Free vs. paid security software

My computer recently got one hell of a virus that let in loads of spyware, norton anti virus packed in so I downloaded the free program Spybot Search and Destroy. Norton said everything was fine but Spybot found and destroyed 105 problems out of 107. The remaining problems were to do with system files that you need a special tool to deal with.

I have tried several anti-virus programs, included Norton and the one my server was "offering" for 5 euro/month. After my last update of my computer : xp-familal (was xp professional), hard disk of 80 giga (was 20 giga), more power, more memory, and so on,but nothing excessive, I found on my hard disk AVG free edition, that my 'repairman" had put on. Since 1 year now, I have this anti-virus program and I am very happy with it. When he is scanning in the background, I hardly notice it, and all the updates are free (by the way, he announces himself that he have to update). So far (touch wood) no virusses. This program + spybot search and destroy, apparantly keeps my computer smoothly running.
So, I would say, try it out.
Bye, and "bisous".
Lisette

I use(for windows XP): Spyware doctor- always picks up anythink and deletes it, easy to use.

Comodo firewall- works perfectly blocks everythink I dont want, again easy to use.

and for my anti-virus I admit I use a PAID subscription to norton anti-virus 2005(which I have used for ever it seems, and nothink comes close, its not that expansive per a year.) do NOT buy norton's full suite becuase the other bits are terrable.

Si.

Here are the selected submissions grouped in one post. Read through them and place your votes in the newsletter poll for the most helpful.

Answer:

Are free security products any good?

First of all, don?t ?Auto-Renew? or renew at all. Even if you have, for example, Norton, and you want to stay with Norton, the best way to do this is to let it expire, uninstall it, then go out and buy a new copy of Norton (or a competitor, if you want to switch) at retail and install it from scratch.

Why? Several reasons:

1. It?s cheaper. These products are often on sale, in fact they are often on sale ?FREE? (ok, that usually means ?Free after rebate?, but if you the rebate exercise you should get the rebate).

2. You don?t want to give these firms your credit card number. There was an article on this recently, but just about ***ALL**** of these firms, once they get your credit card number, will ?auto renew? every year and charge it to your credit card more or less until your credit card expires or hell freezes over, whichever comes first. The permission to do this is buried in the online fine print that you agree to if you renew online. While there are procedures for getting out of this, none of them is easy, and some of them are almost impossible to either find or execute. So the best way is simply never give them a credit card for online signup. [Brian Livingston?s Windows Secrets newsletter (which I highly recommend) for May 17th had an extensive article on this matter; Microsoft, Symantec and McAfee are all guilty, and what they are doing is really unconscionable. See http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/070517/#story1 ]

Now, as to your question: There are a few good free products. The best free AV product is probably Grisoft AVG. They have a paid product as well, and they both try to push you into the paid product and make the free product hard to find, but as of now, it?s still available (there have been rumblings that it might disappear). The free edition is available at http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/crp/0. Do note that this is JUST Anti-Virus, it?s not a ?full service suite?, e.g. you will need anti-spyware separately, and optionally a firewall separately if you want one (personally, I don?t recommend using any add-on firewall for most people: they cause as many problems as they solve).

As for anti-spyware, Ad-aware still has a free edition, and Microsoft ?Windows Defender? is still free. I find the combination of these two items to be more than adequate.

My own recommendation is as follows:

1. A good Anti-Virus package of your choice. My recommendations are Grisoft, Norton, Kaspersky or Zone Alarm. And, again, if you are patient, you can usually get the PAID products Free, or at least ?Free after rebate?.

2. Microsoft Windows Defender and Ad-Aware.

3. The Windows firewall, but nothing further

4. ***VERY IMPORTANT*** ### ALWAYS ### operate from behind a hardware router that does NAT (network address translation ... they all do it). Use a router even if you have no need for additional ports and no plans or need to share your internet connection.

What you gain from the paid products (which, again, might be FREE) are integration, convenience and support (none of the free products have support). But as to the matter of whether or not the free products can do an adequate job, the answer is that yes, SOME of them can.

Regards,
Barry Watzman

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=249393&messageID=2496374#2496374

Submitted by: Watzman

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Answer:

Security Suite

Choosing a good security configuration can be the life or death of your computer, or at least the difference between minor fixes and total hard drive wipes.

