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possumbarnes Sophomore Author Tennessee Posts:236 Points:49,610 Joined:Dec 2011	Message Posted: Feb 4, 2012 8:00:49 AM Ignore possumbarnes Report Abuse I own a small, family computer repair business in New Market, TN. Virus and spyware infections are my #1 customer complaint. Infected PCs probably make up 90-95% of monthly income. Here are some tips on how to protect yourself from infection at no cost. (NOTE: The programs listed and the comments about them are from my experience in using them. There are plenty of good programs out there that I have never tried so they are not listed here). Software in asterisks is what I have installed on my own PCs. First, a quick lesson on infections. There are two main types of infections: viruses and spyware (or malware). A virus is mainly designed to destroy data and prevent your computer from booting up. There isn't much money in that so viruses have kind of fallen by the wayside except for punk hackers that want to cause trouble. Spyware, on the other hand, is primarily designed to get money into the hackers bank account by many different means. Data miners can get your bank account #s, passwords, SSNs, names, addresses, birthdates, etc. Scareware programs install on you PC without your knowledge, then pop up stating that you are infected. Some of them look like legitimate programs. These fake programs will look like they are scanning your PC, then tell you that you are massively infected, but you have to buy the full version of the program to clean the infection. With scareware, the fake scanning program itself is the infection. They scare millions of dollars out of unsuspecting people that try to buy the fake software. These are just a few examples. There are many more out there. ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE (NEVER HAVE MORE THAN ONE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM INSTALLED ON YOUR PC AT ANY ONE TIME. PICK THE ONE THAT WORKS FOR YOU AND USE THAT ONE ONLY). There are a variety of free antivirus programs out there that are just as effective as the programs you've paid for before. Here are a few: AVIRA ANTIVIR - very good, not user friendly. AVG FREE - very good, easy to use. MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS - good, easy to use. (I used MSSE for a couple of years but it started getting buggy on me so I went to AVG) AVAST - good, not user friendly. (Not much experience with Avast) THREATFIRE - Technically not an antivirus program, Threatfire is an excellent program to run alongside any of the antivirus programs listed above. Threatfire is designed to augment antivirus software for better protection.ANTI-SPYWARE / ANTI-MALWARE Spyware/malware is the largest threat by far on the web. ID theft is probably the biggest money-maker for the bad guys using spyware. Unlike antivirus programs, the more antispyware programs you use, the better. No one program can find all the bad stuff on your PC. MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE - One of the best infection cleaners I've ever used. In fact, this is the only program that I recommend customers pay for the full version of (a one-time $25 purchase). If you use the free version of MBAM, you must remember to use it a minimum of once per week. Start the program, perform an update, and run a quick or full scan. The free version does not protect you from infection, but if used weekly, it can remove infections before they become bad. The paid full version protects you very well. SUPERANTISPYWARE - Another very good program. If MBAM ever finds anything, you will want to run SAS after MBAM has done its job. SPYBOT: SEARCH AND DESTROY - A good program to use if you find you have been badly infected. If MBAM and SAS find things, Spybot is a good program to run after them. FIREWALLS I used to use third party firewalls, but for 99.99% of home PC users out there, the firewall that comes with any version of Windows all the way back to Windows XP SP2 is good enough. I decided not to cover third party firewall programs in this post. There are many good free ones out there though. PARENTAL CONTROLS Although, technically not to keep you from being infected, a good parental controls program can keep your kids from visiting common infection source sites (such as torrent sharing, music, and social network sites). The only free parental controls program that I recommend is BLUECOAT K9 WEB PROTECT. It is an excellent program that is easily configured. NOTE: If you decide to install K9, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FORGET OR LOSE YOUR PASSWORD! To make any changes to the program, you must have the password. This includes uninstalling it. Without the password, the only way to remove K9 from your system is to wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows. These are just a few programs you can use to protect your PC for free (or in the case of Malwarebytes Antimalware, a small price). There are many, many others that are free, but I listed only the ones that I have experience with and use myself. [Edited by: possumbarnes at 2/4/2012 11:06:19 AM EST]

possumbarnes

Sophomore Author
Tennessee

Posts:236
Points:49,610
Joined:Dec 2011

Message Posted: Feb 4, 2012 8:00:49 AM

Ignore possumbarnes Report Abuse

I own a small, family computer repair business in New Market, TN. Virus and spyware infections are my #1 customer complaint. Infected PCs probably make up 90-95% of monthly income. Here are some tips on how to protect yourself from infection at no cost. (NOTE: The programs listed and the comments about them are from my experience in using them. There are plenty of good programs out there that I have never tried so they are not listed here). Software in *asterisks* is what I have installed on my own PCs.

