Free Spyware/Anti Virus/Firewall

quidsinquentin

I've searched thru the mse site for this but been unable to find all the items, but do move this on if it causes an issue. :eek:

A few mse'ers have recently posted notices about discounts for norton/macafee products. I've been using the following completely free products for a few months now and have had excellent results with them: AVG anti-virus, Zonealarm firewall, Ad-aware SE personal and spybot search and destroy. They appear to work together without any problems at all (at least for me). And they're free! The zonealarm in particular is excellent (we didn't know we were being 'pinged' until it was installed).

I was using the free security suite from blueyonder broadband, which is terrible in comparison! And I couldn't afford to renew the norton products that I got free when I bought the pc.

You can get them free by a google search, which will show up the products sites, or download.com has them. They also come on discs from most computer magazines (check the index page tho') but you have to buy the mag. :rotfl:

(We also managed to get a copy of Ashampoo Winoptimiser Platinum from a computer mag that ripped out several nasty programs that our kids had downloaded from game sites that we couldn't remove by normal means - so recommended there!)

wirm

Thanks for the post. I think this has been posted before, either here on in the Techie board, but its a nice reminder for newbies in case they haven't fully protected their computer!

iwanttosave_2

Quick Q, can I use zonealarm along with my normal AVs and firewalls or will they conflict?

intel

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
http://www.opera.com/
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=GB&lang=en&lid=dbtopnav_zass
http://free.prevx.com/
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

http://www.intels.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

intel

iwanttosave wrote:

Quick Q, can I use zonealarm along with my normal AVs and firewalls or will they conflict?

Zonealarm is not a Antivirus Program so it should be used with AVG or Avast
or any freebie or bought piece of software that doesnt have a bundled firewall.

So yes its fine to use and no need to tamper with Windows Firewall.

quidsinquentin

iwanttosave wrote:

Quick Q, can I use zonealarm along with my normal AVs and firewalls or will they conflict?

Quick r - they usually conflict - or so thats what a lot of the tekkie sites say. You'd need to check with one of the tekkie sites. If you're using a stand alone component - say just norton av, then you could (probably) use the other free components.

intel

quidsinquentin wrote:

Quick r - they usually conflict - or so thats what a lot of the tekkie sites say. You'd need to check with one of the tekkie sites. If you're using a stand alone component - say just norton av, then you could (probably) use the other free components.

Um thats wrong mate....

Zonealarm wont conflict with AV unless bundled,as per the original question.

MickKnipfler

Where's the best effective but simple solution?

intel

MickKnipfler wrote:

Where's the best effective but simple solution?

I use AVG thats Free

Sygate Thats Free

CCleaner Thats Free

Spybot Thats Free

AdAware Thats Free

All in the above links. :beer:

quidsinquentin

intel wrote:

Um thats wrong mate....

Zonealarm wont conflict with AV unless bundled,as per the original question.

apologies - what I was trying to say (in a rush) is that its my understanding that running a complete suite like norton or macafee and adding on further firewalls/av/spyware usually results in some kind of conflict (thats why they mac/nort and others tell you to remove or disable any other products). This was also the advice I picked up from the tekkie boards around the net. (I've discounted the bulit in windows firewall because - and again its my understanding - its not that much use. If thats wrong, then I prostrate myself.

When my norton subscription ran out (and it was no longer working) even after I disabled it, it conflicted with the other security I tried to put on the pc. It was only after removing it completely - and that was a hell of a job - that everything else worked ok.

intel

Thats what I said in post #5 If you have a AV Suite that has everything bundled you
shouldnt run another AV (freebie or not) on the same PC but if you buy Just AV that isnt bundled with a firewall its ok to get a firewall aswell..

:beer:

And Norton should always be stripped out after its end of life.