Free Anti Virus Software

System

Just a thank you to all you on this topic, particulary Jazzeeeee5.
I have avg grisoft and zone labs but for a number of reasons (all of them stupid) I opened an attachment against the wishs of zone labs - bingo according to avg I
had around 1000 infected files - a worm called netsky.q
avg could not remove them so in my panic i tried https://www.spywareinfo.com/forums, someone called mr bones(top man) had already discussed how to remove this worm in simple instructions for all current systems, yes it worked. Just for interest the attachment carried my ISP address in the title- beware

sspyrou

I downloaded Kerio having read all your advice but it won't install on my PC >:(

It is saying that it has detected McAfee AV (which I have installed) and I will need to remove it !

I want to keep McAfee but also would like to install Kerio

Has anyone else had this problem ?

Also, I am currently using Windows XP internal Firewall. How does this compare to Kerio or Zone Alarm ?

dosh

Hope this helps, please find below a list of free firewall/anti virus/spy-ware software that has kept my PC virus free (so far).

Firewall
Zone Alarm – Can be updated automatically or manually – free.

http://www.zonelabs.com

Your firewall can be "harmlessly" interrogated (to test its effectiveness) using Gibson Research Corporation's - Shields Up - free.

http://www.grc.com

Anti-virus
AVG – Anti Virus Guard gets updated automatically and can be scheduled to scan your PC at a convenient time, e.g  during the early hours – free

http://www.grisoft.com

Use McAfee Avert Stinger on a regular basis, but don’t download onto your hard disk, open it and scan your PC from the McAfee site. The site gets regularly updated with the latest virus protection - free.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Spy-ware
Lavasoft Ad_aware looks for known datamining, aggressive advertising, and tracking components and helps protect your privacy, updated manually – free.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Spybot Search and Destroy looks for tracking components and helps protect your privacy, updated manually – free.

http://www.safer-networking.org/

Useful Software
Your PC's clock (notoriously inaccurate) can be automatically updated to always tell the correct time using Atomic Clock Sync - free.

http://www.worldtimeserver.com

peat

I tried a wee experiment that may be of interest.
I got an email from Zone alarm (the free version of which I use) which was advertising a new security scanner for tracking advertising cookies.
I ran adaware which found about 13 tracking cookies which I ditched. I then immediately did an online scan through zonealarm which detected an additional 8 cookies!

Fran

Peat - Could it be that Adaware put them there?!

peat

I think not, the ones identified by Zonealarm are as follows:

2o7 - 3rd Party Cookie

Com - 3rd Party Cookie

Geocities - 3rd Party Cookie

Maxserving - 3rd Party Cookie

Questionmarket - 3rd Party Cookie

Statcounter - 3rd Party Cookie

Windowsmedia - 3rd Party Cookie

Zdnet - 3rd Party Cookie

System

Try http://www.pandasoftware.com/home/ for free online virus check.

It's updated every day, and it's completely remote, so you don't have to download and install any software.

The news and "virusometer" is good for keeping tabs on what to watch out for and ways to protect yourself.

Paul

worc1146

I installed AVG from Grisoft the other week but haven't managed to solve my problem with pop-ups. While we're on the anti-virus topic I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some advice. I have Windows ME and appear to have some kind of spyware on my p.c. which is producing pop-ups that occur regardless of the site I'm visiting. When I first ran AVG it detected a trojan which I removed but the pop-ups continue to appear. I've downloaded free versions of programs such as spyhunter and ad-aware but running these has not enabled me to get rid of it either. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Nic

LincsLad_3

Anti virus software (of which AVG is just one example)will not stop popups. Some spyware will result in popups, visiting certain web pages or clicking on a link on a website can result in others.

Although Ad-Aware is pretty good, it is not 100% foolproof. You ought to look at things like SpyBot S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download) for more spyware removal and perhaps the Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/) which is pretty good at pop-up blocking.

worc1146

8) Afternoon all!

I tried installing spybot s&d and when running it gets stuck and stops on searching (at 2957/5835 c2 lop) and never finishes. I downloaded it again but it still isn't working properly. Anyone else having this problem?
Also, sygate personal firewall 5.5 has been recommended - I'm having trouble finding the link to download this. Perhaps kerio would be better. What do people think?

Thanks for your help!

Nic