In the area of security, price is not synonymous with quality. While paid security suites tend to have more bells and whistles, their protection is usually on par with the free alternatives. You may think that free means that they are not as good as other solutions, but this is often not the case. In many situations the antivirus companies provide the free edition to home users, because when they get used to using it they will recommend them when it comes time to purchase a new Anti-Virus license at their workplace. Business purchases are much more lucrative than home purchases. It is a good way to break into the market heavily dominated by a few major companies.

The most important part of your security suite is your anti-virus program. http://www.av-comparatives.org/ routinely evaluates the top contenders against the newest viruses. There are several things to consider when selecting your anti-virus product. You'll want to ensure that it has a good detection rate. Anything listed in the av-comparatives tests have decent enough comparison rates to be considered.

While a good detection rate is important, it is not the only thing to consider. The two most common brands are Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus, and McAfee Virus Shield. If you buy a new computer it will most likely come with one of these. Because they are so common, you will want to avoid them. Virus makers target these two applications, just like they do Internet Explorer, meaning you will likely run into a virus that will kill that program eventually. It has happened to me several times. Go for one of the lesser known ones just to be a little bit safer.

Some other things that you will want are to ensure that the program is ICSA certified. If it is, they will display an image on their website. A virus-Bulletin top 100 award does not hurt either.

If you are considering a paid one, Kasperky Lab's Kaspersky Antivirus, or ESet's NOD32 would be my recommendations due to their great normal and polymorphic virus detections.

If you are looking at free alternatives, I would recommend Alwil's Avast Home Edition or AVG Free.

A security suite usually comes with anti-spyware technology as well. Anti-spyware programs are a lot newer than anti-virus programs, and also spyware seems to evolve more quickly than viruses because of the advertising dollars it generates. Because of this, no one anti-spyware program is enough. Most tech geeks will recommend scanning your computer with 2 or 3 different ones (though the real-time protection really isn't needed in any of them. Scheduled system scans will remove most malware without slowing down your computer in the process). I can think of no way in which the paid programs are any better than the free ones, and thus will not recommend any of them, though I am sure that other people have their preferences. Currently their detection databases are more complimentary, so there is no one program beats all type thing. I, as most others, would recommend using the free Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware Personal, and Windows defender to scan your PC. Others might also recommend using Spyware blaster, but I have not used the program so I cannot recommend one way or the other on it.

The third part of a security suite is the firewall. If you have a router (set up properly) it will act as an incoming hardware firewall. Windows Firewall that comes with windows XPSP2 or above is decent enough for the same purpose, but does not include outgoing protection to stop anything that gets in from phoning home with whatever it gets its hands on, so a good software firewall is recommended. The paid programs are numerous, but the most popular free firewall is ZoneAlarm's personal firewall.

These free programs should more than adequately cover the security needs of most home computer users.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=249393&messageID=2496507#2496507

Submitted by: Acaykath


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Answer:

Actually, in this case you can get something for "nothing"

In most cases your assumption would be correct. With most types of products you can expect that the paid version will be better than the freebies, but this is an exception.

If you pay for your antivirus and anti-spyware protection you tend to get some nice features, but you usually don't get better protection and the reason is really simple. Viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, and all the other malicious garbage that can attack your computer isn't just a threat to you-- it threatens everyone on the internet. This includes big companies and governments. It is in everyone's best interests to control these attacks, but that can't happen if the malicious code can hide in private computer systems because the owner can't or won't pay for the software needed to protect the machine. Therefore a number of private companies have committed themselves to providing free versions of their software for those who can't or won't pay money for it. A lot of this software is superior quality.

There is a catch, but it isn't any different than if you were buying the software. Whether you pay for the protection or get it free, make absolutely certain that you know what you are getting. Many companies also put out bad programs, and some of them actually cause the problems they are supposed to be detecting. There is no way to avoid the need to check a product out before using it, unfortunately. Many people have purchased or downloaded software believing that they were protecting their computers, only to be infected with viruses or spyware as a result. Never respond to a pop up that offers to "scan" your computer for free. This is one tactic used to sell inferior or even malicious products. Always check out the reviews of the product before allowing it to access your computer.

It is, fortunately, very easy to check out a product before purchasing or downloading it. CNET has a lot of information. Check out download.com, and don't forget to type the product's name into your favorite search engine and see what the reviews on other sites say. You can get a lot of information in a short period of time.

