I’m looking for advice on a good open source anti virus solution, any tips?
I am already aware of Clamwin. Any others out there?
Thank you.
Avast! maybe… i think there is 2 versions though, the one yuo pay for and the free one…
I know that there is quite a few around. And pretty much all of them are better than the mainstream ones like norton 360 or CA Security.
No, that is not free…sorry… and thank you, it is feature limited, which means I need to “buy” the license to use all features…this is why I am searching for an “open source” solution. However I do thank you for your time. I think it should be part of your OS in these times to have an anti virus solution…makes sense to me…but that is just me…
-anyway any other advice?
Personally i just use Trend Micro…although thats mainly cos i got it free when i got windows 7 on the release day… as far as i’m concerned its essential to have antivirus, especially when you are constantly downloading models and texture packs. It’s not my area of expertise though, i can build a computer in half an hour but i couldnt help you much past that.
That would be the most stupid and useless thing ever, no?
If you can see how the heurestic and detection is working by looking at the code it would be easy to code malware to circumvent the function of the AV 
Personally I recommend Avira Free:
You can also switch to premium anytime if you like it.
I also like commodo firewall, which is free and they got a complete package, PFW+AV+Antimalware:
Very nice is also the sandbox feature, where you can execute stuff in a quarantined environment.
Can´t say anything about the AV quality/performance though
Other than that, a good paid package is F-Secure Internet Security. Very secure and almost no impact on the system performance.
But whatever you do, stay away from Symantec and Norton crap.
hth
PC-chillin has always been great IMO, but that does not change the fact I am looking for FREE as in BEER anti-virus. I am going opensource because, well, …I have no money to be frank…at least not money to spend on anti-virus software. Anyone…crickets…
EDIT:
@arexma, that is a very valid point…as far as exposed code to the public goes…
I will check the others, and I would also recommend avoiding symantec crap…yes I said it…crap, not a matter of opinion or debate.
Aren’t there ways to make Windoze more secure just by changing some default settings? Close ports, change permissions so that you have to type a password to install apps, etc. I’ve read somewhere that you can kind of lock Windows down, but what do I know I’m a mac/linux guy.
@ (jay) I have also heard about these “windows lockdown” type settings, but im not sure that its really possible to keap it up. You might be fine with it for a few weeks but it gets REALLY annoying, especially when adding new applications that want to use ports ect. that you’ve already closed, or programs that rely on internet connection can be difficult (From personal experience windows Live Gaming HATES the windows settings…). Yes, you may want to turn these kinds of settings on just before doing anything major, but often viruses and malware will hit you only when you least expect it, so as far as im concerned its best to just get antivirus and be done with it!
And yes, Symantec = Virus magnet/ CCPU sponge/ Waste of a GB on your computer/ Waste of 10 minutes getting it…
Woah i had no idea that one thing could have so many uses…other than its intended one.
Locking down a windows pc (windows server are whole different horror story) is both inconvenient and useless. Even if you do lock it down there are flaws that are practically unavoidable. There have been flaws in in parsing .lnk, .mhtm and .jpg files in core system files that have allowed remote execution of code for years. What I mean is, even if you take every precaution sometimes you will just get a virus because you saw a webpage with a malicious ad or viewed an infected icon file from another persons flash drive.
The only real solution is wait for microsoft to fix a given bug. The alternative is to pick an antivirus vendor and hope antivirus software can respond before it is too late, which seems to be mostly luck based, but works at least sometimes.
As for actual antivirus solutions that are open source… (the sound of crickets)
I think clamav is about the only open source solution. Clamwin is really just a user interface attached to it. It also really isn’t optimized for windows, because it needs to run on so many other platforms that don’t need on-access scanning (last I used it didn’t perform any kind of on-access scanning, it only scanned when you specifically asked for it). So really, if you are running windows you want a virus scanner that runs the whole time, unlike clamwin. So either pony up for real antivirus, accept the risk, or go completely open source.
@arexma Heuristic based virus scanning is probably the only case where I think there is a legitimate technical reason to not want to open source something. However, Looking at the virus authors perspective, couldn’t he just scan a copy of his virus with a closed source virus scanner to determine whether or not it will be found. Is jumping into the code really required? So why throw the advantage of community based updates away when you still have the biggest drawback of letting the bad-guys know if they dodge the scanner or not?
