Kaspersky or free Antivirus

Gillor

If you just want a straightforward, stand-alone security suite with minimum user involvement then Kaspersky is probably as good as gets. It won AV-Comparatives Product of the Year Award for 2011.

But you can get better protection by using a multi-layer approach to securing your computer by using a combination of free products, although it can take a bit more effort to set it all up.

Depends on how involved you want get in the security process.

Apreciar

Gillor wrote: »

If you just want a straightforward, stand-alone security suite with minimum user involvement then Kaspersky is probably as good as gets. It won AV-Comparatives Product of the Year Award for 2011.

But you can get better protection by using a multi-layer approach to securing your computer by using a combination of free products, although it can take a bit more effort to set it all up.

Depends on how involved you want get in the security process.

Explain!!!!!

bod1467

Essentially ...

Avast (or similar) for day-to-day protection;
MalwareBytes AntiMalware for weekly scans
Ccleaner for monthly cleanups (cache, temp files etc).

Apreciar

bod1467 wrote: »

Essentially ...

Avast (or similar) for day-to-day protection;
MalwareBytes AntiMalware for weekly scans
Ccleaner for monthly cleanups (cache, temp files etc).

Do that on existing (old) PC, so is that sufficient.

Gillor

Apreciar wrote: »

Explain!!!!!

Explain Please!!!

If you rely solely on any signature-based a/v you are going to get caught out at some stage. By combining various free software you could put together a safer, layered security package.

HeadAboveWater

bod1467 wrote: »

Essentially ...

Avast (or similar) for day-to-day protection;
MalwareBytes AntiMalware for weekly scans
Ccleaner for monthly cleanups (cache, temp files etc).

Exactly what I've got...

vale46_2

i've used avira free and comodo firewall free for years without any probs

Gillor

Apreciar wrote: »

Do that on existing (old) PC, so is that sufficient.

That's a good start but I would add the following for extra layers of protection; nothing is 100% but with these additions you're not far off watertight:

WOT -website warning system
PC Tools Threatfire - behaviour blocker, customised to prevent unauthorised network connections
Sandboxie - to isolate all your browsing activity so that any malware downloaded by the browser is trapped in the sandbox. Again customised to restrict unauthorised outbound internet access
Windows Firewall - a basic firewall, fine if you are behind a wireless router firewall and if don't want outbound protection

I was also going to suggest a URL filter such as Panda URL Filtering or AVG Link Scanner but if you use Avast, if I remember correctly this is already built in.

Having been caught by a particularly nasty piece of malware a couple of years ago I now work on the basis that prevention is better than cure. And once your computers been infected you never know it's clean without a complete re-install..

Toxteth_OGrady

Gillor wrote: »

Windows Firewall - a basic firewall, fine if you are behind a wireless router firewall and if don't want outbound protection

Windows Firewall (Vista onwards) has featured outbound protection since 2007.

Gillor

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

Windows Firewall (Vista onwards) has featured outbound protection since 2007.

Yes it has but I didn't mention it because it can be a bit daunting to set up and as I recall it doesn't alert you to what outbound traffic it is blocking.

Best used perhaps with something like Windows 7 Firewall control. Or leave Windows Firewall on the default setting and simply use Threatfire with custom rules set to monitor all outbound connection attempts.