Can You Trust Free Antivirus Software?

PC ? Control... J/K i thought it funny.

 

Any complaints about that AVG hijacking trojan/downloader stalking the web now?

It's a really, really well written piece.

That's why I use Eset or Norton ONLY now.

 

What's the name of it?

 

###### if I know. It's been a couple of months.

But it politely disabled AVG completely. Then propagated itself thoughout my system, and was having one hell of a party on my network.

I had to remove AVG, and install Malwarebytes AND Norton to clean it off my system entirely. Neither was able to get it all by itself.

Truthfully though, neither of those are managing to catch everything that I run into. But I haven't had a total hijack of my system since.

 

that would have been one of the trojan programs that make you think it is total security program when it is not. here is info that i had first hand dealing with.
i posted this on the g4 forums last week, and here it is.

total security 2009
well, my room mates' daughter did it again. she got infected.
the total security 2009 got her this time.
had to go to safe mode with networking adn install malwarebytes and run it from there.
this is a nasty trojan. it will take over the pc in a bad way. you can not get into msconfig, regedit, or even task manager. this dang thing is real bad. you can not get far on-line because it is trying to run its scan, and does strange things.
but i got it removed. she had 27 infections.
i also installed spybot s&d and running it. it has found more.
just a heads up. be very careful when you search links in google, and what you download.
this trojan is a bad one and i believe it is a bit harder to remove if you are infected over 24 hours.

and to pete, thanks for the malwarbytes link.

when you get infected with this type of program that takes over, then you need to run MBAM and also run spybot S&D to get rid of the problem.
once the trojans are removed the anti virus program will work again.

to read all of the info about it here is the link,
http://forums.g4tv.com/showthread.php?t=132189

just copy and paste. and read the info.

 

I have the best antivirus solution of all...don't use windows!

I replaced it with this:




http://www.linuxmint.com/



A screen shot:




If you have ever wondered about linux, but were afraid to try, this version of it is as easy as it gets. It's as easy to use as windows is, if not easier. Heck you can even give it a try by installing it like a windows program, under windows. Just toss the cd in while windows is running, and you can install it risk free. If you don't like it, boot back into windows and remove it like any other windows program in your control panel.

You don't need ant-virus when you run linux.

 

Yes...but can you play Everquest on Linux ? Without jumping through hoops?

How about I-tunes ?

How about the 1000's of dollars of win based software I'll have to replace? Like Photoshop, Delorme, PC*Miler, Rand McNally, Cool Edit, Rosetta Stone...and the list goes on and on.

But I DO like Linux

 

I read on PCmag.com (I think) that bitdefender 2010 security suite is the highest rated.
So I am using it now.
Says a lot about security when anyone can download their products, run a key generator and basically steal the product. Or so I've heard.
My wifes computer I use eset, totally legit. Wife watches every thing I do on hers too.
None are much better than the others, except for how much they hog your resources.
I like AVG free, but like the paid one better. Maybe I'll go back to that again soon.
As for Spybot S&D, I liked it until a couple of years ago.
I think the best anti malware is Super Antispyware. Takes a while to run, but it's thorough.
I run Adaware Se quite often, since it only takes about a minute for a quick scan.
I think Danc69 buys his software at the same store I do.

 

Ya think

 

That is the downside. Most Windows software will run, but a lot of times you have to roll up your sleeves and do a lot of googling to see how people shoehorned it in. There is a linux program called WINE, which has a front end called WINE doors, which lets you install windows software, but it only works about 60-70% of the time. Here is a list of windows programs that work under WINE http://appdb.winehq.org/

There are free native apps that replace stuff like photoshop. The Gimp is icluded with most linux distros. You can get GIMP for windows as well. In fact, one guy has a version out that he altered to look and feel just like photoshop. It's free. http://www.gimpshop.com/


It looks like PC*Miler does have a native Linux version:
http://www.axonstore.com/default.htm Here is a free alternative, but probably with less functions: http://sourceforge.net/projects/routeplanner/


The bottom line though, with all the money you invested in the windows platform you're probably better off staying there. Me, I tend to stick with free, open source software, whether it be on Windows or Linux. I think the only program I've bought in the last 5 years was Half-Life 2 Orange Box (which runs great under linux with WINE, btw) I have found that the open source software is just as good if not better than it's commercial counterpart in most cases.


At any rate, Linux Mint is free. Personally, I have both OS's on my computer. Linux is more secure, it's faster, because I don't have to run virus shields, spyware shields, etc in the background. When I need windows, it's still there.