Who do you use for your antivirus and firewall internet security?
- Thread starter Brian R. VanCise
- Start date
Norton is a memory pig that has caused major issues on friends/ family member's PCs and laptops.
Not a fan of Symantec.
Anti-virus: I use AVG 7.5 which is a free program for personal users that will check Outlook and other email apps for viruses in attachements and will scan the drives for viruses. Download it from http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 The program will automatically check for updates daily and over the last 3 years I've had 0 viruses (knock on wood).
Firewall: I run ZoneAlarm as a software firewall.
Some folks think if one is better then two or three must be great so don't run multiple firewalls or anti-virus programs on the same system - they have a tendency to work against one another and can bring your system to its knees. This issue can also come into play when trying to remove one of the bloated pay-for-protection apps like Norton that are a PITA to remove completely from a computer.
Lastly, make sure you change the password on your router so that you won't have to worry about someone getting access to your system. NOTE/ Warning - if you aren't comfortable doing this have someone that knows PCs do this 'cuz you can lock yourself out! You can usually get into the router by bring up your Web browser and type either http://dslrouter or http://192.168.1.1 in the browsers address window and hit the ENTER key.
Not a fan of Symantec.
Anti-virus: I use AVG 7.5 which is a free program for personal users that will check Outlook and other email apps for viruses in attachements and will scan the drives for viruses. Download it from http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 The program will automatically check for updates daily and over the last 3 years I've had 0 viruses (knock on wood).
Firewall: I run ZoneAlarm as a software firewall.
Some folks think if one is better then two or three must be great so don't run multiple firewalls or anti-virus programs on the same system - they have a tendency to work against one another and can bring your system to its knees. This issue can also come into play when trying to remove one of the bloated pay-for-protection apps like Norton that are a PITA to remove completely from a computer.
Lastly, make sure you change the password on your router so that you won't have to worry about someone getting access to your system. NOTE/ Warning - if you aren't comfortable doing this have someone that knows PCs do this 'cuz you can lock yourself out! You can usually get into the router by bring up your Web browser and type either http://dslrouter or http://192.168.1.1 in the browsers address window and hit the ENTER key.
Excellent information fireman!
In addition to that, if you lost your documentation and don't know your router's default password, check out this website: http://www.routerpasswords.com/
I think most home routers have a little reset button that will set it back to the factory default settings if you lock yourself out of your router. Also, another popular address for a home router is http://192.168.0.1.
Another thing that I just remembered and thought would be great to point out. I do keep ZoneAlarm installed on my laptop. I will run it when I am connected to an untrusted network (ie, any network other than mine or my work). So even if you have a hardware firewall, a software firewall is still beneficial for when you may be using a publicly accessed network.
tellner
Senior Master
I used Norton for years and finally ditched it. It was just too much of a hog and didn't offer better protection than a number of other options. McAffee stuff didn't quite cut it and was nearly impossible to remove. After a couple others I settled on Kaspersky at the advice of a friend who is one of Intel's top InfoSec guys and head of their Capture the Flag team. It isn't quite as heavyweight as Norton and updates hourly.
Microsoft's anti-malware products are practically malware themselves.
The Mac doesn't have any extra protections, just the patches that come from Apple.
The Linux boxes have their own firewalls (IPChains), AppArmor, Bastille, somewhat fascist security policies, and one of them is tricked out as an IPS/IDS/sniffer.
Microsoft's anti-malware products are practically malware themselves.
The Mac doesn't have any extra protections, just the patches that come from Apple.
The Linux boxes have their own firewalls (IPChains), AppArmor, Bastille, somewhat fascist security policies, and one of them is tricked out as an IPS/IDS/sniffer.
Shicomm
Purple Belt
As i get around 3 systems a day infected with spyware / adware or viruses , it's nice to know the best ways to fight back 
A few opinions about the stuff out there...
Norton ( all stuff , exept the corp. editions ) : Slow , expensive , needs quite a load of RAM to run, slow in updates, way to low catchrate ... ; Need to say more ?
McAfee : Was at the same level as Norton but is getting better. It still eats a lot of RAM and the updates come in a slow matter.
AVG : It's free but the catch rate is a point of doubt with me , the update frequency is also quite low. Is light to use ; points on that
NOD32 : A very good product ; it's light , get's frequent updates and only uses a little bit of RAM. Downside ; doesn't have a firewall.
Panda : Multiple versions to choose from ; ( the titanium version is best value for money ) , very good catchrate , needs somewhat more RAM to operate really fast but since 2 of the 3 products do have a firewall that's only a minor downside.
Kaspersky : The biggest b#tch against all kinds of viruses!
The catchrate is by far the best of all products that i've tested for my customers. Updates come in as fast as every 2 hours (!) . Good for both beginning users ( software does all the work and doesn't interfere at all ) and advanced users ( all the settings that you could wish are there )
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2 others worth mentioning are Trend micro ( Japanese origin! ) and Bitdefender.
They offer some installable software but they also have very good online scanners.
They are free to use and offer very good results.
It's a good idea to check with them if your computer is still clean...
For the scanner of trend micro Click here
For the scanner of Bitdefender Click here ( Only for internet explorer )
A few opinions about the stuff out there...
Norton ( all stuff , exept the corp. editions ) : Slow , expensive , needs quite a load of RAM to run, slow in updates, way to low catchrate ... ; Need to say more ?
McAfee : Was at the same level as Norton but is getting better. It still eats a lot of RAM and the updates come in a slow matter.
AVG : It's free but the catch rate is a point of doubt with me , the update frequency is also quite low. Is light to use ; points on that
NOD32 : A very good product ; it's light , get's frequent updates and only uses a little bit of RAM. Downside ; doesn't have a firewall.
Panda : Multiple versions to choose from ; ( the titanium version is best value for money ) , very good catchrate , needs somewhat more RAM to operate really fast but since 2 of the 3 products do have a firewall that's only a minor downside.
Kaspersky : The biggest b#tch against all kinds of viruses!
The catchrate is by far the best of all products that i've tested for my customers. Updates come in as fast as every 2 hours (!) . Good for both beginning users ( software does all the work and doesn't interfere at all ) and advanced users ( all the settings that you could wish are there )
---
2 others worth mentioning are Trend micro ( Japanese origin!
) and Bitdefender.They offer some installable software but they also have very good online scanners.
They are free to use and offer very good results.
It's a good idea to check with them if your computer is still clean...
For the scanner of trend micro Click here
For the scanner of Bitdefender Click here ( Only for internet explorer )
I am using AVG and avast in my pc right now because it was not lagging up my pc and you can removed trojans with it. And also it can detect trojans and removed them by not lagging up my pc.When it comes to securing my pc I do used Comodo this 3 software are indeed great because it is not just free but also reliable.
tellner
Senior Master
My only problem with the security products is that they tend to become the biggest pieces of malware on my system. The number of things they have to do and keep doing all the frickin' time slows things down, constantly interrupts other processes and generally turns the computer into nothing but a machine dedicated to maintaining its own security.
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