Free Bitdefender for 180 days no restrictions.

If you really want security you can setup a proxy server and run everything through that, i used to do this in my old house when we had a garage but its complete overkill for what i was doing with my PC.

Bitdefender has an endorsed certificate from West coast labs and Virus Bulletin which shows that it passed all tests. Not many get these awards as its tough to get endorsed by these.

Also Norton is better than what it used to be, its been totally redesigned from the ground up. As fore Nod32 its the last Av i would ever use, there was also a thread over at ocuk showing the malware that it let happily through or used to let through, ill never use it again even if its for free. At the end of the day use what works for you

EDIT....I good personal firewall was Outpost firewall from what i remember.

 

Avast is probably the best free antivirus option out at the moment in my opinion, light on resources and easy to use. Decent detection rate also. It's generally my go-to when putting systems together for others. I'll have to give this BitDefender a shot simply to become more familiar with the software now I've seen this offer. Cheers for the heads up Vetran.

 

" As fore Nod32 its the last Av i would ever use, there was also a thread over at ocuk showing the malware that it let happily through or used to let through, ill never use it again even if its for free. "


I have extra passive scanners like Trojan remover, Malwarebytes, spybot, also tested some online AV scanners and never had any malware..
Only if I dl'ed something or visited suspicious site and even then it warned me/blocked the site and quarantined it sooner.

Its firewall is set interactive + router firewall, so nothing gets by anyway.

 

It's always a good idea to have other tools on your system, no one program will ever find everything. I personally keep Spybot and Hijack This at hand, regardless of what else I might be running.

 

Yeah malwarebytes is good, spybot ain't really needed today as most av apps have spyware definitions included. Same as adware scanners, don't need them although it don't hurt for peace of mind.

Yeap hijackthis is very handy as it detects changed registry entries or rootkits. This is something that all other types of software in this thread may not pickup as its a different kind of threat. Hijackthis is well worth running and pasting the logfile into hijack analyzer every now and again. Good call on that Darkest, quite important i think.

 

Cheers mate. I've used it for years, it's an incredibly useful tool to be honest. I'd recommend that anyone that has a basic understanding of computers should get acquainted with it personally. Granted, we all pretty much know what we're doing and how to go about things. But using Hijack This is a great way to learn about what should and should not be on your system. I've lost count of the times I've used other peoples logs to advise and fix issues that their antivirus software wasn't able to resolve. Sometimes you just have to be proactive, you can't always rely on anti-spyware/virus programs.

 

The problem with Hijack this it isn't set up for 64 bit systems and if you don't know what you are doing you can really mess up your system.It is useful but be careful.

 

I like TinyWall personally. It's not actually a firewall though. It's a control program for the Windows Firewall. It allows much better control of the Windows Firewall than MS gives you natively.

I had the same issues with Comodo and ZoneAlarm....and that was only a few months ago.

BitDefender's firewall really does suck though.....lol

 

Just because Spybot is called Spybot does not mean it only picks up spyware. It's the same concept as Malwarebytes. Even offers a payfor version now that has a crap antivirus built in like Malwarebytes.


And yeah I'm aware of that sykozis. I tried Privatefirewall first because of that. It's a really powerful firewall. Little too powerful, BSOD when I went to play Watch Dogs...

Went with TinyWall instead. Digging the 'only what you choose gets internet access' simple popupless interface.

 

If you are looking for a free/paid firewall try this one.

Windows 8 Firewall Control.

http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/

 

I used the Windows 7 version of that for a while. It's a lot like TinyWall.

 

I use the paid for version which doesn't need Windows Firewall to be enabled like the free version does. I like the control it gives you. Every single outbound request needs a permission, which I like a lot.

 

I looked at that app before.

 

Spyware or not, its rubbish and has been for alongtime and tbh Spysweeper trumped it many years ago.

http://uk.pcmag.com/spybot-search-destroy-20/review/5185/spybot-search-and-destroy-20

The definitions included in Spybot will most definitely be included in premium security software. I already know this from intense testing myself but PCMag have said practically the same as i have. Not that it matters, use what works for you.

 

Last time I used Spybot, it couldn't remove anything. I tried SpySweeper back in 2006 or 2007 and liked it aside from it making my computer lag like hell. Now I stick with Malwarebyte's Antimalware. It's not the most effective solution, but does well enough for me.

Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware doesn't have an antivirus built in. It doesn't need one since that's not it's purpose.

 

This Chart is from AV Test site.

http://www.av-test.org/en/news/news...-complete-an-endurance-test-lasting-6-months/

 

https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/premium/

Maybe. But it sounds a whole like a full out antivirus.

Spybot has struggled to stay relevant, sure. Back when free malware cleaners were a mess, this was king. Now things are much better.

 

That chart looks about right although trend micro and f secure has improved in the last 4 to 5 years.

 

I don't even use a AV at the moment. Not used one in 6 months.

 

Yes, it has a real-time scanner and heuristics detection engine... Doesn't make it an anti-virus. It still doesn't scan for viruses. It scans for adware, spyware, rootkits, trojans, keyloggers and dataminers. It doesn't detect most viruses. These days, with how malware is delivered, you have to take every opportunity to catch it. Once it's on the system, it may be too late.

G Data improved a lot in a very short time as well. Too bad most of those companies have non-existant customer service.