First, a quick lesson on infections. There are two main types of infections: viruses and spyware (or malware). A virus is mainly designed to destroy data and prevent your computer from booting up. There isn't much money in that so viruses have kind of fallen by the wayside except for punk hackers that want to cause trouble.
Spyware, on the other hand, is primarily designed to get money into the hackers bank account by many different means. Data miners can get your bank account #s, passwords, SSNs, names, addresses, birthdates, etc. Scareware programs install on you PC without your knowledge, then pop up stating that you are infected. Some of them look like legitimate programs. These fake programs will look like they are scanning your PC, then tell you that you are massively infected, but you have to buy the full version of the program to clean the infection. With scareware, the fake scanning program itself is the infection. They scare millions of dollars out of unsuspecting people that try to buy the fake software. These are just a few examples. There are many more out there.

ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE (NEVER HAVE MORE THAN ONE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM INSTALLED ON YOUR PC AT ANY ONE TIME. PICK THE ONE THAT WORKS FOR YOU AND USE THAT ONE ONLY).
There are a variety of free antivirus programs out there that are just as effective as the programs you've paid for before. Here are a few:
AVIRA ANTIVIR - very good, not user friendly.
*AVG FREE* - very good, easy to use.
MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS - good, easy to use. (I used MSSE for a couple of years but it started getting buggy on me so I went to AVG)
AVAST - good, not user friendly. (Not much experience with Avast)

*THREATFIRE* - Technically not an antivirus program, Threatfire is an excellent program to run alongside any of the antivirus programs listed above. Threatfire is designed to augment antivirus software for better protection.ANTI-SPYWARE / ANTI-MALWARE
Spyware/malware is the largest threat by far on the web. ID theft is probably the biggest money-maker for the bad guys using spyware. Unlike antivirus programs, the more antispyware programs you use, the better. No one program can find all the bad stuff on your PC.
*MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE* - One of the best infection cleaners I've ever used. In fact, this is the only program that I recommend customers pay for the full version of (a one-time $25 purchase). If you use the free version of MBAM, you must remember to use it a minimum of once per week. Start the program, perform an update, and run a quick or full scan. The free version does not protect you from infection, but if used weekly, it can remove infections before they become bad. The paid full version protects you very well.
*SUPERANTISPYWARE* - Another very good program. If MBAM ever finds anything, you will want to run SAS after MBAM has done its job.
SPYBOT: SEARCH AND DESTROY - A good program to use if you find you have been badly infected. If MBAM and SAS find things, Spybot is a good program to run after them.

FIREWALLS
I used to use third party firewalls, but for 99.99% of home PC users out there, the firewall that comes with any version of Windows all the way back to Windows XP SP2 is good enough. I decided not to cover third party firewall programs in this post. There are many good free ones out there though.

PARENTAL CONTROLS
Although, technically not to keep you from being infected, a good parental controls program can keep your kids from visiting common infection source sites (such as torrent sharing, music, and social network sites).
The only free parental controls program that I recommend is *BLUECOAT K9 WEB PROTECT*. It is an excellent program that is easily configured. NOTE: If you decide to install K9, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FORGET OR LOSE YOUR PASSWORD! To make any changes to the program, you must have the password. This includes uninstalling it. Without the password, the only way to remove K9 from your system is to wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows.

These are just a few programs you can use to protect your PC for free (or in the case of Malwarebytes Antimalware, a small price). There are many, many others that are free, but I listed only the ones that I have experience with and use myself.

[Edited by: possumbarnes at 2/4/2012 11:06:19 AM EST]

