Spyware, viruses, & security forum: What is the best FREE Anti-spyware out there?

Thank you Roddy. Cinders

Alice - I did just install AVG so what I hear you saying is ditch it for the free a-squared right? Also, I do have an older computer and I do have XP. So, since I have both of those obstacles you are saying that spyware doctor won't work??? I'm not against spending money to protect but, I have been told why buy when you can get it free. I'm not computer savvy but, I do want to protect what I have. Okay you purchased Kaspersky internet suite, spysweeper and spyware doctor right? These all work together??? You also use the free version of a-squared and is window washer and perfect disk free also or are they part of you paid products? What all does bit defender 2008 do? I am really ignorant at this so I know there will be lots of peeps out there laughing at me right now.

Cinders..

Is the Fix-It 8 you referred to the same as Avanquest's "Fix-It Utilities 8 Professional"? (I don't see just Fix-It 8) On the outside chance it is the same one you bought, it's described as being integrated with anti-virus and anti-spyware tools. The only reason I mention it is because if you have AVG (Anti-Virus) and Fix-It 8 Professional it would mean you have two A/V's installed. Something that's not recommended and could cause a problem, if you have both running at the same time.

A lot of "if's" ... but thought I'd ask "just in case"..
Carol

Will these work with the Avanquest Fix-It-Utilisties 8.0 professional that is installed on my computer?

Cinder..

"More is better" doesn't hold true in the case of running two A/V's at the same time. The same with firewalls. It could very well be why you've experienced a slowdown. (Not necessarily, but it could be) Read THIS post. It's a simple to-the- point explanation of why it's ill-advised.

"So I need to ditch the AVG and maybe use something else or do you think Avanquests 8.0 is good enough for anything that would come my way?"

If you paid for it, I would wait and see if you get any responses to the post where you asked about it. I'm not familiar with it at all. Only on a personal note, I tend to shy away from software which proclaims to "do it all". If reviews make a difference to you, here's one. When making your decision, I would also look into the quality of their "support", considering how little I found out about it. It may seem like an insignificant consideration now, but won't be if you run into a problem in the future. (FWIW .. I see Avanquest has a small forum, but fail to find a sub-forum for Fix-it)

Best of luck to you..
Carol

antivirus and anti-malware.

Both are relatively easy on "system resources" and other than the large size of the signature updates have no real "cons" to hold against them.

If you already have them installed use them. If, after using them, you don't like them for some reason download ANY of the freeware AV products such as Avira or AVG or Avast then DISABLE or uninstall the Antivirus services FixIt provided then (after disabling or uninstalling) install the free one you want to try. If you don't like it try another until you find one YOU like and are comfortable with - what others swear by you might well end up swearing at!

Okay Carol I did uninstall the AVG as I do have the Fix-It and it has been longer than 60 days. I did take in the forum on the antispyware/malware. I decided to install Spybot S&D which is very busy right now finding lots of serious threats. I also installed adaware and will run it after Spybot gets done.

Thanks for the hookup on the newbie forum. All this is so helpful to me. I may not understand it all but I am gleening so much. I'm trying to remember how I even found this site. I think I did a search for free virus/spyware/malware and came up with the MajorGeek site. I am so thankful for it! Thanks again. Cindy

I'm sorry ignorance here... What is nanny s/w and where do I access it? The problem I have is that my teens connect with each other through myspace and facebook. The cell phone and IM'ing are almost getting obsolete compared to these two vehicles. I dislike them both but my husband says let them use them. How can I let them use them and feel safe about what get's placed on my computer???

