Holy shit, if you need information THAT FAST, you should probably try Googling the info yourself or going to a tech support forum for your OS.

That being said, I cannot give you an exact recommendation as you have not told us which version of Windows you are running. Therefore my recommendations may or may not suit what you require.

The only four freewares I can personally vouch for are AVG, Avira, Avast, and Microsoft Security Essentials (which may still be in beta, not sure). You do realize that although freeware antivirus can help you with basic virus protection and cleaning, it may not be able to solve your issue, yes? No AV freeware is complete and your best bet will be to purchase real full-version AV software. Especially if you have a nasty virus that you can't get rid of with freeware alone.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

We used OneCare but not anymore since it's no more. My mother is using Panda (don't know anything about it). And we are currently using Trend Micro at home (so far so good with it).

Jordan .

sarcasm is great

anyway, thanks guys

I got a  virus program with my Comcast provider. I forget who it was.

I reviewed the AV program Comcast provided for  "free" and it only had a fair revue.

So, I bought Karpaski's program because it was highly rated-tied with one other . I didn't mind the extra charge-something like $80 per year for 2 years.

I used to use free programs with fairly good protection. I just wanted the best I could find.

Sorry, I am not knowledgable on this subject itself. 

I've used Ad-Aware, ZoneAlarm, and Spybot Search & Destroy with XP for years and never had a serious problem.  ZoneAlarm and Vista don't get along so I switched to Comodo and it's been okay.  But I've also used AVG much of this time as well, so I couldn't say for sure how much of the heavy lifting it's been handling all this time.

Having said that Apple does have some tighter security because it's a "monopoly" with regards to their machines and hardware (unlike MS) so that helps when it comes to tightening up security. But sooner or later as people buy more MACs, those Russian or Chinese virus designers will decide it's worth the effort! :-)

For all Windows users - biggest thing you can do is stop using IE, and use FireFox or Chrome or something other than IE. IE is the security flaw in Windows ultimately, IMO. Move to something else, and your chances of viruses dramatically decrease. Add a good virus, trojan, and MALWARE protector and you should be pretty secure.

Jordan .

When it comes down to it, it's the responsibility of every computer owner to become educated on at least the basics of viruses, including types of viruses, how they are able to infect your computer, and how you can combat them using simple methods of protection in addition to software. Too often people treat a computer like a toy and not an investment. Which is why I have zero sympathy for anyone who falls victim to malware, keyloggers, viruses, etc. Gotta be willing to protect your property by shelling out money for a solid AV software package and establishing basic security protocols, regardless of operating system or browser type.

As an aside, I exclusively use Internet Explorer and have not suffered any security breaches as a result. It's only a security risk if you do nothing (and yeah, you shouldn't have to deal with security leaks, but really it's either deal with it or change browsers; there's no excuse for whining about it). I work to protect all of my computers not only at the individual system level but also at the network level. I wouldn't say my home network is impenetrable, but you'd have to be pretty fucking determined to get in.

And let's be honest...the core issue with viruses and other attacks on computers isn't the software or the hackers (all software can be cracked and hacked eventually), it's the end users who do stupid things and leave their cheese out in the wind. Downloading files from questionable sites (and then not using your AV software to scan that individual file), torrenting from questionable users, clicking through links without paying attention to where it leads, installing stuff without researching where it came from, not keeping AV software up-to-date, relying solely on freeware for protection, not reading all the prompts before hitting OK, cranking down browser security settings because higher settings don't let you have everything you want right when you want it, etc etc etc. This stuff happens every single day. We're in a computer age now. There's no excuse for being ignorant and careless.

And as far as the Mac vs. Windows security debate:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/hack-windows-security-snow-leopard,8704.html (My favorite quote from the article: "Snow Leopard's more secure than Leopard, but it's not as secure as Vista or Windows 7.")

http://www.pcworld.com/article/172688/hackers_paid_to_hijack_macs.html (Fave quote: "Mac OS X's security has been roundly criticized by vulnerability researchers , but even the most critical have acknowledged that the Mac's low market share -- it accounted for just 5% of all operating systems running machines that connected to the Internet last month -- is probably enough protection from cyber criminals for the moment.")

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Kelly

How Do You Live Your Dash?

Check out the Kids' blogs:
The CaleBlog and the Zoe Blog

Jordan .

At my old job, a guy in my office was adamant that his computer had a virus on it. After spending a good few quid on downloads and installing stingers, ad-aware, spybot, etc, he became really pissed off and on the verge of a breakdown until he mentioned what the "symptoms" were and i recommended defragging it.

Worked like a charm after that. Fucking idiot.

Jordan .

Sorry hun, I wasn't posting it aimed at you. It was just a general statement. :(

Jordan, my parents were the same way. I had to let them fall victim to a nasty virus that caused them to lose all their precious saved data (they also wouldn't listen to me about buying an external storage device) for them to realize they needed to be smarter about the internet. They used to just click on anything that looked official, click any links in any e-mails or download files from any e-mails, etc. They'd even cancel out of virus scans because it'd slow them down a little. Ugh.

They're MUCH better now. I bought them an Inspiron, made sure it had AV software, and pushed them to buy an external drive. They are much more cautious about what they do on the computer, including visiting trusted or known sites and only using downloaded files once they've been scanend. Sometimes it takes a catastropic event to clue people in. Hard to sit back and let that happen, but...it has to. It's either that or let Geek Squad come in and shame them for having their computer in such a scary state. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

5 or 6 years ago a friend got a job in a ski resort in the Pyrenees... He rented a flat with two co-workers, but came to Reus often; he is, I must say, very careful with trojans and viruses in his computers, he knows a lot. However, he made a huge mistake....

He returned to my city for a couple of weeks and allowed the two co-workers to use the computer he had in their flat, they were pals and he didn't think of the consequences... When he came back I went with him and, OMG!!, what those two guys did with the computer in just 2 weeks is beyond my understanding... Trojans, dialers, viruses, popups and multiple kinds of shit, some I didn't even know it existed! Apparently the two idiots searched for porn and yeah, they clicked EVERYWHERE, didn't know how to identify shitty sites and even downloaded dialers without knowing what they were doing... All that crap was really painful to remove...

Don't lend your computer to anyone, boys and girls!

Well, we removed most of the shit, but the computer was messed up and I think that eventually my friend had to format it back home...

Wow, I realize now that reading my post it looks like that "friend" is not real and it was actually me the idiot, but believe me, he exists and besides, I have scarier stories about me ruining computer and systems years ago (1996-1998) because of my newbieness...

Welcome riha.  I use an AntiVirus by an amazingly similar name to the one you use !? Let's see , i wrote it here last year....

Yep I got the 'Karpaski' rather than the 'Kaspersky' product  or... wait...no.