Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well the subject was raised recently about protecting your computer from malicious software, and I figured it was worth it's own thread....

This reminded me that I had been clicking 'ignore' for a week or two now while AVG was reminding me that my old version of antivirus software was out of date, and I should download the new version..

So I'm downloading the new version ATM.. I've found AVG to be pretty good, and it's free, I've used it on many computers for many many years and I've never suffered from a viral infection (touch wood). I have had a few different spyware problems in the past, especially when looking after work computers. Generally I'm reasonably careful about where I go online and what browsers I use, and I haven't had any problems personally..

I see that AVG has spyware software, has anyone ever tried it??

What Anti virus software are others using?

AVG was loaded onto my new computer and in the short time of use (< month) have not encountered any troubles.

Used NOD32 previously and that was good also

Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com

(It's totally free and it's by far the most effective antivirus system I've seen)

yes i use nod 32 no problem

I'm one of the suckers who pays for their protection. I use norton (now I guess everybody will tell me how hopeless it is). I have never had a problem since I started using it 18 months ago.

I use nod32. Seems okay to me

I'm one of those snotty Mac users who doesn't have to worry about viruses and adware, sorry about that.

So you'll be one of the ones caught then DD .....LOL

AVG anti-spyware is very good, unfortunately other than a 30 day trial it's not free.

AVG virus scanner is by far the best antivirus software I've used.
I load it on every system I deal with....

(1) It's free...(although they're slowly nibbling back the free features)
(2) It's near bullet proof (from my experience)
(3) They are remarkedly fast to respond to new virus threats and to develope new definition files
(4) Their "healing" / quarantine features are reliable
(5) The software is auto-updating and auto-schedule testing
(6) The software has the lowest system overhead/impact.

For those that run Nortons/McAfee... I've used both in the past (particularly McAfee), however both now try to do too much... disable the inbuilt firewall and security features and absorb ENORMOUS system overhead.... and you pay for the priveledge.

Unfortunately Trend Penicillan Internet Security suffers the same problems as above and cripples a "normal" system by (IMHO) about 40% memory usage and about 55% cpu usage over other products...

I wont have a bar of the above three for the overhead reasons, particularly the latest 64bit "Vista" compatible versions

Ubantu... in all honesty I haven't really tried it.

Anti-spyware..... well my approach and the approach I recommend is that unfortunately, with the possible exception of the new AVG anti-spyware... no one product catchs everything... I recommend using (regularly) two...

My pick Lavasoft Ad-Aware

and Spybot

Keep updated (manually unfortunately) and scan your system weekly at the minimum or whenever your system suddenly slows or you begin getting lots of pop ups or any other noticible changes

I use McAfee Security Center--free from my ISP. It's a firewall, virus, privacy package. Also lets me restrict the websites the kids can get to.

i'm a die hard NAV user

Used to use lavasoft adaware until recently, VERY good and its free, but i've gone over to Xoftspy, IMHO its the best, but i haven't tried spybot.

Usually I run AVG with adaware and Spybot. On top of that HiJackThis is a great program to clean up any problems as well.

Well done jtjf1... wasn't going to mention "HijackThis" as it's a bit beyond most peoples ability to interpret....

Looking at your post I bet you're running clean

I use McAfee ( Work Supplies it free of charge to Staff) I have not noticed any ENORMOUS system overhead.
Although I have both Spybot and Adaware on my pc I have not run either for quite sometime.
Like EB I am careful about where I go what I browse so I don't generally get spyware.
and at the moment the Home PC I dial up so I even do less browsing and only go to a couple of sites of interest.
I have my Email clients setup to use Imapi instead of POP, this leaves messages on the Email server of your ISP for viewing and from multiple locations.
Cheers
Ron

anyone got a link to the AVG download site, my websearch has left me with a lot of options.

Sam

edit: found it http://www.grisoft.com/doc/special-stay ... v/us/crp/0

hope this is the right one