antivirus spyware protection help

[old-yellow]

i am looking for free spyware and antivirus protection i use firefox for my internet if someone knows a good one please help

[kb0nly]

The two choices i always use, i do this for a living if that matters, lol...

Free - Avast, does a good job and keeps most users safe.

Paid - Kaspersky Internet Security, antivirus and malware protection all in one.

Malware Only - Malwarebytes, a good scanner and realtime protection if you get the paid version.

You can get the paid version of Kasperky IS on eBay for around $15 these days. We put it on every new computer we sell at work and i highly recommend it. On the other hand i have most of my computers running Avast at home, why? Its free! But its the only free one i trust, AVG used to be pretty good but has been slipping a lot lower on the list lately.

[El Camexican]

I'm near computer illiterate, but I'm told Microsoft Security Essentials (its free) is a good one.

[old-yellow]

thanks guys i found a free Norton internet security.

[kb0nly]

MSSE, Microsoft Security Essentials, is pretty good also, although it doesn't stop some things if you click on them by accident.

Free Norton?? Never seen a freebie from them so i am suspicious of it. Not to mention how horribly Norton bogs down a computer.

[wisconsinite]

I've had good luck with avg. Norton is worse than most of the bugs it " protects" against, imo.

[tulsamike3434]

I use avast!

[just ben]

I use avast!

that is what I use also. I havn't had any issues since using it. norton however is a different story. it seems to work but cost moneyand good luck if you want to put another antiviris on instead of norton. You need software to get rid of norton. My laptop came with a trial of norton funy thing is 2 days after the 6 month trial ended I got a virus that could not be removed. it took a whole new operating system to get it working again.The tech that repaired it said he has only seen that virus on snorton trials that didn't get renewed. I don't doubt it, without viruses what good is a paid anti virus?

[El Camexican]

You need software to get rid of norton. My laptop came with a trial of norton funy thing is 2 days after the 6 month trial ended I got a virus that could not be removed. it took a whole new operating system to get it working again.The tech that repaired it said he has only seen that virus on snorton trials that didn't get renewed. I don't doubt it, without viruses what good is a paid anti virus?

Isn't that a tub of $%#??? Programs that can't be removed should be illegal to sell. That and subsctiptions that renew on your credit card automaticaly UNLESS you make a special request they they be cancelled. That stuff gets me border line postal.

[atc007]

I have an Apple now,,So,no worries.. But listen to the pro,,{ kbonly} and go with Avast. My .02

[tulsamike3434]

I use Linux and windows

[WJG1000W]

avg has always worked for me

[kb0nly]

Norton is so horrible that we have removal tools from the company to clean out their antivirus.. No joke... And even after removing them sometimes we still have to spend hours editing the registry to clean them up. Sometimes its just easier to reinstall the OS and start over, what a pain.

AVG and Avast are both excellent choices, i only diss AVG a smidge because they seem to be a little lacking on root kit protection (as tested by PC World magazine) and don't update as fast as Avast. But still, for a free AV they are definitely better than nothing!

I also recommend that if you use AVG or Avast then use Malwarebytes to also make sure the system is clean, and scan now and then to assure it is. AVG and Avast are a little behind on blocking malware but do pretty darn good on most common infections. The problem is, and believe it or not, all these programs are mis-named now days. Its pretty RARE to see a computer infected with what we would call a virus, aka a trojan or a true virus. I would guess over 90% of infections now days are malware, rootkits, and spyware.

I would also like to point out... Mac is not invulnerable like many seem to think. To actual viruses, perhaps, but there has been a rash of malware problems with Mac lately, some even made the news. So its not unheard of, and the ones that affect the Mac are so sneaky that they are truly worse in my opinion. But don't get me wrong, Mac has a far smaller rate of infection. Many think its due to the "better" operating system. Hardly! Its actually due to the fact that such a large part of the world is on Windows that those who want to be malicious target the most popular operating system. I don't use Mac's but i can say, they are pretty nice hardware wise, some of them are quite powerful in comparison to PC's.

Linux... Its a necessary evil these days, servers and such. Its probably the most robust even beating out Mac... Why? Its actually quite simple if you think like a IT tech. Linux is supported by those who do most of the malicious stuff anyway, i know plenty of people that some would consider "hackers", and they all generally use Linux themselves day to day, so no wonder why its protected when those types are using it! LOL

El Camexican... I hear ya. I deal with this crap daily, and i mean daily. One that has been very common is the Fake 2012 AV epidemic that i have been dealing with for almost a year now. You browse to a website, a popup says you might be infected scan now, the unknowing person clicks scan and installs a fake antivirus program which locks down the internet access unless you pay for an upgrade. At which point it allows access and goes back into an idle state, its not an antivirus program just scamware that makes the user pay money to get their internet back. Then of course it expires now and then to ask for more money!

