What is the best free Antivirus / Security solution?

[Terabyte]

Just looking for some opinions here. Please only consider free publicly available software. This post is not about commercial / trial / cracked versions. If anyone has any suggestions other than the ones posted, feel free to state it...Thanks

[civic minded]

AVG is pretty good - didnt have any probls with it ...nah i lie - when my system got the brontok virus - avg could only quarantine it. Kaspersky was the only one that could of deleted brontok

but AVG is still good...did what it supposed to do except the episode of Brontok

[Terabyte]

Brontok...dat is some crazy sheit...lol

[civic minded]

brontok took down our entire network. only way to effectively kill it was reformat all PC's and scan all backups - which i did....

[Saeed]

Actually Avast works pretty good. I use that at work to remove the autorun.inf viruses that plague our systems. so far it has done what norton couldn't.

[Snags]

Lmao@Brontok ruling everyone. HOO RAH!
Nod32 is still nice in my books.

[r3iXmann]

brontok took down our entire network. only way to effectively kill it was reformat all PC's and scan all backups - which i did....

i weep for the future of IT in trinidad

[Sky]

^^

Well yes

[jeepers]

avast aint free

[Terabyte]

avast aint free

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

[SR]

i like avast as its lite on resources on the computer

[civic minded]

the reason i reformatted all pc's cause there was other issues other than viruses, such as registry and program errors. The most effective and time saving way to fix all of these problems was to format and reinstall.

If you think there is a better way -please elaborate.

[r3iXmann]

the reason i reformatted all pc's cause there was other issues other than viruses, such as registry and program errors. The most effective and time saving way to fix all of these problems was to format and reinstall.

If you think there is a better way -please elaborate.

1. Anti-virus - most clients use either SAV Corp. or McAfee VSE. VSE handled Brontok pretty well. SAV Corp. just required a couple updates

2. Program errors - Purchase or 'acquire' TuneUp Utilities. Really good stuff

3. Implement a PROPER maintenance schedule for your network (including patches etc)

4. Ensure all service packs and updates are downloaded and installed (you could use WSUS for this if possible)

there was a brontok outbreak at a client site (their SAV corp server had some issues)..over 200 systems..you would have reformatted all?

[Terabyte]

the reason i reformatted all pc's cause there was other issues other than viruses, such as registry and program errors. The most effective and time saving way to fix all of these problems was to format and reinstall.

If you think there is a better way -please elaborate.

1. Anti-virus - most clients use either SAV Corp. or McAfee VSE. VSE handled Brontok pretty well. SAV Corp. just required a couple updates

2. Program errors - Purchase or 'acquire' TuneUp Utilities. Really good stuff

3. Implement a PROPER maintenance schedule for your network (including patches etc)

4. Ensure all service packs and updates are downloaded and installed (you could use WSUS for this if possible)

there was a brontok outbreak at a client site (their SAV corp server had some issues)..over 200 systems..you would have reformatted all?

^^tru dat

[jeepers]

jeepers wrote:
avast aint free Question

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

thx for corrections.i normally use pro though.n i know that one u need to buy the license.

but we dont buy.TORRENTS FTW!!!!!

[eVoJJ]

i would have to agree with Michael, NOD32 works really good...should check it out

[Terabyte]

I myself have used nod32 for years...if anyone is interested, ESET releases free beta versions. Check them out.

[bushwakka]

nvm wut de poll says AVG is sheit!!! it doesn't detect the famous brontock trojan that messes up ur USB storage devices! avast is de only way fwd!

[TK!]

an apple macintosh computer

[Terabyte]

an apple macintosh computer

I said "free"...not overpriced

[Snags]

^ooooh BURN!
Terabyte, I didn't know they had betas out

[Terabyte]

^ooooh BURN!
Terabyte, I didn't know they had betas out

i knew they did, but it seems to have been discontinued.

[civic minded]

the network i am speaking of is a Peer-peer environment consisting of 29PC's - i have since formatted all of them and implemented a client-server environment - Implemented ISA and checkpoint as the main firewalls and installed Symantec Endpoint protection.

In my instance -formatting is a logical choice to make. So do not insult my intelligence regarding the best sort of action to take regarding the network i am in charge of.

Different environments demands different solutions - a 200+ PC environment - my solution would not be applicable.

[vigilante]

Avast

[r3iXmann]

the network i am speaking of is a Peer-peer environment consisting of 29PC's - i have since formatted all of them and implemented a client-server environment - Implemented ISA and checkpoint as the main firewalls and installed Symantec Endpoint protection.

In my instance -formatting is a logical choice to make. So do not insult my intelligence regarding the best sort of action to take regarding the network i am in charge of.

Different environments demands different solutions - a 200+ PC environment - my solution would not be applicable.

so you found it logical to FORMAT and REINSTALL 29 pcs instead of trying to repair? It could be 1 pc or a million..principles and standards apply..everybody i relayed this to had a good time laughing

In a different company,you would have been FIRED for taking such rash action to secure a network (the fact that it reached that state in the first place aside)

[Snags]

^Easy, easy guys. Assuming the clients had no data to lose, formatting would be fine. In most cases however, no, that's why they pay you , to fix it at no expense to them. On the flip side of that coin, I got to do jobs because IT guys formatted important systems and lost all the data so it works out to be grand either way.

[S-Type]

true but without a proper maintenance schedule is pressure and by that i mean updates, virus scan, etc. because i hav seen too many places where antivirus or malware programs are installed but they never scan or update

[civic minded]

my goodness - when i entered this company - the state it was in i Met it like that! I suggested working from a clean slate!. No data was lost as i was responsible for all backups.
I have consulted with many of my peers in the IT field and when i relate the extent of disarray , all of them unanimously agreed formatting was the best option considering time and effort.

So really - laugh how much you want - everything i have implemented has met with success.