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williamcabot Champion Author San Diego Posts:1,774 Points:318,150 Joined:Mar 2010	Message Posted: Jul 14, 2012 4:33:02 PM Ignore williamcabot Report Abuse dont use a computer. no virus. otherwise, microsoft security essentials. its free and very good.
BMRR Champion Author Maine Posts:2,671 Points:1,465,580 Joined:Oct 2007	Message Posted: May 11, 2012 9:38:26 AM Ignore BMRR Report Abuse I used to use AVG, but found it was getting slower with each new release, so I switched to AVAST. I've been relatively happy with it. It's given me a couple of false positives over the past two years, but I guess that's a small price to pay for aggressive protection. I particularly like the option to run a deep scan before Windows loads. I do this once a month just for peace of mind. Another free tool I use is CCleaner. I guess it's not really a security tool per se, but it has some useful features for finding and deleting cookies (especially those sneaky Flash cookies), and it also has a registry cleaner/optimizer. I run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware every now and then, also for peace of mind. It's never found anything (knock on wood).
jwalkerh Champion Author Louisiana Posts:6,140 Points:1,369,355 Joined:Oct 2008	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 5:31:25 AM Ignore jwalkerh Report Abuse I use AVG free run Adware and Malwarebytes for malware and ad removal.
disciple2012 Rookie Author Lubbock Posts:43 Points:296,280 Joined:Feb 2012	Message Posted: Feb 25, 2012 8:33:21 PM Ignore disciple2012 Report Abuse i went to the avira website and i didn't see where they advertise the rootkit protection so I'll take your word for it. Both AVira and Avast are excellent and if Avira has rootkit, then both along with MSE have rootkit amongst the free ones. AVG does not have root kit protection. Norton is not free but the new version is really fast and good according to the reviews. the old version was slow and buggy. I too use ESET on my laptop that I do all my banking, bill paying and investing stuff on. ESET is the best all time according to the VB100 site, but its not free.
possumbarnes Sophomore Author Tennessee Posts:236 Points:49,610 Joined:Dec 2011	Message Posted: Feb 25, 2012 7:02:38 AM Ignore possumbarnes Report Abuse "You failed to mention Norton. A little heavy on resources but extremely reliable. You failed to mention Ad-Aware. Great for cleaning out spyware and malware." Norton wasn't mentioned because it is NOT free. Yes, Norton is a very good piece of PC security software all around. But, it is not free and it is very good at bogging down your PC if you don't have massive amounts of ram and extra processing power. I just had to remove it from a customer's laptop because they were running Vista with only 1gb of ram. Norton had it bogged down to almost unusability. Ad-Aware wasn't mentioned because it is NOT a first defense program. Ad-Aware is ok for cleaning up AFTER using Malwarebytes and SuperantiSpyware. I've used Ad-Aware a few times and it can find a lot of malware, but then turn around and run MBAM or SAS and they will each still find a ton. But, when you start with MBAM and SAS, then run Ad-Aware.....well, it won't find much, if anything at all. As has already been mentinoned, BleepingComputer is a great source of infection help if you think your PC might be infected.
herbiepopnecker Champion Author British Columbia Posts:13,616 Points:2,509,255 Joined:Sep 2005	Message Posted: Feb 24, 2012 7:53:49 PM Ignore herbiepopnecker Report Abuse After seeing their tv ads mocking free antivirus programs that actually work better and use less resources, I will fail to mention Norton every time I can.
rumbleseat Champion Author Winnipeg Posts:22,938 Points:3,532,240 Joined:Oct 2002	Message Posted: Feb 24, 2012 5:17:41 PM Ignore rumbleseat Report Abuse "AVAST free version - its the only free antivirus that has root kit protection other than Microsoft Security Essentials." Actuall Avira AntiVir free AV, has root kit protection as well.
5RedWagon Rookie Author Texas Posts:4 Points:5,910 Joined:Feb 2012	Message Posted: Feb 24, 2012 2:22:32 PM Ignore 5RedWagon Report Abuse I have AVG on my computer and i don't have any problems, i got a used computer and it works great. I have at&t dsl and it never went out even with the stormy weather, cause we watch the radar online
bytebug Champion Author Orange County Posts:26,400 Points:4,125,580 Joined:Oct 2001	Message Posted: Feb 24, 2012 4:18:34 AM Ignore bytebug Report Abuse >> You failed to mention Norton. An overpriced resource pig, and the original topic of this thread was FREE antivirus. My vote is also for the free Microsoft Security Essentials. If you are insistent on wanting to pay for antivirus, NOD32 is a much lighter weight and effective antivirus.
