Willis recent post “Modern Piracy” is the inspiration for the title, along with math challenged pirate marketing team. This in-your-face sales pitch to renew my Avast Antivirus popped up today on my desktop, but the piracy is in the math:
Gosh, should I really renew with a company that can’t offer sales incentives rooted in simple math? That 3 year plan is a real winner (for them) compared to annual renewal.
I think I’ll revert to the free version or use Microsoft’s free AV solution. Arrrrrr!
Boy, was the funny.!
I have been using the products from Comodo.com for several years. Basics is free and excellent anitvirus and firewall.
I normally shy away from Microsoft as much as I can but in this case, I recommend the MS Security Essentials. I have a very high end, dual processor, GPU computing workstation and for the past 17 months of modeling… nary a problem. Not bad for something free.
Now where’s that wood I need to go knock on.
I have had good luck with Spybot added to Microsoft Security Essentials.
Was a long-time AVG user, but a false-positive nuked my favorite game and caused no end of headaches, so I switched to Avast! My whole family uses the free version and we love it. So much so that I will probably try buying it for my new machine this year. So it turned out to be pretty effective try-before-you-buy advertising in my case. It’s easy to use and low profile. No virus problems in my house for nearly two years. I’m a big fan. Big enough fan that I actually want to give them my money. They’ve earned it.
I highly recommend the “geekstogo” website and rely on it for advice. They have some extremely skilled volunteers who have helped me with a malware infection before.
They currently recommend Microsoft’s free solution over Avast: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/38-free-antivirus-and-antispyware-software/
Microsoft Security Essentials is a recent addition to my layered approach to security.
XP pro sp3 behind router firewall.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx
Here’s a list of some of what I’ve used to to keep me clean over the past ~ten years:
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-free-antivirus-firewall.htm
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
http://www.winpatrol.com/
http://www.safer-networking.org/
http://download.cnet.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022_4-10196637.html
Most importantly? Visit Windows Update frequently.
One thing I would never suggest is to club together with pals and buy one subscription between you. That would be a form of theft, and morally wrong. So DON’T DO IT.
Since I bought my first PC I’ve used Norton. (I don’t remember the exact year but it came loaded with Windows 95.) The last several years I’ve used Norton 360. It’s not free but I’ve never had an actual infection, just detections.
Dave says:
December 30, 2012 at 12:12 pm
I normally shy away from Microsoft as much as I can but in this case, I recommend the MS Security Essentials. I have a very high end, dual processor, GPU computing workstation and for the past 17 months of modeling… nary a problem. Not bad for something free.
Now where’s that wood I need to go knock on.
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Modeling!! I sure hope that wood isn’t a tree ring! 😎
Our DSL provider, with its middle tier package, provides ZoneAlarm. This isn’t the least cost way to go but it is Oh so easy (running Win-XP).
I do think it funny that folks price things like this so they end in .99. The cost in time and effort and mistakes must drag on the GDP of the nation. Here is a (possible) explanation:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/720/why-do-prices-end-in-99
Antivirus pfeh! What a waste of processor cycles. It clogs up your machine
and makes it run like a 386. Use linux and you don’t need one of those.
It is better. It is free. Switch now while you still can. (Microsoft is about to
abuse UEFI and make machines sold with windows at retail unable to boot
anything else.)
“Gosh, should I really renew with a company that can’t offer sales incentives rooted in simple math? That 3 year plan is a real winner (for them) compared to annual renewal.”
You haven’t heard about Ben Bernanke’s newest inflation goal, then (and that’s only the targeted inflation he admits, not the real one.)
Gunga Din says: December 30, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Since I bought my first PC I’ve used Norton. (I don’t remember the exact year but it came loaded with Windows 95.) The last several years I’ve used Norton 360. It’s not free but I’ve never had an actual infection, just detections.
I’ve been using Norton for years. If you get the Newegg email ads, every so often they offer Norton for the same price as the Norton mail-in rebate, so essentially free. The IS and 360 versions also keep a list of currently infected web sites that will tell you before you go that a site is on their naughty list.
@John F. Hultquist says: December 30, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Actually, the reality is in human nature and advertising. THe reason is that the claim can be made of “less than”. $9.99 is less than $10. Add to that the fact that people often ignore the cents part, so 19.99 looks like $19 to the casual observer.
It is also why gas is X.XX 9/10ths of a cent. Back in the day when the practice started, the cost was 15 to 25 cents per gallon, so 20.9 cents/gallon looked better than 21 cents a gallon.
Make sure what you use gives complete coverage.
I use ESET but they need to shape up their user interface.
Kaspersky are a bunch of surly Russians, I fired them.
Pareto Logic closed my query for more info when I kept asking them to answer it.
You’re missing the significance. In market terms this would be hedging against inflation. The long-term rate they are quoting expects huge inflation after the 2014 election/full implementation of Obamacare.
