[ZTWsquared]

So for the new school year I'm giving the kids their own computers and as a result my network is growing to 6 which greatly exceeds my free Rogers Online Security and even the added-cost premium service.

I have three laptops and three PCs and 1TB network storage - 4 Windows VISTA Home Premium and two XP ... and I'm also looking to move up to some sort of a distributed media solution (my house is cat5e wired in every room plus I have a D-Link DIR-625 wireless router and two D-Link 5-port 100mps ethernet switches)

what do you recommend for free anti-virus, malware, etc. and if you have any thoughts about a TV/media solution, well I'm all ears.

TIA for your advice.

[OAC_Sparky]

Hopefully you will take this the way it's intended, but I find that you get what you pay for, Ken. I've used free antivirus programs, a lot of them will identify that you have a virus, but you'll have to remove it yourself. That's a lot of work especially when you have kids that may venture into questionable territory (even unintentionally); in the event that they do you don't want to have to spend time reconfiguring that many computers in an outbreak.

WHat I would humbly suggest is Staples has Norton 360 3-user licenses for $44 http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sk...e=&=&=&=
You'll need 2 for all 6 computers ($90+tax) but in all the years I've used Norton I've NEVER had and issue with a virus getting in and if you're planning on running a media server then by protecting all your gateways to the network you are in essence protecting the server too.

Now I KNOW that there will be people chirping in with how it slows down your computer yaddayaddayadda but nobody in your house is a power user or in a job where high CPU load rendering is important, so the CPU hit is livable.

As for the mediaserver I have an HP MediaSmart Server, it's pricy but it's fantastic.
http://www.hp.com/canada/products/landin...index.html

[euro_zx5]

I use Norton Internet Security and get a 3 user liscence copy every boxing day for $30. That is the best AV software imo. But for free AV i'd recommend AVG.

[tetra]

AVG.
Never had a virus, and it's free

^^No offense, but Norton products are the worst. It's not all about slowing down the PC, it's the fact that a lot of the viruses bypass Norton security or attack Norton at the core.

[OAC_Sparky]

(09-20-2010, 03:01 AM)tetra Wrote: ^^No offense, but Norton products are the worst. It's not all about slowing down the PC, it's the fact that a lot of the viruses bypass Norton security or attack Norton at the core.

Like I said, I've been using Norton since '95; and I've never had an issue apart from it erasing certain ...erm... "questionable" files that would "extend" trial programs (winkwink). And I've downloaded a lot of sh!t, it's never let me down.

I've used AVG, it was ok when it was first out but find now the free version is kinda hobbled. And I've used McAfee during the trials; all I an say is RUN.

[euro_zx5]

McAfee is the WORST for memory hogging imo, Norton has gone leaps and bounds on minimizing memory use.

[paolo]

never had a problem with avg free, although my corporate RCI laptop had MacAffee, it worked great.

[Scorcher000]

Here you go Ken, it has a year and some change left. This goes for anyone else too. It's a real code I paid for.

AVG 9.0 Internet Security Suite
Email me scorcher000@rogers.blackberry.net for the key

http://www.avg.com/ca-en/download-file-stb-triis-us

Download it, do the updates and make sure you put my key in instead of the trial version. Easy on the PC and the User.

[OAC_Sparky]

^^You should probably edit that and offer it via PM if you're going to; if AVG finds out (and it may, googlebots would add this to the "AVG Suite code" search) and blacklist the serial.

[Scorcher000]

(09-20-2010, 06:34 AM)OAC_Sparky Wrote: ^^You should probably edit that and offer it via PM if you're going to; if AVG finds out (and it may, googlebots would add this to the "AVG Suite code" search) and blacklist the serial.

True...

[NOS2Go4Me]

We're a McAfee shop at work, but for cheap/free I recommend AVG. AVG Free is a great free AV product. Avast is also a close second.

Avast has a nice "scan at next boot", before Windows loads, to scan for malicious things that hide themselves when Windows is loaded.

