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user1397
September 6th, 2006, 12:52 AM
For all windows users and windows/ubuntu dual-booters, who have at all any concern about their windows security, which free antivirus software do you recommend, and why?

Avast!: http://www.avast.com/

AVG Free Edition: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Actually, I've just noticed that both work for windows and linux, so this does not only apply to windows users, but mainly it does (apply to windows users).

EDIT: Avast even has a .deb file! I wonder if anyone has tried it on ubuntu...

maniacmusician
September 6th, 2006, 01:17 AM
hehe do you want to be the first to try it? I'm fine with ClamAV, i heard it was good.

richbarna
September 6th, 2006, 01:20 AM
I tried AVG on Ubuntu, then realised that at the moment it isn't needed, is it?

Anybody actually ever had a Linux virus/worm/trojan ? I know they exist but has anybody actually had one ?

I'm behind a router and IPcop Firewall so hopefully I am immune to them. It's nice to know that AVG is available for the future if needed.
I used AVG on Windows.

qamelian
September 6th, 2006, 01:21 AM
I've tried Avast, AVG, and F-Prot for Linux but I always go back to ClamAV.

richbarna
September 6th, 2006, 01:24 AM
Only these worms on the virus-library :-
Linux.OSF.8759 (http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Linux.OSF.8759.htm)
Linux.RST (http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Linux.RST.htm)
Worm.Linux.Adm (http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Worm.Linux.Adm.htm)
Worm.Linux.Cheese (http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Worm.Linux.Cheese.htm)
Worm.Linux.Mighty (http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Worm.Linux.Mighty.htm)
Worm.Linux.Ramen (http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Worm.Linux.Ramen.htm)
Worm.Linux.Slapper (http://www.viruslibrary.com/virusinfo/Worm.Linux.Slapper.htm)

jason.b.c
September 6th, 2006, 02:08 AM
Avast!: http://www.avast.com/



EDIT: Avast even has a .deb file! I wonder if anyone has tried it on ubuntu...

I have it installed in here right now.!, It works fine i guess...

It was easy to install and it auto-updates once in a while...:-D

Not like i really need it though...But i still wanted it,...:-D

banjobacon
September 6th, 2006, 02:36 AM
I've never heard anything negative about either program, but I voted for Avast! because it's the only one I've used (in Windows).

I was under the impression that running an anti-virus program on Linux was mainly for spotting Windows viruses on email servers and such.

user1397
September 6th, 2006, 02:40 AM
Okay, just to clear something up, I meant this thread to be more for windows security concerns, not ubuntu. As I said,

For all windows users and windows/ubuntu dual-booters, who have at all any concern about their windows security, which free antivirus software do you recommend, and why?

Actually, I've just noticed that both work for windows and linux, so this does not only apply to windows users, but mainly it does.

richbarna
September 6th, 2006, 02:48 AM
Sorry Erik, This bit kind of confused me:-

"so this does not only apply to windows users, but mainly it does (apply to windows users)."

I use AVG on Windows, that's the Windows bit.
I used AVG on Linux, that's the Linux bit.

Sorry for the mix up ;)

TheRingmaster
September 6th, 2006, 02:48 AM
I would use neither of those choices. I used Comodo antivirus when I had windows. It is a FREE full featured AV. http://www.antivirus.comodo.com

ChadMMc
September 6th, 2006, 03:02 AM
Back in the days when I did use *******, I had used Avast because it was free updates for a while at least and it was more straight forward to use.
(Then later my ISP had come up with the Computer Associates stuff, which I did use until I got Linux, and don't use any of that now)

SoundMachine
September 6th, 2006, 05:26 AM
ClamAV for my home machines running BSD/Linux, Nod32 for Windows (I don't run Windows at all at home) but that isn't free.

slimdog360
September 6th, 2006, 05:38 AM
I swear by avast on windows, best out there. It blows AVG out of the water. But for linux a firewall will suffice for me.

