Broadband virus protection

[dlewis]

About to get internet on my new PC for first time through broadband. However, I've never used broadband before and currently have no anti-virus software.

Hoping someone might be able to suggest a free, or cheap, downloadable protection without me having to fork out for Norton.

Thanks in advance,

D.

[Raz316]

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

AVG by grisoft is what I use

[Wiczy]

Yup AVG will do the job and of course it's free. A friend of mine uses Avast which is also free apparently and he swears by it.

I use NOD32, it's not free but it offers excellent protection and uses very little resources

Whatever happens try and avoid Norton, it causes far more problems than it's worth imho.

[iranu]

Use a decent firewall too. I find the free Sygate Personal Firewall does the job.

[OmarSantiago]

You'll need a few pieces to effectively protect yourself on broadband and I'd suggest the following:

• AVG Antivirus
• Ad Aware
• Microsoft Anti Spyware
• ZoneAlarm Firewall
  

Sadly it's not just viruses you need to worry about these days but spyware and hijackers too. A basic pop-up blocker is recommended (again, Windows XP has a good one built in) though I'd stick with just the one: if you use a toolbar with a pop-up blocker such as the Google one you should disable it. And lastly, you should set your PC to receive automatic updates from Microsoft for critical fixes and security patches (usually every other Tuesday night)

Never use Norton

[Mike Fishcake]

Agree with Omar- use all that software, and don't even CONSIDER Norton AntiVirus - you've no idea how many times I've been able to get people's PCs working properly by simply removing that software.

[peterb]

If you are using a stand alone modem/router rather than a cheapo USB modem, using NAT (by default) and the built in firwall will protect yopu from a lot of stuff, but you still need AV software - preferably one that will scan incoming mail automatically (as that is the most common source of infection). A software firewall that mionitors outgoing traffic is useful too as that will detect any trojans etc that might get through and at least alert you to their presence.

[Atomic]

You'll need a few pieces to effectively protect yourself on broadband and I'd suggest the following:

• AVG Antivirus
• Ad Aware
• Microsoft Anti Spyware
• ZoneAlarm Firewall
  

www.getfirefox.com too

[jonneymendoza]

i use the above that omar uses and it has proved to be very effective indeed never had a virus ever since i have these tools,however when a virus does creep into the system avg will deal with it quick and easy

[davidstone28]

AVG is sh!t.

All the virus tests show that it's sh!t.

Roughly 80% detection rates compared to the 95-98% for the likes of Kaspersky, F-Secure, McAfee etc.

You could be walking around with a PC full of viruses, with a "clean" bill of health from AVG and you wouldn't know about it.

[OmarSantiago]

AVG is free, that's it saving grace and it's unrealistic to compare them directly to anti-virus solutions that require a paid subscription True, other anti-viruses have higher rates of detection but narrow down those without false positives and those that can survive a rootkit attack and everyone has at least one horror story for different vendors. I'd recommend Sophos if money is no object but for free or cheap virus protection AVG used with other basic forms of protection will be good enough if you avoid trawling through disreputable sites

[Bry]

As others have said antivirus isnt the only thing you need.
1)make sure windows is always up to date both service pack wise and critical updates wise - this will stop a lot of virus's itself
2)make sure you have a decent firewall. I use both a hardware solution (router) and the free windows xp sp2 firewall. The router is very good at blocking incoming and windwos xp offers protection agaisnt outgoing trojans.
3)Web browser. I personally use avant browser which is a shell for IE. It has a good popup blocker and few other nice features and i keep secuirty on high. However, most people prefere firefox. While firefox is more secure it does have secuirty issues too so either way keep them up to date.
4)Cautious usage. Really common sense stuff here. Don't open any emails from ANYONE you don't know and still be very careful which ones you do open from people you do know. And like with web browsers keep all your software up tod ate e.g. chat programs like msn

[jonneymendoza]

AVG is sh!t.

All the virus tests show that it's sh!t.

Roughly 80% detection rates compared to the 95-98% for the likes of Kaspersky, F-Secure, McAfee etc.

Dont bash avg just cuz of what other people say,it has worked flawlessly for me for nearly a year and otehr people have said the same..

You could be walking around with a PC full of viruses, with a "clean" bill of health from AVG and you wouldn't know about it.

[ikonia]

am I miss reading this ?

you've just said

Dont bash avg just cuz of what other people say,it has worked flawlessly for me for nearly a year

so your saying its actually really good and works well for you.

then you've said

You could be walking around with a PC full of viruses, with a "clean" bill of health from AVG and you wouldn't know about it.

So how do you know its worked well for you if its got this massive problem of not letting you know you've got viruses ?

am I miss-reading or have you just slated a product for having a bad flaw, that you've just said works flawlessly for you ?

[OmarSantiago]

Lol, looks more like he cut and pasted in the wrong area. I agree with the sentiment though: don't knock AVG merely because it's free. After all, people pay good money for Norton and are openly ridiculed

[TheAnimus]

Trick is to think how much its worth to you.

For instance, my parents, i don't like missing the anual beer festival because a payrol database has decided to go hide. So i make them pay for Sophos anti virus. Because to me its money well spent, but it means my parents are paying for easy to deployness in there.

Now AVG is free, so its better than nothing, but kapersky is probably a much better option if you can afford it (which lets face it when your spending on broadband you should). Also a good ISP (Plus/F2s/Zen) will take action if they find spam/port-scaning comming from your box.

If you only download reputable programs, don't run as an administrative user, you won't ever get a virus. If however you run a program people send you, download from questionable sources. Then its worth paying for good protection.

As for firefox, its slower, but tends to be no safer than mearly changing the security settings in IE, or running IE as a differen't user (this is highly recomended) you do this via the run as user option in the shortcut.