I'm in the process of building a system right now, and after using a mac for awhile, I have forgotten the whole headache that comes with protecting your computer from viruses. I know it would be easy just to buy Norton Anti-Virus, but I'm kinda out of money right now, and I have been looking at free alternatives. What would you recommend? Also, besides basic virus protection, what should I do about a firewall? Does Windows Defender work well enough? In short, what can I do to protect my computer without spending?
An OEM disk of Norton is only 25 bucks. I would like to have the all in one, more professional user interface of norton, but do I need to spend anything on protecting my computer?
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5 responses so far ↓
1 FINGER // Jul 12, 2008
Protecting your computer doesn't have to be a nightmare, just use your brain.
Before we had a router my dad's work computer had this program that would alert you every time someone tried to remotely access your computer, and it was going off practically constantly. Ever since we got our router, nothing.
I disable my firewall and have no anti-virus software, and have never had a virus in the past 5 years, despite downloading at least 20GB's a month.
It's all about common sense. I installed my trial of Norton a while back just to make sure and sure enough, nothing there. I also periodically check with AVG and have never found anything.
Just use your head when you're browsing and downloading things and you'll be fine. And I would recommend getting a router if you don't already have one.
Don't accept downloads from MSN or emails, the ones that are viruses are blatantly obvious. Stay away from downloading off of small sites or anything that's an .exe, and stay away from Limewire and all of that.
Torrents are better and you can read reviews of torrents to see if other people had trouble with them. You can also preview exactly what you'll be downloading, so that there are no surprises.
I also reformat every few months. Not only does it speed up your computer and get rid of junk you didn't need, but if anything did slip through and infected your PC, it'll be deleted.
2 Jerry J // Jul 12, 2008
Try AVG and superantispyware
3 Terry L // Jul 12, 2008
Many of the custom-built computers I've run across use AVG Anti-Virus, a freebie available from CNET:
http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?cdlPid=10834624
If you have an ISP, it might offer a free anti-virus software product. For example, AT&T's Yahoo! DSL service provides a free copy of McAfee Security Center, which include anti-virus protection.
4 skatintowel // Jul 12, 2008
Avg Dont let any 1 tell ou different. Even 1s u gotta pay for arent as bad and many actuly give you viruses anyway. Buy a year or norton anti virus then got to the avg wwebsite and dowload the free version. Your computer will be invinceible
5 shdwsclan // Jul 12, 2008
Windows Defender is actually pretty good. It can get rid of virtumonde which neither kaspersky nor SAV32/NOD32 cant get rid of…
SAV32/64 or Symantec Antivirus corporate is actually a low footprint AV that is quite fact and will solve almost all your problems. Its better mcaffee and kaspersky.
It cant handle tough viruses like virtumonde, which only defender can deal with or superantispyware, but they have a heavy footprint on your system resources. So i suggest SAV32/64 running always, and only run defender when you need to…..basically the viruses that SAV32 detects but cant quite get rid of the source…
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