Best free computer protection program?
- Thread starter Kyriakos
- Start date
What do you mean by computer protection? Against theft? (Computer phones home if stolen.) Spyware? Adware? Virus protection? Surge protection? Data backup? Physical protection? Environmental protection?
admiral-bell
Chronic Lurker
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I use Threatfire and AVG Free in tandem. I've used this combo for years, and despite my accidental attempts to infect my computer with varying sorts of maleware, the combination of the two have kept my PC as clean as a whistle. 
dark_sheep
Egg.
AVG / AdAware
Malwarebytes AntiMalware, Spybot Search and Destroy, AVG or Avast! Anti virus, Spyware Blaster....there's a bunch out there.
Go to http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/, it's a good place to start.
Go to http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/, it's a good place to start.
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
I tried AVG, but it seemed to be really slow at times. Now I use the MS freebie that damunzy mentioed above. It seems to work just great and perform a lot faster.
Hi I'm a Mac and I can't get viruses!
J/K
I use Norton, but it isn't free, however I know people who have used Macs for 10 years and never has their computer fried, where my (windows) computer gets fried at least once a year even though I use Anti Virus
J/K
I use Norton, but it isn't free, however I know people who have used Macs for 10 years and never has their computer fried, where my (windows) computer gets fried at least once a year even though I use Anti Virus
Genocidicbunny
Bug squasher
Thats more of a PEBKAC than a problem with Windows. I havent gotten a virus on my desktop in about 3 years. And yes, it runs Windows and quite often its not completely up-to-date on patches.
taper
Meet Tux
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OP said free. Macs are about as far from that as you get.
I suggest Linux. Free in price and free in liberty. Malware is essentially non-existent with a properly configured system.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Norton is a bloated resource hog an overly-pushed on consumers. I have been quite happy with my AVAST! free, it offers several real time protection shields as well as anti-virus scanning.
I read some time ago that some test said the best protection to be Avast!, Malwarebytes' antimalware, and Windows firewall, and this test had included non-freeware programs too.
I was thinking to install Avast!, but am little worried. This far I have had F-secure, but it is often very heavy, and has problems with some software. One problem is that F-secure has done good job, so it's not easy to pick another one. The other problem is that Avast! promises to prevent theft of my personal data only with the version that costs.
I know next to nothing about computers, so this might of course be over reaction to that sentence.
So is it the firewall that usually prevents data thefts?
I was thinking to install Avast!, but am little worried. This far I have had F-secure, but it is often very heavy, and has problems with some software. One problem is that F-secure has done good job, so it's not easy to pick another one. The other problem is that Avast! promises to prevent theft of my personal data only with the version that costs.
I know next to nothing about computers, so this might of course be over reaction to that sentence.
So is it the firewall that usually prevents data thefts?
Genocidicbunny
Bug squasher
A firewall usually insures that malicious packets dont get into your intranet. Your router should already do a decent function of this as it should have a built-in firewall. A regular firewall wont block you from downloading malicious software intentionally though. For that you'd probably want to keep an antivirus/antimalware that can do real-time scanning to catch stuff before it activates. In that sense, Avast! is great. I've had it catch several infected files even before they completely downloaded.
Avast! is at the moment using 47mb of RAM. The web shield is using 80mb. So its not overly lean, but if you have more than a GB of RAM, you wont notice it running.
This is also after an uptime of 3 weeks mind you, so it may even be less if you reboot daily.
Avast! is at the moment using 47mb of RAM. The web shield is using 80mb. So its not overly lean, but if you have more than a GB of RAM, you wont notice it running.
This is also after an uptime of 3 weeks mind you, so it may even be less if you reboot daily.
Shylock
Hey smiling strange
I hear good things about it. Windows Defender (a seperate anti-spyware program) caught a trojan the pay-for software Nod32 didn't, even when I pointed it directly at the problem file.
That's better than F-secure for sure: with freshly started pc it has one process at 70mb, and it often gets bogger than 100mb, and it's not even the only F-secure process.
I'm not sure if I understood the rest of your answer, but here's the thing I'm worried about: Avast site says that the free version "Keeps your computer and files free from viruses", and a non-free version also "Prevents theft of your personal data". Now if I get the free version, do I have to get some other program to protect the data?
So do attempted data-thefts fall under the category of malicious packets, which are blocked by a firewall?
Sorry if this confused & silly, but I know very little of computers...
Genocidicbunny
Bug squasher
Its got some extra features, but honestly, Ive seen no reason to use the paid version over free. Avast! coupled with a decent SIP firewall on your router and some common sense will keep you clean.
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