Need recommendations

TomJoe · #1 08-08-2006, 09:38 PM

Currently my home PC is running Norton Systemworks 2003. It's about to expire, and I don't want to send any more money to Norton. So, what do people use to secure their computers?

seebs · #2 08-08-2006, 10:15 PM

I use Kerio Personal Firewall for firewall stuff, LavaSoft and Spybot for anti-spyware, and Avast for antivirus. Note that really, given the firewall and a tiny inkling of common sense, the others don't matter much.

Crumb · #3 08-08-2006, 11:03 PM

Zone Alarm firewall. It's free.

rigorist · #4 08-09-2006, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seebs

I use Kerio Personal Firewall for firewall stuff, LavaSoft and Spybot for anti-spyware, and Avast for antivirus. Note that really, given the firewall and a tiny inkling of common sense, the others don't matter much.

And if they fail, you can call up your ISP and bitch.

kiwimac · #5 08-09-2006, 04:41 AM

I use Tiny Personal Firewall, AVG and Ad-Aware / Spybot.

Kiwimac

Kaitou · #6 08-09-2006, 04:58 AM

I too happen to have the same problem. Mine's Norton 2005. Is there a gratuitous home edition of Norton (or perhaps Symantic) Antivirus? I would prefer an edition that has automatic protection ready.

seebs · #7 08-09-2006, 08:11 PM

Kerio's firewall is free for home use, although some features are only in the for-pay version. Lavasoft has a free antispyware, and Spybot's free.

I don't know so much about free antivirus.

Consumer Reports did these this month. They liked BitDefender, ZoneAlarm AntiVirus, and Kapersky Labs antivirus best, although all of those cost money.

For antispyware, they liked F-Secure, Webroot, PC Tools, and Trend Micro best. Me, I've been okay with Lavasoft and Spybot; spybot is surprisingly high (77/100, compared to 89 for F-secure) given that it's free.

Antispam, if you need some, they liked Trend Micro's free stuff, and Allume's SpamCatcher. (Allume is the company formerly known as Aladdin, they were the StuffIt people.) They particularly loathed Sunbelt's, Blue Squirrel's, and CA/eTrust's products, which scored 10's and 11s.

TomJoe · #8 08-10-2006, 02:23 PM

So seebs, do you use the freeware version of Kerio Personal Firewall?

TomJoe · #9 08-10-2006, 07:54 PM

Oh, and for the record. Norton Systemworks does not go quietly. Damn bastard and a million components needed to uninstall, download programs to help me further uninstall, edit the registry bullcrap.

seebs · #10 08-11-2006, 07:40 AM

Yeah, I just use the free one. I don't need their "popup blocker", and in fact, when it got accidentally turned on once during a trial period, it just screwed with me. Firefox is better.

It's not perfect, but it's pretty decent, and it mostly does what I want. I do wish it had a few more options; for instance, I'd like an "allow this process and anything it spawns to spawn other apps until it terminates" for Microsoft installers, or "allow this app to connect to this one IP address without asking, but never to any other address".

livius drusus · #11 08-11-2006, 01:34 PM

I use Avast! for my anti-virus and I love it. I also installed it for my parents (who are both unfrozen caveman lawyers when it comes to this kind of thing) with everything set to dowloand, update and scan automatically. They haven't had a single problem of any kind in 2 years; no viruses, no "please download the new dat files" messages, no "you owe us money", no bullshit.

peepnklown · #12 08-11-2006, 03:21 PM

I recommend Kaspersky
It has virus protection, spyware protection, firewall, and spam protection.

AVG
Free virus protection.

viscousmemories · #13 08-11-2006, 03:29 PM

I've been using the freeware Avira AntiVir with almost daily updates for about 10 years.

TomJoe · #14 08-12-2006, 07:38 PM

Well, first I found a trojan that made its way onto my system and then I got my first blue screen of death, today.

:glare:

Stormlight · #15 08-12-2006, 08:46 PM

I've been saying this for a long time: Norton is the devil's whore. :glare:

I use Avira and ZoneAlarm for 2 years now and haven't looked back.

Javaman · #16 08-12-2006, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomJoe

Well, first I found a trojan that made its way onto my system and then I got my first blue screen of death, today.

:glare:

That sucks. Sorry to hear that. You've probably heard all of this before but the standard recommendation is Firefox (with noScript) and Thunderbird. Those two alone should keep you clean without much effort on your part at all. As to the antivirus stuff, I agree with everyone here about the free ones which, in addition to each's homepages, can be found easily at filehippo's 'Anti-Virus' section. Also check out the firewall section.

FWIW, I use AVG and but don't have a software firewall as I use the hardware one in my router. For my laptop, though (and my downstairs wireless desktop), I use Zone Alarm. I might check out some of the others as I find ZA a bit inelegant.

Good luck. Oh, how were you able to solve your BSOD?

Shake · #17 08-14-2006, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwimac

I use Tiny Personal Firewall, AVG and Ad-Aware / Spybot.

Same thing, except without the Tiny Personal Firewall. I'll have to look into that.

TomJoe · #18 08-16-2006, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Javaman

Good luck. Oh, how were you able to solve your BSOD?

I uninstalled Kerio/Sunbelt Personal Firewall and replaced it with ZoneAlarm. I also upgraded Firefox to v1.5 (I was using v0.8 ... ACK!). I also added noScript (but I don't think that had any effect whatsoever). I think basically that KPF was screwing me over. Once that was uninstalled things settled down.

On the antivirus front, Avast! seems to be doing the trick for me. Currently on my laptop I'm running Norton Internet Security, and when that expires (in about 11 months), I'll switch to ZA and Avast! on here as well.

Javaman · #19 08-16-2006, 11:13 AM

Excellent! I thought the BSOD was related to the trojan but I think I read that into your post. As for this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomJoe

I also added noScript (but I don't think that had any effect whatsoever).

That should just help you stay clean if you accidentally visit any bad web sites since many of them exploit Javascript in order to infect your computer. It can be a bit annoying at first as you have to allow all of the good sites (banks, etc.) but, after that, you can use the 'Temporarily Allow whatever.com' if something isn't displaying correctly.

beyelzu · #20 08-16-2006, 02:57 PM

well, im using avg and zonealarm myself. i tried using another one that vm recommended to me but it didnt seem to give me a report so i went back to avg.

has anyone used both avast and avg?

if so what do yall think?

TomJoe · #21 08-16-2006, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Javaman

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomJoe

I also added noScript (but I don't think that had any effect whatsoever).

That should just help you stay clean if you accidentally visit any bad web sites since many of them exploit Javascript in order to infect your computer.

I agree. I may not have been clear. Just meant that I didn't think noScript caused the BSOD. I'm sure it's going to help my computer stay clean. As a matter of fact, now that I'm at work, it's time to update Firefox here ... though I'm going to lose my biobar as it's not supported by the latest Firefox upgrade.