What's The Best Internet Security?

I've been using NIS for a couple of years now ... just upgraded to NIS 2006.
While it does use a lot of resources, it's one of the only programs I've seen that is pre-emptive in stopping
the "bad guys" at the front door.
It regularly advises me when a suspect IP address is trying to access my computer or when a Trojan or any other type of malware is trying to infect me.

My computer is always on and connected to the internet, so I like that extra protection which you don't see in many of the free versions.

I've never run a scan and had it report any kind of problem, because it never allows anything suspicious to get in.

 

I know its been a week since last post but I had to throw in my 2 cents on this one.

to add to Welshjim, I would like to say that you are crazy(arent we all) running a suite. However, if you insist on a suite according to the most recent testing I have seen (and I get around) Zone Alarm or Panda are the best. be advised that with Zone Alarm and a properly configured OP (security wize) you might have some serious issues getting any networking to work proper. I do alot of networking on the internet and on my local network, including with a couple Macintosh. my recommendation would go along with the quote from Welshjim chosing AntiVir over AVG. using AdAware AND Spybot S&D for scanners and running either SpyWareDoctor or MS AntiSpy (now owned by MS and called Windows AntiSpy) for realtime protection. also be sure to IMMUNIZE with Spybot S&D after each update and also add SpywareBlaster( http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/downloads.html )to the list with full updates and ALL protection enabled.
then to top it off, either spend the money you just saved on nod32 for a good backup virus scanner or keep the money and do the TrendMicro Housecall from time to time.
***NOTE : either use the link for spyware blaster or copy and paste the URL to your browser. their is a "rouge" program out there that could be confused if not paying attention called "spyware-blaster" instead of protection it allows access to the places we are battleing against.
this is just my 2 cents. do what you like and HAPPY SURFIN!!!
ohh, I almost forgot. Sygate sold out to Symantec and they (A**H***S) discontinued the Sygate personal line but are still updateing and giving support till june. they say they are "moving forward" with the Nortons firewall so if they get it together that could be the sh*t in the next year or so. but, given symantecs past, im bettin on the Kerio, which was recently puchased by Sunbelt Software. CounterSpy is thier AntiSpy program which is a very good program and made the top 5 under strict testing.you can still get the sygate personal free at http://pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,8132,00.asp

 

I'm looking for a new anti-virus/spyware tool so I came here after spending several hours poring over reviews on the net.

A little history...I always used to use NAV until one day it went nuts with an apparent false-positive on many seemingly infected files. I ran some online scanners that said that everything was fine. Not being able to continue with NAV without wiping out all these files, I went to Staples and bought McAfee 9. It's seems to be working okay though it's a bit invasive with all the pop-up messages I don't care about.

But, actually, I'm more concerned about malware (spyware, trojans, hijackers) than viruses these days. I've used SpywareBlaster (the one from Javacool) on two machines - one of which is not used for surfing to any "questionable" sites. On both machines, SpywareBlaster doesn't seem to accomplish anything. On one, the machine was taken over completely by spyware (even CTRL-ALT-DEL was disabled so I was powerless and had to re-ghost the HDD) and on the other (which had SpywareBlaster automatic updates) a boatload of spyware infections occurred regardless. So after the one-year subscription runs out, I'm dumping SpywareBlaster.

Spybot S & D seems to do a good removal job but it'd be nice to have something "preventative ".

The recent issue of MaximumPC gives McAfee 2006 a 6 out of 10 and Norton 2006 a 7 out of 10. Pretty poor for the "industry leaders ", IMHO. The wisdom out on the net seems to be that there are better tools out there.

After a lot of reading, the hearsay I can offer seems to be this:

Bitdefender 9 "seems to be" the most effective anti-virus out there right now. But, it doesn't shine in other areas such as spam-blocking (which you may or may not care about).

The one security suite that appears to outshine all others in total performance (meaning anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spam, firewall, etc.) is the ZoneAlarm Security Suite. From the all-around suite perspective, nothing seems to come close (I read a bit about Panda AV but didn't run into much about the Panda "suite "). I bumped into all the tools mentioned above in my research but the apparent hearsay-based winners are Bitdefender and ZoneAlarm.

0f course, all of this oversimplifies the choice of security tools.

If I was looking for tools for my gaming rig, I'd go the a la carte way using Bitdefender 9 and then trying to find the best anti-spyware tool out there. But I'm actually looking for my business rig so, to keep things simple/manageable, I'm now leaning toward ZoneAlarm 6.0 Security Suite.

The nickel story on ZoneAlarm is that the firewall is the best, the anti-spam actually works (most of the suites have poor anti-spam), the anti-spyware is decent and the anti-virus is licensed from McAfee (I think) and is VB100-certified.

BTW, the cost for ZA 6.0 Suite is $59 with a $20 rebate off the ZoneAlarm site.

