Best Free AntiVirus?

Topic

New Reply

Hi,

Pls. can you recommend me the most robust/best FREE Antivirus & kindly provide the URL where it can be downloaded from (for WinXP).

Thanks,

m.q.

Reply | Quote

Replies

the most robust (and at no additional charge) antivirus strategy I have is:

buy a Mac!

Reply | Quote

I’d vote for AVG by Grisoft too but with a caveat. Grisoft have recently upgraded their product with a new engine for the AV. The new version 7 doesn’t have a free version but you can still download the older free ver 6. They have said they will continue to support ver 6 but who knows for how long. (I suspect that will depend on how different the update files are between the two versions).

The do offer a free 30? day trial of the new version. I tried it on my Win98SE P200MMX machine and it bogged the system down so much that i uninstalled and went back to ver 6. I have heard of other similar problems.

HTH

Reply | Quote

Thanks, I found quite a few via Google but wanted to only consider RECOMMENDED ones.

I went through some of the ones you recommended but for Commercial use they are not free. Pls. can you suggest ones that can be used by a company legally? TIA.

m.q.

Reply | Quote

Most (all?) antivirus companies are in business to make money, so they reckon that your company ought to make enough money to pay for their antivirus product.

Seems fair, no?

Reply | Quote

(Edited by jscher2000 on 13-Aug-03 21:41. Just noticed you are in England…)

How large a company? I recommend Trend Micro OfficeScan Corporate Edition for business desktop antivirus. Its central administration is very slick; version 5.x is much improved over 3.x. A 50-user license package is $900 at buy.com ($18/seat). Wonderful product. And a wonderful client.

Added: Product information page in British English. Sorry, I don’t know how to search for product pricing in the U.K. in an efficient manner.

Reply | Quote

There are almost none left – AVG is probably the best known.

I can’t believe you can’t do http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc…ivirus+software%5B/url%5D!!!

Reply | Quote

Is Personal AVG still free? I went looking for it for a friends new PC and couldn’t find anything but free trial apps on Grisoft.

Reply | Quote

Try this AVG Free

The difference between Genius and Stupidity:
A Genius knows their limits.
- Albert Einstein

Reply | Quote

Thanks Ed, I have no idea how you found that link.

Reply | Quote

Google: avg free

The difference between Genius and Stupidity:
A Genius knows their limits.
- Albert Einstein

Reply | Quote

Since I already knew the Grisoft name, I didn’t think I’d need to Google the free package. It’s the things I -think- I know that trip me up!

Reply | Quote

John, ya ought to try the Avast. Joe’s link above (very old) seems to be dead, but try this one: avast! antivirus software – computer virus, worm and Trojan protection by ALWIL Software

I put it on this new Dell and have no complaints so far (4 months of use).

Reply | Quote

Thanks, Al. How does AVAST compare to AVG? How would you rank it overall?

Reply | Quote

I don’t know the answer, John, since I have only used AVG for a short time and that was several years ago, when it didn’t scan incoming email and I dumped it in favor of TrendMicro’s PC-Cillin. I still have TrendMicro on my other computer. Avast has kept this one clean ever since I installed and setup the new PC in April and it’s completely unobtrusive. The only thing I don’t like (already mentioned) is that in the free version you can’t schedule a drive scan which I like to do every overnight (security blanket kind of guy that I am).

Reply | Quote

Hi John,

I tried both AVG 7 and Avast! about a year and a half ago. If I recall well, I chose AVG because Avast! would take up too much resources. It’s fair to mention I’m running WinXP in a P-III 550 Mhz 384 MB (RAM), so even the slightest reduction in load is greatly welcome. Apart from that, I recall Avast had a nice interface. I don’t know how it rates when it comes to virus protection, I just didn’t leave it long enough. I’m happy with AVG. It has periodic releases, which as most of us I don’t know how effective they are. For what it’s worth, I’ve never had serious issues with virus infections — and I think that’s the best thing one can speak of an AV program.

