Comments on: Best Free Anti Virus Software and Anti Spyware Program

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:05:11 +0000

Watch out for these fake antivirus and spyware programs being downloaded around. Many of these scam software programs come with legitimate sounding names like Antivirus 2010 and SpywareGuard 2008. These fake programs often often have alerts that appear to warn the user of viruses when in fact they are ways for thieves to steal your identity or take control of your computer and passwords. Beware!

By: Raymond

Raymond — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:46:18 +0000

Nice one Greg

Well for what it’s worth…I engage in a variety of other “illegal activities” as well, such as speeding, occasionally texting when I drive (sparingly of course), and sometimes even (gasp) changing lanes without properly signaling.

I wonder if us file sharers did a good thing in the long run though. I think it was the whole P2P file sharing movement starting with Napster that finally compelled the music industry to wisely embrace the more convenient MP3 format. Otherwise, the industry would never have innovated and would have remained stuck in the caveman age of compact discs and DVD’s.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:12:11 +0000

We recently discovered a two year old virus on our home PC. Norton never picked it up. Loaded Avast and it found and removed 3 others as well.

Contacted Norton regarding my displeasure. Have to give them credit as they credited us back over $100 for software that failed to do the job!

Unless I missed something… an attorney using P2P…. tsk tsk tsk… (sorry couldn’t help it!)

Oh, I forgot what my best friend (and attorney) told me, It’s only illegal if you get caught!

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:14:31 +0000

Great list! Thanks for highlighting. More important than ever. My wife is going to eat this up.

By: John DeFlumeri Jr

John DeFlumeri Jr — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:40:39 +0000

I don’t depend on automatic scans, I do it manually frequently too, especially after a lot of searching

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:25:56 +0000

Unix-based systems (OSX, Linux, etc.) are actually more secure, but on top of that there aren’t as many viruses written for them. You should have an Anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall. The best anti-virus is NOD32 – the only one that passed the leak test recently. Free is fine, but if you go paid, get that. Don’t have more than one anti-virus program. They will work against each other. Malwarebytes is great for anti-spyware. For a firewall, Online Armor or Comodo would be best. For P2P, use an IP blocker like PeerGuardian, which will block those giving out harmful information. I also only accept encrypted peers.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:40:45 +0000

I second Mr. ToughMoneyLove’s comment. Saving money shouldn’t involve illegal activity.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:46:21 +0000

You can add Cox Communications to Christine’s list of ISP’s who give subscribers McAfee’s Security Suite for free. It is unobtrusive and works great with WinXP SP2.

By: Mr. ToughMoneyLove

Mr. ToughMoneyLove — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:54:16 +0000

Considering that most of the activity on “file sharing” sites involves unlawful infringement of the IP rights of others, it’s neither surprising nor disappointing that you and other users of such sites would be attacked by malware. What goes around comes around.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:42:06 +0000

Another common sense way to avoid viruses and malware programs is to simply not share files through Limewire or Bit Torrent as you apparently do. P2P files contain a lot of viruses embedded into fake MP3’s, pics, and warez files. I myself got infected one time by sharing files as well.

Also, watch out for spam emails that contain suspicious looking files. Email text messages cannot themselves contain viruses as the text portion of the message is just text and does not contain damaging system codes. If, however, you receive an email message with an attachment, be aware that the file attachments, if executed, can launch virus attacks. Beware of file attachments with file extensions such as “.exe”, “.bat”, “.dll”, etc.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:35:41 +0000

Well I’d recommend always using Firefox browser whenever possible. Use Firefox or even Google’s Chrome browser and your chances of getting infected with a virus will be much lower. The default Microsoft Internet Explorer is the main way most people get hacked in the first place simply because nearly all of the spyware and viruses currently written are designed to exploit the security vulnerabilities in IE. That’s also the reason why Apple OS users never get viruses – not because Apple or Macs are so much more secure, but because most current viruses aren’t written for those operating systems yet

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:18:51 +0000

Don’t forget, McAfee is free if you have internet through Comcast or AT&T.