Gary

 

Sounds far too complicated for me.

Both my wife and I use the FREE version of AVG... the FREE version of Zone Alarm... the FREE version of Ad-aware (with Spybot and Spyblaster thrown in for good measure).

The only thing we pay for (and that is only $19) is our anti-spyware from Sunbelt. And really... we could have gone for the FREE version of MS anti-spyware which is very close, both having come from the former Giant Corp.

So... if you want to pay for what is available for free... well... that's an option. I'm rather partial to free.

 

Roflmao

right on James!

 

That's true James but the thread relates to which is the best internet security, not the cheapest. If there was a complete correlation between the two, you can be sure that no one would be paying anything for their internet security tools.

 

...and in my humble opinion, the best is that which is offered. All of the programs I mentioned are highly effective, used by many of the Microsoft MVPs "and" are not resource-hungry. Now... it's true that you may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the other programs that make you think things are happening that are somehow not happening with these free programs. Bottomline: I've had no viruses, no malicious hacks... in short, all is well with this computer and with my wife's (and countless others). It really boils down to who you want to believe. You can pore over these reviews and reports hour after hour and what will it all mean in the end? You're going to believe one set of reports over another.

Again... each of us must make these decisions for ourselves. We're simply sharing what we believe is the best but like I said before, if you want to believe others and pay for your security programs, that's okay too. I've no vested interest... just wanted to share what works for us.

 

I am totally "down" on Norton. When it was time to renew my NAV program, I decided to upgrade to NAV 2006. That didn't install correctly, so I recevied a refund and bought the upgrade to NAV 2005.

NAV 2005 was working fine until I started to have trouble sending and receiving Outlook emails. After looking at many BBS, I tried to "fix" the problem my dis-abling the email scan feature. Still had too many porblems.

Decided that my only resource was to pay for tech support at Dell --- That was a great decision. They helped me to un-install Norton - a humongous job as many of you know- they recommended AVG which is an excellent program and they also recommended Evido which is also excellent. Evido has found many threats that were not found by Ad-Aware and SpySweeper which I also have. Am running Sygate firewall and am sorry to hear that Symantec has bought Sygate.

So, bottom line -- AVG, Sygate, and Evido are the best

 

Hi, Judy

Well... I'll agree with you on your assessment of AVG - it's great and it's free. Why pay for something as resource-hungry as Norton and as difficult to extract as any program out there? If free does the job, then free it is!

I've a difference of opinion on Sygate versus Zone Alarm, particularly now that Symantec has their grip on Sygate. You'll probably discover that the free version of Sygate will cease in the near future (if it hasn't already).

As for Ewido, it has very mixed reviews. It also is resource-hungry and can slow down your computer while leaving infected registry keys. Here's a Review from Cnet:

This antispyware utility demonstrates mostly solid protection skills, but we do have our share of complaints. Ewido Security Suite consists of a real-time monitor, a spyware scanner, and basic diagnostic tools. The real-time protection proved very reliable in our tests, blocking all malicious components we purposefully tried to install. The program's scanning module was a bit disappointing; not only is it very slow, but it left a number of spyware-related Registry keys that some of its competitors removed. Ewido Security Suite's elegant interface is easy to understand at first glance, but we still wish it included built-in help files. The application's diagnostic tools let you control running processes, start-up entries, and connections, but you'll have to be savvy to use them, as the program provides little information as to which items are potentially dangerous. In some cases, the program seemed to hog an inordinate amount of memory when its real-time shield was active, and the two-week trial period is too short for our tastest. Ewido Security Suite is worth trying, as long as you're prepared for the aforementioned snags.

---------

Personally, I'd go with either the Free Anti-spyware from MS or the paid-for (and I believe improved) version from Sunbelt (CounterSpy) both of which are from Giant.

 

For everybody's FYI, Ewido now has two forums, one for the current version and another for the beta, at Wilders: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php

For the record, use Ewido as a scanner only.

Regards - Charles

 

Interesting reading....I am sticking with Norton for the time being,mainly because I can't be bothered with the hassle of trying to uninstall it.

I did install a clean install of XP on a different partition to experiment...I used Zone Alarm firewall and AVG....I was quite pleased with the result.I can't be bothered (just now) with all the work it would be to do a clean install on my main partition and have to start from scratch installing programs and drivers etc.

 

Hello Bluenose,

You can look around on the Symantec site for uninstallers.

I have uninstalled NIS2005 "manually ", after using Add/Remove, w/o problems - I did use registry searches and reg cleaners, but it really doesn't take all that long.

There is a sequence to uninstalling the various programs that make up NIS using Add/Remove.

Regards - Charles

 

I used to use Norton Firewall and AV and it had always slowed my PC down....even with 2gb mem. Removing it all, including from the reg was no problem.

