Good anti virus?

[Tiric]

nope havent tried adware away yet, ... have used :
Counter spy
spyware doctor
spybot.

then NOD32 for Virus...

[G]

If you have run NOD32 and CounterSpy then in all probability you do not have an infection.

McAfee is not as good as it is purported to be by it sales figures.

Like I said, if you what serious protection and resource light online programs then go NOD32 3-year license, CounterSpy, enable The Windows Firewall, keep Windows, Office and any other program updated and you will be safe if you do not take surfing risks, of course.

There’s nothing else that needs to be said.

[Doctor Micro]

In our business, we see a lot of different PC's & Laptops with various AV and AS installations. Based on the number of problems we've seen with Norton products in the last year (not to mention their incredible bloat), we have stopped recommending any Norton AV/NIS product. McAfee is better (ie, far fewer issues), but the new version suffers from the same bloat as Norton. We have had good success with both the paid (2-yr subscription) and free versions of AVG, as well as NOD32 and Avast.

We also like CounterSpy, however version 1.5 is very resource hungry. Version 2.0 is lighter on its feet than 1.5, is currently in Beta and should be out in the first quarter of 2007. Webroot is also a good product, but also resource hungry and more intrusive than CounterSpy. You might also look at STOPzilla. SpyBot and Ad-Aware can be helpful, but they are passive protection programs that you must manually run and will only remove spyware after you've already been infected (ie, no active protection).

I see no problem with G's recommendation above, except would add the recommendation to replace the Windows default firewall with a 3rd party firewall, like ZoneAlarm or similar product. Windows firewall will only check things coming IN to your computer, whereas ZoneAlarm and others of it's kind will check what is attempting to go OUT from your computer in addition.

[G]

DC, I mentioned The Windows Firewall as it is free.

Ideally, a robust software firewall, a router and HIPS would be ideal.

But additional knowledge and expense is necessary for this level of protection.

Keeping is simple, stupid and cheap was the idea behind my original post.

Moreover, if the user is sensible they risk exposure to the nastiest infections on the Internet less so.

[kingofa]

Is AVG a good anti-virus program?

[rockinup1231]

Yes, it is so. I had it on my old gateway 2000 and it ran fast, and with very little resources. Scan speeds were sometimes faster than those of McAfee. I recommend it to those who have little resources, or don't feel they should have to pay for a subscription. Also, updates came in every weekend.

[rwest]

My 2 cents. I had Norton antivirus, tried Avast and now run Nod32. I had alot of resources being used at one time, and upon GlC's and other's suggestions there is a big difference when you run a lighter program such as Nod32. ( I run a video editor program while I surf) I didn't like Avast. It appeared to me, to be not as user friendly as some others. From what I've now seen, Nod32 is tops in my book.

I also use Windows firewall. I thinks it's a great program. No settings required, just turn it on.

I tried Counterspy. I think it's a real good program with alot of nice features, but I like Spybot better. I found spybot easier to use and it a has a program(called resident) with it that watches the registry. Any changes at all and this program pops up and notifies you. You then have the option to allow the change or not.

Adaware. Great program. Haven't the need or desire to try another.

Windows Firewall, Nod32, Spybot, and Adaware. Tested on porn sites! Nothing got thru except a few non threatening files. Did a rescan and clean, all is well. Didn't even have to restart. But I did anyway , and scanned again, Just to be sure, cuz I didn't belive it after the first scan.

[rockinup1231]

(...) Talk about an ultimate unrestricting defense.

Nothin' gets though my current Spyware Terminator/Norton AV combo. ST is so sensitive it catches and builds a wall against Windows Update sometimes! The disadvantage is that you have to lower it's defense in order to install anything. It stops all types of attacks and attackers.

I like Norton. It may suck up resources, but it is much less penetrable than McAfee and AVG for example. Not that AVG is bad. It also scans faster than the to compared AV's

[rockinup1231]

Granted, I only started using Spyware Terminator yesterday, but I have been on the net all day. I have done everything I could to test it.