I tried to post a series of links backing my claims, but the board wouldn’t let me 
Avast Free is IMHO the best free solution. It is not open source but it doesn’t cost you anything. It doesn’t slow your system down as much as some other anti-virus programs do. http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download There is a pro version with extra bells and whistles but you don’t need that version anyway.
AVG Free is another great choice that other nerd friends of mine swear by.
They also say to have spywareblaster installed but I never do it.
Usually I just use Ubuntu because as an advanced computer user, it is definitely my OS of choice. You can install it alongside your Windows installation and you can try it out before you install it. With GNU Linux, there are lots of free solutions to keep your computer secure. http://ubuntu.com
If you are going totally open-source I would recommend going to Linux then. You’ll have less worries with Linux then with Windows, especially where viruses and malware is concerned.
MS would love to do that am sure, I think they even tried to do it, but than the would be hit by many monopoly lawsuits. with an almost 90% OS market share I think they have to tread carefully around these kind of issues.
I just use the Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus stuff. It’s free, and it works great. It does a routine virus scan that only takes literally 1-2 minutes (even less on my laptop with a solid state drive 
). The definitions are updated almost daily it seems.
@JustinBarret
Considering the quality of everything else microsoft has released would you really want antivirus produced by them too?
I use Ubuntu full time on my PCs, then I am stuck fixing windows full time, and writing software around windows flaws part time (I have two jobs).
[offtopic]
At my tech support job we have a contract where we only need to get the customer connected to the wireless network to surf web pages. The customers generally have money, so about 1 in 5 calls is a Mac user. When a user calls in and say they have a windows laptop there is about an 80% chance the problem software related, and the rest is split between reception and problems with our equipment. When a Mac user calls It is either reception or our equipment is down. I am skipping problems where they simply didn’t know how to connect to the network or just didn’t know to open a web browser after they connected, but I have never needed to reset tcp/ip, reinstall drivers, reboot or otherwise troubleshoot a Mac.
For the oddity it is, on any of our contracts, I have never had a Linux user call and do anything except ask for settings and server names, then politely end the call.
[/offtopic]
I personally use the free version of avast with Microsoft security essentials and the free version of comodo firewall.
Security Essentials has been no problems for me, and providing you have legit windows you should be able to get it (free),
AVG ive found to be crap since version 7 and free version is mainly the problem, not sure about the paid version prop wont be as great aswell…
Why would one empirically test for hours, days and weeks if his malware can bypass a virus scanner with a certain distribution level, and where in particular to attack, when he just needs to look into the code, and knows what the right angle for the crowbar is? Getting malware in often involves memory injections and buffer overflows. Knowing where to do it is much easier than trail and error. Let alone the bugtracker for that AV would be a feast for dataparasites. I think you underestimate the crimial energy of black hackers, especially those enabling distributed bot nets.
Disclosing the heurestic core is like securing your PC with a password, which is written on a stickynote attached to your screen. 
Furthermore any AV uses for the most part signature based and heurestic detection (some also offer rootkit detection). An open source AV will most likely have to be very strong on the heurestic part, as I doubt FOSS will have the manpower to update the signature database quickly enough. There´s a reason why AV software has its price. Coding one is not as hard as maintaining it. I´d most certainly not use a AV that´s weeks behind with the signature database. And signature based bottom up community updates? Would you trust a database where anyone could submit signatures for false positives for instance?
FOSS and communities are a good thing, just not in all areas.
TRY AVG Free, it works really well, i used to hack and honestly this program could stop me more than any other that was free so its a good idea "D
I’d have to disagree there moose, the main reason that AVG would have blocked you off the most times is because so many people use it, its a plague of bad software that has quite close to covered the earth. If 9/10 of your attempts are blocked, and 4/10 of people are using AVG, then it will inevitabley have a higher block rate, but only because there is so much of it.
Also, AVG takes your CPU and eats it for breakfast, then your RAM for lunch. Then your internet speed for Dinner. And for dessert it takes your dignity.
AVira locked up my computer when I was using it. Since then I use AVG and haven’t had problems. Not OSS but free.