AV and Firewall software

[res45]

Well my Symantic is about ready to expire so Im going with some freeware soluton for the moment. Would like any suggestions as to firewalls and AV software and your experience with them. I use pretty safe computing so email is not really a problem the firewall is my main concern dont want to have to do lots of configuring Im not into the technical side of firewalls or complex interfaces. I kinda like the Comodo firewall but just wanted to see what everyone thoughts were on this.

 

Thanks

res45

[rridgely]

For AV I would get the 1 year etrust trial. You can get that here:

http://home3.ca.com/SubscriptCenter/MSTrialRegistration.aspx

 

Its a top notch program that I like and trust very much.

-----------------

 

I tried comodo firewall a week ago and honestly I thought it was pretty good. The only problem I had was that it made my computer load up a lot slower but other then that it was ok.

 

Personally my favorite software firewall is netveda. Its extremely light weight and does a good job.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/netvadanet.html

 

If you like comodo then theres no reason not to keep it.

[BUGCHASSER]

http://f-secure.com/

 

Great program !

 

Read the web site this is a very user friendly Firewall program also they provide spam protection

 

Enjoy !

[rridgely]

Are you getting paid by them or something?

You've posted that in a bunch of different threads.

 

Also why do think fsecure is so great? I've tried it and it was ok but it wasn't anything amazing.

 

Oh and if for some reason anyone would like to try fsecure you can get 6 months free:

http://esd.element5.com/demoreg.html?produ...mp;languageid=1

[Andavari]

For AV I've switched to AOL Active Virus Shield ("rebranded Kaspersky AV") and won't be looking back, solely because eTrust has always did something funky to the memory on my system after a scan.

[JDPower]

For AV I've switched to AOL Active Virus Shield ("rebranded Kaspersky AV") and won't be looking back

Really?!?! Even with the added AOL rubbish (eg talk of advertising, banners etc in the EULA)

[Andavari]

Really?!?! Even with the added AOL rubbish (eg talk of advertising, banners etc in the EULA)

 

Yup! I look at it this way, I'm really getting Kaspersky Antivirus Personal v6 with an AOL skin on it, the updates even come directly from Kaspersky and since it's been getting good top ratings why not. So what if they send an ad to my email address it isn't like it doesn't get spammed anyway therefore I can treat is as Junk email and never even open it.

 

Edit:

I forgot to mention it deals with both viruses and adware/spyware and since AVG Anti-Spyware makes my system shutdown and boot slowly it's nice to have all the resident protection I need in one installation.

 

Also it's the first anti-virus I've used where a disk cleaning app isn't needed to remove it's junk files because it has it's own cleaner built into the app.

 

Heres a comparison, assuming the Kaspersky version is similar to AOL's:

http://usa.kaspersky-labs.com/products/KAV-Comparison.pdf

[Andavari]

Well being Mr. Indecisive and wanting to try out something I haven't spent allot of time with I've now switched to avast! Home Edition. What a surprise avast! has turned out to be, it's so light on my system resources.

[rridgely]

Avast isn't bad resource wise or stability wise but its the actual virus removal is where its failed for me(numerous times). It just doesn't remove anything classified as trojans, it makes annoying sounds and alerts you every 5 seconds but it wont clean them. Thats my experience with it though and I just had a log where someone reported the same thing:

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showto...amp;#entry53751

 

Maybe thats just one infection that it cant remove, but I've been running into that trojan a lot in logs lately.(and bitdefender online always cleans it.)

[Andavari]

It just doesn't remove anything classified as trojans, it makes annoying sounds and alerts you every 5 seconds but it wont clean them.

 

I hope for no infections then whilst using it before I will probably be indecisive and switch yet again.

Ok, then is AntiVir and/or AVG Free better at that then - meaning removing Trojans?

[rridgely]

Removal wise for the free AVs I would say Antivir is the best. But now it puts up annoying pop ups every so often. If I had to tell someone to use a free AV it would more then likely be AVG.(which despite what people say has always done really well for me).

 

But then again I still didn't try the new AOL thing. It could be better then all 3. I meant to try it this weekend but I wasn't home either day very much.

[hazelnut]

I have to decide now which anti-virus to use, so this thread is interesting to me. My year's free CA antivirus has only 14 days left to run so I will have to make a decision soon.

 

CA (formerly etrust) has caused no problems but now intrudes a lot with full page reminders of how many days left I have, and to pay for my next year, although it doesn't do this when using opera!!

[Andavari]

CA (formerly etrust) has caused no problems but now intrudes a lot with full page reminders of how many days left I have, and to pay for my next year, although it doesn't do this when using opera!!

 

The reminders are enough to uninstall it and grab a true freeware av!

 

I'm still very happy and very impressed with Avast though, more so than AOL's av because Avast is so easy on the resources. I can't believe it's going about so unnoticed by me which was almost worrying me so I tried the EICAR test virus on it to see if it was really working and it was.