Reply | Quote

Hi Diegol,

I have been following this post with great interest. Although I use paid antivirus software on my machines, I am putting a couple of systems together for newly bound college students. The systems are basically 1.2GH Processor, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, DVD-ROM/CD-RW, NIC machines. Both machines will have W98SE (they already had retail license copies of the OS and plan to upgrade to Vista or XP later when they can afford it).

I originally planned to put AVG on both machines. However, …

Do you think avast! 4 Home Edition or Free AVG Anti-Virus would be better in this case

Reply | Quote

Hi Scott,

I cannot swear by Avast! since I haven’t used it lately. I’ve read good comments on it though. As regards AVG I wouldn’t feel comfortable stating more than I have. Personally, I don’t worry too much about viruses because I’m pretty careful and believe AVG does a fairly good job. Besides, not that they are the only kind of virus, but should a trojan infect my computer, I’ll probably spot it via a Zone Alarm alert.
Every once in a while (every 6 months or so) I run a complete disk scan only to find one or two suspicious files which AVG purges promptly.
Back to your question, if you’re not the final user of the AV programs, you might want to check whether AVG or Avast! can be password protected so the students won’t be able to shut them down. I’ve not tried it, but I know certain AV apps such as NOD32 have this feature.

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

Every once in a while (every 6 months or so) I run a complete disk scan only to find one or two suspicious files which AVG purges promptly.

---

[/indent]

Great idea, I can setup an automatic run with Task Scheduler

[indent]

---

Back to your question, if you’re not the final user of the AV programs, you might want to check whether AVG or Avast! can be password protected

---

[/indent]

Good Idea – Will do a little more research. Hopefully other Loungers will chime in on what they know. After re-reading this post and doing a little more re-search, I’m leaning towards AVAST only because it seems to include e-mail scanning and AVG doesn’t.

Although I have also installed ZoneAlarm, I’m looking at other alternative firewalls mentioned in other posts since ZoneAlarm no longer supports updates for W98SE.

If I find out anything, I’l let you know.

Reply | Quote

Scott, AVG DOES include e-mail scanning.
At least it supports MS Outlook via an ad-hoc plug-in. I’m not sure if it’s compliant with other mail clients though.
Anyway, according to some past opinions from loungers, e-mail scanning isn’t vital as long as the resident shield application does it job alright. Just in case I left the mail scanner on.

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

AVG DOES include e-mail scanning.

---

[/indent]

When I checked the AVG Website http://free.grisoft.com/%5B/url%5D, it didn’t mention e-mail support. The paid version at http://www.grisoft.com/doc/30/lng/us/tpl/tpl01%5B/url%5D did mention e-mail support.

Am I missing something ?

[indent]

---

e-mail scanning isn’t vital as long as the resident shield application does it job alright.

---

[/indent]

I tend to agree, BUT ….

I’m putting the software on two computers for students getting ready for college. I will then create a recovery disk witha HDD image on DVD in case they need to restore quickly. I want to maximize their “Safety” and minimize my “Service” calls – at lease initially since I’m doing this free for friends kids.

Reply | Quote

Third checkmark on this page.

Reply | Quote

Following through on this: [indent]

---

If you are using any of the any of the e-mail programs that are supported by AVG Free for Windows (MS Outlook, The BAT!, Eudora)

---

[/indent] So, it looks like if you’re a Thunderbird user… ???

Reply | Quote

I’m confused Al, that quote isn’t from me. I use Outlook personally and at work. I haven’t yet dumped my one year free McAfee from my new Dell personal laptop, the friend I was referring to got a new Gateway laptop which had only a McAfee 90-day trial; seems she can’t even get virus updates without being asked to pay.

Reply | Quote

My quote is from one of their many FAQ pages: AVG Free Advisor: FAQ 6.1: E-mail scanner is not fully functional

Reply | Quote

Ah, OK. Are you reading everything on the site?

