Best free firewall & anti-spyware software?

[Opium]

Hey guys,

I'm having some computer troubles. What are the best free firewall and anti-spyware programs?

Cheers.

 

[friedchicken]

i liked comodo and avg free
but i use nod32 and zonealarm now (not free).

edit: there's page called http://www.av-comparatives.org/ they test a bunch of av prog like avg, kaspersky,nod32, avk, microsoft, norton, etc.

 

[Xeijin]

For Spyware/Malware, Microsoft's Windows Defender has been pretty good to me.

As for the best firewall, although its not free (unless you already have it) a router with built in NAT Firewall is the absolute best firewall you can get. Hardware firewalls like this are much better than software solutions as they don't hog system resources, and provide protection for any device that connects to them.

If you do need a firewall however, I have heard that ZoneAlarm's free firewall isn't too bad.

 

[pikachucrackpipe]

spyware - spybot search and destory
firewall - use a router

 

[nintendofreak]

Firewall-
Zone Alarm

(www.download.com that!)

 

[thegame07]

ditto avg.

 

[skullstatue]

Lavasoft has a pretty nice spyware scanner, although it doesn't provide any live protection.

 

[qusai]

MAC OSX

 

[lagman]

http://www.trustware.com/

 

[Strider]

Hm, your best protection against spyware is to not use Internet Explorer, seriously. If you've already got troublesome stuff on your pc, Spybot helps better than most other stuff.

Regarding a firewall - use hardware. Every simple router is far better than any software could be. Just imagine any spyware simply turning your software firewall off - it could, mostly!

 

[Bowser128]

Windows Defender (anti-virus) and Zone Alarm (firewall) have worked fine for me.

MAC OSX

Nice definition of 'free' you've got there

 

[Hitto]

Hey guys,

I'm having some computer troubles. What are the best free firewall and anti-spyware programs?

Cheers.

Anti-spyware "vaccines" :
Spywareblaster
Spybot S&D

Anti-spyware removers :
A² free
Spybot S&D

Cherry on top :
Peerguardian


Not having to clean up your fucking computer every two months :
Linux.

All of them free. For "you need to sign up" bullshit, there's dodgeit.com.

 

[Strider]

Windows Defender (anti-virus) and Zone Alarm (firewall) have worked fine for me.

MAC OSX

Nice definition of 'free' you've got there

Well, it's Linux, after all ... so, yeah. But there's the predicament. It's the software which basically invites such behaviour.

Hey guys,

I'm having some computer troubles. What are the best free firewall and anti-spyware programs?

Cheers.

Not having to clean up your fucking computer every two months :
Linux.

All of them free. For "you need to sign up" bullshit, there's dodgeit.com.

Agreed, but you needn't go there. Funny, I always strongly disagreed with everyone who said they need to reinstall Windows (95, 98, XP...) every few months. That simply isn't true. You just need to a) know what you're doing and use alternative software - browser and stuff... or only use websites you're absolutely sure they don't push any shit on your pc (amazon, ebay, whatever).

In short, my message is:

With good software you don't need any spyware or virus protection!

 

[natkoden]

Firewall: Comodo

Anti-Spyware: Spybot Search&Destroy, Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal

 

[crafton48]

Hey guys,

I'm having some computer troubles. What are the best free firewall and anti-spyware programs?

Cheers.


Anti-spyware "vaccines" :
Spywareblaster
Spybot S&D

Anti-spyware removers :
A² free
Spybot S&D

Cherry on top :
Peerguardian


Not having to clean up your fucking computer every two months :
Linux.

All of them free. For "you need to sign up" bullshit, there's dodgeit.com.

Back in my windows days I found that a combo of Firefox and a router firewall did the trick for me, I seldom got any spyware/malware. I reccomend using spybot and spydoctor, and AVG if you think you've gotten a virus.

If you're really worried about spyware though think about switching over to linux, the threat of getting spyware is very low, )I don't think there are any Anti spyware packages for it), I currently have a dual boot I really use XP for games and linux for everything else.

 

[qusai]

Windows Defender (anti-virus) and Zone Alarm (firewall) have worked fine for me.

MAC OSX

Nice definition of 'free' you've got there

You can always find a way to get it for 'free'

 

[Xeijin]

Hm, your best protection against spyware is to not use Internet Explorer, seriously.

That's not as true now as it used to be. With IE7 security has been improved loads. Check out the Secunia - Internet Explorer 7 page. The highest unpatched vulnerability is now 'moderately critical' which I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) are not security/compromising orientated.

 

[Xeijin]

Windows Defender (anti-virus) and Zone Alarm (firewall) have worked fine for me.

MAC OSX

Nice definition of 'free' you've got there

You can always find a way to get it for 'free'

I think he was referring to overpriced apple hardware

Though there is OS X x86 now so, I guess we can cut out Apple