IMHO, no Antivirus are better than any other so you might as well use a free one if you must use one at all. The real question is whether you must.
I get customer infected computers with every single Antivirus installed, so anecdotally I see no reason to trust one over the other though admittedly there are larger variables in play from customer to customer, like their particular browsing habits. However, since this has been true forever (each AV still gets infected) and no two people are exactly alike, I will conclude that no AV is that great. I do recommend folks stop with the brand loyalty nonsense (“Norton rulez!” or “McAfee is best!”) and if you insist on an AV package get one that causes the least damage to performance.
Keep in mind that they will literally change many important settings as a matter of course, altering ACL’s (file and registry permissions) in the name of security, preventing you yourself from accessing many things on your so-called personal computer. Their worst effect is gobbling up CPU time that will be missed when you need it and also their propensity to grab control of a newly inserted flashdrive or other media so that it may scan it first and silently remove what it considers threats.
Some of them disable the normal operating system firewall and install their own. If you like this fine, but I can’t fathom how any of these packages are trusted to do the right thing. They are at best a necessary evil, but personally I see them as a cure worse than the disease. But that’s just me, YMMV. There is also the potential problem of the placebo effect (climate hoax tie-in!) which generates the literal definition of a “false sense of security” to those that then proceed to continue with destructive behavior like clicking on popups that offer to speedup their computer or run attachments promising cute kittens or sure-thing dating.
In the Windows universe which has the lion’s share of attack vectors and most malware, the first line of defense is to be behind a NAT router, period. There is no excuse to ever plug the computer directly into a cable or DSL or FIOS modem because that will give you a static IP and it is just a matter of time before you are toast. If that describes you, stop what you are doing and go get a router, now. Then learn how to configure it and lock it down.
The other major ingredient for safety is to simply not use MS Internet Explorer as an everyday normal browser. No matter what anyone tells you this is where most of the attacks are directed. That means use an alternate web browser most of the time, Opera, Firefox, Chrome in my personal order of preference because many normal attack vectors are already not available ( ActiveX and registry based clues).
Firing up IE from time to time for the odd webpage or form might be necessary, but using it for day to day browsing is not a good idea. But if you are behind a well-configured router at least you have a fighting chance.
I use Norton 360.
It is a good thing to have a large company dedicated to security backing you up on Zero day. I have used others, but don’t anymore.
$29 bucks for 3 PC’s if you look for it, let alone other inexpensive options for mobile.
My apologies for any redundancy, I have not read back on this thread>
I would be interested in finding out about what apps are preventing a migration off of windows. There is almost nothing that I can not do on Linux box. I only bought this silly windows laptop, I’m currently using to post, for playing WoW. Though I have gotten WoW running under WINE, I find it convenient to have multiple boxes. Other then that, I am exclusively Linux, OpenIndiana, or BSD. I can help getting a Linux box up and running, and unless its really really unusual, find replacement apps or configure a win32 emulator(e.g. WINE) for those apps that perform activities not currently supported. This is actually one of the task I have to do periodically in my profession as Software Engineer ( my current title, I think is Linux Developer).
I have worked in and tangentially to the secure computing field. Currently, on windows, the MS product is indeed well respected by the professionals, thought the large and highly visible multinational that I work for uses a tweaked version of McAfee. But we are also behind some pretty sophisticated barriers.
It’s unfortunate that you are stuck with Windows-only software, though I understand, as particularly in vertical markets, like medicine or some scientific fields, it is still the norm. However, increasingly, there are platform-agnostic alternatives, Java-based, or Web-based. Remember that there are still no viruses ‘in the wild’ that infect Macs. I use Macs all the time, and for one specific Windows-only application that I must use, I run virtual Windows XP in Parallels on my iMac. If the virtual machine gets infected, I can just delete it and reinstall, but it doesn’t, because I don’t use it for any possibly problematic adventuring, i.e. Web browsing.
/Mr Lynn
Been using MSE for years now. Never had a virus problem on my or any of the pc’s I am responsible for (PC illiterate family types). Microsoft might be the devil, but MSE is a very good AV solution.
Long ago with Windows 95, I had McAfee but it gave running problems and needed registry modification to get rid of it. I switched to Norton but early this year it let through a Virus (never again will trust Symantec). I now have Avast free but also run free CCleaner and free Superantspyware. In addition I will delete any email for which I do not know the source. I also backup all files daily to an external hard disc with GoodSync (only takes one minute)
Microsoft and Anti-virus is a scam of a similar order to CAGW.
MS could have fixed their software over the last 9 years, since their “Trustworthy Computing” stunt, but they haven’t. And they won’t. They sell you Windows (William’s Intermittent, Non-Determinate, Over-Weight Software) with very little virus/malware prevention built-in, for a high price. They own Kaspersky Labs who will sell you virus/trojan/malware protection, for a high price. You pay twice. Mugs.
