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kpsnyderFlag for United States of America

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98 virus protection with support

I have an older Lattitude computer still using win 98 SE.  I need to get some virus protection on it but Norton and otheres don't seem to support 98 anymore.  Is there a free program or download that I can get that I can also keep getting updates for?

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turnbjr

Avast will give you a lot of false-positives.

Nod-32 is a better choice.  I run it on my 98SE machines.  I use version 2.51 or 2.79.

Make sure to install Spywareblaster to prevent problems:
www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html 

To tell you the truth, on one of my machines I do not us an antivirus product.  I just have a good firewall (Look'n'Stop 2.05), Spywareblaster for spyware prevention, and I run my internet applications through a sandbox (Sandboxie 3.26).  Make sure that you are behind a hardware firewall (router/gateway).  You can also use a web filtering solution such as Hostsman and VSserver.

Here is a list of freeware antivirus suites:
http://wiki.castlecops.com/Lists_of_freeware_antivirus

There are plenty of online scans to check your computer:
http://wiki.castlecops.com/Online_antivirus_scans

Best luck,
turnbjr
Not a Big firewall fan other than hardware personally.
Main reason is that if you do not know what you are saying yes or no to when the firewalls pop up, then how do you know if you are allowing the good and locking or stopping the bad?  When going to a questionable website, and you are not sure you could lock yourself out of a good website, and potentially allow the bad stuff in.  I live and breath virus and spyware removal at work...It's my bread and butter.  If you know what you are doing when using a firewall then it may be fine.  But if you dont know....you could cause more harm than good.  

Also dont forget you may need to teach your family members/computer users as well.  So even if you know how to use the firewalls and antivirus and anti spyware software, and what websites to stay away from and what not to download etc, you can run all the protection in the world, but your software tools are useless if the other users dont know how or dont use them properly.
I've been using Avast for more than 2 years with no problem and no viruses, but of course there is not one antivirus that provides 100% protection as it also depends on the users themselves.

If you do want a free antivirus with all updates all year round then go for either Avast or AVG as they are free, not just free trial like what other antivirus are offering.

If you also want antispyware programs to go with it, then SUPERAntispyware is good but it has no realtime protection, you need to pay a once off small fee to have a realtime protection.

Spybot S&D is free with realtime protection but not as good as SUPERAntispyware. Having Spybot and also SUPERAntispyware as on on-demand scanner is a good setup.
AVG is free and it installs on Win98 (so far that is, a new version has just come out), but I was not able to get the resident shield running on my old desktop. Checking the AVG forums revealed that this was an issue for other users, too.

So I'd suggest to stick to Avast.
Some people do not like software firewalls.

These people have problems blocking outbound connections.  Period.
Here's a good security Practices for your self, including the installation process of Antivirus & Antispyware softwares.
http://www-jerry.oit.duke.edu/pc/win98_me_security_configuration.html

Another free antivirus for win98
http://www.clamwin.com/

I guess also bit defender offers free version for win98... Bitdefender is a great software.

Good luck.