Reply | Quote

I to your

Apparently I need to more carefully the entire site. I now have tio determine what mail programs will be used on the students computers

Just when I thought I was done

Reply | Quote

I will more carefully and to the

Excuse me while I my (he always loves me – especailly when he wants food)

Reply | Quote

AVG Anti-Virus from Grisoft certainly has my vote. I’ve never had a problem with it and it’s saved me on many occasions.

Reply | Quote

Another AVG user here. Also saved my rear on several occasions.

Reply | Quote

I’ve had good luck with Avast!

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

And another to look at, my trusty standby for the last few years, is AntiVir

Reply | Quote

“free” software often costs more than “paid for” software.

I recently started fusing a fee utility for which the author gives a “support” email address.
Yet I, and others, cannot seem to get a response.

What about updates/bug fixes, there is less incentive to fix “free” software, and most importantly in a timely manner.

For critical software, such as auntie virus software, “free” may prove to be costly.

Reply | Quote

Howard, your general statement is, in general, correct. IMHO however, Grisoft has proven to be the exception. They update the virus definitions on a regular basis (latest update was Aug-12). I can’t remember when I first installed it, probably been a couple of years, but I’ve not needed support everything ticks along just fine, so I can’t speak to that issue. They consistently rank very high in the AV comparisons. My past experiences with AV software has been less than satisfactory. McAfee and Norton both seem bloated to me in comparision to AVG. On the other hand ver. 7 of AVG sadly breaks the overhead bloat barrier from a few comments I’ve read. I think that has to do with changes made for network installations. Nevertheless, how many times do we hear in the lounge and elsewhere when problems occur, “do you use Norton AV? there’s a known conflict there…” When Grisoft drops the free version, this humble user won’t hesitate to pony up the fee. All of the above applies to ZoneAlarm by the way.

Reply | Quote

Brian

You could always buy the Pro version of ZoneAlarm!!

I thought that AVG was free only for all single home and non-commercial end users Worldwide?

Reply | Quote

You’re right on all counts John. I went astray of the original post requesting free business av software. I use the free versions of AVG and ZoneAlarm on my home system and have recommened and installed the pro or pay versions of both on company systems. My intention was to address Howard’s comments regarding the reliability of free software. Both of these products have demonstrated good performance, update support and reliabilty to me. Forgive the divergence.

Reply | Quote

We’re now six months away from the last post in this thread, and it so happens that I will probably want to install a antivirus package on a friend’s Windows 98SE PC (Yes, they still exist! I have one at home!).

Has anything happened over the intervening period that would make people suggest that I shouldn’t install Grisoft’s AVG (v6) free product?

And could a user of the product tell me how the “update with new virus pattern files” works? Presumably just accessing their website and downloading? How rapidly do they provide fixes for virus outbreaks?

Thanks!

Reply | Quote

At what seems like an eternity ago, when I was looking for alternatives to McAfee antivirus software, I gave the free AVG a trial. However, when I learned that it did not support the email clients of Netscape or Mozilla, I abandoned it. Grisoft was saying at the time that they would produce an add-on of some type that would cover additional email clients, but it was never (to my knowledge) forthcoming. That whole thread was a bad memory and is probably best left to sleep forever. Meanwhile, I migrated to TrendMicro’s PC-cillin and I’m now into my second year with the product. Unlike McAfee and Norton, I can’t find anything bloated about PC-cillin and its pattern file updates are seamless (to me). A small window pops open on the screen to notify me of an available update. When I allow it to proceed, it downloads, shuts down the software and re-starts it with the new pattern file. I won’t bore you with the prices I paid since you in the UK and current prices may be different. http://uk.trendmicro-europe.com/%5B/url%5D

Reply | Quote

Al

You must have missed the above! And since my friend uses IE, it won’t worry him that there is no Netscape or Mozilla support. Come to that, it doesn’t worry me much, either!!