AVG has a free, downloadable boot CD image that can be updated to the latest version before scanning your hard drive while Windows isn't loaded.

Having said that, McAfee Total Protection Suite is great for home users. And, it's easy to use - even by those who aren't horribly PC savvy.

http://free.avg.com and http://www.avg.com/ie-en/avg-rescue-cd for the AVG products.

http://www.avast.com/en-ca/index for the Avast options.

http://www.mcafee.com for the McAfee offerings.

[NefCanuck]

Personally I use ESET on both of my machines but if cost is an absolute deal breaker, Microsoft Security Essentials deals with things well enough (At least my mom has never called me complaining that her PC is hosed, and she surfs "kamikaze style" )

NefCanuck

[j3rt]

I've used AVG, Avast and Eset, I find the pay ones always seem to hog resources.
Currently I am using http://www.superantispyware.com/, and http://www.malwarebytes.org/, with Avast.
I am pleased with all.

Any Windows Home Server will do the trick for storage, automatic backups, file/printer hosting.
I like the Acer boxes. There are plenty of off lease PCs, that will handle the workload of WHS. Also you'll have the option of expansion, Gigabit card, RAID controller, USB card etc.
I will be going the WHS PC route.
Just remember, get a UPS!!

As for TV/media, for standalone players, the Patriot box supports a ton of extensions, the chipset will handle 1080 and MKVs. I am not a fan of the Asus or WD standalone units. Oh and make sure to get a unit that can be networked.

[reldridge]

I'm surprised nobody else has suggested it, but I'm a big fan of Microsoft Security Essentials. Free, low memory utilization, and so far has kept us safe on both of my PCs, my parents' PC, and my inlaws' PCs. It's updated vary often (multiple times a week), and like I said, its nice and low-memory-hogging.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

I also am a fan of Avast for free stuff to, more so that AVG. I found it took less memory, and the updates were quicker.

On the corporate side, we're actually going away from Symantec Endpoint Security (Norton corporate), and are heading to Vipre. http://www.vipreantivirus.com/ Apparently it's been good on our 'sister' network, and we'll be moving to it next week.

-Ryan

[darkpuppet]

I'd vote for AVG or Microsoft's security essentials. You can be pretty assured that your machine is safe with either.

I've run everything from Symantec, McAffee, to Panda, AVG, etc.. and I've seen machines with all but AVG get compromised by Trojans and other malware. Not saying that AVG is absolutely bulletproof, but that any anti-virus can be circumvented by a careless user.

If you're interested in a distributed media server, we should talk. I have a 4TB media/storage server at home that I build and has proven reliable even through a hard drive failure (replaced the drive, no data lost).

In my opinion, building a media server from scratch with generic hardware is the better option when it comes to dealing with the inevitable component failures down the road. Out of the 6 people I know with store bought NAS servers, and me being the 7th, we've all experienced a component failure in the first 3 years of having the server, and only mine was fixed in under a month because I didn't have to wait for a proprietary hardware replacement to come in.

Like riding a motorbike, a good home NAS server should be planned around an eventual crash.

[moon111]

A decade ago I was doing tech support for an OEM who shipped Norton. I'd say Norton was an issue about 10x more then viruses were. I've written a sponsored review on Panda's AV packages and they were resource hogs. Used AVG for a long time... as my Event Viewer can testify to. Had problems updating it as well. Just switched to Avast and so far am really pleased with it. Feels more polished then AVG.

[j3rt]

Fun link for the average home server person,
lots of reading,
http://www.wegotserved.com/category/how-to/

[Spinal]

microsoft security essentials are actually quite good, i use it in combination with Avira anti-virus, their free version.

too bad i didn't see this thread last week, we had kaspersky internet security 3 user on sale for $20 from $80.

i find a lot of the other AV programs aren't as good as they're cracked up to be, i read an online review and found that eset/kaspersky products beat out everyone else by quite a bit. but in any case, just don't go downloading random stuff or visiting websites that make no sense and the chances of actually getting a virus are slim to none.