You should run one (and only one) antivirus product on your computer. You should run one (and only one) software firewall on your computer, and the one that comes with Windows is not the best choice. You should run 3 or 4 anti-spyware programs, but not in "real time." Run only the one you trust the most constantly, then run the others manually right after updating them (at least once a week). Be sure to disconnect from the internet while running your scans manually. This is also a good time to run a full antivirus scan and any other utilities that need to be run, such as a defrag program.

If you are still deciding which products to choose, and you are willing to pay for the products, I urge you to support those companies that offer free versions of their software. The paid versions aren't going to protect any better, but you should get some nicer features. Any company that will offer quality software for free deserves your business. They are doing their part to ensure that we can all access the internet safely, and we should appreciate them for that effort.

Also, don't despise some of the free software in other categories. Much of it is high quality. The open source movement is one reason. Also, some of the software is put out by individuals who create a program for themselves and then just want to give others access to it. Some of it is software put out by companies that also sell paid software, hoping that you will like the product and come to them for other software you might need. Take a look at it. You might find something you need for free or at little cost. You will probably find something that is just cool. Don't go wild! After all, there is a lot of junk out there as well, but do take a look and check the reviews. You will be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

Denise

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=249393&messageID=2496562#2496562

Submitted by: 4Denise

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Answer:

Home versus Office - Free Security Software

Jasmine, I assume that your are interested in Free Security Software for your Home PC, not for a buisness.
Most Free Security Software is available only for Home/Personnel use & should be purchased for buisness use.

Generally, the Free Security Software is a Basic version of individual programs & not an integrated suite. You can find articles on Free AntiVirus, AntiSpyware & Firewalls in CNET.com. This is an 'It Depends' problem; relative, to your requirements for Security Software. An example, Free AntiVirus program, may require manual versus automatice update of virus definitiions or may cover your incoming email; but, not your IM. This is part of the difference between Free & Purchased Security Programs, in that the Purchased Programs will usually have more features - but, you know your own situation & have to determine, do you need the extra coverage provided in the Purchased versions. The same is generally true of Free Firewalls; however, AntiSpyware is a different story; currently, the three top Purchased Programs are better than any of the Free Programs; but, you don't want just one.

None of the current AntiSpyware programs [Purchased or Free] catches everything! It is generally recommended that you purchase one of the top three plus use two or three of the free AntiSpyware programs to approach 100% coverage. Another consideration is that integrated security suites from one vendor may not provide the best protection in each category; since, no one vendor has the best products in each of these categories [Oh! don't forget identiy theft & phising as additional security issues! that the suites or indiviual programs may or may not address and/or require additional programs for coverage.]

Relative to how the companies that provide Free programs make their money - generally by advertising with the Free samples - if you use a basic program then maybe you will upgrade to their more comprehensive purchased version; or if you use the free version at home you may recommend it to/for your buisness to purchase or in addition to the Free program, the company will advertise other of their software for purchase or advertise other company's software for purchase. Also home PCs are as a group the least protected; so, are the greatest spreaders of viruses & become zombies. So some of the companies are trying to incentives Home PC owners/users to at least minimally protect their Home PCs with Free Security Software to help make the internet a better place. Along this line of thinking, check with your ISP to see what they may offer you for Free [or discount]; since, SPAM, Zombies & Viruses can affect their operating volume/cost; so, it it in their best buisness interest sometimes to offer Free Security Software for Home PCs to reduce the spread/volume of SPAM, Viruses & Zombies. [Also you may have to consider Upgrade versus Renewal of your Security Suite - with some software companies you can purchase renewal of definition & update support for your current version; but, many times a specific version has a specific life, e.g. like OS Win9x support/update versus upgrade to WinXP, etc. which the company may not support after a specific time 'life' & you have to upgrade to a newer version or a different company's product.]

I hope this info helps with your decision.

Submitted by: bwh48

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Answer:

Some times there really is a free lunch

Well, Jasmine, let's jump right to the bottom line with the statement that whether you're looking for anti-virus, anti-spyware, or firewall software (and I assume you do want all three) there are free products out there in all categories that are solid options well worth considering. I think you are perfectly safe ignoring whether a product is free or is one you pay for when making a decision about what's right for you. Read the reviews, get advice from other users, do your due diligence in whatever way suits you, and then go with the product that you've decided best meets your needs, regardless of whether or not you have to pay for it. There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with free software. Like commercial software it may be very good or simply awful!

