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AntiVirus/ AntiSpyware

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AntiVirus/ AntiSpyware

My Opinion

from JoeUser Forums
OK, I've read the Threads about this topic and as retired IT professional,

I have spent hour's upon hour's testing and putting the AntiVirus apps and personal firewall apps through their paces. Symantec, Mcavee, AVG, PC Cillin, Zonealarm,Ect,Ect.


1st) If your using a good router with NAT enabled, you'll have a hardware based firewall along with XP's built in personal firewall turned on,
decent protection without a load on your system resources. and Best of all Free.

if you do not have a router (NOTE: all DSL and Cable modems are in fact a routing device) and most have NAT turned on by default, this protects the ISP also.
They don't want any buga boo's on their servers either. Now if your an unfortunate soul with Dialup, your ISP usually has some type of protection for you, even the local ISP's do this as a part of their services.
They have them for a reason people. your paying for it, Use it! Besides why would you want to spend your hard earned bucks on a solution they normally provide.



2nd) As far as Anti Virus Programs, AVAST personal AntiVirus gets my marks, Free Version just register and they send you a key and allow you to renew forever every year, if your a small business or a Corporation the Full Pro Program is for you at a reasonable price.



Avast uses very little resources and has a small footprint. It will automatically protect you email clients,

Automatically update itself, Help protect you from bad or infected sites, Skinnable, Alows for a Boot time Scan of entire system including any Archival files, zips,Arcs,

Rars, Which means before your OS loads,

Incorparates into Explorer to allow file scans at anytime via explorer right click context menu,

Detects infections as soon as you access an infected file.



In My opinion Avast has fewer False positives then AVG or the other popular antivirus apps and misses less infections then any I've tested.



3rd) Anti Spyware protection. I recommend you install MS Defender as it updates via Windows updates, Scans daily in the background. It's Free!



Spybot Search and Destroy 1.5 Latest version, Has Browser protection, teatimer active scanner.

You have to check for updates once a week, and download them then Imunize again. this will keep you well protected. The teatimer will absolutly keep you from all

known bad sites for spyware and adware, This includes alot of so called free online gaming sites

( they watch everything) and the so called free screensaver sites.

( they almost always load apps in the background you don't want) You can pretty much setup Spybot Search and Destroy to be an automatic deal.



Now if you prefere you can still get Adaware free version but it is limited to manual scans, I am currently testing Adaware 2007, not free, but does have active

scanning and other features turned on that even the last Adaware version personal SE does not have. Anyway the Adaware 2007 seems to be doing it's job.



BEWARE!!!! there are alot of So called AntiSpyware and AntiSpamware Apps floating around on the WEB that are NOT what they claim to be,

They are in FACT! SPYWARE Themselves



I've cleaned a many a system that the Owner stated they were on the web surfing and a pop up came up and said they were infected and they can download a free

Scan of their system, so they clicked on the link and viola they were now infected or Browser Hijacked.



Stay away from the so called Search sites with the free Tool bars, you simply do Not need them. just go to Ask.com or Google.com, livesearch.com, then save the

link in your favorites. With IE7 there is a search toolbar already and you can even change your prefered search site by clicking the drop down from the toolbar(its right

next to the little magnifyer, upper right in the browser.all the browser add ons use resources and some track your every move, dropping cookies on you like

Rain.



One last Note: Always remember to temporarliy turn off windows restore before scanning for Virus's or Spyware. If you use a backup solution, you may have backed

up the infection Too! So Clean up make sure your clean and healthy, then Re-enable system restore and do your backup's





Happy Computing to all

76,772 views 32 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hello,

Nice information, This is very helpful to me, i really need info about anti-spyware because recently I am using a 'Adware Alert' anti-spyware of www.adwarealert.com, and This is really a bad one, rascal, useless..

anyway reply is looking good i will try them

Thanks!!
Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sorry I took so long getting back to you, Thanks for the nice comments, that's what makes us want to share more info with others, Positive feedback rather then Negative all the time.  :CONGRAT: 
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top

Norton/Symantec is a hilarious AV system.  The company I work at uses it, and the performance of a machine before and after it gets installed is like night and day.  It literally takes about an extra 1-5 minutes of loading after logging in, depending on the machine after Symantec is installed.  Whenever it runs a scheduled scan, you might as well go on a break as it more or less hogs 100% of system resources then running the scan.  It claims it isn't, but good luck trying to run anything while it is going on.

 

As for freeware utilities I would recommend and use some of the following at home and at work:

AV - Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast

Spyware - Malwarebytes

Avira used to be a decent AV, but I find its false positive rate causes more problems than it solves.  I used to use Spy-bot for spyware as well, but found its detection rate is inferior to Malwarebytes and it's been slowly getting more bloated.

Of course the best protection program is Common Sense 2010.  I didn't use anything other than Windows Firewall for years, and never had any problems.

Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Fuzzy, reply 2
It's a good idea to test your online vulnerability at somewhere like Shields Up LINK

This is what I get... (NAT router and Zone Alarm)


Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice.

End of Fuzzy's quote

Thanks for the link, Fuzzy Logic!  Here are the results for my computer. 

"Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice."

I use Vipre Premium from Sunbelt Software.  I am beta testing their latest version now.  It's a bit boring as their software works almost flawlessly.  I've use a lot of different security software over the years.  Vipre works the best of any I've used.  No, I don't work for the company.  I'm just a happy customer.  Thanks again for the link.


 

 

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top

I use Microsoft Security Essentials does an awesome job.

  • Free
  • Great reviews
  • All in one app.

Used to use Avast and AVG and various spyware checkers (Adaware, Spybot, rootkit checkers etc- still run these, never can be too careful)

Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice."
End of quote

Meanwhile...we now have your name, address and phone number...inside leg measurement and are as we speak emptying your bank accounts.

BTW....you should be wearing a larger size of jeans...as your crotch is showing physical discomfort.

All of this is no concern...as your system is silent in every way.

Very nice.

We shall send photos from gay Paris.

Cheers,

Your hacker.