I got tired of shelling out $40+ a year for antivirus protection long ago. Aside form the price, what really bugged me was the bloat! It became more and more difficult to find a simple antivirus or rootkit scanner, without system tuning, performance monitoring and benchmarking bloat that the big guys were packaging with their virus scanner.

The great thing is - with all the free antivirus programs available today, you don’t need to shell out any money and most are simply virus protection without the bloat.

Free Antivirus Recommendations

There are many free antivirus programs on the Internet today. I’ve been looking for the best for my home PC, and to that end I examined ClamWin, Avast!, AVG, Antivir. Here are my thoughts on each:

ClamWin.

PROS:
ClamWin has an simple user interface, and is available in a portable version that can run on a USB thumb drive.

CONS:

Doesn’t include an on-access, real-time scanner. This means it’s basically relegated to an “after the fact” scanner - only worthwhile if you suspect you have an infection. This is enough to disqualify it from the running for my purpose, though I do use it on my thumb drive. I might come in handy if I need to diagnose a friend’s PC problem someday, (which actually happens quite a bit to me!)

AVG.

I then moved on to AVG. I have used (and still use today on my laptop) AVG 7.5 for over a year now with no complaints. When I saw they had a new version (8.0), with a slick new interface and a scan engine revamped for speed I figured I’d upgrade to 8.0 and be loving life.

Not so much.

AVG 8.0 would not work when installed on my 2000 desktop. It installed, but would not scan. Neither would it save any settings. There was no error message, it just behaved as though I never issued a command. In short, it blew me off. So I blew it off, and when back to 7.5.

PROS:
The AVG 7.5 interface is simple, not slick but effective. It gets the job done, and uses minimal system resources to do it and that’s a plus in my book. AVG free offers email protection (inbound and outbound) as well as protection against worms, viruses, and Trojans.

CONS:
AVG makes a rootkit detector and anti-phishing software, but offers both of these as separate programs. This might not bother some users, but it does provide a feature gap between its paid for counterparts like Symantec and McAfee.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to AVG 7.5 free is the scheduler. The user can schedule a full computer scan and daily definition updates, but they cannot choose the exact time of each. Instead, the interface offers a time range to choose from. For example, the user can select to have the definition updates downloaded between 6 am - 8 am, and the program will select a random time within that range. This is an annoyance, but could be problematic for users who shutdown their PCs at night.

AntiVir

Since the latest AVG interface was problematic on my older computer, I started my search again for a better option. Next I tried Avira Antivir Free. At first, this was a serious contender offering robust coverage of various types of attack. Then I noticed a serious flaw - no email scanner! Couple that with an obnoxious ad window, and it was on to the next candidate.

PROS:
While AVG offers rootkit detection as a separate product, Antivir includes rootkit detection, as well as protection against worms, viruses, and Trojans. Antivir also includes protection against phishing.

CONS:
Avira Antivir Free does not have an email scanner. This is something that is included with the other packages reviewed here, and it seems like a pretty big gap since email is a major entry point for virus infection. One of the biggest downsides, IMO, is an in-your-face very LARGE ad window that crops up daily. With the other options out there in the free antivirus market, this is enough to make me take a pass on AntiVir

Avast! 4 Home Edition.

The last free antivirus program I tried was Avast! 4 Home Edition. Quite frankly, it’s the last one I tried because it was the best.

PROS:
Avast! includes Anti-spyware and Anti-rootkit built-in. Each is implemented in separate processes for scanning web, mail, P2P, IM, network and on access traffic. Each one of these processes can be stopped, started or disabled so if you don’t have P2P or IM software - you can disable it. This is quite handy on older PCs with less available resources. It also offers Automatic updates, Virus Chest and System integration. The UI is excellent (especially for a free app) and it supports 64-bit Windows and Internationalization.

CONS:
I honestly haven’t noticed any real problems with Avast!. If I had to choose something, I suppose I’d say that it is a bit more heavy on the RAM usage than some of the others, but given the completeness of the features, I don’t think it’s excessive. Besides, the modular scanner architecture allows you to shut down or disable unneeded services.

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If your home computer is connected to the internet, or to other computers that are connected to the internet - you need a firewall. It’s as simple as that.

Hackers and hacker software are constantly probing the internet for computers without a firewall. When such a computer (A.K.A. “victim”) is found, it is targeted with spyware, viruses, trojans, key stroke loggers and anything else a deviant mind can devise. If you don’t want to be a victim, then you need to protect yourself.

How not to be a victim.

Here are 2 really great personal firewall programs that are absolutely free for personal use.

Comodo

Comodo is free for home use. You may be wondering why a company would give away a program for free that is sold for $40 and more by other companies. This thought alone is often enough for many computer owners to skip the free alternative and shell out the money for the “internet protection” software suites.

This is a very normal concern, but here are some things to consider that will probably alleviate those worries.

1). Take a look at those Internet protection suites and see what’s included.
Often times, it’s not just a firewall but anti spyware, anti virus, web filters, system tuning and maintenance - in other words, the kitchen sink! This is because the makers of the all-inclusive software suites know that each piece isn’t worth the full price alone, or they would charge for each piece. So they package them all together and charge one price hoping you’ll need at least one of those products enough to buy the whole suite.

2). Most free alternatives offer a slim feature set in the free version, but increased features for the professional version. Also, the free version is often times only free for indiviual use, not businesses. So the company or developer makes money from business use.

That being said, the free versions of Comodo and Zonealarm are more than enough for most home users.