That being said let's look at your questions. How do freebie companies make money? In a few cases they don't. Some, like the Linux crew, are simply doing it for the love of creating software. On sites with this type of software you'll often see the opportunity to make a donation to help pay their hosting expensees, but the software itself is always free. Like any other software it can be very good, very bad, or anywhere in between.

In most other cases the free software is put out there by commercial software enterprises. This freeware is usually a somewhat stripped down version of their commercial product. They make their money from people who try the free product, like it, but decide that the commercial version has enough extra features to be worth buying. So in one sense the free version serves as a trial before paying for the full version. In other words the company is offering you a free lunch, while hoping you'll choose to stay and pay for dinner. But in many cases you may decide the freeware is all you need. A close reading of the comparisons on the vendor's web site may show that the added features in the full version are not anything you particularly need. And it may even be, if you're not interested in managing lots of features, that the full version will be less to your liking than the freebie.

You also wanted to know whether the free products can really be as good as the commercial ones. As I've already indicated, there are good, bad and indifferent products in both camps. Whether or not you pay for it really is not the main issue. It is probably true, though, that you will get more features in a major commercial program. However, this can be a negative as much as a positive, as the big commercial companies have to keep adding new bells and whistles to their products to keep the new sales rolling. This leads to feature creep, which means software gets more and more complex, while not necessarily getting any better. Depending on what you're looking for, a major, feature-rich application may or may not meet your requirements.

There's also the third option, between free and pay, which is the time-limited free trial. This is commercial software that you will pay for if you want to use it beyond the trial period, but that allows you to run the full-featured product for a limited time, frequently 30 days. Unfortunately the well-known big names in the security field don't seem to offer this option (at least none that I know of). I recently purchased a full internet suite from one of the big names that had received a very good review here on C-Net. In my opinion it stunk, and it's no longer on my system, but they've got my money! Instead I am currently running a free firewall, an initially free anti-spyware program that I opted to pay for the full version, and a 30 day trial on an anti-virus program that I will probably buy when the trial period expires.

As you've probably noticed, I've avoided naming specific products, as my personal preferences may be just the opposite of yours. The most specific advice I'll give, from my own sad experience, is avoid buying a product you can't test drive, unless you're absolutely sure it's the one you want. With free or free-trial software your money stays in your pocket either forever or at least until you know for sure that this is the product you want. I do think that the major players have gotten too top-heavy and complacent, and taht there are some great new products out there that just might take them down a peg or two!

One final warning, though, on free software. Don't install anything on your computer unless you have verified from reviews on reputable web sites (such as this one) that it is safe and legitimate software. Then be sure to also download it only from its official site or a reputable download service. The net abound with so-called anti-spyware and anti-virus programs that are the exact opposite and are just waiting to infect your system. That being said, I hope you'll choose to investigate the world of free security software and free software in general. Good luck!

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=249393&messageID=2498441#2498441

Submitted by: jcbowen

Buy an Alpha Shield and continue to use the freebees.

When you buy a new computer, just connect the Shield to it.

Hello,
I recommend you to buy Kaspersky Antivirus it's really very good due to my experience with the viruses. I also inform you that I uses Kaspersky and I have never a matter and my PC is very well protected.
Sincerly yours
Abdelouahid Bouhouche.

The thing I use and gave best results: A router with firewall, NAT and stuff. It's a hardware product tha costs about 100$ (I would recommend an ASUS). Plus, they never ask you stupid questions and it won't expire or ask for renewal until you want a newer version

Other than that, just use the default windows firewall.
Other FREE antivirus products like AVG or AVAST can also be used.
SpyBot for anti-spyware

i have found AVG anti-virus 7.5 free to be better than some paid verisions and have had not problems.Pencillin locked me up several times and then i switched to AVG.There anti-spyware is also good and i run spy blaster with it. Use Ccleaner to remove internet traces and fix issues caused by internet surfing. I don't overload my system with free programs that dup & dup work. Hope this helps

I used Symantec up until 2 years agao when I had some troubles trying to to load the lates edition which I paid for. After three calls that ended up in India and them telling me I had a problem. I uninstalled Norton Anti Virus and have used free edition of AVG. I have had absolutley no problems and AVG uses a lot less of your PC resources. Even if they start charging I will stay with them. Yes, by all means try it.

