is debate surrounding the potential problems and repercussions of using "no viruses" and "free software" (if it's "free" it must be "cheap" too) as it's selling point. But without retail pushing it, it will never rise above more than a few % of PC users anyway - Canonical and ubuntu be damned. Most users I've installed Linux for have never heard of it until I recommended it. If a Linux install is properly configured with a firewall and limited user account access that alone will severely limit the attack surface. I was reading yesterday about Linux "viruses" in a lab environment. One attack required the user to manually execute code, and the other needed code executed through WINE - which uses Windows libraries to run Windows code on Linux machines. Not exactly earth shattering "viruses", just exploits preying on ignorant users. As Linux slowly becomes more "mom and dad" friendly, those are viable attacks I suppose. But I'd like to think my parents used Windows long enough to know not to run "check out the game I made.exe" in that strange email sent from an unknown party. I do run a Windows machine at home (which runs Avast), and I'm in class studying for my MCSE (MS Certified Systems Engineer) where obviously they run Windows machines. They run AVG full time and on two occasions the machine I was at was still breached. That is why I push friends and family to move to Linux. Then they won't be calling me in a year because "their system is slow". I found it interesting that there are actual Linux virus scanners. But their main purpose is to scan Linux machines for possible exploits or macros that might infect any Windows clients they serve, which makes sense. Estimate's range anywhere from 25%-40% but a big chunk of the internet's servers are Linux powered. (Message edited by Sphere79 on December 04, 2009) | ||
| Milt |
Under the sheets, Mac OS is BSD Unix. |