 

And like rridgely stated AntiVir's pop-up "Notifications" is what has turned me off of it completely and they're calling it Notifications isn't correct, it's an advert! So that would leave only Avast, AVG, AOL's antivirus for not being in-your-face with blatant adverts, although AOL's will supposedly send adverts in email but at least that isn't popping up s**t on screen during normal operation of the PC.

[JDPower]

I am a long time user of AVG Free AV and its never let me down. Resource wise its currently using between 500 to 900k.

[XPSP2]

Are you getting paid by them or something?

You've posted that in a bunch of different threads.

 

Also why do think fsecure is so great? I've tried it and it was ok but it wasn't anything amazing.

 

Oh and if for some reason anyone would like to try fsecure you can get 6 months free:

http://esd.element5.com/demoreg.html?produ...mp;languageid=1

 

Probably because it works great, easy to use and set-up, stops things from getting on as opposed to getting it then having to remove it, and gives you complete control. What apps can connect, what can download, when and what to scan, parental control and more.

A newbie, such as myself, with limited experience being with NOrtON and McAfee(liked), it is great! My computer is so much faster than with NOrtON, there is no comparison. Plus with my Internet connection it is available as a free download. Last download average speed, 94144KB/sec, while being scanned. Bottom line. Makes me feel f-secure surfing the web.

[hazelnut]

Why do you keep posting threads about f-secure? You have already posted today

 

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showto...amp;#entry56169

 

quoting a thread that is over 1 year old so you could mention f-secure.

[Tarq57]

There's a review of the AOL suite on Cnet, posted by someone who seems knowledgeable. Download.com Might make anyone think twice about what they're really getting. (Aol also do a MacAfee based version. Comments at Wilders.)

At AV comparitives.org, Avira scores highest amongst the freebies for trojan removal/detection. Or did. Those results are a bit long in the tooth, now. Then a step down to Avast (which I use and like heaps) the a little step down to AVG.

Really, for trojans, I think, unless you get a full suite, you need something designed for them. Most AV's aren't too hot on trojans/spyware etc. AVG antispyware is. Asquared is. Superantispyware is. And the one I'm using, SpywareTerminator, does a superb blocking job, but I've never had to test it's scanning/cleaning ability in anger. That should say something.

[Andavari]

Most AV's aren't too hot on trojans/spyware etc. AVG antispyware is. Asquared is. Superantispyware is. And the one I'm using, SpywareTerminator, does a superb blocking job, but I've never had to test it's scanning/cleaning ability in anger.

 

For Trojan removal I've always liked Trojan Remover, it's commercial software though but at a reasonable price.

[rridgely]

Relying on the reviews at download.com is like relying on a blind person to read you a map.(sorry no offense to anyone who is blind) The user base at that site gets progressively less intelligent the more popular it becomes. I'm not saying that guy is wrong but he makes it sound like the things its missing aren't a big deal. But for the amount of ram it uses you could get avg, antivir, or even avast(god I hate it) and they will do a good job and do all the things thats missing from AVS plus use less resources.

 

As far as trojan detection goes most AVs are ok but none are perfect. AVG antispyware is so good at detecting trojans because ewido was often classified specifically as an anti-trojan when it first became popular.(of course it removed everything else as well and still does.)

 

You don't have to run a real time antispyware. Its just not necessary.

If you have a host file and spywareblaster installed and use a non IE browser you shouldn't get anything that you didn't download. If you have a firewall nothing should be able to get in without you knowing. A realtime AV is good to scan any incoming email and files that you open. To each his own but I want as few of things running as possible.

 

Right now behind my router the only thing I have running is an antivirus. I haven't gotten any type of virus, spyware, trojan in years and all of the computers I set up this way are the same. I recently checked in on 2 computers on Wednesday that I set up for a neighbor about three months ago and when I first saw them they were both trashed with spyware. Now once set up properly the only thing found were tracking cookies.

(and believe me this guys kids are not exactly the safest computer users)

 

Use what makes you feel safe but don't say running lots of programs is necessary or that the other programs wont do the job.

[Tarq57]

rridgely, Tend to agree. Some of those reviews look like they were typed by eight year olds. (No offence to anyone who is eight ) but I thought that review demonstrated a level of awareness well above average. I don't understand why you think CableguyTK made it sound like it wasn't a big deal. Those comments, plus a quick read of the AOL EULA were more than enough to stop me installing it.

[Andavari]

Those comments, plus a quick read of the AOL EULA were more than enough to stop me installing it.

 

Although I was initially impressed with AOL Active Virus Shield I must admit that I'd choose Avast, AntiVir and AVG over it any day regardless if it's just Kaspersky AV with a skin because they not only scan much faster there's also no ominous and questionable EULA that accompanies them.