Which free security software.

JonJ678 · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:33

Hey guys. I'm failing to sort a wide variety of problems with the sisters laptop, and am going to cut my losses and reinstall. Either vista or XP, I'm leaning towards XP because it's what I know.

I'm thoroughly out of the loop on security programs however, what should I install? Budget is zero pounds, and I'm not prepared to pirate anything. I used to use avg free, spybot and zone alarm so will use these unless other advice is offered.

I'd appreciate your thoughts, I haven't used windows day-to-day for about 3 years now so don't really know which to go for.

Cheers

Bash · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:40

Comodo do some interesting suites

Bash · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:41

http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/antivirus.php

div0 · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:46

As long as you're behind a router with a built in firewall, I'd not bother with anything other than the XP/Vista firewall.

For anti-virus Avira or avast are considered among the best free AntiVirus programs.

If you do have to use a software firewall, then I prefer Comodo over ZoneAlarm. But the Comodo AntiVirus program isn't as good as Avira imo.

Avira has an annoying pop-up advert when your computer first starts up - but it can easily be disabled, just use a quick google or search these forums.

For spyware programs, MalwareBytes is among the best - but I also still use Spybot and SuperAntiSpyware.

Admiral Huddy · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:50

This may help you

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18005074

Personally, I install Avast Home and Spybot S&D on all my machines plus my customers.. Coupled with a frequent use of Ccleaner I never have any problems with my or others.

The Mad Rapper · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:52

Bash said:
Comodo do some interesting suites

^ This.

Comodo + Spybot S&D + CCleaner + Defraggler = Pwn

JonJ678 · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:56

Avast looks like the winner for antivirus then. Which of avast and avira will do best with no maintainence whatsoever? Automatic updates and scanning is fairly critical.

It is sometimes behind a belkin router, but not always. I think a software firewall is worth running on the laptop as it tends to blindly connect to any network which looks viable, I'll put Comodo on it and try to set it up so that it won't ask any questions.

Thank you for the replies

Defraggler doesn't look like it lends itself to automation so I may have to leave that one, CCleaner is interesting though. Would it be reasonably straightforward to get ccleaner to run on every shutdown without asking any questions or indeed letting the user know it's running?

Fire Wizard · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:08

This post here may help you with regards to security. Though, it more applies to Windows Vista. It just covers the basic precautions of setting up a system.

div0 · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:11

JonJ678 said:
Avast looks like the winner for antivirus then. Which of avast and avira will do best with no maintainence whatsoever? Automatic updates and scanning is fairly critical.

Both are good. It's down to personal preference imo.

JonJ678 said:
It is sometimes behind a belkin router, but not always. I think a software firewall is worth running on the laptop as it tends to blindly connect to any network which looks viable, I'll put Comodo on it and try to set it up so that it won't ask any questions.

I found Comodo pretty confusing at first. not always intuitive as to where various options/settings would be found. But after I got used to it, it was pretty easy to configure.

JonJ678 said:
CCleaner is interesting though. Would it be reasonably straightforward to get ccleaner to run on every shutdown without asking any questions or indeed letting the user know it's running?

You can set it to run when the computer starts. It has auto updates and several settings for disabling any warning messages, so I think you should be able to get it to run automatically and pretty silently.

I prefer to just run it manually though, every once in a while. So unfortunately I can't be certain it'll work how you want, but worth giving it a try. Very easy to use.

rickyt · 22 Jul 2009 at 19:00

If your using XP , may I suggest Avast [anti-virus] ,SUPERAntiSpyware [obvious] ,Comodo [firewall].All Free.
I'm using Kaspersky & Comodo and this is bullet proof .Dont use any Security [all in ]
programs as they hog resources .
If you get any real nastys like the fake anti-virus programs that were doing the rounds last year [ and there still going around ] Superantispyware and Malwerebytes were the only programs that stood a chance of finding and getting rid of them .