Rino Manarin

I know a lot of people have a problem with AOL, but I have been totally satisfied. They offer all the security software. I have had it since they began offering it and have never had a problem with viruses. The only problem is this: To add certain hardware or software (like an HP Printer) one has ot uninstall the security software before adding the hardware/software, and then reinstalling it afterwards. According to tech support at HP, AOL blocks out so much, that sometimes needed online tools cannot penetrate it when adding programs. It updates constantly. I have been very happy with the security AOL offers.

ASK YOURSELF THIS:
WHY WORRY ABOUT VIRUSES WHEN YOU CAN BACK UP?
WHY SPEND MORE THAN THE DAMAGE A VIRUS COULD REALLY DO? SPEND MONEY ON BACK-UP DISKS.
I USE A GOOD FREE SCANNER, WHEN AN INFECTED FILE IS FOUND, A FREE SCANNER CAN'T SEE. I ERASE THE FILE MANUALLY AND RE-INSTALL THE SOFTWARE.
FREE ANTI VIRUS IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.
THE LEVEL OF PROTECTION SHOULD BE GREATER AS THE SENSITIVITY OF THE DATA GOES UP.

Several years ago I bought Norton Systemworks, with 2 rebates making it free after the rebate. Ever since, up to this year, I have been able to buy the latest Systemworks with a mfg rebate and an upgrade rebate, again making the package free. This year this offer did not appear for Systemworks, but I found the same deal for Norton Internet Security 2007, and also picked up the latest System Suite, System Mechanic and Webroot Spy Sweeper, all free after the rebate. I don't mind waiting a few weeks to recover my purchase price, especially when buying from a site with no tax and free shipping! The free programs out there all sound great, but I feel like I'm better covered with the commercial programs I have as long as I can keep this upgrade process going. Watch ads for stores like Office Depot, Fry's and CompUSA. (I do use Spybot and Ad-Aware as well too, just to cover all bases)

By all means go the free route! There are many great products out there that do a great job and are provided "free" to home users. Check out several reputable download sites and note which programs consistently receive high ratings from users and the download sites (such a download.com) and you can feel confident in the effectiveness of the product. In my experience, products offered by "Big Name" companies such as Norton, McAfee, and recently ZoneAlarm have gotten bloated and resource hungry, and tend to take control of what should be your options as far as what you accept and run on your computer, to the point of stopping all network activity, unasked!Much of the problem is because of lazy programmers who build product that is not efficient, and thereby encourages hacking and resource demand on your system. The free products are generally open-source, small footprint (smaller download and resource consumption) without any loss of effectiveness. After years of frustration with the "Big Name" products, I run all free products on my HP Pavilion AMD64 3400, with absolutely no problems, and they all run practically invisibly on my system. I can strongly recommend AdAware, SpyBlaster, Spyguard, and Spybot for Malware and Spyware. I presently use Avast, but have used AVG with great satisfaction as well, preferring the interface and auto-update (at start up) feature of Avast. Until recently, I was a big fan of ZoneAlarm, but it has started to mimic Windows products, being far too fat and a 30+ Mb update download is insane when you are still on dial-up in the country! My firewall choice is now Comodo, which is lite, effective, and what ZoneAlarm used to be. All these are free and highly recommended by me, and I am not an easy sell, even for free products. Anything is better than nothing, so do use at least one of each category of product, and why not save money while doing so. Also, the best defense is by adopting safe surfing habits! Happy computing!

Jasmine, Thanks for the question and to all who replied, as I am in much the same boat at the moment.

Had an old WinMe machine for years that I had Norton ISS (paid) on, which worked but hogged the system terribly and became increasing unstable over time - most of the system crashes (several times a day sometimes) had to do with some Symantec "event" or another. Never bothered to change because it did work, and I had other things to do.

But a couple months ago when I bought a new XP Pro machine (just in time to avoid Vista) I did a lot of homework, and based on various reviews purchased the Zone Alarm Security Suite v.7. Although initially dismayed at what it did to my boot time (almost as long as the old WinMe on a much more powerful machine) and still not entirely happy with that, I have in the intervening months been VERY happy with the level of security it has provided (to the point of frustration sometimes getting it to let something in that I REALLY WANT to let in). And since this XP system is a lot more stable than my old WinMe machine, I don't have to reboot that often, so the boot time (and the use of system resources, it is a hog also) is not such a big deal.

