Am I being told a load of billiards about Anti-Virus?

Peter999_2

You might be interested to know that Windows 8 comes with MSE pre-built into it - no need to install other software.

aliEnRIK

Alfa_Female wrote: »

A PC 'Expert' in PC World told me today

1) That the free Anti-Virus softwares give it to you free because they send viruses to you to see if their software is working. Sometimes the viruses they send to you get through and then your computer is infected.

If he had tried that with me, id have gone out of my way to get him sacked as its pure BS

Alfa_Female wrote: »

2) That when using free anti-spam/malware protection while using Internet banking and your identity is stolen that they will not pay out.

I can see number 2 becoming true over time when banks try to get out of paying. Personally never heard of this, but I can see this being a future issue (especially as viruses become more prominent)

aliEnRIK

balmk wrote: »

If you have an MBNA credit card you can get 12 months free McAfee, and First Direct do a free 6 months of free AVG premium.

Check with your bank to see what they can offer.

The firewalls that come with either of those are terrible

GunJack

aliEnRIK wrote: »

The firewalls that come with either of those are terrible

...and the main bits are pretty carp too

..nice to see you back RIK

giraffe69

You might be interested to know that Windows 8 comes with MSE pre-built into it

It may well do but not yet!

DWatts

waddler_8 wrote: »

That's incorrect. Avast has it's Web shield, Network shield & Mail shield that filters data being downloaded via the Internet.

MSE has it's Network inspection system (Vista & Win 7), and also integrates with the Windows firewall to filter network traffic - which includes data being downloaded via the Internet.

I'm sure AVG & Avira has similar filtering technology. (Although I haven't looked)

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download#tab3

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/products/security-essentials/product-information (Features & benefits)

With most of the extras with paid security (Full suites), it can be argued that those extras aren't really necessary (any malicious code that comes via spam would be blocked on execution anyway -should the AV be capable of detecting it), that they are available as freeware separately, or that they are available as part of Windows itself (Parental controls etc)

Avast's free anti-virus does not cover internet security, as laid out on their site here. Their free anti-virus is a stripped down version of their paid-for antivirus which is a stripped down version of their internet security.

AVG doesn't either - it's free software is anti-virus and their internet security is paid-for. Even their free version is a stripped down version of their paid-for Anti-Virus.

Not sure about the others but I think it's you that's incorrect here. The anti-virus may have basic internet protection that is essentially worthless, but it's certainly not a firewall.

Richie-from-the-Boro

aliEnRIK wrote: »

The firewalls that come with either of those are terrible

Bloomin' eck ! RIK is resurrected .. .. welcome back RIK lad :beer:

waddler_8

DWatts wrote: »

Avast's free anti-virus does not cover internet security, as laid out on their site here. Their free anti-virus is a stripped down version of their paid-for antivirus which is a stripped down version of their internet security.

AVG doesn't either - it's free software is anti-virus and their internet security is paid-for. Even their free version is a stripped down version of their paid-for Anti-Virus.

Not sure about the others but I think it's you that's incorrect here. The anti-virus may have basic internet protection that is essentially worthless, but it's certainly not a firewall.

Ignore what the marketing department have chosen to name & market the product as, what do you class as Internet Security?


Taking Avast as just one example & how the shields work together to help keep you secure on the internet.

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/free-antivirus-download#tab3

Mail Shield
Scans all incoming/outgoing email for malware

Web Shield
Scans all visited web pages, downloaded files, and java scripts. Thanks to the intelligent stream scanning feature, the Web Shield doesn't slow your web browsing

P2P Shield/IM Shield
Checks files downloaded via P2P programs and while using IM or “chat” programs

Network Shield
Protects against network-based viruses with two main components: a URL blocker for malicious URLs, and a lightweight intrusion-detection system.

Script Shield
Detects malicious scripts hidden in web pages and prevents them from hijacking and potentially damaging your computer.

Worthless?

Based on the above, with a modicum of common sense and Avast's free version, you can be safe relatively secure on the internet. Windows has it's own built in firewall, so there's no need to pay extra for that - If you connect through a router, it can be argued that a software firewall may even be redundant.

As I said in my previous post, "With most of the extras with paid security (Full suites), it can be argued that those extras aren't really necessary..."

I'd add to that "... or necessary to be paid for"

aliEnRIK

DWatts wrote: »

Even their free version is a stripped down version of their paid-for Anti-Virus.

Not sure about the others but I think it's you that's incorrect here. The anti-virus may have basic internet protection that is essentially worthless, but it's certainly not a firewall.

I completely disagree. Its certainly not 'worthless' at all. In fact its VERY good for free
I personally use COMODO as my firewall (Also free, also NOT worthless) which is still the best software firewall there is. In fact the vast majority of the security suites that come with a firewall are actually LESS safe because the firewalls are so cr*p (Avasts included)

Your notion that suites are better is completely wrong on a number of levels