Antivirus and VPN

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

I need to get some antivirus and VPN protection as the one that comes free with the computer has just about expired.

What do you use and what are your thoughts on it so recommendations appreciated.

It would be nice if I can use it on at least 4 devices

Edited By Derek Lane on 23/06/2022 14:44:42

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

I had malwarebytes on my laptop. windows 10 and find that I cannot delete it completely

Roy

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Derek,

I have been using McAfee for several years, ever since my bank gave away a year's subscription with its online banking. I've have had no reason to doubt its efficiency though it did get some bad press a couple of years ago. Naturally, you have to pay, but at present it covers up to (I think) five devices. I get the impression that you are after a free application, in which case, I believe AVG offer a basic free version, but I have no experience with it.

John

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

I am not suggesting you do this, but, after watching several youtube videos that suggested the built in Windows ani-virus worked just fine, I let my paid for anti-virus prog expire and let Windows take over. I have had no problems so far.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

When I recently upgraded the workshop PC I did some research into AV software which suggested that though the Windows product is OK it tends to be slow to update as new threats are detected and it was recommended that other products should be used. I have used Norton for several years and decided to continue with it (though I have yet to install it in the shop PC!). As well as quite a wide range of threat detection and mitigation it also backs up my hard drives for free in the background.

The organisation that provides my Microsoft 365 subscription also recommends that Malwarebytes Free should be installed for some reason that I can't recall – anyway it's free so I did. Slightly annoyingly it keeps popping up an invitation to get the paid-for version which I just ignore.

[vic neweyParticipant @vicnewey60017]

Windows built in antivirus works fine, many of the ones you can install such as Norton are massive bloatware

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Thank you guys will look at those suggested

Posted by John Hinkley on 23/06/2022 16:18:36:

Derek,

I have been using McAfee for several years, ever since my bank gave away a year's subscription with its online banking. I've have had no reason to doubt its efficiency though it did get some bad press a couple of years ago. Naturally, you have to pay, but at present it covers up to (I think) five devices. I get the impression that you are after a free application, in which case, I believe AVG offer a basic free version, but I have no experience with it.

John

I am not worried if I have to pay for it as long as it does what it is meant to. It was just the case of as Norton was free for a year why pay extra now it has run out I was just seeking recommendations from others at what they used

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by vic newey on 23/06/2022 17:00:05:

Windows built in antivirus works fine…

That's what I use on Windows. In the past, Microsoft didn't have a good security product, and it was well worth paying for anti-virus software. Not quite so important now, but it does depend on your internet habits. If you're the type who enjoys casually roaming the net, visiting off-colour websites, clicking yes to all and sundry, use the same password for everything and download 'bargain' software, then remember poor hygiene usually results in catching something nasty.

If moderately concerned I'd advise buying a computer magazine to see what's 'best product' at the moment. The effectiveness of antivirus software depends on how technically up-to-date it is, and it's not unusual to find last year's hot product is today's laggard and vice versa. However, all the big names do a reasonable job, and I wouldn't worry too much about which one unless I was a high-risk internet user.

Mac and Linux are much more secure than Windows, and arguably don't require anti-virus at all. I don't know about Android.

Dave

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Windows built in protection is as good if not better than a lot of the cheaper antivirus software as for VPN never used one so can't comment

H

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

Posted by lee webster on 23/06/2022 16:26:25:

I am not suggesting you do this, but, after watching several youtube videos that suggested the built in Windows ani-virus worked just fine, I let my paid for anti-virus prog expire and let Windows take over. I have had no problems so far.

I agree. After trying almost every paid & free A/V program and getting annoyed at their constant prompts to upgrade/renew or add extras I now only use Microsofts built in Defender along with Malwarebytes. Defender upgrades & sorts itself out in the background and you can turn off notifications if you wish. All my computers run in this configuration. No problems at all running it on all versions of Windows up to this time.

regards

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

As others have suggested Windows built in antivirus works well.

VPN serves a different purpose, by hiding your identity, and allows you to appear to be in a different country. Commonly used by people illegally downloading copyrighted material such as films and music or hiding their access to porn. Many expats use it to be able to watch TV from their home country while living abroad.

For security and to stop your personal data being accessed for marketing or other more sinister purposes you can use a blocking extension for your web browser. "uBlock Origin" is the one I use and it can be set to allow trusted sites such as this one to continue to benefit from the advertising revenue.

Russell

[Ian McVickersParticipant @ianmcvickers56553]

Ive been using Bitdefender as antivirus for quite a few years now without any issues. I moved from Norton after they disabled my antivirus when I took my tablet to USA on holiday. I had no idea it was a geo-locked product. Express vpn for my vpn. Its built into my Linksys router and has quite a few nice features. One I realky like is it will drop the connection if it thinks it has been compromised.

[Ian McVickersParticipant @ianmcvickers56553]

Forgot to add that you can purchase Bitdefender for various license packs like 1,5 and 10 devices and it works across pc and android. Its installed on all our phones as well.

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

I have been using free version of AVG for years and always been OK, Very satisfied customer. I use a Samsung 10" Tablet on Android. If a site hasn't got https, it warns me that it's not safe and to go back.

An above posting mentioned passwords. Don't use same or even similar on more than one site. Adding one or more characters as a prefix or suffix is really dangerous as it's too weak. Don't incorporate Brunel's initials or of old rly companies as they could be guessed if they know from say social media that you are a railway anorak. Don't use real words, not even with all the vowels removed or substituted by numbers or alternative characters. Just use gobbledegook mix of all the different letters/numbers/special characters that the site will allow – some exclude certain ones.

[HuubParticipant @huub]

There is a independent organisation that tests antivirus software. I use this site for more than 20 years now to compare the free and paid AV products.

The last years, MS own AV software (MS defender) belongs to the best AV software products on the market. However the best protection is not to click on every link and not open mails from unknown senders.

AV Comparatives

[Anonymous]

FWIW (not very much) AVG was taken over by Avast some years ago.

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

I too use Microsoft Defender for antiviurs protection on my Windows 10 computer and has never had any problems.

Thor

[KEITH BEAUMONTParticipant @keithbeaumont45476]

About 3 PCs back, I had something nasty in the system and was recomended by a IT savvy pal to instal the free version of WinCleaner. This solved the problem and I have had it on all my PCs to date,although I do have the premium version these days. I run it about once a week and it always finds between 100 and 400 MB of junk to clear. I also have Norton 360 and once a month it sends me a screen,saying how clever it has been eliminating usually, some 6000 rubbisfh files. Also ,if I run Win 10 Disc clean, it also finds,say, 150 MB of junk to destroy. My confusion here is, as I can get these resulst by running these one after the other, are we being conned with these figures.? I understand that Windows is the only one that can eliminate old versions of windows, but once that is done, it should be clear.

Can anyone explain these results to me please.?

Keith

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

With computers these days having hard drives in the hundreds of GigaBytes, ie hundreds of thousands of megabytes, I would not be too worried about 400 megabytes of "junk" files.

Norton keeps popping up messages for me to upgrade my subscription to clean all this terrible junk out of my system but it seems like a racket to me.

But if you are running some ancient computer with say 1GB of space, then I suppose 400MB would be of concern.

[KEITH BEAUMONTParticipant @keithbeaumont45476]

The latest one is a year old ,with a 0ne TRBT hard drive. Even with large space originaly, junk can add up over time.

Keith

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Just watched this youtube video and maybe of interest to the OP link

H

[Author]

Posts