[rwest]

I have done everything I could to test it.

Ya' aint tested nuthin' if ya' ain't gone south! If ya' really wanna test it, go porn! O'course ya gotta have the guts to do it.

[Midknyte]

spyware terminator is a rogue antispyware. Look at this link from
Antivirus/Antispy

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

[Rabbitrunner51]

Hey Sterling.. I DL'ed that AdawareAway (trial to check it out and it is a very nice program.. Problem is this is the second time this morning that i tried something like this to check out some software and both times they removed my login info for this site.... Maybe i need to find something in the main control menu and set that so that won't happen again.. Any help here??

it did find at least four or five more things though.. Todays my day for runnig all of the known AV,Spyware programs and other i have, which i did today. Good thing as i often forget to do a personal scan like once a week or so.., and I should remind all of those others out there to do the same.

The Trojan masters and all the rest are making thier rounds again.. My AntiSpyware i have found one main Trojan and eight lesser threats today and i got them fixed. Good thing as my computer screen ws beginning to do some wierd flickering, which prompted me to run these.. Fixed that.

What all shoulkd know is ,even though you have these great protection programs on yur systems, like AV and all the rest, some tweakers out there still get by alot of them, as read and reported of late on the internet and tech. reports. Mine was a BDS prefix Trojan... Quarantined and removed...

And.. midknyte is correct .. thats what i do.. go to that link above LOL

[G]

For that reason Rabbit I use a ProSecuirty HIPS and manually edit the registry or use X-Setup and tweak is even more.

Moreover I use policy group to harden my system.

Prior to accessing my system a user would have to insert a unique encryption token, then they would have to by pass encryption pre-authentication. With the hardening of the OS and using NOD32, Counterspy and so forth my defenses are rather robust.

Many or my volumes are military encrypted when not in use too.

All login information uses random 20 charset username and PWs thanks to RoboForm so no key logging possible.

So I would say my system is sound.

I also have 1TiB of storage for backups in 4 separate volumes each on a separate HDDs, plus an online backup and an offline backup too.

I don’t mess about when it comes to my data.

[Rabbitrunner51]

I guess not! I don't think even the whitehouse has that much protection.. Geeze 'G' , your not a bit paranoid are ya? I can defitely see why you do all of that though. You have more importnt stuff to protect that i do at persent. I'm just yuor average computer affectianotto, who lives and learns when i can.

Am doing much better with my protection though. I can remember when i first got on my computer about six years ago, and things were not quite as dangerous, or apparent. Trojans , worms, and all the rest, have always ben around. Its just gotten more sophisticated and overt.

There is more good basic info and knowledge here at this forum than most of all the others out there. Most of it very practical knowledge for most everybody.

My next HW purchase is to get yet another HD. Decided upon getting anothe Seagate.... 250GB, but a 3.0 Sata. That would make three i would have...
If i that, someday i might just put the lesser one of 80GB on hold and store, and use only the two biggest.. Plenty enough room for me. It does go fast.. After that i will get another DVD combo drive and burn off alot of whats on the other.

We all just have our own needs and ways of doing things.. thats just how it is..

[G]

No I’m not paranoid but as a software tester etc and security being an interest of mine I try and look at things from a defensive perspective.

The idea being to have a sound foundation and then to rest easy.

My data is important to me and with my entire online banking etc under the dominion of RoboForm “a must have” I don’t need to remember a complex charset; so I backup.

Look at the boards here and tell me how many times we read a data recovery post because they haven’t got a backup solution or policy. Look at the board sand see how many infection removal requests we get.

Do you see my point?

So no I’m not paranoid but there is info on my machine that is important to me like the manual I writing, software NDA (non-disclosure agreements) and is publish at Genie-soft and all my online PWs for online banking etc. Why should I make it easy for the bad guy?

They can steal my machine and within three hours I would have changed over 125 unique username and PW 20 charset equal to 114-bit triple-DES encryption and sleep easy. That’s assuming they get that far which they won’t.