Your thoughts on Free antivirus, firewall, and ad/spyware programs?

What are your thoughts on it? I just got my laptop, brand new, and i'm thinking of whether or not i should buy the programs or just go with the free stuff.

i have a desktop which crashed, and i used avast, adaware, spybot, and spywareblaster, all of which were free programs i got off the internet. i dont know why my desktop computer crashed, i dont know if it were from updates from adware, avast which contained a virus which caused my computer to crash, or what, or all those stu ff my brother downloads from the internet.

but i want to protect my laptop, and right now i dont know if i should just spend money on software to protect my notebook.

if i do plan to just go with the free software, any recommendations on a free software which are good. What is a good free antivirus, firewall, and adware programs?

 

Free programs are usually the same as paid versions with some features disabled , if you need only the basics why not ?

I always prefer them to paid applications because I feel they are more "honest" , for example Norton used to come out every year with a new AV , but it wasn't new engines , usually just a new interface with very little change . With free application I feel they upgrade them for good reasons since they don't have financial motives .

I use AVG free anti-virus ( that btw caught viruses the Norton didn't ) , Sygate free firewall and ad-aware .

 

For good free firewall you could try NetVeda SavetyNet, but it's little hard to use or Zone Alarm.
For adware I use Adaware.
I didn't use free AV, since I used Kaspersky. At about $45 it has good virus scanner and very low cpu utilization compared to Norton/Mcafee.
AVG is free AV but I never tried it so I couldn't comment on it.

 

It may not be the greatest in the world, but I like using Windows Live OneCare as a comprehensive AV, Firewall, and antispyware suite. Most retail stores have deals on it where you can buy the retail boxed version for $20, plus you can install it on up to 3 computers at once.

 

Antivirus: Grisoft AVG Free Edition
Spyware: WinPatrol v10
Firewall: Comodo Personal Firewall

 

I use avast! antivirus. It's free for home use. I have it installed on both my laptop and my desktop. Works well and doesn't use many system resources.

 

Freeware has its pros and cons. You need to know what is you need and decide from there. I am willing to pay for something if there is added benefit in it for me. If the app is made by a startup company and blows me away, then at the very least I would want to make a donation to help out the small guy. One problem I have with the current commercial pack of FW, AV and AS is that they all require an annual subscription and I rather avoid that.

I am in search of a good FW program. I was willing to purchase ZA because of the features it has over its freeware version but its reputation for taxing resources bothers me. Yesterday I tried Jetico 2.0 beta but later on it corrupted my TCP/IP stack and I had to use System Restore to recover. Going to look at Comodo this weekend and see how that goes. If that doesn't work for me, then I'll purchase Outpost.

In regards to AV, I was using AVG on my previous PII laptop but it really hogged up my system resources and I believe this is one area that is worth spending some bucks. I am looking at either NOD32 or Kaspersky.

For AS, I used Spybot and lately I've read several reviews that this is not so great. I will probably use in conjuntion of another freeware app.

In regards to OneCare, for $19 its not a bad deal but I would most likely use it til the subscription ran out. Unless they make substantial improvements in their releases, I see no reason to renew at the end of the year.

 

That is odd. I used AVG on an old Pentium III precisely because it was NOT resource intensive, especially compared to Norton Antivirus.

 

For free anti-adware go with Lavasoft Ad-Aware Personal SE edition (1.06 I believe) It works great. Nothing but positive reviews.

 

Nod32
jetico
No antispyware. Is it really necessary with a good AV & firewall combination?

 

For AV the best free scanners are either Avast, AVG, or Avira. The best paid are either NOD32, Kaspersky, or BitDefender. For Antispyware, the best free utilities are either Ad-Aware SE Personal, Spybot SD, Windows Defender, and HijackThis; you should probably use multiple/all of them at once. For firewalls, most somewhat good firewalls are paid and can only be used in free trials. The best free firewalls would be either Comodo or ZoneAlarm Free, however the fre e version of ZoneAlarm is missing several important security features that the paid version has, and it would be advisable to use an alternative. You could go to http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php for some slightly outdated testing on firewalls, http://www.av-comparatives.org/ for some info about the best AV, and http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=62240 for some info about antispyware.

 

Regarding ZoneAlarm, I would recommend viewing their user forums regarding the paid versions of their programs. The current version of their Security Suite and one other group of apps seems very buggy right now. Not the free version of ZoneAlarm. And not all their apps.

I've found it's a good idea to check out the support forums for any new product or upgrade to see what's going on.

Also, per Omneus's post, it's OK to have multiple anti-spyware apps running. But if you run multiple versions of anti-virus programs at once, you can get conflicts/crashes and false positives.

 

It can't hurt, especially since windows defender beta 2 is free.

 

I use free software such as AVG, ZoneAlarm, and AdAware. No crashes so far...

 

I currently use the free software:

Antivirus - AVG
Ad/Spyware - AdAdare
Firewall - Zone Alarm

I was using Comodo for a while, but for some reason my wireless kept on dropping. Not 100% sure if it had to do with Comodo, but then I recently switched to ZA and so far no problems.

 

Using avist, adaware, spybot, Zone Alarm, Hijack this all with no problems so far.

 

Avast > stuff you pay for. Spybot and Adaware > everything else. I wouldnt waste a dime on antiviruse software because the free alternatives (in the case of avast) are often times BETTER. Spybot and Adaware are by far the best antispyware programs. You can also check out http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ I use that on the computers at work alot, its free, don't have to install it, and it picks up ALOT of stuff, but its sort of slow (its biggest downfall).

 

Seriously, I love the free stuffs. The only difference they usually have from the paid version and the free version is that the paid version is tech supported (like hell I need that), and faster downloading (which the defintions are small enough to be dled through 56k).

 

Avast, Ad-Aware, and Spybot.. it is essential to have 2 anti spywares. Usually spybot picks up stuff that ad-aware doesnt. Ad-aware usually only coughs up bad cookies for me...

No firewall besides basic windows one.. i tried comodo but it caused a hard disk error (cs crashes... notgood)

 

I don't pay anything to stay protected:

1. Avast! 4.6 Home Edition
2. Ad-Aware SE Personal
3. SpywareBlaster 3.5.1
5. Mozilla Firefox
6. Modified .HOSTS file (important)

 

Going back to your original post, I can see your problem already. Here it is;

Think of it like this-
Your AV, Firewall, antispyware are like an alarm system on your house. As long as you use them, you'll be safe. But when the burglar comes up and knocks on your door and your brother opens it up and lets him in, your alarms are worthless.

 

On my notebook I use:

• Firefox
• PeerGuardian 2
• Avast! Home Edition
• SpywareBlaster
• Spybot
• Ad-Aware SE
• Hosts File
• Windows Firewall

On another notebook and a desktop: As above, but AVG instead of Avast! plus Spyware Terminator.