E-Volution IT

Anti-virus software is a must in today’s computer world.
There’s no way around it. A good firewall is also vital.

There is, however, more than just viruses that users should be protecting their computer from. Trojans, spyware, adware, and other malware (malicious software) can install itself on your computer by simply visiting an infected/implanted website (porn sites, warez / pirated software sites, sites with illegal content, etc. are the main sources of malware infection). Many perfectly legitimate web servers can be infected too, so simply avoiding a rendezvous with dubious websites is no guarantee you won’t browse an infected website / server. Some malware can also infect your computer by simply viewing / previewing an infected email. Removing them can be extremely time consuming and troublesome (read this story if not convinced http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2006/06/11/100679.aspx)

So… what are the options?

I’ve posted some info on Trojan and malware removal here.

This article, however, is about prevention — at potentially no financial cost. There are plenty of antivirus applications (many of which now include broad spectrum malware detection) available. Some are good at picking up infections once your computer is infected but not so good at preventing the infection beforehand. Whilst others will stop a file from getting onto your machine in the first instance, such as the moment you open an infected email or browse an infected web site. Here I am going to focus on software that is free.

I will update this list as more information becomes available to me.

AVAST! 4 Home Edition: Free avast! 4 Home Edition - Free antivirus software
- AVAST Home Edition seems like the best free option I am aware of at this time. It is almost the same as their Pro version, with only a few minor features missing. A full comparison is available here.

AVG Free Edition: Download it from here
- I know a lot of people using the free AVG edition. I think, however, that the Free AVAST may provide better protection. AVG Free is a watered down version of the AVG Professional version and does not provide many important options. Whereas the free AVAST edition appears to be almost identical to their Pro version.

BitDefender Free Edition: Available here
- Not a particularly good option in my opinion because it only provides on-demand scanning. This means that it does not run in the background protecting your system from infections—rather it is something you would manually run in order to test for and clean up an existing infection.

Free Online Virus / Malware Scanning

Another option is to run a free scan via the internet. If you have a broadband internet connection then this a good way to cross check the cleanliness of your computer with one or more alternative anti-virus systems. You’ll need to use Internet Explorer to run these scans. I don’t recommend IE in general, far preferring Firefox. But for these online scans an exception has to be made because IE supports a technology called ActiveX whereas Firefox does not (which is one of the things that makes Firefox safer for general web browsing).Here’s some links to some I have used or come across:

• Panda ActiveScan - www.activescan.com
• Kaspersky Online Scanner - www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
• BitDefender online scan - www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
• TrendMicro - http://housecall.trendmicro.com/