View Full Version : Good FREE AV program?
woftam
14th May 2002, 01:00
Can anyone recommend a good free Anti Virus program?
I am currently running Norton 2001 and not totally happy with it.
Thanks.
bblank
14th May 2002, 05:00
F-Protect (or F-Prot) for DOS is the only antivirus I have used
since 1994. It is free for private use
ftp://ftp1.mirrors.f-prot.com/pub/f-prot.zip
Free malware signature file updates are available every few months.
That may not sound sufficiently frequent but the program has very good
heuristic scanning capabilities that allow it to identify suspicious
or dangerous files before they have been publicly identified. (I
have tested this myself.)
Caveat: I surf without Javascript or Java and I do all email by
telneting to a Unix account so I have less stringent AV needs
than usual. For most computer users the free DOS version of F-Prot
will not be adequate by itself. But as a free supplement to a more
standard AV, why not?
WhiteSail
14th May 2002, 11:49
AVG's good!
http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_index.htm
fobotcso
14th May 2002, 22:18
woftam, I just love your registration date!
Why Free? If you're serious about protecting your PC and Data from virus attacks, why do you think you are going to get something really useful for free? You need to update the virus database at least every week and you must have something that will not conflict with your operating system and other applications. Someone, somewhere, has to do this for you and is not likely to be doing it for the fun of it.
The proprietary anti-virus programs are cheap and reliable and the updates take account of new viruses almost as soon as they are written. So it is really false economy to be cheapskate over this essential protection. My most frequent activity is sorting out PCs that won't fuction properly as the result of virus attacks.
I use McAfee and it's pretty good. I think it's about $30US for the current version 5. There are other good ones, too, and I'm surprised that Norton doesn't please you. Once you've been bitten, you'll never begrudge that amount again.
woftam
15th May 2002, 13:42
fobotcso,
Fair comment mate,just a tight ****** I guess.
If I can't find a decent free program I will buy one.
Not sure which one though,free or not.
All suggestions welcome.
Nothing like hearing of personal experience with a program as opposed to advertising "hype".
:D