But my problem now is this: I want to take the old WinMe machine to the general store I am part owner of, for paperwork, our various kids to occupy themselves when stuck in the store with their parents, etc. Miraculously, we can manage a broadband connection there, but I don't want to stick all the other possible (computer-illiterate) users with the problems I had with Norton, so I've been looking for alternatives that will work with WinMe and are not resource-intensive - especially as I have not yet figured out a way to load the AV/firewall/etc. only ONCE at boot and not every time one user logs out and another logs on.

The WinMe OS narrows my choices a lot (even ZA has stopped releasing versions that work with Win9x/Me, although I understand I can still download older versions that will work), but after other research AND reading every single post in this thread, I am leaning towards one of the "A" anti-virus programs (AVG, AVAST, or Antivir), probably AVAST, coupled with either NetVeda Safety.Net or Filesclab firewall, and good old Spybot, Adaware, etc. (already on the computer for many years) for the spyware end of things. And if they work well I don't have a problem paying for the "full" version, I believe in supporting software that works the way it is supposed to (made my donation to SpyBot just weeks ago, long overdue). I looked at Kaspersky's (paid)security suite (which still supports older Windows operating systems) but am still leaning towards a mix of independent programs to avoid the "bloat" and slowdown of the overall system that suites tend to come with.

I'd still welcome specific advice for good programs (especially firewalls) that still support/work with the Win9x/Me OS and don't bog the system down completely or make it unstable.

Cheers,
Lelani

I ditched Kaspersky for a simple issue -- my Kaspersky license key kept being lost by the program, and that meant I wasn't regularly getting updates, so when it came up to renewing, I have decided to jump ship.
IMO, Kaspersky is one of the fastest and best protection against virii on the market, with the best response times to new virus threats. This ongoing technical problem meant I had to ditch it, for now, and find something else. Paired with ZoneAlarm, SpywareBlaster, and AdAware, my PCs have been kept clean for many, many years.

I tried dozens of different alternatives, and chose McAfee in the end. It offers the best value for money -- their VirusScanPlus gives you reliable anti-virus, anti-spam/phishing, and firewall in one product for ~$40/yr. It's also very fast for scanning and loading, although can be a resource hungry at boot-time.

A few of the others I have tried in the last 12 mths include:
SymantecNortonAV - one of the oldest programs around, now one of the worst -- the most bloated and slow program, and not effective enough at picking up new threats, for my money.
PandoAV - very easy to use but had installation problems with WinXPsp2, that caused it to crash routinely, even after several unsuccessful installs, I had to ditch it. It offers good value, only IF you can get it to work reliably.
VET - years ago was one of the best products on the market until, like Norton and CA (Computer Associates), the company developing VET was bought out, and now nothing is spent on researching new virus threats. it is now abysmally poor at picking up virii in the wild, you are now better protected with a free product.
AVG - fast to load, not resource hungry at all, until you have to do a disk scan, at which point your PC will become a vegetable until AVG has finished, hours later. you could disable the scheduled scan, but that's not a sensible idea in the real world of broadband. IMO, this has the LEAST user-friendly, MOST ugly interface of any AV product I've tested. It's notably very poor at picking up virus threats in the wild. Their pay-version doesn't compare with the competition, however they do offer a free version if you're really desperate.

Some other free offerings included:
AVG (as above), NOD32, Avast - typically they suffer from poorly designed interfaces, (little surprise when unpaid programmers attempt the job of a graphic designer); don't offer active, real-time scanning, only an on-demand disk scan (this lacking makes a product 99% useless, since they aren't able to protect against any new downloads/removable disks inserted, or any websites you visit); slow to respond new threats in the wild (arguably the most important aspect of any AV product -- there are many websites that test/compare this statistic); in their favour, they are fast and use very little resources (largely since they really aren't actively doing anything) and they're completely FREE (it's for you to decide if, being able to use your PC and keeping all of your data, is worth less than $40/yr).

Interesting 5 responses to vote on, especially from 4Denise and Watzman. They appear 1st and 4th on the list. I suspect the percentages would change for all 5 if they appeared in different positions on the voting list, or were varied.