Polygon
September 6th, 2006, 05:49 AM
i use norton 2004 in windows. WE bought it once, and then i keep reformatting windows (lol!) that it keeps giving me a free year every time i reinstall it.

and i also just got told in a windows forum in a debate about AV programs:



I should note AVG Free sports a significantly lower detection rate than Norton Antivirus. A test done in February from the recognized testers at AV-Comparitives.org showed AVG Professional (the better paid version, not free) scored approximately 90% in detection rate using both In The Wild and Zoo samples (real viruses and lab-made virues). Symantec Norton Antivirus scored approximately 97% in detection rate.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seite...se_2006_02.php

Another test from AV-Test.org collaborating with About.com (another recognized tester) showed, out of three free antivirus products tested, AVG scored the lowest in detection.

http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivi...s/a/freeav.htm


i dont know what people are talking about hwen they say that norton takes up a ton of memory and sucks, ive never gotten a virus and it doesnt take up that much ram.

SoundMachine
September 6th, 2006, 06:01 AM
i use norton 2004 in windows. WE bought it once, and then i keep reformatting windows (lol!) that it keeps giving me a free year every time i reinstall it.

and i also just got told in a windows forum in a debate about AV programs:



i dont know what people are talking about hwen they say that norton takes up a ton of memory and sucks, ive never gotten a virus and it doesnt take up that much ram.

It's not that it takes up a lot of ram, that wouldn't bother me much since unused memory is wasted memory anyway, it's that the resident scanner is extremely slow and there is a noticeable impact on system performance.

That, along with virus detection is where Nod32 shines which is why it has won more VB100% awards than any other AV product in history.

But as i said, it's not free.

slimdog360
September 6th, 2006, 06:49 AM
i use norton 2004 in windows. WE bought it once, and then i keep reformatting windows (lol!) that it keeps giving me a free year every time i reinstall it.

and i also just got told in a windows forum in a debate about AV programs:



i dont know what people are talking about when they say that norton takes up a ton of memory and sucks, ive never gotten a virus and it doesnt take up that much ram.

It let through a few viruses when I was using it, one was a worm I think. After that and the horrendous time I had trying to get rid of norton (ended up formatting the hdd which ended up killing it which ended up costing a lot of money) I never installed norton on my machine again.
Though my Mum's laptop came with it and let through a gazillion viruses and all sorts of spyware, oh and yes slowed down the computer significantly.
Maybe you were lucky?

lotusleaf
September 6th, 2006, 08:07 PM
ClamAV

ice60
September 6th, 2006, 09:08 PM
i've never heard an av expert recommend AVG over avast, so i'd pick avast.

i use to use Antivir. but, i don't think the default settings have heuristics turned on, so it's very important to turn them on to full. then if you have any FPs tell it to ignore it in future.

Bitdefender makes a very good on demand free av too.

you can read about antivir below.
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=145483

skymt
September 6th, 2006, 09:52 PM
BitDefender, Avast, and AntiVir are all very good. AVG almost as much. I'm currently using BitDefender on my XP partition, as it had the best detection and removal rates in a study I read.

Sammi
September 6th, 2006, 10:01 PM
I've never tried Avast, because I tried AVG first and it did everything I wanted it to do on win xp: Updated realtime protection with low use of system resources.

I'm both happy and satisfied with it.

gnomeuser
September 7th, 2006, 12:56 AM
I used to insist on antivirus tools and such for my Windows using friends, but these days I've grown a defeatist position. It's an arms race and no matter how often you upgrade any AV tool you are a step behind the bad guys.

The entry vectors of viruses and badware are growing to be so many but mostly I see it when people install stuff they found on a website, no tool can cure stupidity. Instead I try to tell them to not do that kind of thing and explain to them that they are opening themselves to attacks by continuing their habits.

My own Linux box has been going strong for 8 years now without being succesfully attacks, I don't really chalk this up to the vastly superior security out of the box but the fact that I have one vendor for all my software. I don't need to download and run random software basically as root (name me one standard Windows user who doesn't run in the administrator account). Most distributions come with a firewall to keep stuff out and we are seeing heavy adoptation of proactive security currently which is encouraging (Fedora being the shining example, followed by SuSE Linux and now Ubuntu who are deploying a little bit out of the box in Edgy - YAY for us!).

Keep your Windows box updated with religious vigor, don't install random software you find online (there are good trustworthy pieces of Windows software, not many though) and I honestly don't think you need a virus scanner.

If you do need Windows and you want that false sense of security, antivirus tools are one of the services that are worth paying for, while the free tools are good there is something to be said for paying a penalty of using an insecure OS. Also you get good support and access to some of the sharpest minds in the AV industry.

If you really want to be secure switch to a Linux distribution like SLED10 which comes with some good tools and a years worth of support for the entire stack is only 50 USD (3 years I believe is 130 USD), if you want it on the cheap use Ubuntu Edgy when it comes out or Fedora.

