Free Antivirus Help Blog

   A-squared is a venerable free antivirus that includes antispyware and antivirus protection.  According to user and industry reviews, the antivirus is particularly good at detecting Trojans.  In our own tests, we found this consensus to be true and more than exceeded our expectations.  While the program does not include a resident shield, it still can be used in conjunction with other antivirus software to provide dual protection.  We will now take a more in-depth look at all of the program’s functionality.

Installation:

    The installation of A-squared was very quick.  There was no added toolbar or advertising software, unlike 90% of other free antivirus software.  There were also few configuration options like adding the scanner to the start menu, taks bar, and a desktop shortcut.  After the installation was complete, A-squared started immediately and did not require a restart.  A-squared then prompted for an automatic virus definition update.  The update was large at 7 megabytes but installed over 35,000 Trojan signatures (this was the first indication that a-squared is clearly geared towards anti-Trojan protection).  The update downloaded at about 100 Kilobytes per second and did not appear to have speed limitations like Free AVG.  After the update was complete, a-squared simply needed a program restart and the protection was ready to go.  The installer also included many different languages including Arabic, English, Japanese, Russian, Dutch and many more.

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     Panda Internet Security 2010 is a new antivirus package from Panda. The software offers a firewall, fast virus scanning, identity protection, content filtering and backup capabilities.

Installation:

     The Panda Internet Security 2010 offers some unique installation features.  The first one is that the software automatically scans memory prior to an install.  This is an excellent feature because there are viruses specifically designed to hinder antivirus software.  I also liked how a user has the option to select which components are installed such as a firewall or backup capabilities.  This is nice if a user already has a firewall solution etc.  
     The full download was only 68 megabytes and the install finished in less than 2 minutes.  This is significantly better than Norton 360 and FortiClient’s antivirus installation performance.  A user will also have to setup a password after installation. This feature is extremely helpful for public computers and will be explained in the following features section.   
     I ran into one problem during the antivirus installation.  The computer suffered a massive slowdown when Panda initialized for the first time.  Also, the Panda Internet Security needs a complete restart after installation.  This is unlike all of the other free antivirus I have tested.

Virus Definition Updates:

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    The award winning Kaspersky antivirus 2010 is now available with a free subscription from MSN via a special promotion.  Please see the bottom of this post for in depth download instructions.
    Kaspersky’s free antivirus has some of the highest and most accurate detection rates in the antivirus industry.  We will now take a closer look at the feature set in the 2010 version.  I first used Kaspersky Antivirus 5 years ago when AOL release Active Shield and also found the software to be perform excellent at detecting many undiscovered viruses.

Installation:

     The program download was kind of large at about 66 megabytes presumably because the software includes 32bit and 64bit installer together.  Windows also prompted for a firewall rule update which is interesting because Kaspersky Antivirus shouldn’t need firewall access.   Kaspersky also tried to start a scan immediately after install.  However, there is no option to stop the scan on the main page and Kaspersky didn’t initially update the virus definitions before starting the scan.  Therefore, the antivirus was performing an initial scan with obsolete definitions. The virus updates were also extremely slow taking at least 15 minutes to completely download. Read More...

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    Norton 360 antivirus version 4 is really a step ahead of all other previous incarnations of Norton Antivirus.  Symantec seems to have systematically addressed all of the users concerns about resource usage and scanning speeds to create an excellent fully functional antivirus.  Norton 360 includes an antivirus/antispyware engine, firewall, identity protection, backup utilities, and system optimization features.

Installation:

      The installation was the smoothest I have had with any other antivirus.  Norton Antivirus uses large screens and helpful dialogs.  The installation was also very quick and took under 3 minutes.  The only hold up was when the Norton antivirus services had to be started.

Features:

     The Norton 360 feature set is huge and I want to take some time to go over the key functionality.

