Recommendations PLEASE

Ok, after many years of using NIS I have got to change. Again NIS has caused my OS to crash and had to reformat my hard drive. I say again because in the 10 years that I have used Norton products it has become corrupted many times.
I would like opinions on what is the best security software available. I want something that offers the same functions as NIS, antivirus, firewall, popup blockers, ad blockers, spam filters etc.
I have read many reviews but I know that you all are much more knowledgeable on these programs than I am and was hoping that someone could recommend a program that would not only protect me but also give me the additional options mentioned.
ANY help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
THANKS!!!!!!!!!

 

Hi whompuscat

Well there goes that can of worms again Get ready for about a hundred opinions

I use eTrust EZ AV, They also have the whole bundle you can buy.
Noadhfear recommended it to me a couple years back. So I dropped McAfee's AV and went with it. Has worked well for me.
Geri

 

I'm with Geri on the antivirus. I've been using eTrust Antivirus for almost a year (it is free for a year's trial) and have been very pleased.

 

Great link, Pete. I've a couple of questions for you.

I'm also a subscriber to Sunbelt's Counterspy (my yearly subscription is about to expire so I'll need to renew it). I've not installed the Kerio firewall for one main reason: fear I could not properly configure it.

- do you use the free version of Kerio or the paid?
- is it more difficult to configure than the free version of ZA (which is my current firewall)?
- I'm taking it you use IE 7 (beta). Why not Firefox?
- is that silver-haired gentleman in the link... you?

 

I downloaded Windows One Care Live and Defender. I have always used Google toolbar with pop up blocker, no other toolbar blocks as good as google's.

But the ads that appear on web pages is another story. Norton's is the only one I know of that blocks the ads, except I noticed in NIS 2006 that feature doesn't work as well as in previous versions.

After having used Norton's for sooooooooo long, I expect to have a big learning curve with any other program I try.

I've read reviews on NOD32 but a basic download needs tweaks and setting adjustments to function properly (learning curve!!)

I've read pros and cons on some programs that's why I posted here, figured you guys have tested and tried programs and I can trust your opionions better than Joe Blow on some website.

What is your opinion of One Care? I use Ad Aware Professional with Ad-Watch, ie-spyad, TrendMicro Anti Spy and Defender. I block 3rd party cookies, sometimes I will set it to prompt just to see what a site is trying to put on my computer, some I am shocked!!! For instance I PAY to use Pogo, but yet they put 2o7.net cookies on your computer!!!! It's amazing what sites can put on your computer without your knowledge.

Anything I download I always scan the file for viruses before opening it. I tried it with Windows One Care and I just didn't feel comfortable, not knowing if it really scanned deep into the file to look for viruses and spyware. I know this sounds crazy but I would like to have a file that actually has a virus just to see if One Care finds it immediately, like Norton's did.

I never had a virus with Norton's, but with the problems I have had with it's stability and the destruction of my OS, I just cannot continue to use it anymore. I did a scan with RFA just to see what Norton's put in my registry and it came up with over 4,000 entries. This may be normal with any security software I don't know, but that seems like overkill to me, and with so many entries it not hard to see how something can become corrupt. The 1st time I installed it, it blocked Windows from making restore points, and they call this the learning mode, where it learns what programs have access and which don't. Seems to me that their "learning mode" needs a little education itself.

 

I never see ads on webpages and it's because of a simple browser choice: Firefox. Firefox lets me choose extensions, one of which is Ad Block. It has a G-filter set that automatically keeps the list of ads updated so that I never have to bother worrying about it.

 

I would Go with Mcafee. Its Really good!!!! Its Just My opinion.

 

I hate being odd man out, but have to add my 2¢ worth.

I used Symantec's Norton products for a long time, but really disliked the way they insinuated themselves into, and slowed down, the OS. It took a long time to rid myself of all vestiges of them, but it was worth the time and trouble.

Now, I wouldn't even think of relying on a single program to handle security on my computer. I have used the free versions of both ZoneAlarm and AVG for nearly as long as I've been using XP ... over four years. The ZA firewall is easy to configure, and updates are frequent. AVG is updated almost daily, and scans my computer (in the background) after the first bootup of the day. I have yet to contract a virus.