John

Reply | Quote

John,
I’ve been running Avast for well over a year without any problems. The program and definitions are updated regularly. The only thing you can’t do with the free version is schedule a scan. It also provides IM & P2P scanning also.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Alan and Joe

Thanks for your comments, which are much appreciated!

I particularly like the description of how to find the Avast people in Prague: “Alwil

Reply | Quote

Alan and Joe

Thanks for your comments, which are much appreciated!

I particularly like the description of how to find the Avast people in Prague: “Alwil

Reply | Quote

John,
I’ve been running Avast for well over a year without any problems. The program and definitions are updated regularly. The only thing you can’t do with the free version is schedule a scan. It also provides IM & P2P scanning also.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Al

You must have missed the above! And since my friend uses IE, it won’t worry him that there is no Netscape or Mozilla support. Come to that, it doesn’t worry me much, either!!

John

Reply | Quote

At what seems like an eternity ago, when I was looking for alternatives to McAfee antivirus software, I gave the free AVG a trial. However, when I learned that it did not support the email clients of Netscape or Mozilla, I abandoned it. Grisoft was saying at the time that they would produce an add-on of some type that would cover additional email clients, but it was never (to my knowledge) forthcoming. That whole thread was a bad memory and is probably best left to sleep forever. Meanwhile, I migrated to TrendMicro’s PC-cillin and I’m now into my second year with the product. Unlike McAfee and Norton, I can’t find anything bloated about PC-cillin and its pattern file updates are seamless (to me). A small window pops open on the screen to notify me of an available update. When I allow it to proceed, it downloads, shuts down the software and re-starts it with the new pattern file. I won’t bore you with the prices I paid since you in the UK and current prices may be different. http://uk.trendmicro-europe.com/%5B/url%5D

Reply | Quote

Hi John

As the proud operator of a 98SE system, still the world’s most popular O/S by a proverbial mile I ran the free AVG software for many moons and liked it very much. I now have NAV as part of my new package, but may revert to AVG when the updates run out. The updating can be run as part of your scheduled tasks, or it can be done manually via the tray icon of the resident part. I have found their response to new threats to be as good (or better) than other packages I’ve used. On several occassions they “beat” Kaspersky’s AVP and F-Prot (also and with a good reputation) for updates on new e-mail threats. Updates are frequent.

Further to Al’s comment, I never actually “turned on” protection for my OE mail client (other than to test it – and it does work) because I manually pre-filter what mail I download using another program and I spot what is obviously a virus vector attachment myself. That said, I’ve tried to deliberately “let one slip through the net” and the resident AVG has picked it up after it was extracted from the mail message, but before it was able to run. This is often (erronoeusly) reported as “AVG doesn’t work – it didn’t detect the PITFA.Worm32 attachment in my mail”. It can only do so if the resident part is hooked into OE. If it isn’t, the attachment can be extracted and saved to disk, but any attempt to subsequently access/ run it will be jumped on.

I have been, and probably will be in the future, a happy user of AVG.

Reply | Quote

Hi John

As the proud operator of a 98SE system, still the world’s most popular O/S by a proverbial mile I ran the free AVG software for many moons and liked it very much. I now have NAV as part of my new package, but may revert to AVG when the updates run out. The updating can be run as part of your scheduled tasks, or it can be done manually via the tray icon of the resident part. I have found their response to new threats to be as good (or better) than other packages I’ve used. On several occassions they “beat” Kaspersky’s AVP and F-Prot (also and with a good reputation) for updates on new e-mail threats. Updates are frequent.

Further to Al’s comment, I never actually “turned on” protection for my OE mail client (other than to test it – and it does work) because I manually pre-filter what mail I download using another program and I spot what is obviously a virus vector attachment myself. That said, I’ve tried to deliberately “let one slip through the net” and the resident AVG has picked it up after it was extracted from the mail message, but before it was able to run. This is often (erronoeusly) reported as “AVG doesn’t work – it didn’t detect the PITFA.Worm32 attachment in my mail”. It can only do so if the resident part is hooked into OE. If it isn’t, the attachment can be extracted and saved to disk, but any attempt to subsequently access/ run it will be jumped on.