I’ve used Linux on the Internet, barefoot, with no firewall, anti-virus protection, no trojan or malware protection at all for over 16 years (18 actually) without a problem. I do a few things like update the kernel every now and then, libc too but it’s not a big deal. I run anti-intrusion software and monitor its log files carefully but so far, my machine hasn’t been penetrated. I do run IDS (Intrusion Detection Software). It’s interesting to watch what’s trying to get in.
Recently, my work has required using some non-Microsoft but Windows-based software for which there was no open-source equivalent and it woudn’t run under Wine. Bother. I had to use Windows. So I ran an installation of Windows, duly licensed by my employer, under Virtualbox on my Linux system.
Linux and VB run Windows so well it feels just like Windows running on the bare hardware. When Windows crashes, it only needs to be restarted as my machine is not cut off at the knees, and my other work doesn’t suffer. However, an alternative open source software program has appeared and I will be evaluating that soon to see if it can replace the one I’m presently using.
Apart from that, I’ve been a Microsoft-Free Zone for over 18 years. No licencing problems, no
virus problems, no malware problems, no trojan horse problems. I had a good laugh some years ago when a Linux user, missing out on all the virus/malware problems his friends were having, downloaded a bunch of the then worst Windows viruses and tried them out on his Linux box. Of course, they could not run.
I turn my Linux desktop on at work at the start of the year. I turn it off at the end of the year when I go home for the holiday period. Over that year, it’s never rebooted. The power doesn’t go off (aren’t No Break Inverters great?).
Sometime around 2007 +/- a bit, the Stanford University Honeypot Project ran a bit of research. They loaded operating systems straight out of the box onto computers, added some monitoring and remote logging software and connected those computers directly to Internet without any firewalling, nor any protective software of any sort. They found:
– Windows computers were broken into within 5 – 15 minutes. All breakins were done by scripts
run against the machine. (Any Windows)
– Linux machines lasted 2 – 3 months and were broken by hand (personal attention from a
cracker)
– FreeBSD machines were the same as Linux
– OS X machines were about the same as Linux
– OpenBSD was not cracked at all.
All except Windows and OS X are free software—no purchase price, no licence fees, and they are better than Windows. You might find this interesting:
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/157767,nsw-police-dont-use-windows-for-internet-banking.aspx
You might find this lad informative:
http://www.aaxnet.com
Andrew hasn’t updated his site, over the last few years—he must be busy, but he tells it as it is.
You don’t need to install Linux on a machine. You can run a Live CD/DVD to get the feel of it
and see which distribution you like. Doing it this way, you have a lot of safety: should it be cracked (yeah, right!), you have a read-only filesystem holding the software. It can’t be polluted. You just shutdown and reboot and your friendly neighbourhood cracker has to start all over again. Linux can read and write the Windows file systems. Windows ignores the Linux ones so you have added safety there: your Linux files can’t be messed with.
So, Anthony: think about it. VirtualBox, QEmu, and other virtual machine programs mean you
can run Linux, and when you need Windows, it can be started and run as a supervisory application for your Windows programs on Linux. If you can find time ( Yeah, Right!) it would be worth a look …It took you a while to drop the CO2 is dangerous meme, it may take a while to break the Windows-Is-Necessary meme.
(This post made using a 64-bit version of the Opera web browser on a 64-bit version of Linux running on 64-bit hardware. 64-bit all the way is almost bulletproof. It’s 32-bit stuff which is routinely cracked. As Windows 7 is backwards compatible with all 32-bit Windows programs, it’s got 32-bit DLLs and so is eminently breakable.)
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I have no understanding of people who pay for anti virus these days. There simply is no need. You just want a decent firewall and widows does that job adequately since version 7 and a frequently updated anti virus checker. MS security fits the bill but it does not hurt to add AVG free into the mix. I used to be a reseller for Norton products but as good as they are I can not, in good conscience, recommend any paid product. the extras that you pay for are tools that you don’t need and to be fair. they just do the routine housekeeping of your PC that you ought to be doing yourself.
I will however recommend the free Spybot search and destroy. Install that, let the resident malware tracker run at all times in the background then run the scan once a month and I’ll eat several hats if you have any major problems. There are no real virus’ today, it’s about trojans and bots.
Mr Lynn, sure people can use a mac, they can use an android tablet if all they need is the net. I can’t run more than 30% of the software that i absolutely require on a mac. i also can’t justify spending all that money on something less powerful than i need just because it is shiny.
Dave above describes his “high end dual processor machine” which makes me wonder where my water cooled 8 core, tri-sli GPU 16 GB 1600mhz ram fits on his scale. Am I off the chart or does ‘high end’ refer to 2005?