Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Free Antivirus Solutions

Stopping viruses from infecting your machine is incredibly important. A virus can make your machine unusable and worse it can use your machine as a launching pad to attack people you know by sending them email with the virus as an attachment. When your friend opens the attachment, which appears to have come from you, they will get the virus.

Running a machine without active virus software is careless. Many companies are now offering their antivirus software for free for home use. Avast offers a free download and is comparable to paid versions of Symantec's Norton Antivirus and McAfee Antivirus. MicroWorld now offers a free toolkit utility which is supposed to "Inform users of any background illegal sniffers or tools like spywares, adware, keylogger etc. running in memory." and check for viruses (I think). I have not yet downloaded and reviewed MicroWorld's toolkit utility.

When trying to learn about a virus, find a removal tool, or get manual removal instructions, turn to The Symantec Antivirus Research Center. Their encyclopedia is invaluable!

Many companies offer free scans online. These online scans only check when you request a virus scan. You should not rely on an online scan to keep your machine clean, an active program like the ones mentioned above is necessary, but instead occasionly use a free online scan to make sure your current active solution isn't missing anything. Free scans include but are not limited to:


Posted by: djuggler | 9:52 PM |