Thanks for the explanation and I will check into it. Cindy

Up until about a year ago, the only protection I used on my computer was the Spybot/AdAware combo. I used these programs for almost 6 years without any problems and still use them once in a while, still, today. But things have changed. One day, I got a very bad virus on my computer. I went to use Spybot and to my surprise "Access was denied". AdAware worked but it found nothing. I started doing research, I downloaded AVG. I installed it, ran a scan and found the virus. I removed the virus..... Later the same day, out of paranoia, I ran another scan. The same virus was found again!! And not only that, the virus had installed a bunch of its little friends as well. I removed them with AVG.... Ran another scan... Removed them again!! They just would not go away..... I attempted to do some more research but, Internet explorer would not work. Access was denied! I went to run AVG again..... Access was denied to it as well.... Even in safe mode I could do nothing! It was horrible!! This virus rendered my computer useless... I went to a friends house and did more research. I found many different answers, many different ways to combat this... I ended up downloading about 20 different programs, (Combo-Fix, Dr.Webb, Hijack this, etc etc). Somehow, I hacked my way into the permissions and restored my privileges to use AVG again. Again I removed the viruses... I followed up with Spybot... and removed some more... I ran Iobit Antivirus and removed some more... Eventually, using many different antiviruses there was no more viruses!!! I was so happy and very proud of myself, it had been 5 days. The next day, to my horror, the viruses had created themselves again and now it seemed it was using AVG against me, Iobit showed that it had been infected, somehow altered, and yet again I was locked out of most everything. At this point the only thing I could do was to go back into safe mode and copy onto a flash drive as much of my files as I could fit before inevitably, after many days of stress, and lack of sleep, I finally broke down and reformatted my computer losing almost everything I had...

After I got windows all setup again I vowed that I would never let this happen again. I researched for weeks on this subject and found what works best for me.

This is my current setup:

1. Comodo Internet Security Suite Free (Firewall installed Only).
I found that the Comodo Firewall was one of the best Firewalls on the market and had been very reliable in ratings with many websites for the past few years. The rest of the Comodo Internet Security Suite although above average is not to par with many other Antivirus programs, but like I said the Firewall alone is Top Notch and allows you to decide if you want to let something in or not. This is usually done with guidance of course. A firewall such as this is a very important key in keeping your computer virus free. Used effectively it is all you need, but I wouldnt advise it.

2. Avast Antivirus Free
This in my opinion and many others is the best Antivirus program you can get free or not. Avira Antivirus though better at detecting viruses than Avast and AVG, scans your computer slower, is very unreliable at updating virus definitions, and is a bit heavier on system resources. But if I had to choose between Avira and AVG it would definitely be Avira for the Best protection and much lighter resource needs than AVG not to mention what AVG allowed a virus to do to itself... But I pick Avast over both of them!! Avast is very fast, very light on resources, updates itself automatically many times a day, and also on top of having the best (in my opinion) Virus detection next to Avira features real time protection for your computer and the internet, stopping almost anything that gets through Comodo firewall, (or that you allow through), dead, before it has any chance to hurt your computer.

3. I also keep a copy of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware handy just in case a trojan somehow slips through, because, (after the fact of course), I learned the virus I had was the dreaded Conficker Trojan and Malwarebytes is known to be able to destroy it.

Like I said, this is the best setup I have. There any many like it but this one is mine . And I do strongly recommend it, but of course as you know there are many different opinions out there, and different setups work better for different people. So, be very picky!!!

Sorry for the long post, thank you for reading it and most of all, I hope it helps...

Heres a couple links for research (all free of viruses
Firewall ratings: http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/results.php
AntiVirus Performance Tests PDF: http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/performance/performance08a.pdf
An Antivirus Poll with common results: http://www.freewaremission.com/2009/08/best-free-antivirus-poll-report/
About.com: http://antivirus.about.com/

1. Spybot Search & Destroy - Firstly: the SDHelper and TeaTimer functions do help significantly in keeping downloaded spyware from actually rooting itself onto your drive. Secondly: the price is perfect. If you install Spybot as part of a multi-program defense, then definitely try this product.


and


2. Lavasofts Ad-Aware SE, Personal Edition - Their Ad-Aware product has won the trust of millions of users. Although it doesnt have the nifty shredding and email opt-out lists of Spybot, Ad-Aware does perform realtime protection, and it auto updates its definition lists to remain current. Up until 2006, combining Spybot and Ad-Aware was the smartest (and the cheapest) way to defend your compute against spyware. Things are different now, because Number 1 below has set the high bar even higher for 2007.

copy/paste job from some source from 2006 or 2007. The best you can do: skip it, don't read it, neglect it and such. It's irrelevant by now. Probably ALL other answers in this thread are more relevant than this one.

Jees

I have had great success with Superantispyware.com
and Malwarebytes.com. These are two great free softwares