Now here is a good laugh for you guys... I uninstalled Norton from a new Dell the other day, it was the trial and just expired and the owner wanted something better. I ran the usual removal tool and cleaned up the registry, then installed Avast because they just wanted a free one. What happened? Avast popped up saying it detected a Malware program called Norton Internet Security, i kid you not! The new NIS messes up the registry entries to the point that other programs suspect it of wrong doing. So funny!!

[just ben]

Norton is so horrible that we have removal tools from the company to clean out their antivirus.. No joke... And even after removing them sometimes we still have to spend hours editing the registry to clean them up. Sometimes its just easier to reinstall the OS and start over, what a pain.

AVG and Avast are both excellent choices, i only diss AVG a smidge because they seem to be a little lacking on root kit protection (as tested by PC World magazine) and don't update as fast as Avast. But still, for a free AV they are definitely better than nothing!

I also recommend that if you use AVG or Avast then use Malwarebytes to also make sure the system is clean, and scan now and then to assure it is. AVG and Avast are a little behind on blocking malware but do pretty darn good on most common infections. The problem is, and believe it or not, all these programs are mis-named now days. Its pretty RARE to see a computer infected with what we would call a virus, aka a trojan or a true virus. I would guess over 90% of infections now days are malware, rootkits, and spyware.

I would also like to point out... Mac is not invulnerable like many seem to think. To actual viruses, perhaps, but there has been a rash of malware problems with Mac lately, some even made the news. So its not unheard of, and the ones that affect the Mac are so sneaky that they are truly worse in my opinion. But don't get me wrong, Mac has a far smaller rate of infection. Many think its due to the "better" operating system. Hardly! Its actually due to the fact that such a large part of the world is on Windows that those who want to be malicious target the most popular operating system. I don't use Mac's but i can say, they are pretty nice hardware wise, some of them are quite powerful in comparison to PC's.

Linux... Its a necessary evil these days, servers and such. Its probably the most robust even beating out Mac... Why? Its actually quite simple if you think like a IT tech. Linux is supported by those who do most of the malicious stuff anyway, i know plenty of people that some would consider "hackers", and they all generally use Linux themselves day to day, so no wonder why its protected when those types are using it! LOL

El Camexican... I hear ya. I deal with this crap daily, and i mean daily. One that has been very common is the Fake 2012 AV epidemic that i have been dealing with for almost a year now. You browse to a website, a popup says you might be infected scan now, the unknowing person clicks scan and installs a fake antivirus program which locks down the internet access unless you pay for an upgrade. At which point it allows access and goes back into an idle state, its not an antivirus program just scamware that makes the user pay money to get their internet back. Then of course it expires now and then to ask for more money!

Now here is a good laugh for you guys... I uninstalled Norton from a new Dell the other day, it was the trial and just expired and the owner wanted something better. I ran the usual removal tool and cleaned up the registry, then installed Avast because they just wanted a free one. What happened? Avast popped up saying it detected a Malware program called Norton Internet Security, i kid you not! The new NIS messes up the registry entries to the point that other programs suspect it of wrong doing. So funny!!

the virus or malware you are talkin about is what took my laptop down two days after the norton trial expired. I posted a thread about it when this happened. I was able to rollback to before the systemcheck B.S was there but it only worked for about a week and it came back, along with 3 others. It got to the point that windows wouldn't even boot up nor would it go to the diagnostics menu

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I'm no IT expert by any means but I have had my share of bad experiences with those trick "viruses". I have had them pop up with a window that says it's transferring all my C:drive data and that I could be arrested. I figured out it was all BS when I physically disconnected the internet from my computer and when I clicked the "fix it" button it tried to open a webpage asking me for money. Ended up figuring out how to start my comp in safe mode and got rid of it all. When I was told by a friend who is a little more savvy about this stuff I couldn't believe it was legal! What a bunch of BS..

Just installed the Avast program in both my desktop and laptop. Seems to be working fine. For the longest time I was having problems with google searches. When I would click on a link I would get hijacked to some other webpage or no-name search engine that had nothing to do with the link I clicked on... Hopefully the pre-boot scan I just did took care of that. Had quite a few hits for infections....

Thanks for the recommendation Kb0nly!