As evidence of my theory, I have a Windows box sitting in the office which is still running Windows XP, it has never been reinstalled and it has never been succesfully attacked, I check it regularly from an outside source. It runs no antivirus tools at all. The only but is that it does not run with the same frequency as a "regular" Windows box, it's not on every day and I don't use it for many things online aside pages that absolutely doesn't work in my Linux environment (my bank being one of them).

Polygon
September 7th, 2006, 01:04 AM
i dont think that having an av program is a false sense of secuirty. Back when i was stupid and used internet explorer, i got so much spyware on my comp and i got a lot of "virus blocked" messages from norton. if i didnt have that, who knows what would of happened to my computer.

i downloaded some anti spy/malware programs and got rid of about 300 things of spyware and then my comp has been fine since (after a couple of annual reformats)

iampoch
September 11th, 2006, 12:06 PM
hmm I use both in my WindowsXP. I don't know which I installed first, I think it's AVG first then Avast (if not, Avast will tell you that it's in conflict wth AVG and AVG needs to be uninstalled.) Another great free AV is the one from AOL. I would've installed it, but it says that I have to uninstall my two other AV's, I hate jealous programs)

Get both, you can never be too safe in Windows :)

jdong
September 11th, 2006, 03:12 PM
*disclaimer* -- I used to be the biggest AV nerd you could ever find.... You can go stalk me on dslreports.com, around years 2000-2002, user jdong :)

If you're looking for free AV choices, my recommendations are:

(1) AOL's AV offering -- this is actually Kaspersky AV in disguise -- the hands-down BEST antivirus engine ever. Period.
(2) Avast -- Their detection rate has been getting surprisingly good recently, they have frequent updates, plus the most features I've seen in a free AV product. Another added bonus is their forums. Their developers regularly hang out and listen to users' advice on their product.
(3) AVG -- It's free, and has decent detection rates.

Bezmotivnik
September 11th, 2006, 06:24 PM
According to a recent article linked on Digg, jdong's pretty much right.

I don't know if it's possible to get Kaspersky/AOL for free, though.

I'm using AVG Free on this machine at the moment and I have to say that a lot of its automatic/forced features can be very annoying. It's also not rated at the top of the dirt-catchers, either.

Of course, the problems these days are not viruses (which, compared to malware, seem to almost be quaint relics from the past), but for-profit malware, and I don't know of any AV programs that are all that hot at catching it -- though in fairness, they don't claim to be.

Timal
September 14th, 2006, 07:16 PM
Found AOL/Kaspersky free download here:
http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp

Text on the box says:

# Easy-to-install, works with most Windows® operating systems. (Windows 98, 2000, ME & XP)
# Free to everyone- No AOL subscription required

Was hoping Linux would be in list...

In windows, I've used AVG free since it first came out (and ZoneAlarm too). Never had security breech. Time flys but must be over 10 years now.

Being new (1 day) ubuntu Dapper user, have been looking around for AV to use.

This thread has been very informative... thanks to all posters!

jdong
September 14th, 2006, 07:19 PM
Yep, that's AOL's Kaspersky. My #1 recommendation right now.

Don't install the toolbar that it offers, though... that's arguably adware. And they may spam the registration e-mail address, so use a junk one just in case.

and Linux honestly does not need AV in the way that Windows does. It's not a threat and won't be due to the way Linux is designed (limited users, limited priviledges)

Klaidas
September 14th, 2006, 08:13 PM
AvgFree + Norton (I guess I'm gonna be lauched at by saying this) :)

jdong
September 14th, 2006, 08:18 PM
hehe, I think in the Ubuntu world, we do it something like this:

ssh Klaidas "sudo apt-get install norton-antivirus-flames"

SoundMachine
September 15th, 2006, 02:20 AM
*disclaimer* -- I used to be the biggest AV nerd you could ever find.... You can go stalk me on dslreports.com, around years 2000-2002, user jdong :)

If you're looking for free AV choices, my recommendations are:

(1) AOL's AV offering -- this is actually Kaspersky AV in disguise -- the hands-down BEST antivirus engine ever. Period.
(2) Avast -- Their detection rate has been getting surprisingly good recently, they have frequent updates, plus the most features I've seen in a free AV product. Another added bonus is their forums. Their developers regularly hang out and listen to users' advice on their product.
(3) AVG -- It's free, and has decent detection rates.