Hi,

I used comodo firewall for both my desktop and laptop.
Comodo is user friendly and easy to use.

I high recomend it for free firewall.

zaenal

If you really want to see how well your antivirus or antimalware program performs look it up at VB100 Virus Bulletin, and choose the right one for you.

https://www.virusbtn.com/Session-23e5ee93966660a8084aca18461390ee/vb100/index

I personally use a combination of paid and free software, and I have never had a problem. My renewal is just $20.00 a year and I have antimalware, antivirus, antistealth, and antispyware.

NOD32
Microsoft windows Defender

Like many of those who have posted replies, I work in information security. I also travel throughout the US teaching cyber/information security to small businesses and small organizations.

Here is what I teach the folks "out there" -

Security software covers a bunch of different functions. We usually think of viruses and spyware, and those need to be covered, but let's not forget about firewalls - and since most of us have a slight problem in remembering to keep our important data backed up, maybe we need to consider a program that does that important task for us (we don't usually get serious about backups until we lose some very important information).

First, most of these functions can be obtained in an all-in-one security suite. Most of these are "pay for" and work fine. Among the "pay for" is Microsoft Live OneCare, which claims to do all of the above (and I use it on three of my home systems - $50/year for 3 systems) - I like that it does the automatic backups for me, on a schedule that I select.

OK, given the above is ok, what other options are there?

Firewall: Windows XP and Vista have this built-in. You have to find it and activate it (usually). Otherwise, Zone Alarm is one of the best "free" firewall programs out there. I use it on my laptops and one of the systems I have at home.

AntiVirus: I go along what those that have been suggested and have used them all. AVG is very good (I use it on one system). Otherwise, I've used FPROT, Norton, Symantec, etc - at home and work.

AntiSpyware: Spybot (free) has improved immensely in the past few months. In the pay-for, Spy Sweeper is one of the best - I had an issue with system resource usage when I was using it, but maybe that has been "fixed" by now. Windows Defender is also pretty decent.

AntiAdware: Adaware is good. Free and paid versions. Other anti-spyware products advertise that they also search for and remove adware.

Automatic backup software: There are several products available. I've only used Live OneCare and am satisfied with it's service.

Most of the above programs can be set to automatically check for and install updates - both to the search engine, and to the scanning dictionary (what it knows about). Some of the free versions do not allow this (that's part of what you pay for with their paid versions).

Let's not forget that part of security is keeping our operating system and our application software patched/updated, too. Windows can be set to do this automatically and I highly recommend it.

Most of the automatic updates (including Windows) need a high-speed connection to the Internet to function best. Updating Windows over a dial-up connection is a very painful process. Broadband is becoming available and affordable in many areas of the country - I recommend it.

No doubt I've left off your favorite program and you may think I'm a dunce for not mentioning it (or that I might be on Microsoft's payroll for my "shameless" promotion of their products/service - I'm not).

My $.02's worth.

Your mileage (and opinion) will no doubt vary...

Rich

When I got my first PC I bought a full AV, Firewall, AS package. My HD went just before it was due to run out and I was speaking to the place I got my PC from over sending me a new HD when I asked him his opinion, he said professionally a subscription one is best but his personal opinion was free ones are just as good and he used the free ones at home.

I have used a free AV ever since and found it better than my old all in one Internet security suite (please note this is my personal opinion) along with a free firewall, two free antispyware scanners, free system scanner plus I use two different online scanners twice a week and free security browser plug-ins on my Firefox and IE7.

Nothing will replace user vigilance though.

Some of these programs are free because there are many software developers who believe they should be free for those who have low incomes and many various reasons. Some do have conditions attached, many don't except that you are using it for personal/home use not business.

One a final note, I had downloaded a certain toolbar and one of my sons told me to get it off as it was spyware - I was using Norton at the time which removed some of it anyway. Ad-Aware removed some more traces of it when I had installed my free programs. Yet it was only a couple of weeks ago I was scanning my services with HiJackThis and found a registry entry for that toolbar still there! Deleted it safely thankfully! It had been there through paid through to free!

You could try free then upgrade/buy security if you don't like it. I was of the same dilemma and thought as you a year ago, so I can understand your apprehension. CNET have a lot of info on this in the download.com section. Good luck with whatever you decide.