Comodo Features (courtesy of the Comodo website):

• Complete protection from Hackers, Spyware, Trojans and Identity theft
• Host Intrusion Prevention System stops malware from being installed
• Free Download. No charges or license fees ever
• Powerful and intuitive Security Rules Interface
• ‘Smart’ Popup Alerts
• Application Behavior Analysis
• Automatic ‘Firewall Training’ mode
• Windows Security Center Integration
• Self Protection against Critical Process Termination
• Application Recognition Database
• Automatic Updates
• Improved Firewall Event Logging
• Submit Suspicious Files to Comodo

System Requirements (version 3.9)

• Windows XP - 32 and 64 bit versions
• Windows Vista - 32 and 64 bit versions
• 64 Mb RAM
• 50 Mb free disk space

You can read more about the benefits Comodo Firewall here.
You can download Comodo Personal Firewall here.

ZoneAlarm

ZoneAlarm started as a free only firewall, but experienced significant success and rapidly evolved into a Pro verison. I have used ZoneAlarm on my personal computers for years, with great results. When gathering links for this article, I realized it’s become pretty difficult to find the free for persoanla use version. It seems that ZoneLabs (the maker of ZoneAlarm) has gotten aggressive in promoting their professional (read: not-free) version. so far, the actual software has remained ad free, so I can’t complain too much.

Features:

• Systematically identifies hackers and blocks access attempts
• Automatically makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet (Stealth Mode)
• Intrusion Blocking systematically identifies hackers and blocks access attempts.
• Stealth Mode automatically makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet.
• Automatic Program Configuration provides safety and simplicity by automatically configuring programs. Automatically decides whether to allow or deny Internet access to individual programs.
• Expert Controls give savvy users precise control over security settings.

You can download ZoneAlarm Free here.

Conclusion

As I said, I’ve used ZoneAlarm for years and love it. I have only been using Comodo for a little over a year on my laptop and have had no problems with it.

The only downside to both is that the learning mode can be confusing for inexperienced users. Often times a popup will display asking the user if they want to allow application XYZ to act as a server. Most inexperienced users don’t know what the hell that means and can get flustered. What I’ve done is after installing the firewall, I run all known internet user apps (browser, IM chat, anti-virus update, email, etc…) to “teach” the firewall that these are certified apps. After that, I tell the user (usually a relative or close friend) if it prompts you in the future click “no” or call me.

Comodo advertises “Comodo Firewall offers the highest levels of perimeter security against inbound and outbound threats” I tend to believe them only because I’ve found that comodo prompts me WAY more than Zonealarm. It seems that Comodo distinguishes how a url was requested by a browser. For example, if the user clicks a link from a word doc, then Comodo will interrupt and inform the user that another application has requested the browser load “.. www.abc.com…” This is great for experienced users, but will definitely be too much for the inexperenced grandma looking to chat with the grand kids… In that situation, I would recommend ZoneAlarm.

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There was a time in my life when I used security and protection suites like Norton and McAfee, but after a while I grew unsatisfied with them.

“But Norton and McAfee are giants in the industry that pack every last bit of there software with features users never dreamed of! What more could you want?“, I hear you ask.

Well, that’s kind of the point. Over the years, software suites like these just continued full speed down the road to bloatware. They kept accumulating features like a snowball rolling down hill. They’ve got features and functionality I never used, and don’t really need quite frankly. Often times the system tuning and performance components just sat idle, using my system’s increasingly valuable and every more rare RAM.

I did what most people do, I suppose. I bitched incessantly about paying for features I didn’t use, didn’t want, and worst of all had to actively work at removing from my system! Most times that wasn’t even an option, since everything threaded together in a tight knot, with system failure at every turn so that you couldn’t pick and choose the features you needed without having all the needless bloat to go along with it.

Then I realized that some other bright people were experiencing the same headaches and were in a position to do something about it. What they did was create their own programs to solve each discrete problem. In other words my friends, say farewell to bloatware!

So now I assemble a patch work of software products that do what I need. They do one thing, and do it well. I use one free program for firewall protection, another free program for virus protection, and various other applications for system tuning and performance, spyware, etc….

I admit, I was hesitant at first. I had questions about how safe and effect these products were. I thought that they couldn’t be that good if they were free. Why would someone (or a company) produce software for free if other companies could make $40+ selling it?

Well, the answer is pretty simple. Makers of Comodo, and ZoneAlarm (my firewall products) as well as AVG Antivirus make money on the professional versions of their software as well as business users.

The general idea is that they offer a fully functional version free for personal use, and a different version with more features for a price. So far, with Comodo, ZoneAlarm, and AVG Antivirus I have been very satisfied with the performance and feature set of the free versions.

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Google announced last Tuesday that it has its sights on dethroning Microsoft as desktop OS king:

“The new operating system, announced late Tuesday night on Google’s Web site, will be based on the company’s nine-month-old Web browser, Chrome. Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.”

Google is focusing on the Netbook market, which is a smart first step. I’m not sure how successful they will ultimately be beyond that though. Netbooks are perfectly suited to a browser based OS - they’ve got inherently less RAM and CPU power and are targeted specifically to the Internet/e-mail user. I don’t see any wholesale switch from Windows anytime soon for one of Microsoft’s major demographics - business users.

Also, gamers and developer are likely to stay with Linux and Windows, at least for the time being. But, having said that, Google’s OS is built on Linux, so there probably wouldn’t be that big a change from, say Ubunto to Chrome (or whatever they end up calling it)..

Of course, I’ll still have to give it a try when it comes out… just for curiosity’s sake!

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