And still no NOD32, there are viruses and malware that would easily skip the trhee of those, Nod32 would not even let them from memory to disk.

jdong
September 15th, 2006, 02:28 AM
And still no NOD32, there are viruses and malware that would easily skip the trhee of those, Nod32 would not even let them from memory to disk.

The OP did say free.... :)

SoundMachine
September 15th, 2006, 03:23 AM
The OP did say free.... :)

And i say gingerbread, so what, it's free for enough time, if you ever gotten used to windows stuff you know that the time to pay up will come.

We love you man but still, don't play daft. The only one who stands to lose is you.

Personally, i don't give a damn. But i would fight to my death to protect you right to say what you like.

Freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom, the word the US forgot.

andlinux21
September 15th, 2006, 03:36 AM
wow thanks for the antivirus lesson I only used AVG when i had windows. It caught everything if i went to sites that had trojans and i loved the updates. Too bad i dont use windows anymore except at work so i know they wont be trying NOD32.

SoundMachine
September 15th, 2006, 04:07 AM
wow thanks for the antivirus lesson I only used AVG when i had windows. It caught everything if i went to sites that had trojans and i loved the updates. Too bad i dont use windows anymore except at work so i know they wont be trying NOD32.

you may think that you are safe, rootkits are more prevalent on Linux than on any other system to date.

So keep that link and remember that tonight you actually learned something apart from the regular fanboyism.

K.Mandla
September 15th, 2006, 04:12 AM
AVG all the way. Avast! didn't impress me. AVG does what it's told and stays out of the way.

MrLeN
September 15th, 2006, 04:44 AM
I am the man -- Mr (tried everything) LeN..

AVG is the best. Period.

MrLeN

greggh
September 15th, 2006, 05:26 AM
I've tried both AVG and AntiVir on Windows and I found AntiVir http://free-av.com/ to be better and faster to run a scan. AntiVir also ranks number 11 in the following test, better than any other free AV other than AOL's rebranded Kaspersky...

http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/09/04/and-the-best-antivirus-is/

AVG performed pretty poorly, ranking at 24th with only 82.82% detection level.

I considered trying AOL's new free Active Virus Shield (rebranded and slightly feature crippled Kaspersky) but I just don't trust AOL. I'm sticking with AntiVir, the best and fastest free AV program I've found so far.

Zyzzyx
September 15th, 2006, 07:12 AM
For the last 3-4 years on my Windows system I haven't run any AV software. I used Opera as a browser, and didn't install anything for smilies, cursors, buddies, etc, etc. And though I did use Outlook 2003 for my email, I didn't mess with any of the few spam messages that got through, so no problems there. And same with attachments, came from known clean systems (usually from myself, at work).

I would occasionally do an online check at both TrendMicro and PandaSoftware (and other sites too occasionally). Never had anything come up.


But, overall, as an easy recommendation for a free AV setup, I've recommended AVG. Mostly because I've gotten good feedback from folks about it. Ya know, since I never tried it myself.

andlinux21
September 15th, 2006, 07:41 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by andlinux21 View Post
wow thanks for the antivirus lesson I only used AVG when i had windows. It caught everything if i went to sites that had trojans and i loved the updates. Too bad i dont use windows anymore except at work so i know they wont be trying NOD32.

you may think that you are safe, rootkits are more prevalent on Linux than on any other system to date.

So keep that link and remember that tonight you actually learned something apart from the regular fanboyism.

WOW :grin:

AndyCooll
September 15th, 2006, 12:46 PM
Other - ClamAV.

Have the Windows version of this on my VMware XP image and works fine.

Before that I used AVG and was always happy with that too.

:cool:

jdong
September 15th, 2006, 02:11 PM
I considered trying AOL's new free Active Virus Shield (rebranded and slightly feature crippled Kaspersky) but I just don't trust AOL. I'm sticking with AntiVir, the best and fastest free AV program I've found so far.

You don't have to trust AOL on this one. Kaspersky wrote and stripped down the entire Active Virus Shield product... that has nothing at all to do with AOL. AOL just wrote the spyware toolbar :)

The_Apprentice
September 15th, 2006, 02:14 PM
I use AVG if it is a 32bit machine, 'cos it is generally recommended more.

BUT, I use Avast on my 64bit machine 'cos there was not a 64bit version of AVG and the 32bit one would not install/work.