Best Internet Security Suite

[undrwater]

I'll add another recommendation to dump MS for an alternative OS.

If you must keep MS, replace the usual suspects with alternatives:

Outlook, IE, MediaPlayer, Messenger

I've heard and seen good things about both avast and avg.

 

[melle]

I'll add another recommendation to dump MS for an alternative OS.

If you must keep MS, replace the usual suspects with alternatives:

Outlook, IE, MediaPlayer, Messenger

I've heard and seen good things about both avast and avg.

Well Undrwater,

Unfortunately that is not an option for most users
It still requires a lot of detailed knowledge of OS-es.

But using Avast Pro and Kerio provides for a lot of protection along the IE/Messenger/MP path. (I hardly see any ads on SB too Blocked!)

Melle

 

[jonix]

thanks for the reco guys. actually if i had not gone into diving i probably have a mac right now hehehe

seriously though, i can't got the mac way as i'm running locally developed software that i use both at the office and at home.

i used to run the following:

antivirus: avg & avast my anti virus (yes it auto updates and i scans every 2 days)
firewall: zone alarm
anti spy: ad aware (i still do)

that's until a last weeks when spammers apparently "used" my broadband provider based email account for spamming...the account actually got banned and i got a "Your IP has been logged" email from an "FBI" agent who's email address is "agentname"@fbi.gov

that's why i'm searching for "better" solutions (i agree that these security suites will never be perfect)...i have very critical local data that i have to protect but can't delete from my pc at home...thus the need for the suite or an alternative solution

 

[melle]

thanks for the reco guys. actually if i had not gone into diving i probably have a mac right now hehehe

seriously though, i can't got the mac way as i'm running locally developed software that i use both at the office and at home.

i used to run the following:

antivirus: avg & avast my anti virus (yes it auto updates and i scans every 2 days)
firewall: zone alarm
anti spy: ad aware (i still do)

that's until a last weeks when spammers apparently "used" my broadband provider based email account for spamming...the account actually got banned and i got a "Your IP has been logged" email from an "FBI" agent who's email address is "agentname"@fbi.gov

that's why i'm searching for "better" solutions (i agree that these security suites will never be perfect)...i have very critical local data that i have to protect but can't delete from my pc at home...thus the need for the suite or an alternative solution

What do you think then, is your provider hacked, or are you?
If your provider is hacked: there is little you can do, besides having your email address invalidated and getting a new one.
If you think you are hacked, there are some suggestions:
- stop using Outlook (it is -sadly- a great source for spreading stuff, because MS makes an email an intelligent entity, scripts can be run); alternatives are Thunderbird, or "The Bat!". I use the last one for years now.
- use Avast Pro, which enables extra features like script blockers and the like
- try Kerio as a firewall.

What I haven't tried yet is the Avast Suite. It might be a nice alternative to Norton or McAfee.

If you still want/need to use Outlook, an old trick is to create an invalid entry in the address book (name it 000, it will be on top of the list, and put an invalid email address in it). I'm not sure if it still applies. Probably Avast does the protection for you now.


Melle

 

[jonix]

What do you think then, is your provider hacked, or are you?
If your provider is hacked: there is little you can do, besides having your email address invalidated and getting a new one.
If you think you are hacked, there are some suggestions:
- stop using Outlook (it is -sadly- a great source for spreading stuff, because MS makes an email an intelligent entity, scripts can be run); alternatives are Thunderbird, or "The Bat!". I use the last one for years now.
- use Avast Pro, which enables extra features like script blockers and the like
- try Kerio as a firewall.

What I haven't tried yet is the Avast Suite. It might be a nice alternative to Norton or McAfee.

If you still want/need to use Outlook, an old trick is to create an invalid entry in the address book (name it 000, it will be on top of the list, and put an invalid email address in it). I'm not sure if it still applies. Probably Avast does the protection for you now.


Melle

i'm pretty sure my provider was hacked but i am not sure if i was. i haven't used outlook (as well as IE) for years...been using thunderbird and firefox.

the only thing i didn't like about avast was the frequent false alarms it generated, i was using version 3 then. avast version 4 i think is much better. still i removed it to see how the pc-cillin suite works

 

[usnadiver03]

I work every day with the hackers that make our lives terrible, and I can honestly tell you that there is no more secure a suite that the Nortorn Internet Security Suite (I am an Information Warfare Officer in the Navy). It covers you (or covers you as much as possible) from head to toe (anti-virus/spam/filter, etc). It also does a very decent job of load sharing system resources. Unlike McAfee who has no problem draining every ounce of your system to figure out a virus.

Look, the federal government uses Norton for a reason, it is proven, and they play nice when we need updates. Be very careful when mixing products. Suites were put together for a reason, they work well together. The only contradiction to this is a firewall, which I recommend you use a completely disparate system (I find that ZoneAlarm is more than adequate for the home user).

Remember, there is no such thing as a safe system, they can all be cracked, it is how and where you keep your important information that counts.

Happy hunting,
Greg

 

[jonix]

thanks for the heads up greg...will try the norton suite after pc-cillin

 

[melle]

Look, the federal government uses Norton for a reason, it is proven, and they play nice when we need updates. Be very careful when mixing products. Suites were put together for a reason, they work well together. The only contradiction to this is a firewall, which I recommend you use a completely disparate system (I find that ZoneAlarm is more than adequate for the home user).

Well, Norton is certainly a good package. But it is pretty heavy for home users, costs a lot (at least here in Europe), and just because large companies and governments chose it, it has a large installed base, and a firm grip on the market.

Not seldom, a choice made by a government is *just* a choice. Believe me, I've seen enough of that (I've been in that position too). Windows, Outlook and Office are good examples of that... at first they almost gave it away (especially to goverment and educational facilities), and now...

My career started in the Navy too, as an officer and an IT professional. I had to introduce Windows NT back then... it worked well. I was both in systems/network administration and development.


Melle

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

Quoted from an email I received:

AV Performance Tests

The folks over at Virus Bulletin regularly test the ability of the major AV products to detect currently circulating viruses - their "100 Top Viruses in the Wild." They award their VB100 rating to AV products that detect all 100 in any given month.

Over a period of time it's possible to tabulate how often individual AV products receive the VB100 award. Here are the results for some major AV products from 2003 onwards:

Nod32 10/10 100%
Norton 9/9 100%
F-Secure 9/9 100%
Trend 8/8 100%
Kaspersky 9/11 82%
McAfee 8/10 80%
AVG 6/8 75%
Norman 7/10 70%
F-Prot 6/9 67%
Avast 6/9 67%

A copy of the press release from Nod32 here.

Nod32 home page.

They claim lowest resource usage. Something different to add to the McAfee vs Nortons debate.

They even have a Linux flavour - bet you didn't think that was necessary!

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[Bob3]

Just get a Mac.

Alex

Yah, get rid of Micro$oft.
My vote is for Linux as an OS; right now the easiest to setup, migrate to, and use is the Linspire flavored Linux. It is "comfortably" windows-like.
http://linspire.com
It's really worth checking out, and they offer a free "live" version for download that will operate completely off your CD drive (doesn't write to the hard drive at all).
Here's the freebie download site: http://forum.linspire.com/viewtopic.php?t=289977
Do it late at night, it's a large file (that will write to a CD) - about 650 megs & can take 5 hours on a mediocre DSL connection.
You can download many programs that will do the job of & read/write the same files for programs like Office (openoffice) Adobe Photoshop (Gimp) & others.
Have any more questions? drop a PM.