      The first feature that I think needs to be in all free antivirus is Insight Protection.  Essentially what this technology does, is it automatically identifies all active processes and files etc. and determines if they are non malicious and free of viruses.  Norton achieves this by constantly updating the Insight Protection database based upon Norton community usage and Norton’s own trusted rating for every process or file. As of today, Symantec has identified over 81 million files with 64 million good files, 12 million bad files, and 5 million files currently building reputation.  Norton can then utilize this information to speed up scanning to only non trusted files and can also use this information to find emerging or zero day virus threats and neutralize them quickly.In real word usage, the software identified 90% of my files as trusted.  The Norton Insight list was extremely comprehensive.  However, the community ratings seemed a little off for process such as wireless driver services etc.  System scans also seemed faster because of this technology.

     The next feature is the CPU and memory monitoring.  Symantec has definitely taken a lot of heat about previous versions of Norton using too much memory or CPU power.  In response, Symantec has tackled this criticism and maybe even went overboard.  Norton 360 is now completely CPU and Memory saving centric.  The monitoring chart will simply cement this idea as it shows exactly how much computing power Norton is using in conjunction with the rest of the system.  The software also shows its current memory saving technique such as “waiting for the computer to be idle.” When idle, Norton uses about 10 megabytes of system memory.  In real world tests, I can definitely tell you there is a difference.  When most free antivirus are scanning for viruses  there is a huge slow down on other computing tasks, not so with Norton 360.

     The final feature that I want to talk about is Norton’s vulnerability protection.  The Vulnerability Protection system has definitions for hundreds of Windows programs vulnerabilities such as Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word.  If a user doesn’t have the most update date program and a virus attempts to exploit vulnerability in the software, Norton vulnerability protection will stop the exploit from executing regardless if the software program is patched or not.  This feature should be installed on all computers as often people forget that there are additional security holes in software other than Windows.  I hope someone releases a freeware program that solves this problem in the future.

Virus Scanning and Resource Usage:

     Norton has really made improvements on virus scanning times.  The latest software is able to complete a quick virus and antispyware scan in less than 6 minutes scanning 5,131 files.  CPU activity also doesn’t jump above 10% on a core 2 duo t7300 series.   System memory also remains at a maximum of 18 megabytes during a scan.  All of these performance levels are on par or have exceed other free antivirus performance specifications.

     In addition to having excellent virus scanning ability, Norton has revamped their Live Update system.  Now, before any virus scan is run, Live Update will also retrieve the latest virus definitions.  There is a clear commitment on Symantec’s part to show how frequently Norton 360 updates.  On the software’s main page there is a counter that displays the seconds and minutes from the last virus definition update.  The longest I have personally seen that update counter is seven minutes.  With the latest updates, a whole computer’s security is really increased. New viruses and Trojans are released every few minutes.

     Virus detection rates for Norton 360 are also excellent.  Factor in the advanced SONAR heuristic protection, community insight protection, the most frequently updating virus definitions, vulnerability detection, and a huge company and global virus team backing virus discovery, it’s hard not to see Norton as having some of the top virus and malware detection ratings. AV comparatives gave Norton the Gold award (the highest award) for the 2009 year.

Additional Features:

     Norton has excellent easy to use sliding menus and a full suite of additional software. There is also an excellent quick select menu where a user can easily turn on or off components.  Norton 360 has an advanced firewall with IPS and IDS, backup capabilities, system cleaning capabilities such as a registry scanner, and identity theft and anti phishing protection through Norton’s safe Web service.

Pet Peeves:

     I am not really a fan of the Norton Safe Web Extension and IPS plugin.  While the security premise is excellent I feel that it slows down Firefox’s browsing experience too much and it feels like any other toolbar as it has several pop-ups.   In addition, when the toolbar is enabled it enables all of one’s disabled firefox extensions which is also very annoying.  However, thanks to Symantec for providing a firefox extension in the first place.

Conclusion:

     Norton 360 is an extremely comprehensive security solution for any computer and any computer user level. Download Norton 360 here.