I'm probably over-cautious, and I'm sure there's overlap in the following programs but, I run, on a weekly basis:

(freeware)
MRU-Blaster
CWShredder
SpywareBlaster
X-Cleaner
Spybot S&D
Ad-Aware

(shareware)
SpySweeper​

My browser is Firefox, with its popup blocker enabled, plus the extensions Adblock Plus and Adblock Filterset G Updater. For email, Thunderbird, with its various security features enabled.

I try to run as clean a configuration as possible, and don't like extraneous toolbars, including Google's.

I can't say that my system is bullet-proof, but it's as close to it as I can make it.

 

Sounds like a cool system you've got there, Jim. Mine is almost identical with only a few alterations. Instead of Spysweeper I run Counterspy. I also run RegSeeker. Other than that, we're in the same ballpark.

 

Hi James,

Those are just my "security" programs and options. I use RegSeeker, too, as well as a number of other diagnostic, tweaking, and maintenance programs ... anything that makes my computing experience as safe, clean, and simple as possible.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I installed Windows One Care, but I really didn't like it, there was no way that I could find to disable it and it was preventing me from installing things. If there is a way to disable the firewall I couldn't find it, I could disable virus but not firewall.

Anyway, same old senario, I uninstalled Windows One Care and same thing happened, it took some of my system files with it and instead of working hours to try and find out the problem I worked far less hours reformating and reinstalling everything.

Now I know you all are wondering how in the world I can uninstall something and it take more than it was supposed to, after all it happened to me 2 days in a row.

Well I don't either!!!!!!! I removed both Norton's and Windows One Care through the add/remove programs option, nothing else, no regedits, searchs to delete leftover files etc. Just plain control panel > add/remove. And reboot and WHAM!!!!! no desktop!!!! I could open things through the task manager, although it took forever to find what I wanted, but nothing else showed, no Start menu, no desktop icons, when I tried to browse through the task manager for the hard drives, got that little flashlight that it was searching for them but wouldn't find them.

Now I have my system up and running everything installed, but I WILL NOT install ANY AV or firewall until I get an external case for a hard drive to back up my system just in case I have to restore it again. That seems simplier than using 20 DVDs (and cheaper since I already have a spare hard drive) to make back up disks.

What a nightmare this has been. Is this a Sony, Windows MCE or "operator" problem???? I don't know, I consider myself pretty computer literate and never had this problem before.

JIM........ I'll come back to your recommendations after I have this thing backed up.

 

Hi Joyce,

I don't envy you the problems you've been having, but I'm puzzled about something. I just looked at the specs for your computer in ZDNet's review, and it sounds as though the computer may have a second hard drive already installed. The information at Sony's site implies that it does, also.

Unless the computer is already set up in a RAID configuration (in which case the second HD is already in use), why do you need an external HD? If there is a second internal HD, and RAID is not enabled, you should be able to use the second HD for backup.

 

Actually Jim, I have 3 hard drives installed. 2 that came with the computer that is set up as RAID, and a 3rd one that I had installed as a backup. However, in the past I have had my backup drive completely wiped clean because of RAM failure. The 2 that are set up as RAID (which I don't completely understand the term) are combined together as one which is the C drive with a hidden partition for the operating system.

Each time I had to reformat I just prayed it didn't wipe out my back up drive (3rd hard drive). I know it is not likely that I will have bad RAM anytime soon since this is a new computer, but with past experiences I am on the cautious side. Maybe a little to over aggressive, but darn I'm just sick and tired of losing all my data!!!!!!!! If I use an external drive there's no chance that it will it will wipe my data because it wouldn't be connected or running all the time.

I use my 3rd installed drive to store all my documents and pictures on, can't tell you how many times I have lost this data on previous machines because of windows gliches. Because I didn't make back up disks for these since I THOUGHT I was safe in having installed a back up drive, I lost a years worth of data. Although it was still on the hard drive the computer didn't recognize it because it couldn't read the partition and required reformating.

Anyway, I came to the conclusion, better safe and OVERLY protective than not!!!