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What anti-virus/spyware do you use?

  • Thread starter JMurphy97
  • Start date
  • #21
"What anti-virus/spyware do you use?"

Humm. I dunno, what shipped with my computer again?
 
  • #22
Avast is totally free and pretty good, so I use it. It's blocked trojans from entering several times.
 
  • #23
An AVG scan took an hour and a half. Is that right?
 
  • #25
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and McAfee.

The first one is really good -- I recommend it.

I'll second that - Malwarebyte is fantastic. I've also used the free versions of Avast and AVG with great success. For firewall I use zonealarm. Also I like SuperAntiSpyware free edition - it has found things spybot and ad-aware have missed.
 
  • #26
I'm pretty paranoid when it comes to computer security, and overall computer efficiency. I hate doing registry crawling to eliminate any would be rogue programs or bloatware.

Anyway this is what I use, all FREE programs btw. Starting with prevention.

Use Firefox, I'm pretty sure most of you guys already use it.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

Along with Firefox install these plugins into the browser

Adblock Plus - blocks ads
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

NoScript - blocks all scripting
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

With those two combine most stuff won't infect you via drive by

Also add this program for further prevention

SpywareBlaster - adds known bad sites to your restricted list.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_spywareblaster/

For those you guys who hate bloatware usually bundled with commercial software try these

QuickTime Alternative - Bare minimum plugins for the browser
http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/

Real Alternate - Bare minimum plugins for the browser
http://www.filehippo.com/download_real_alternative/

System Security

Anti-virus:
AVG Free - never had much of problem with this program, catches those sneaky flash drive viruses before they can infect
http://www.filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus/

Anti-Spyware:
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free (with real time not installed, also disable all automatic updates to save resources!!!) I use this as a second opinion since AVG is suppose to already have an anti-spyware component.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ad-aware/

Firewall:
Online Armor Free - easy to use, preformed pretty well on leak tests
http://www.tallemu.com/free-firewall-protection-software.html
(not sure if they still have that annoying banner on start up, i still have v2.0 but if they do you can disable it by adding a Banner.dat file into the tallemu folder)

Both AVG and Online Armor has a residence that continually monitors the system, and they do a pretty good job at it, i don't think it is necessary to use the Ad-Adware residence.

Other:

For AIM users to remove those annoying talking ads use
http://www.aimadhack.net/

For those who just like low resource consuming software use:
(I personally think anything microsoft has to offer uses too much system resources)

Music
Foobar2000 - plays pretty much every music file type in existence, can convert CD into FLAC, FLACs into MP3 etc...
http://www.filehippo.com/download_foobar2000/

Video
K-lite codec - plays pretty much any video file, use the Media Player Classic, bundled with the pack instead of that windows media thing.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_klite_codec_pack/

Maintenance:

CClean - removes junk that builds up on your system
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Overall I have had pretty good success with this set up, haven't had a huge virus or malware outbreak yet. Except for thoses that likes to jump systems from flash drives. Which both the firewall and anti virus was able to catch and neutralize before it caused damage.
Also as far as system resources goes I average 45 process at start up with a commit charge of around 350M/3939M
 
  • #27
I have been using Avira Antivir (freeware also) for over a year, no complaints here:

http://www.free-av.com/en/download/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html
On another forum, Avira was recommended by someone I respect - here & in some other spots. Norton & McAfee are famous for consuming large amounts of resources & having mediocre performance. Here are the latest test results.

I installed Avira approx. 6 months ago on the family computer and a month or 2 later - on my main rig. After installing the minor hack which decreases / eliminates the advertising spam from the free version - I'm very happy. Smaller memory footprint than the big guys & excellent performance.
 
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