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     ESET Smart Security 4.2 is another free antivirus similar to Avast Internet Security and Forticlient, in that it provides award winning antivirus, firewall, anti spam etc. all in one package.  Some of the features that allow ESET Smart Security to stand out are its centrally managed features for businesses, support for Rescue Disks, and a highly customizable firewall.  The antivirus has 2 versions, one for the consumer and one for the business environment.  The software also comes in 32bit and 64bit variants.

Installation:

     The installation file was only 39 megabytes which is on the small side for free antivirus and internet security software. 

     The installation was very smooth and polished.  Smart Security 4.2 has 2 installation options automatic and customized.  The customized open allows you to tweak the programs update settings and even create a password to protect the program’s modification from unauthorized users.  I also like the Threat Sense.net (or submit a file to ESET) customization options.  This is a new trend in the antivirus industry in which viruses or suspicious files are collected from users’ computers and submitted to antivirus companies for analysis.  For example, with Microsoft Security Essentials, the program’s Spynet only gives you the option to submit everything (including identifiable information about your computer) or nothing.  However, with ESET Smart Security you can customize what information is sent, ask for a confirmation when a file is sent, and include or exclude statistics etc.  The customizability is a great functionality because it will ensure your private files don’t leave your computer at anytime.  

The installation also allows you to turn on heuristic based detection and customize how the firewall functions including, automatic, interactive, policy, or learning modes.  The automatic mode relies on predefined firewall rules only (similar to Avast internet security).  The interactive mode allows the user to modify and confirm predefined firewall rules.  The policy mode is based upon the network administrator’s policies.  Finally, the learning mode only takes into account how a user uses their own computer and builds a rules list based on the activity with yes or no dialog boxes (similar to Forticlient firewall.  Generally, this is the annoying way).

Features:

     After the installation completed, the program immediately checked and updated virus signatures.

     Smart Security has two interfaces a basic and an advanced.  The advanced mode really adds a lot of menus and the software provides a huge amount of features.  
The first feature that caught my eye, was the inclusion of the rescue disk functionality.  ESET Smart Security will help you install the Windows AIK (Windows PE) and put it on a cd/dvd or USB flash drive.   I have never seen this level of automation in a free antivirus software.  This will help a user whose computer has been disabled to completely restore functionality.  Smart Security also includes a SysInspector  system snapshot which will save all of the current computer settings for restore at a later time.  My only pet peeve about this entire process is that it’s not automatically included or explained on the first startup.  I feel that most users won’t dig into the software like this, so it would be nice to at least prompt the user about these features.
The ESET Smart Security 4.2 includes a ton of antivirus and antispyware detection capabilities. The real-time shield can detect viruses even on computer shutdown.  The software can also scan local and networked drives.  All of this can be heavily optimized and customized down to even which USB ports are scanned.  I am not kidding; you can actually configure what USB ports on your computer have heuristic virus detection activated on them.  See the screen shot below. 

The Smart Security firewall literally seems like it came out of a corporate antivirus package.  In the advanced configuration, the firewall includes a ton of IDS (intrusion detection system) based rules that will automatically detect suspicious internet activity such as worms, Trojans, or other malicious activity.  The firewall will also monitor malicious modification of important network files (svchost.exe etc.) to ensure safe internet access.

      ESET Smart Security also includes document protection which will ensure that important documents won’t get affected by viruses.
ESET includes antispam and email virus scanning functionality.  The antispam engine is again kind of vague at how it detects and handles spam messages.  But, you can setup a whitelist to ensure important emails aren’t quarantined. 