disciple2012 Rookie Author Lubbock Posts:43 Points:296,280 Joined:Feb 2012	Message Posted: Feb 23, 2012 4:32:59 PM Ignore disciple2012 Report Abuse I have helped on many forums. If you want to know how good the antivirus are, go to the virus bulletin website VB100 and look at the tests they run there. Notice there are no ads so they can't be bought. I run AVAST free version - its the only free antivirus that has root kit protection other than Microsoft Security Essentials. If you run any operating system that is not 64 bit, then AVAST is the best one for you. If you run 64 bit Win 7 or Vista 64, then the microsoft product is very good. I run AVAST on my desktop that is Win XP and Microsoft product on my laptop Win 7. Windows Defender is excellent for all the other trash. Run Windows firewall. If you go to the free forums like Tech Support Guy ), bleeping computer or any of the other free sites, this is the standard recommendation. If you get the infection that pops up and says you are infected and scans your computer, use google to search for the free cure. Bleeping computer website has the tools to remove these infections and step by step instructions to follow. everything is free. i guess it won't let me post the link. its the bleeping computer website and they have lists of all the common bugs with removal instructions, explanations of what is happening, screenshots of the bug etc. great site, free instructions, links to all the removal tools which are free also hth [Edited by: disciple2012 at 2/23/2012 7:36:54 PM EST]
scoutmaster Champion Author Pittsburgh Posts:81,374 Points:3,255,570 Joined:Mar 2003	Message Posted: Feb 23, 2012 4:04:39 AM Ignore scoutmaster Report Abuse You failed to mention Norton. A little heavy on resources but extremely reliable. You failed to mention Ad-Aware. Great for cleaning out spyware and malware. [Edited by: scoutmaster at 2/23/2012 7:06:11 AM EST]
gizzymouk Rookie Author New Hampshire Posts:1 Points:300 Joined:Feb 2012	Message Posted: Feb 22, 2012 7:48:57 PM Ignore gizzymouk Report Abuse I use MSE now, as was previously mentioned, I too, used to use AVG but had to uninstall it as it started messing things up and letting things through, but from reading the previous posts, I may give Avast a try [Edited by: gizzymouk at 2/22/2012 10:49:53 PM EST]
noblegiant Champion Author Philadelphia Posts:2,080 Points:945,020 Joined:Nov 2007	Message Posted: Feb 22, 2012 11:26:50 AM Ignore noblegiant Report Abuse Microsoft Security Essentials This Software Is Free And Great!!
possumbarnes Sophomore Author Tennessee Posts:236 Points:49,610 Joined:Dec 2011	Message Posted: Feb 9, 2012 7:07:12 PM Ignore possumbarnes Report Abuse Now I have to update my recommendations. In the OP, I stated that I use AVG free antivirus, but that is no longer true. I found that the Link Scanner in AVG liked to lock up my browsers (both Chrome and IE). So, I have uninstalled AVG and am giving Avast it's first try in 3 or 4 years, per Grizzly's first response statements. I'll post back with updates periodically for any that are interested.
PaylessKY Champion Author Kentucky Posts:8,735 Points:1,583,400 Joined:Oct 2008	Message Posted: Feb 7, 2012 11:51:29 PM Ignore PaylessKY Report Abuse I have used MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE, and like it very much. I plan on putting it on my new computer.
OceanArcher Champion Author Mississippi Posts:5,718 Points:1,330,325 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: Feb 5, 2012 9:32:38 PM Ignore OceanArcher Report Abuse MSE is my program of choice .....
possumbarnes Sophomore Author Tennessee Posts:236 Points:49,610 Joined:Dec 2011	Message Posted: Feb 5, 2012 6:21:59 AM Ignore possumbarnes Report Abuse Avast may have made many changes since I used it last (about 4 years ago). I may have to give it a try again from what you're saying. Sounds like they've beefed it up some. My biggest problem was simply getting used to the user interface of Avast. It just wasn't designed well for me. I couldn't disagree with you more about Defender. I have never had a good experience with Windows Defender. I tried it for 6 months or so and then it just plain stopped working. Also, in the last 2 years, I have yet to see a working Defender on a customer's computer. It is always unresponsive when I try to start it. I definitely do not recommend Windows Defender. 100% agree with using a Standard or Limited User account when surfing the web. That is the best way to prevent most infections. Most changes made by infectious software requires an Administrator to allow it.
Grizzly1505 Champion Author North Carolina Posts:6,158 Points:1,551,595 Joined:Dec 2007	Message Posted: Feb 5, 2012 5:35:11 AM Ignore Grizzly1505 Report Abuse in general I agree with your assessment.few things though I find incorrect: AVG is a good program until it lets slip a few viruses through (happend to me and it were some that are known for years).Avast so far has found everything and is much more user friendly than AVG which can slow down your computer tremendously,especially with the email scanner activated.Avira I have used for quite some time but you get what you pay for. You mentioned Spybot. It is a good program unless you use it on slow computers which can render it unusable.Windows Defender does not slow down even the slowest PC. I agree with your Firewall assessment. The Windows firewall is very sufficient, the third party "Firewalls" are merely a Placebo which make the User BELIEVE he is safe which is not the case. The best protection though is restricting the User by changing the account to Standard User instead of Administrator which is the setting by default. that way sytem changes can prevented from the getgo and that applies to malware as well.In addition the User should know what he is doing and not click on everything that is not gone by the count of three. This unfortunately is a battle against windmills cause most users barely know where to turn on the PC.