I have been, and probably will be in the future, a happy user of AVG.

Reply | Quote

We’re now six months away from the last post in this thread, and it so happens that I will probably want to install a antivirus package on a friend’s Windows 98SE PC (Yes, they still exist! I have one at home!).

Has anything happened over the intervening period that would make people suggest that I shouldn’t install Grisoft’s AVG (v6) free product?

And could a user of the product tell me how the “update with new virus pattern files” works? Presumably just accessing their website and downloading? How rapidly do they provide fixes for virus outbreaks?

Thanks!

Reply | Quote

At the possible risk of getting my head chopped off by some of the group here, let me share my most serious thoughts in regard to your question about FREE antivirus programs.

Personally, I consider an Antivirus program to be next in importance to my operating system. It’s health and even future depends upon the security program(s) installed; the most critical being an Antivirus program. Given the substandard detection rates of most all of the FREE offerings out there compared to Kaspersky AV 6.0 and second to NOD32, I would never opt to using a FREE antivirus program on any of my PC’s. The minimal cost involved in getting either of the two mentioned is incredibly cheap compared to the aggravation and possible loss of data should you get infected.

My personal advice…… forget FREE…… and get a good professional Antivirus program. My first choice being Kaspersky.

That’s my

Jeff

Reply | Quote

Not to mention, “free” AV oft does not scan email, likely does not have timely bug fixes, etc.

Reply | Quote

I tend to agree, this is why I use paid Anti-virus programs on my machine.

However, Free avast! 4 Home Edition states:
[indent]

---

avast! Home Edition contains resident protection of the computer file system and a resident module for e-mails and news.

---

[/indent]

I don’t know how good it is, but for the student computers I’m putting together, this may be good enough until they can afford to upgrade.

As for timely updates, I will have to read more posts from Woody Loungers to see if there are any good Vs. bad opinions.

Reply | Quote

Let me interject one other detail which you might want to consider, re: Kaspersky AV. If you are going to install an antivirus program on a number of computers, you can buy a “Corporate License” package which is less than half of what it retails for. I am a Systems Administrator of a small office and I purchased 20 2-year licenses for about $35 each…. that’s $17.50/year for the best AV program on the market.

Jeff

Reply | Quote

The computers I’m worried about are the home computers sharing common internet access via router.

Because I do some sideline work at home and claim it on my taxes, these computers are ALWAYS using paid versions of firewalls, antivirus software, etc.

I checked out the website and have added it for future review.

Thanks

Reply | Quote

If the time comes that you are seriously considering Kaspersky, PM me and I’ll give you the address and phone number of the KAV reseller I deal with where you can get the “Corporate License” deals.

What I do is to keep the latest version of KAV on my little 1 gig OCZ USB drive along with all the “keys” I purchased. Then all I have to do is copy over a key to the machine I’m working on and install KAV right from the key drive. I also created an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the “keys” distribution so if it was ever necessary to replace a lost key, I can quickly look up the individual and key number and send it via e-mail.

Jeff

Reply | Quote

My main PC has 4 OS.
AV is needed for three of them only when running Office/Windows update.
I rarely get on the internet from those OS.
Sew they are good candidates for using a free AV.

As long as I can get NAV free, or low cost, AFTER rebates, I’ll stick with NAV for my main systems.

Reply | Quote

Jeff,

[indent]

---

My first choice being Kaspersky.

---

[/indent]

Why ? What are the advantages that make this your first choice ?

Reply | Quote

Well, here are some of the most compelling reasons, IMHO:

1. Best detection rate of any antivirus on the market
2. 5-15 updates per day
3. Low memory/resource/cpu usage
4. User-friendly configuration and options
5. Very simple to install and uninstall and it doesn’t proliferate your system or Registry with gobs of items
6. Great support

Jeff

Reply | Quote

Thanks

I to your reasons – they give me thought to check out the software some more. I’m close to re-newing a subscription on two of my machines and wasn’t sure what I am going to do.

