Here is an excellent, free program that works in conjunction with whatever antivirus program you have installed. No conflict, it works quietly in the background.
It is particularly effective in catching Zero Day malware (programs that cause havoc because there is not enough time for traditional programs to find it, test it, and have it entered into their definitions that you download).
Got good review in PC World.
Get it here:
Thanks. I researched it and downloaded it yesterday. I have AVG free, but in December they’re going to make me pay for it.
What? Really? After all this time is is no longer free?
My suggestion is to uninstall that and get Avast! which is excellent. And still free.
Avast doesn’t have real time protection right? That’s the main reason I haven’t really made the switch. But if AVG is no longer going to be free, I might not have much of a choice.
That’s not true. You have to upgrade to the latest version by December but you can still get the free version. They just make it somewhat confusing to choose the free version when you go to upgrade, because like any company they’re trying to make money.
Yip, they do that every time. Back when I still used them, it made me feel like I was smart and got away with something. (I use Avira Antivir, which has a higher success rate, and lower memory footprint.)
And I believe Avast also provides “real-time protection”, unless that means something more than remaining active and keeping viruses from working…
I’ve been a big fan of the Threatfire concept.
The definition-based model for antiviruses was a mistake from the beginning, and not that mistake is coming home to roost. Threatfire is behavior-based, which is a much better way to handle threats.
Definition-based antivirus won out years ago because they could identify the virus (if it was in their database). Thus, behavior-based antivirus would be tested by computer magazine and would say, “You have a virus and we cleaned it.” Definition-based antivirus would say, “You have the stoned virus and we cleaned it.” Reviewers thought the latter meant it was better antivirus.
I wouldn’t use Threatfire as my only antivirus, but it’s well worth having it on your system.
I hope you all have better luck with it than I did. I had it installed a while ago and it slowed my computer down to a freaking crawl. There were other problems with it, that I can’t recall now (blocking a bad memory, maybe?)
I use AVG and I also thought they were going to make you pay for it. The directions are somewhat misleading. The current AVG 9.0 (and subversion) is also free, you just have to look for it. When you upgrade it says somewhere, where you wouldn’t normally look, “I don’t want the paid version, I’ll take the free version”
So if you like AVG just look for the free version as you upgrade.
Sometimes when this happens it’s your settings. I use AVG and I found when I enable “link checker” it grinds my system to a near halt. This is because AVG is literally checking each link on the Internet I visit. As you can imagine some pages have hundreds or thousands of links on them.
So when I disable “link checker” on AVG it runs great.
If you liked the program you may want to try it again and fiddle with the settings. That may help
I’m curious, how does ThreatFire’s behaviour-based model differ from Norton’s old heuristic model?
I find that having no virus software installed on my machine is the best way to go about it. I keep up the Windows Firewall but that is it.
My machine is on and online 99.999% of the year and I spend nearly all of my time on the net - it never gets infection. I guess my internet experience helps also.
The one time I had a virus in the past 2 years was after installing Kaspersky. I immediately uninstalled it and was forced to reformat my computer.
I do happen to run MalwareBytes once every 3-5 months, though, just for the hell of it. Nothing is ever found but tracking cookies.
In my mind (and experience), this whole ‘virus protection’ crap is just a big hoax and a scam. But hey, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
While it is true that due diligence and knowing what you’re going can go a long way to help keep you free from malware (don’t open unknown attachments, don’t visit shady sites, never install anything you’re not sure of, etc.), threats of viruses, malware, trojans and worms are absolutely not a big scam and hoax. They exist in droves and they can cause serious damage, if not to your computer then to your identity and/or financial well-being. Just do some research on botnets and the criminal enterprises that run them. There is a lot of money in bot herding – specifically in the information bots can pass to its handler. I’ve had viruses before, and I’ve read about plenty of botnets and malicious spyware that has destroyed people’s lives. It’s not pretty.
Frankly, I don’t see any good reason not to run antivirus software. There are good ones out there for free, so wouldn’t this be a good case of “better safe than sorry?” It isn’t like it costs you anything.
I kind of agree with you. I don’t think I’ve ever had a virus on my computer. I have, however, detected a lot of spyware and adware.
I use SpywareBlaster, but I’m not sure how well it works. Does anybody else use it or know how effective it is?
I don’t run antivirus either, at least at home. At work I run it because of the potential for distributing a virus to customers if I ever DID get infected.
But I think this is bad advice for the majority of users. You have to understand how computers work, how Windows works, and programming to recognize virus behavior. And anybody can slip up and run an infected program, regardless of knowledge or experience.
SpywareBlaster does not scan for spyware, nor does it remove spyware. It loads a list of websites associated with spyware into your browser’s Restricted Sites folder, so that if you visit one of them, they cannot run any scripts that might infect your computer. It is just another layer of protection, in addition to active resident antivirus/antispyware programs.
Thank you.
The reason you’ve not been infected is probably because you use a router (like, for example, the ones Verizon provides to its Internet customers). Routers are “hardware firewalls” that cannot be compromised by your computer or by anyone from the Web.
Anybody have any opinions about the free Microsoft Security Essentials?