Free antivirus – what’s available now
Being a “computer expert” (whatever that means these days), I wind up providing free technical support to friends and family. Comes with the territory, and I don’t mind. Being a security guy, some things really bug me when I have to fix someone’s home machine that’s gone ka-boom:
- They weren’t running any anti-virus software
- They used the anti-virus the computer came with, but never updated it
- They bought anti-virus at a store and paid for updates every year
There’s no reason for home users to be without anti-virus software. There’s also no reason for home users to pay for it… several good AV packages have long been available free for personal use.
The offerings come and go, so here’s a quick run-down of the better ones available right now for Windows 2000 / Windows XP:
AOL Active Virus Shield: Just released in August 2006. Don’t let the “AOL” put you off… a version of the highly regarded Kaspersky AV is under the hood. Has few configurable options but scans both email and the filesystem. Updated automaticaly and frequently. Note that according to the license, AOL reserves the right to spam you.
Grisoft AVG: Popular with many people, though personally I think Avast has better features. Scans both email and the filesystem. Grisoft also provides a free edition of the Ewido anti-spyware software which is also very popular.
Alwil Avast: My preferred home AV. Has scanners for POP, IMAP and HTTP in addition to the usual filesystem scanners. Frequent updates that are incremental so dial-up users will be happy. Must be re-activated by e-mail once each year.
Avira AntiVir: Been around a long time. Worked well the times I tried it. Dial-up users will hate downloading the huge update files.
Comodo antivirus: New and still in beta so beware. This one is free for business and personal use. Scans filesystem and email. I noticed some long scan times when I tried it but you might have better results.
There are a few other free AV products out there but the above are the best of the bunch, in my opinion.
To help decide which to use, a site named “virus.gr” recently performed a simple comparison test with Kaspersky / AOL coming out on top for detection. A more thorough set of tests is routinely performed by ICSA Labs. The Virus Bulletin VB100 (free registration required) is another source of comparisons.
It’s the duty of every computer professional to help friends and familiy install AV. Most botnets are made up of compromised home computers. Keyloggers and other malware targeted at economic crime also prey on unaware home users. Making sure everyone you know has a good AV product installed will greatly help in cleaning up botnets and reducing Internet fraud.
Beyond anti-virus
Anti-virus is just one step in protecting Windows computers. When pattern-based anti-virus was invented twenty year ago, it worked pretty well. There was very little malware and it circulated mostly by floppy disk. Detecting malware by looking for identifying patterns in the file (“what it looks like” ) was adequate.
Now thieves use the Internet to distribute small batches of targeted malware to get your paypal and bank account details. The pattern-based approach is no longer good enough to catch the current flood.
Enter “host intrusion prevention” (HIP) that tries to stop malware by either recognizing malicious activity, or by blocking access to critical system areas. Some HIP software also use patterns, but they are patterns of behavior or lists of areas to protect rather than patterns of bytes in a file. In other words, HIP tries to stop malware by “what it does”, not “what it looks like”.
There are quite a few free-for-personal-use HIP products available. I’ll give a run down of some of them in a later post.
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2 Responses to “Free antivirus – what’s available now”:
September 18th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Please read the TOS yourself before saying AOL has a right to “spam you” – it’s incorrect. The TOS is pretty clear on what AOL means, and for the ability for me to not throw $50/yr to McAfee or Symantec, quite reasonable.
September 18th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
The AOL terms of service at http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/terms_of_services.adp and it reads, in part: "We may share Registration Information in order to jointly present you offers with or on behalf of our business partners, but we do not allow these partners to use your Registration Information for any other purpose." I dunno, but "present you with offers" seems pretty clear. Unsolicited commercial advertising is the very definition of "spam". To AOL’s credit the TOS promises you’ll be able to opt out of these wonderful presentations. Hopefully in practice that won’t mean you have to click "unsubscribe" from each partner’s individual spam list. In comparison, neither the AVG license (here: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/98/lng/us/tpl/v5) nor Avast Home Edition license reserve the right to spam. You’re right that it’s a reasonable trade-off to get Kaspersky AV for free… as long as AOL doesn’t go nuts and flood users with unwanted mail. We’ll have to see. By the way, it seems the first version of the TOS alarmed many people: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9002564