Reply | Quote

Read to your heart’s content here: http://www.kaspersky.com/%5B/url%5D

I can tell you in all honesty, that I have repaired dozens and dozens of machines, many of which had “other” AV programs installed. After uninstalling what they had, installing KAV and then doing a full system scan, invariably KAV has found MANY viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, etc. It’s simply a great application. Obviously, some prefer their own favorite brand and that’s fine. Different strokes for different folks.

Jeff

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

Different strokes for different folks.

---

[/indent]
Thanks – Could not agree with you more.

For many years I was locked into Norton (er Symantec) due to work (running Enterprise Edition on our mail servers and every machine had Symantec AntiVirus software). For a long time, employee’s were provided huge discounts for licensced copies for home machines. For the most part I like the program but Symantec programs have become huge resource hogs and don’t allow near the flexability they once did.

I have already found the KAV Product Details and they look good. I want to do a little more research, but so far, I like what I see

DARN – I guess you can teach an old DOS Head (er, well not so old) new tricks

Reply | Quote

I can echo your lament over Symantec/Norton AV. I used Norton AV/SystemWorks for years as well as their Corporate Edition AV. Over the past 3 years, especially, things went downhill fast and the program(s) became boated, resource hogs and began creating system problems. Uninstalling Symatec/Norton AV can be a major undertaking as well as it proliferates itself everywhere and leaves behind not only folders/files, but also Registry entries and in some cases, even 4 or 5 Services. It’s unfortunate to see this happen to a once well-respected product. Someone forgot one of the most basic of principles, IMHO….. KISS!!

Jeff

Reply | Quote

KISS – Unfortunately big vendors/retailers tend to forget this fantastic principle

Uninstalling NAV is a pain and I came up with a workaround, but it is a cludge requiring the eradication of ALL Symantec products on the system. I also have to use a couple of registry cleaners.

There are STILL remnants of Symantec in the registry, but most of the references are gone. The major problem is the workaround requires making some “Dangerous” deletions in the registry. One slip and you can crash the system. This is why I make an image on DVD for the hard drive for revcovery in case I make a mistake.

Reply | Quote

If you are evaluating centrally managed business antivirus, and particularly if you are interested in a bundle with server-based AV for Exchange, you should check out this product we have been using for a few years: Trend Micro Client Server Messaging Security for SMB. There also is a flavor without the Exchange component (Client Server Security for SMB). Reviewers sometimes complain that the browser-based administration tools are not as full featured as stand-alone applications, and that you have to pay extra for the more powerful anti-spyware components, but otherwise seems impressed. Disclosure: I do legal work for Trend Micro. (But I don’t get a discount on the software.)

On the right-hand side of those product pages is a “Buy Online Now” link with direct pricing. Some resellers give better prices.

Reply | Quote

Thanks – but I am only looking for AV software for the student computers I am putting together and paid (I’m paranoid) for the home computers.

I only need to worry about two home computers for the “Home Business” – I let work take care of themself since that is ruled by company policy – which is set in stone until an earthquake (figuratively speaking) shakes them up.

I will keep the references for possible future needs.

anyways

Reply | Quote

Anyone have thoughts on Antivir? This review rates it as the best combination of small resource footprint and detection accuracy for a free antirvirus. The Free edition does not have email scanning, where AVG and Avast do.

Reply | Quote

I gave Antivir a try when deciding on an AV app about a year and a half ago.
I liked the look of the red umbrella, but that’s all I can say. I dumped it in favor of AVG which supported e-mail scanning. No further experience with it.

Reply | Quote

Thanks John – I will check it out.

Reply | Quote

This thread has become very long, so i have locked it.

If someone wants to revive the subject, feel free to start a new thread.

Reply | Quote