Virus Protection - A Work In Progress

These links will take you to web sites where you can get free virus protection software. Some are trial versions that you will need to purchase if you want to use them after the specified number of days, but some are free forever! Now there's really no excuse for not being protected...

Most of these web sites offer a database of known viruses and a mailing list for new virus alerts. It's a good idea to subscribe to one or two lists so you know when new viruses are discovered. Alternatively, visit my Virus Awareness page often and check the Latest Viruses information.

Butterfly Bar

AVG Anti-Virus System
AVG is a product of Grisoft. This program is always free (unless you live in continental Europe - you folks can get a free 30 day trial, but must pay afterwards.) The program scans email and downloads, and will scan your hard drive or removable media (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or floppy disks.) An optional tag can be added to all your outgoing mail to let folks know it has been scanned for viruses. The main drawback to this program is that its updates are rather infrequent. This can leave you open to newer viruses for a period of time, so check for the update often and be sure to get informed about new virus threats.

McAfee VirusScan
You can get a free trial copy of this popular virus protection software (look for the "Evaluate" link at the bottom of the page that comes up.) One of the drawbacks of having McAfee is that there are some viruses that will actually look for the better known programs and are capable of disabling the software, so relying on McAfee alone is not the best idea unless you're very vigilant. But, it is a favourite of many folks because it is familiar. And it is easy to run and download updates. McAfee offers a number of other useful products, some with free trials as well.

PC-Cillin 30 Day Trial Download
Trend Micro's virus protection and firewall combination works with a personal computer or wireless device, and is compatible with Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME and XP. The program also allows you to control your children's access to web sites that might be offensive or inappropriate. One interesting feature of the program is that it scans for new script-based viruses by what the scripts do, which improves early detection of new threats.

PC Housecall
Free all the time, this is Trend Micro's online virus scan. It takes a bit of time to load and run, so be patient. Take the quiz in the virus status window and you could get a 20% reduction on the purchase of PC-Cillin, a virus protection and firewall combination that you install on your computer.

Sophos Anti-Virus
Take a free 30 day trial of this very user friendly virus protection system. One of the great advantages to Sophos is that they are right on top of every new virus, and they often have much more complete information than the competition. If you sign up for their mailing list you will be alerted as soon as a new virus is detected, and you can immediately download a single file to update your virus protection. Sophos will issue an updated file every time they detect a significant mutation to an existing virus. The competition might be doing this, but they don't necessarily tell you! Sophos is a great choice if you want to deal with a company that acknowledges your intelligence and doesn't dumb down their products like some other companies.

Symantec Security Check
The makers of the popular Norton products don't seem to have any free trials on their software, but they do offer a free remote scan. You need a browser that handles JavaScript for these tests, which will check for either viruses or your computer's vulnerability to online security threats (e.g. hackers.) The latter is a good test to run if you want to know how well your firewall is protecting you!

Butterfly Bar