Kit your PC out for free: No cost anti-virus software Discussion Area

cheeseandham

I agree with tparkin completely and he makes some excellent points.

A page I use recently has been this one.
http://www.runpcrun.com/usb-flash-key-2006

(Ignore the bit about "Flash keys" it's just about how all of this software listed can be fitted on a USB storage device.)

All of it, apart from the 2 pieces of software at the bottom are free. The descriptions may be a bit short, but if your interested the link takes you to the official site for that product.
Two I will mention from this list:
PDFCreator, it's great for virtual "printing" to a Adobe Acobat format, enabling you to "print" things like online orders and reference sheets without using paper and ink.

Skype - They have a special offer at the moment – get free calls made within the UK to all UK landlines for the next six months. Simply buy £10 of Skype Credit to qualify for this offer.

Theres all sorts to be had there (and out there in the WWW) - Sound editors and players, photoshop like paint programs and image cataloguers. Take the time to check out the Free and Open Source software out there, it's great and you can save yourself a bundle :T

bobobrussel

I am a big fan of Leo Laporte's podcasts on his TWIT.TV network and on a recent podcast he mentioned that we should all be using our computers in USER mode as opposed to ADMINISTRATOR mode.

He says that if you log in as a user, you don't have the same access rights (i.e. can;t load software or make other system changes) and so if you get infected by a virus or a trojan, it can't trash your system because, like you, it doesn't have access to the system level.

Can someone explain if this is true?

Beanz

bobobrussel wrote:

He says that if you log in as a user, you don't have the same access rights (i.e. can;t load software or make other system changes) and so if you get infected by a virus or a trojan, it can't trash your system because, like you, it doesn't have access to the system level.

Can someone explain if this is true?

It's partially true.

Standard user accounts only have access to that users registry hives and startup "areas".

If a standard user account is trashed due to a virus/malware/spyware then you can still log in to the Admin/another account and attempt to recover files and/or clean up the infection.

HTH
Danny

Reed_Richards

superscaper wrote:

That's the whole point though. It's the fact that Windows Firewall does NOT ask you permission for outgoing connections that's very worrying, so basically anything on your pc can send whatever data it wants and you have no control over limiting the permissions of different apps or picking up on malicious software sending sensitive information out.

But running, say, Zonealarm Free Firewall on Windows 98 or ME you would suddenly get a warning of a program with an unrecognisable name trying to access the internet without any apparent reason. It was natural to refuse access to what turned out to be the Windows Update service checking for updates. Every time you get such a cryptic warning asking your permission you have to spend half an hour finding out what the program really is. This is fine if you are a geek or paranoid or both; but the average user is just going to guess an answer and may end up blocking something they need or allowing something they shouldn't.

tparkin

As GMail has been mentioned I would recommend anyone to check out Inbox.

I stumbled across this by accident a few weeks ago, and was blown away by what it offers. Besides being a fully fledged webmail service, with adverts, it offers calendars and notes and 5GB of online storage, all for free.

All parts are nicely integrated, with a slick interface and a great range of features. I am particularly impressed with the online storage. It is a breeze to upload photos and documents, and the photos can be organised into albums and shared with others.

Even better, you can download an email notifier, that allows you to check multiple email accounts (GMail, Hotmail, etc.) and do mass uploads of photos. This also integrates nicely with Windows Explorer, giving you an Inbox 'drive' for drag-and-drop uploading of files.

I am still using GMail as my main email account at the moment, but think that Inbox is superior in many ways.

Well worth checking out, especially as its free!

P.S. Forgot to mention that the email notifier adds a toolbar to Internet Explorer. This is the broadly similar to the Google Toolbar, and can be turned off if you don't need it - it won't be a problem if you use Firefox!

Linguistic_Chimp

Hi everyone!

I recently bought an Apple iMac (which I could never have done if I hadn't saved up the money thanks to this awesome website!). :j

Anyway I was wondering if anybody knew of any free software for protecting Macs? We seem to be being left out of this discussion...

Thanks!

Beanz

I don't directly know of any free alternatives but recommend you take a look around Google and also https://www.download.com and https://www.softpedia.com

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=free+mac+software+-inurl:bizrate+-inurl:kelkoo+-inurl:pricerunner+-inurl:ebay+-inurl:ciao+-inurl:yahoo

HTH
Danny

mcbazza

steves wrote:

As an IT security consultant, I'm particularly paranoid...;-)

I'd recommend getting a second PC specifically for sensitive tasks such as:
<snip>

NB: What I'm about to post applies to s/w for WinXP/etc. I'm sure there are similar products out there for other OS's.

Rather than going that far, consider virtualization.
This is where you create virtual pc/server environment within your existing PC operating system.

The two products that spring to mind are:-
MS Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2
VMware

NB: You are not limited to running WinXP virtual instances on your WinXP box. You can run whatever you want.

The VMware range (specifically the player) is almost specifically aimed at this market. And as such, they have a range of pre-built 'browser appliances' to fulfill all needs.

For me, the beauty of virtualisation is:-
1. You don't need new/additional hardware. Big savings on outlay & power usage!
2. It's free (as long as the operating system you install is free!).
3. It's safe - your new virtual environment is 'sand-boxed' from the host OS it's running on (ie. your computer, and the data within).
4. It's easy to take a copy of a virtual environment before you do something 'dodgy', and then to replace the suspect image with the backup afterwards.
5. It's a great way of trialing operating systems & software that you aren't sure you want to fully commit to.
6. It's easy to have a host of legacy windows O/S's & browsers on tap for testing compatibility of applications and web sites/pages.
7. The virtual instance is only there when you need it. Turn it off/on as necessary, and there's even the option for 'saving state' for that instant power on effect.
8. Did I mention it's free!?!?

Of course, it can be quite intensive on your computer, so if you are already stretching it to the max, you might want to give this a miss.

Being the geek that I am, I have a dual-core, dual-screen setup. So, I can run one instance on one monitor, and my 'main' WinXP on the other. All the benefits of 2 computers, driven from one base unit. Lovely!

Enjoy!

Baz

Browntoa

Linguistic_Chimp wrote:

Hi everyone!

I recently bought an Apple iMac (which I could never have done if I hadn't saved up the money thanks to this awesome website!). :j

Anyway I was wondering if anybody knew of any free software for protecting Macs? We seem to be being left out of this discussion...

Thanks!

antivirus

http://www.clamxav.com/

firewall

http://mac.sofotex.com/download-124798.html

in fact a whole list of software here

http://mac.sofotex.com/Security/

some free,some trial

skiddy2k

Reed_Richards wrote:

I would recommend Active Virus Shield:

http://www.activevirusshield.com/

This is a free version of Kaspersky Antivirus and it seems to be more comprehensive than AVG as it will also detect and remove at least some spyware that AVG ignores. The other major difference is that, as far as I can see, it is it is free to all users, not just non-commercial users.

People may be suspicious that you must submit an email address but I have used Active Virus Shield for several months without receiving any junk emails (you have an opt-out).

+1 or if you're worried about junk mail, get another e-mail address which you can use for suspected spam... I havent recieved any junk either!

You also dont need AOL to use it. The best FREE AV IMO... followed by Avast, Antivir and AVG (in order of prefrence)