Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - Free antivirus

**Cellus** · 12-09-2007, 09:47 AM

As matter of course I roll my eyes inside every single time I hear someone uses a free antivirus program. I do this not because they are not effective (a rare few like AVG are decent), but because people seem to have this self-dillusion that they are just as good as the effective paid ones, if not better (or even all supreme). The more self-dillusioned you are about them, the more bugged I get. It's like a pet peeve. And reasoning with some can be... shall I say... not possible. With some mind you, many will listen to reasoning which makes me smile.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge supporter of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), but people if it ain't ClamAV (eg. AVG), it ain't FOSS! It's not the same! Don't get caught in the marketing! AV analysts need to be paid so they can eat. For example, looking at tests from AV Comparatives, the test results are based off of the paid version of AVG with all its additional bells and whistles.

All right forget what I said, it is a pet peeve. Get yourselves a good paid AV like Norton (2008 folks, I know first-hand how much the earlier versions clobbered the old trusted Norton battleship), or Kaspersky or NOD32 or some-such. The expense is worth the protection provided for a full-year.

And, just to let you know, it is very true that many home users and their PCs are just dandy without any infections, but that is highly dependent on how you use your PC, your surfing habits, and what-not. However my motto is you can't be too frugal with protection, especially these days when PCs can be turned into zombies and information stolen from you without your knowledge. For example, I've been personally burned on just that - several years ago my home PC was infected with a RAT (remote access trojan, ala backorrifice, subseven, etc) and was being used as a bot to attack and infect other computers for a while and the only way I ever noticed any problems or even just plain out knew was when my ISP had to phone me to tell me. I didn't notice any slowdowns or disruptions or peculiarities, and nothing came up McAfee at the time (this was back when McAfee was still very popular, before the CA break-away). And as another example, I saw a worm first-hand attempt to infect other computers on a LAN coming from a PC running AVG Free, and found out about it in real-time when the other PCs running Norton went off. Turns out that infected PC had not just the worm, but 3 other viruses and their assorted baggage. While I do believe AVG Free is fantastic as a free AV, it provided a cold splash in the face that that protection can be a little light in some areas.

Now don't get me wrong, going full-blitz paranoid on security is an inherent no-no, but if I was given a choice between a free bulletproof vest and a paid one... I'll take the paid one thanks. But if a user doesn't want to spend money on a paid one for their PC (common with students), then I will stick AVG or Avira on there so they have something adequate. However my personal belief says "Good is better than adequate", and I'll be darned if I have another one of my PCs go rogue on me and start hosting child pornography or attack other innocent users and their computers.

12-09-2007, 09:47 AM	#11 (permalink)
Cellus Moderator Networking Team Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,633 OS: Windows Vista Business SP1, Windows XP Professional SP3 My System	Re: Free antivirus - a trap? As matter of course I roll my eyes inside every single time I hear someone uses a free antivirus program. I do this not because they are not effective (a rare few like AVG are decent), but because people seem to have this self-dillusion that they are just as good as the effective paid ones, if not better (or even all supreme). The more self-dillusioned you are about them, the more bugged I get. It's like a pet peeve. And reasoning with some can be... shall I say... not possible. With some mind you, many will listen to reasoning which makes me smile. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge supporter of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), but people if it ain't ClamAV (eg. AVG), it ain't FOSS! It's not the same! Don't get caught in the marketing! AV analysts need to be paid so they can eat. For example, looking at tests from AV Comparatives, the test results are based off of the paid version of AVG with all its additional bells and whistles. All right forget what I said, it is a pet peeve. Get yourselves a good paid AV like Norton (2008 folks, I know first-hand how much the earlier versions clobbered the old trusted Norton battleship), or Kaspersky or NOD32 or some-such. The expense is worth the protection provided for a full-year. And, just to let you know, it is very true that many home users and their PCs are just dandy without any infections, but that is highly dependent on how you use your PC, your surfing habits, and what-not. However my motto is you can't be too frugal with protection, especially these days when PCs can be turned into zombies and information stolen from you without your knowledge. For example, I've been personally burned on just that - several years ago my home PC was infected with a RAT (remote access trojan, ala backorrifice, subseven, etc) and was being used as a bot to attack and infect other computers for a while and the only way I ever noticed any problems or even just plain out knew was when my ISP had to phone me to tell me. I didn't notice any slowdowns or disruptions or peculiarities, and nothing came up McAfee at the time (this was back when McAfee was still very popular, before the CA break-away). And as another example, I saw a worm first-hand attempt to infect other computers on a LAN coming from a PC running AVG Free, and found out about it in real-time when the other PCs running Norton went off. Turns out that infected PC had not just the worm, but 3 other viruses and their assorted baggage. While I do believe AVG Free is fantastic as a free AV, it provided a cold splash in the face that that protection can be a little light in some areas. Now don't get me wrong, going full-blitz paranoid on security is an inherent no-no, but if I was given a choice between a free bulletproof vest and a paid one... I'll take the paid one thanks. But if a user doesn't want to spend money on a paid one for their PC (common with students), then I will stick AVG or Avira on there so they have something adequate. However my personal belief says "Good is better than adequate", and I'll be darned if I have another one of my PCs go rogue on me and start hosting child pornography or attack other innocent users and their computers. __________________ TSF Networking Team HijackThis 5 Step Process Donate! Last edited by Cellus : 12-09-2007 at 10:05 AM.