# Anti-Virus programs



## Reformingstudent (May 12, 2005)

Does anyone here know anything about Defender Pro 5 in 1
anti-virus program? I loaded it on my PC yesterday and so far it seems to work OK but what do I know? I am in the dark when it comes to firewalls and anti-virus programs. I had to get something as my McAfee had expired and I did not have the $$ to fork out for a newer version.
What is the difference in virus programs anyway don't they all work the same way? I have a firewall, anti virus,anti-spam
and anti-pop up for the same price I would have paid just for McAfee anti-virus without the firewall. Wanted to get Norton but that was out of my price range also. Any way if anyone has information or recommendations I would appreciate it. 

Thanks.


Tom


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## daveb (May 12, 2005)

Don't know anything about Defender 5 in 1 myself.

Antivirus programs differ in the way that they search for viruses but most of them deploy more than one method. If you want to know more you can look here: http://www.antivirusworld.com/articles/antivirus.php

I'll mention a few programs that I recommend to most everyone:

Anitvirus: AVG free antivirus software is pretty good
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Spyware: Ad-aware is free and fairly good
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button


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## Apologist4Him (May 12, 2005)

ZoneAlarm is probably the best software firewall available, and the basic firewall is free, no strings attached. I know of two free anti-virus solutions, AVG free edition which has already been suggested, and Avast 4 Home Edition. I've used both, and slightly prefer Avast, but either should be fine. 

In the past, I've found http://www.download.com/ to be a good place to read reviews for anti-virus and firewall software. For years, I spent hard earned money once a year on Norton's anti-virus and firewall suites, but I've found them to be a complete waste of money. 

Btw, I also recommend the free "Microsoft Anti-Spyware" beta program. I like it better than Ad-Aware because it runs as a background program in "realtime" protecting a PC while browsing the web.

[Edited on 5-12-2005 by Apologist4Him]


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## Greg (Sep 5, 2005)

I'll give another thumbs up for the free edition of the AVG antivirus program. For a firewall, I'm using the free edition of Sygate.

[Edited on 9-5-2005 by Greg]


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## fredtgreco (Sep 5, 2005)

I have used several Antivirus programs. Norton is a standard, but I don't like it - it is a HUGE system resource hog. I have used Softwin's Bitdefender Suite (AV, Antispam, Firewall) and I like it very much. Easy interface and very good AV. I am now using Trend-Micro's PC-Cillin Suite. It is also very easy to use and is a good integrated suite.

I have heard good things about Kaspersky, but I never got the trial version to work well on my PC.

Here are a couple of good sites about viruses and AV programs:

https://www.icsalabs.com/icsa/main.php?pid=b31a$6140dfe3-4a851ebd$eaa4-72b

http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp


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## NaphtaliPress (Sep 6, 2005)

I found this link useful when I had a virus attack as far as beefing up on security. I have McAfee on my main PC and use the free AVG on the other. But I have McAfee's Spamkiller disabled as it would cause Outlook to crash. Use the full price AVG on our church's Colo server which works very well-- we had a huge attack last month when our Firewall card "went out" and if it hadn't been for the AVG we'd have had lots more trouble; was trouble enough as it was getting clean. Happily didn't seem to affect our webservice.
http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/read.php?4,27725,backpage=


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