So what do i use now? I use Kaspersky Labs for my AV and for my firewall i use Agnitum Outpost (v3 being the latest version).

My system is super fast and these two work together very well. However, Outpost isn't for the faint-hearted...if you are a beginner, and yes you can use this program, then you might have to persevere with the guide to fill you in with bits that you initially don't understand....but if you stick with it then it is the most powerful software firewalls out there....and it hides everything, and i mean everything unless you set things up wrong that you make yourself visible to all.

Here is a good place to go for checking reviews for firewalls...
http://personal-firewall-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

You will notice that Zone Alarm is No1 and Outpost is No2 but this is what Outpost has over ZA...

Reliability:
Once you learn to adjust the security settings for Outpost Firewall Pro, you'll be able to become invisible on the Internet—you'll only be seen when you want to be seen. Outpost Firewall Pro was one of the few software programs that passed every single firewall test we performed, including the refer test. The refer test checks to see if the firewall allows general computer information (such as your computer, browser and location) to be seen by others online. Outpost Firewall Pro is a dependable package.

 

Interesting Reading

[FONT= "Tahoma"][SIZE= "2"]Hi all new member here!

This made for interesting reading as I currently have this dilema and I too am looking for a solution. To add further complication I am a small business so I cannot afford to loose data so I need to be as protected as possible despite backing every day.

Past experience on the resource side of things has taught me to avoid Norton and McAfee as these are both high is resource requirements and the later being a pain to remove. Symantec do there own removal tool which is called SymNRT and its found via most good search engines.

On the AV side of things I have just completed a trial with Sophos. The engine is superb and very low in resource and a piece of cake to deploy across a small network.

Bit defender is a good program but I have heard this is let down by a poor firewall but it does work very well on laptops (other consideration for the resource hungry programs) and the Agintum firewall I purchased I cannot get this configured but I have no doubts its a great firewall (incidently this is Sophos new firewall that is currently in beta testing).

At this point in time I cannot make up my mind which route to take, the home desktop is behind a router firewall which on testing is good enough to keep most things out. My dilema comes when I get to the laptops as the resource side is key here.

I have read through all the posts and I cannot decide either way, part of me is drawn towards the ZA product and Part towards F-secure and Trend (pccillin) but I really dont know and I need to find something fast as I have no protection for Monday morning as it stands right now.[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

Hello Beegrich,

I personally don't use suites, I like seperate AV - firewalls.

From my reading, the ZA suite on the whole, seems to be better than the others. Of course, YMMV.

For the record, one of my firewalls is ZA Pro, which is part of the suite. A great firewall, does have a learning curve.

Regards - Charles

 

Zykan

was looking at the info on outpost but didnt see anything talking about protecting the different im's (yahoo, msn, aim, icq). a lot of my clients use these things and they have been a known problem with transmitting all types of bugs. do you know if outpost protects those functions ???

have used za's firewall for quite a while and only went with the internet package when i got rid of my norton antivirus protection. at least with the suite you know they work together with no problems.

did not know about bitdefender firewall lacking will have to talk to my contact about that. i do know their antivirus is rated # 1. its an easy app to setup and once configured you really can just forget it and let it do its thing.

 

Click here.

Read all three pages.

Giles

 

Again... why pay nearly $40 when AVG does it all? Never had a single problem with AVG and from what I read in the Microsoft groups, none of the MVP's have had problems either. It's just sort of a no-brainer.

 

Well...there are reasons some software is free and other software isn't. There are also reasons they run tests on software. AVG isn't even listed on most tests of serious virus software and on one I found it was rated #28. Nod32 is in a group of virus software that is generally used for business applications where interruption of systems is a much more serious problem. This is the middle group. The high-end group of virus software is used for servers such as Ebay, Google, etc. Those software packages can get into the thousands of dollars. Most pc users have probably never heard of some of those packages. I used Avast for a number of years. It is quite professional, but, one of my customers got infected. None of the middle of the line packages were detecting this infection except NOD32. Now everybody is running NOD32. This package also catches adware, trojans, worms, malware, etc. Everybody has a router for a firewall and only NOD32. I don't even work on systems that currently has or has ever had Norton installed. For those I recommend to back up the data and reinstall everything. Just isn't worth getting involved with Norton.

If AVG works for you, by all means stay with it. I communicate with many different systems that are in trouble and I have cds and floppys and hard drives from many different systems on my systems for analysis or recovery on a frequent basis. I have to have a virus package that is good. NOD32 is one of those packages. Well worth the price. You might also check this. Click Here. It is a PDF file. Note the comments on NOD32 further on in the report.

I am by no means knocking any system someone is having success with. Bluenose12 asked for recommendations. I recommend NOD32.

Giles

 

Hello Giles,

Have two installations, one running NOD which I love, one running NAV2005 which I... tolerate

Regards - Charles