Vista home premium - Compatible free Security

sean · 7th December 2008

Good morning all.

I am after your great & trusted advice.
My 11 year old daughter will be getting a new computer for Christmas, the OS is Vista home premium and it comes with Mcaffee...Free for a while and the you have to pay!! As i understand the windows firewall is not too good so i will be turning it off, it will be hard wired into the rooter.

Would you please tell me the best FREE ( because i'm a tight yorkshire chap...owt for nowt) compatible:

Firewall
Antivirus
Antispyware

Many thanks for your time,
Sean.

**PeteC** · 7th December 2008

Hi Sean

The firewall in Vista is OK - far better than that in XP. However I would point you to the following freeware, which I use on 3 of my computers .....

Avira antivirus
Comodo Firewall

Windows Defender is an integral part of Vista (antispyware) and can be supplemented by other offerings - AdAware, Spybot and SpywareBlaster. Use AdAware to scan manually occasionally, use the immunise feature of Spybot and scan manually occasionally - SpywareBlaster is not a scanner, but provides a degree of permanent protection and works nicely with Spybot.

Suggest you read .....

Keep your Computer free from Viruses, Trojans, Spyware and Malware by yours truly

**dobhar** · 7th December 2008

Hi Sean...

Just piggy backing on Pete's great advice...On my Vista Laptop I'm using the free Comodo Firewall as Pete has suggested...they also though do have Comodo Internet Security. A free Antivirus and Firewall combination. The firewall is a bit obtrusive at first while it's learning but it does the job.

I also use their Comodo BOClean. A free Anti-Malware

And no I don't work for Comodo...

I just like their products.
______________________________________

Pete...Great article and it's nice to be able now to put a face to your name...

**PeteC** · 7th December 2008

Thanks

**wildfire** · 7th December 2008

In addition to PeteC and dobhar's posts I will point out that your router by benefit of NAT has a natural (side effect if you like) firewall. This is not meant to discourage you from using a software firewall (in fact I encourage you to use one), it more for peace of mind knowing that your daughters laptop has a little more protection (in the home) that perhaps you were aware.

sean · 7th December 2008

Thanks to you Guys for the Brilliant advice and Pete that link to your article is priceless....Shortcut on my desktop ready for christmas. would spywareguard be ok as another layer of protection on her new desktop pc. I understand you have to use a removal tool to get Mcaffee fully off a pc?

Listen chaps and i really mean it THANK YOU for taking time out to help me.

Cheers and god bless you all,

Sean.

**PeteC** · 7th December 2008

You're welcome

Which version of McAfee - or maybe you don't know yet

Here is a link to the McAfee Removal tool for up to 2007 .....

http://majorgeeks.com/McAfee_Consume...ool_d5420.html

SpywareGuard is from the same stable as SpywareBlaster so they should work well together.

partanonymous · 1st January 2009

I like Blink Personal. It's made by eEye Digital Security. Does a better job than McAfee and Symantec. AV has sandbox technology, system protection protects ALL applications from buffer overflows, IPS for Microsoft/Other vulnerabilities, and it has vulnerability scanner. 1 year free. Every year I reimage my system to make sure everything remains clean and performs well. I just reinstall it and get another year free.

partanonymous · 1st January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by partanonymous

I like Blink Personal. It's made by eEye Digital Security. Does a better job than McAfee and Symantec. AV has sandbox technology, system protection protects ALL applications from buffer overflows, IPS for Microsoft/Other vulnerabilities, and it has vulnerability scanner. 1 year free. Every year I reimage my system to make sure everything remains clean and performs well. I just reinstall it and get another year free.

Forgot the link:
http://free-antivirus.eeye.com/

**PeteC** · 1st January 2009

Quote:

Every year I reimage my system to make sure everything remains clean and performs well

I'm amazed

- my system is incrementally imaged using Acronis on a weekly basis.

**dobhar** · 1st January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeteC

my system is incrementally imaged using Acronis on a weekly basis.

I bought 2 licenses and do a full backup once a month.

James · 2nd January 2009

Nothing wrong with free and I completely agree with that. I do, however, find it "odd" that we are willing to spend several hundred dollars for a computer and then balk at $30 for paid security. Very strange indeed. Again, I'm not meaning to be confrontational by this observation. It's just so strange to me. Now, I'm not suggesting that the OP keep McAfee or purchase Norton or any other host of other paid security programs. If he is happy with the freebies, then by all means. I do a lot of banking and purchasing online and given the nature of what I do plus the investment I have in my hardware, I opt for paid protection. I suppose we're all different in this regards and perhaps have different sets of values.

The "other" observation I would make is in regard to someone saying that his particular program does a "better" job than McAfee or Norton. How does one do a better job than perfect? I've had McAfee for years and I've never had an issue... period. I've gone online and double-checked with online scanners. At one time I also downloaded and used (on demand) other free anti-virus, anti-malware programs and again... they found nothing. So for someone to suggest that his program "does a better job than McAfee" is strange to me. I wouldn't know what better than perfect is having had essentially perfect protection for these many years. Just another observation. It seems to me that we become "attached" to our own programs and by recommending them and in turn putting down others, it someone justifies our own decision-making.