best free antivirus

[=98=]

Re: best free antivirus

....Yet for some reason I am yet to get a virus infection from iFrames, and I do scan with non-realtime virus scanners. Is it because I have my permissions configured properly, or because I use UAC? I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, I haven't been having issues with it.

Just because you haven't been affected doesn't mean you won't be. But, anyway, your ultimate wisdom outdoes anyone on this forum. Of course real time virus scanners are silly.

We are silly people :yay:

[Hellsent 2.0]

Re: best free antivirus

Bring on the trump-...I mean BRING ON THE SILLYNESS!

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: best free antivirus

Just because you haven't been affected doesn't mean you won't be.

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

If you have NEVER been infected by any kind of malware, you either don't use your computer online for anything, or you just don't know you're infected.

Virtually every popular site has had some kind of virus stuck on it at least once by hackers.

[AlecJ32]

Re: best free antivirus

If you have NEVER been infected by any kind of malware, you either don't use your computer online for anything, or you just don't know you're infected.

I'm sure I'd know fairly quickly if I was infected, since viruses don't just sit there and not do anything. They leave bread crumbs along the way, and they're not hard to find. If the easy-to-spot symptoms aren't enough, the virus scanners I used every once in a blue moon to make sure I haven't missed anything certainly would spot things that shouldn't be on my PC.

Virtually every popular site has had some kind of virus stuck on it at least once by hackers.

Well, either I've had frighteningly good timing, and never visited any of those sites when viruses were placed on said site, or you made that statistic up off the top of your head.

[[MyIS]Dan]

Re: best free antivirus

Just wondering AbJ32, what scanner have you used before to do the "once in a blue moon" scans? Live CD?

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: best free antivirus

Well, either I've had frighteningly good timing, and never visited any of those sites when viruses were placed on said site, or you made that statistic up off the top of your head.

Google "popular site hit by virus" and you'll see news articles for:
Myspace
Facebook
Twitter
CNN
ABC
CBS
Yahoo
Google
eBay
Sony's Playstation site
us.army.mil and other DoD/Pentagon sites
the U.S. Immigration site

There are more if you know how to look. And many sites aren't exactly willing to let the whole world know if they've been infected. :p

[[USAC]S|Cpl.TinFoil]

Re: best free antivirus

Makes me wonder why.

http://malwareresearchgroup.com/?page_id=2

Avast 99.2%
AVG 96.9%

Yes, when you label anything vaguely suspicious as a virus, it'll catch most anything.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/index.php (Feb '09 Tests)

Avast: Missed 568,128; 28 false positives
AVG: Missed 634,138; 17 false positives
NOD32/ESET: Missed 575,484; 13 false positives

[AlecJ32]

Re: best free antivirus

Just wondering AbJ32, what scanner have you used before to do the "once in a blue moon" scans? Live CD?

Usually I use a tool available on F Secure's site, but just for thoroughness I'll use one of the popular Anti-virus programs like Avast with all of the real-time protection features disabled so that it's just a virus scanner. One time I did use ClamAV from a Linux kernel running in a Live environment, but that was just once, since I wasn't convinced of how well it's virus definitions worked for Windows.

Google "popular site hit by virus" and you'll see news articles for:

The problem with that is that not all of those cases are situations where the virus can simply infect a well configured and secured computer with no error on the part of the end user. Then you have to take into account that these news sites may not be the best source of information. News sites tend to be full of half-true or just plain wrong crap designed to hype up bandwagoners.

[[MyIS]Dan]

Re: best free antivirus

Yes, when you label anything vaguely suspicious as a virus, it'll catch most anything.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/index.php (Feb '09 Tests)

Avast: Missed 568,128; 28 false positives
AVG: Missed 634,138; 17 false positives
NOD32/ESET: Missed 575,484; 13 false positives

avast! have been know to fix FP's very quickly, it would not bother me too much, throw it in the chest then wait a few days for a new vps. :)

[imported_Field]

Re: best free antivirus

i dont even have an antivirus myself, i just dont go to questionable sites and dont go clickety on a bunch of stuff and then theres nothing to worry about.

[KillerStickMan]

Re: best free antivirus

i like my pronz, so i have antivirus installed...