Resource Usage and Scanning:

      The only problem with ESET Smart Security 4.2 is that it’s a little bit heavy on the memory usage.  The program uses 46 megabytes when idle which eclipses many of its competitors.  ESET also uses 6 megabytes for the menus that are displayed.  Interestingly, when a virus scan is started the program doesn’t really increase its memory usage; it stays around 50 megabytes.  This means that the software is still on par with other free antivirus programs when actively scanning.
ESET Smart Security includes two scanning options a Normal and a Smart Scan.  I hate to say it, but the Smart Scan is not quick at all. I have already been waiting for 10 minutes and the virus scan progress is still at 26 percent. Update: the Smart Scan took about 40 minutes. The scan also used at least 50 percent of CPU power during the scan, even on a dual core CPU with a 4 MB cache.   This is in contrast to Prevx’s  1 minute and 39 second virus scan and minimal CPU usage.

      The smart scan is significantly slower than competing products including PC Tool antivirus.  Smart Security 4.2 just takes a while to look at each file.  So, it would be hard to run a scan on every startup.  
      Regardless, I like the option to move the scan to a background process.  This means that a virus scan, while slow, will not detrimentally affect normal computer operation.
ESET is certified by all major antivirus testing outfits including VB100 and Westcoast labs.  This will ensure that the software can detect and remove viruses. I have also seen a lot of positive user reviews on the software.

Conclusion:

     ESET Smart Security is one of the programs that you really need to download and install for yourself. The free antivirus has hundreds features and customizable options.

     Download ESET Smart Security 4.2 Beta HERE.

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    FortiClient is a new free antivirus / internet security bundle that includes a ton of modules. They are a free antivirus and antispyware engine, a firewall, antispam functionality, a VPN client, and a content filter. This software is intended for the experienced to advanced computer user.

Installation:

    FortiClient was by far one of the worst installations experiences I have had with an antivirus program. The installation takes probably about 20 minutes because the program has to optimize itself. I found this very interesting because the antivirus was only 10 megabytes to download. The software also prompts if you want to install the free edition or the paid edition. This option can be changed at anytime. It seems like the full version's only difference is the inclusion of a Spam Filter.

Software Notes and Features:

    FortiClient includes a free real time scanning engine. This is in contrast to other free antiviruses that have virus detection only. The FortiClient software seems to be intended to be used on a network with a FortiGate server. However, this is not necessary to have and runs great in standalone operation. FortiClient also supports free content filtering in which a user can set up a password and block access to potentially harmful sites.  The predefined filters are very comprehensive.  The software also has a separate installer for Windows 64 bit. This is in contrast to other antivirus and firewall software that only include 32 bit installers.

Usage Testing:

    Once FortiClient antivirus starts, the program immediately starts prompting the user about program firewall access.  A user will need to analyze the program accessing the internet and then allow or disallow the connection. The option can also be remembered for usage next time . This is the old school method of controlling firewalls in that it doesn’t come with pre configured rules like Avast Internet Security for Internet Explorer and Firefox.  In addition, the menus are kind of archaic like old windows 98 menus.

    FortiClient not only includes an antivirus but also an antispyware engine. In addition, the software updates every 49 minutes to check for the latest viruses. I don’t know how to convey this but this software is one of the best deals in the free antivirus industry. For example, free AVG will only check for virus signature updates once every day and doesn’t include dedicated antispyware functionality.

Antivirus Scanning:

    The FortiClient scanning process reminds me of MacAfee’s scanning engine. The process is very slow even on a dual core computer. The scan seemed to take about two hours for a 160 gigabyte operating system drive. This is not a necessarily a disadvantage as FortiClient has received the VB100 and Westcoast labs virus detection awards indicating excellent virus detection; but be prepared to wait for a full scan. FortiClient also includes a quick scan feature which will save some time. FortiClient detected an adware on my computer that Malwarebytes or Prevx weren’t able to find. The software said access denied but appeared to delete the program.

Extra Features:

    FortiClient also includes a free VPN client to connect to work VPN’s. The software also includes a WAN optimizer which will optimize all computer traffic to the internet. This should improve a user’s whole browsing experience.

Conclusion and Download:

    FortiClient has the most features of any free antivirus or internet security program. The software is excellent for the advanced user but potentially frustrating for the novice user. Regardless, this program is a must download to secure any type of Windows computer.

Download FortiClient Here

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