Which Anti-virus/Firewall do you use?
Sunday, November 5, 2006 by sophiesboy | Discussion: Windows XP
I was curious to find out which anti-virus/firewall programs people liked and used.
Over time I have tried a couple of different programs, and never been extremeley happy with them for various reasons.
I used Symantec/Norton for a while, and it had a tendency to crash my machine every time an update came out, requiring reverification with the company, unloading/reloading the program, etc.
At the moment I am using the McAfee Security Center Suite, and while it works reasonably well, it manages to chew up about 137MB of RAM according to the Processes window in the Task Manager. For a system that has a typical resting usage of about 350 to 400MB that seems like an awful lot to me.
A friend of mine recommended switching to the Grisoft AVG antivirus/firewall, which he said uses far less memory and catches quite a bit more than McAfee. I downloaded a free version and ran it once. It managed to detect three Trojans which McAfee had missed over months of use.
So the question is, for those of us who are just competent enough to unwittingly destroy our machines, but not so competent that we can delve into the minutiae of these programs, what would your recommendation be?
Ideally this would be a single source of programs designed to work together (the biggest selling point for the McAfee suite in my case), not a multi-sourced collection that may or may not work together depending on my ability to dig in and tweak drivers/settings/codes.
I await the collective wisdom with anticipation.
Over time I have tried a couple of different programs, and never been extremeley happy with them for various reasons.
I used Symantec/Norton for a while, and it had a tendency to crash my machine every time an update came out, requiring reverification with the company, unloading/reloading the program, etc.
At the moment I am using the McAfee Security Center Suite, and while it works reasonably well, it manages to chew up about 137MB of RAM according to the Processes window in the Task Manager. For a system that has a typical resting usage of about 350 to 400MB that seems like an awful lot to me.
A friend of mine recommended switching to the Grisoft AVG antivirus/firewall, which he said uses far less memory and catches quite a bit more than McAfee. I downloaded a free version and ran it once. It managed to detect three Trojans which McAfee had missed over months of use.
So the question is, for those of us who are just competent enough to unwittingly destroy our machines, but not so competent that we can delve into the minutiae of these programs, what would your recommendation be?
Ideally this would be a single source of programs designed to work together (the biggest selling point for the McAfee suite in my case), not a multi-sourced collection that may or may not work together depending on my ability to dig in and tweak drivers/settings/codes.
I await the collective wisdom with anticipation.
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srdjannj
Reply #102 Wednesday, December 26, 2007 3:56 PM
Reply #102 Wednesday, December 26, 2007 3:56 PM
ESET Smart Security 3.0.621 (Has NOD32 Antivirus and pretty decent firewall)
Spyware Doctor
And... That's it. PC is running smoothly
Spyware Doctor
And... That's it. PC is running smoothly
9400
Reply #103 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:07 AM
Reply #103 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:07 AM
Symantec FTW. There's no beating it, I tried AVG for a few months, switched back and Symantec picked up like 10 trojans =D. Never had a crash caused by it, and it is fairly light weight, stays in the background and doesn't use too much RAM. (I'm getting another GB in a week, so I should definitely be good then =D)
Norton's always worked good for me, so I'm sticking with it.
Norton's always worked good for me, so I'm sticking with it.
LightStar
Reply #104 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:22 AM
Reply #104 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:22 AM
eSet's NOD32 Anti-Virus System and a hardware firewall in my router, works great! 
Ranger375
Reply #105 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:45 AM
Reply #105 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:45 AM
Lets see - I just unplug my router - darn e-mail stopped working though - not sure what the problem is but at least I am protected. 
Leo the Lion
Reply #106 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:46 AM
Reply #106 Friday, December 28, 2007 11:46 AM
Running ESET NOD32 since yesterday after a previous trial. It's fantastic. Small footprint and simple interface and by all accounts it's the most capable on the market 
AnneMarie
Reply #107 Sunday, December 30, 2007 4:16 AM
Reply #107 Sunday, December 30, 2007 4:16 AM
again I should have posted my stuff
I LOVE Norton, Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad Aware Amongst Others...
I LOVE Norton, Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad Aware Amongst Others...
kona0197
Reply #108 Sunday, December 30, 2007 6:30 PM
Reply #108 Sunday, December 30, 2007 6:30 PM
I'll say it again: If you run Norton your asking for trouble... 
AnneMarie
Reply #111 Monday, December 31, 2007 11:57 AM
Reply #111 Monday, December 31, 2007 11:57 AM
Norton does NOT equal trouble.. 
and Fuzzy... um wow??
and Fuzzy... um wow??
my wall
Reply #112 Monday, December 31, 2007 12:16 PM
Reply #112 Monday, December 31, 2007 12:16 PM
ZoneAlarm Pro (comes with a spyware thing too), AVG free ed, PeerGuardian 2, and xplite which I used to uninstall BS like remote registry and terminal "services" that i'll never use or want others (albiet with malicious intent) to use on me...
kona0197
Reply #113 Monday, December 31, 2007 9:50 PM
Well some of us would disagree as we have had our troubles...
Reply #113 Monday, December 31, 2007 9:50 PM
Norton does NOT equal trouble..
Well some of us would disagree as we have had our troubles...
Jafo
Reply #114 Tuesday, January 1, 2008 1:06 AM
Reply #114 Tuesday, January 1, 2008 1:06 AM
Norton does NOT equal trouble..
No, it doesn't. For some it is superior to 'trouble'...closer to 'damn annoyingly flawed' and thus utterly worthless.....
Gideon MacLeish
Reply #115 Tuesday, January 1, 2008 1:47 AM
Yeah...I wouldn't consider completely locking down your Internet access until it is COMPLETELY removed if you allow the subscription to expire "trouble".
Not at all.
I wouldn't consider scrubbing power points, word documents, and access databases on an internal EXCHANGE server at a college, where such transmissions are essential to be getting a GRADE, to be essential. After all, working a full time and a part time job while going to full time aren't enough. I LIKE to have to follow up with every professor for every email I send them with attachments. Really. I mean, what was I going to do with my free time? Sleep? Spend it with the kids? The dickens, you say!
I wouldn't consider blocking ALL outgoing email traffic when the email scanner is enabled to be trouble. I mean, people buy email scanners just so they can disable them, right?
I similarly wouldn't consider eating up all of my resources trouble. I like computers that run slower than Rosie O'Donnell with lead weights taped to her ankles.
Naaah, Norton's awesome for me! I recommend it for everyone! It keeps me and other techs in business!
Reply #115 Tuesday, January 1, 2008 1:47 AM
No, it doesn't. For some it is superior to 'trouble'...closer to 'damn annoyingly flawed' and thus utterly worthless.....
Yeah...I wouldn't consider completely locking down your Internet access until it is COMPLETELY removed if you allow the subscription to expire "trouble".
Not at all.
I wouldn't consider scrubbing power points, word documents, and access databases on an internal EXCHANGE server at a college, where such transmissions are essential to be getting a GRADE, to be essential. After all, working a full time and a part time job while going to full time aren't enough. I LIKE to have to follow up with every professor for every email I send them with attachments. Really. I mean, what was I going to do with my free time? Sleep? Spend it with the kids? The dickens, you say!
I wouldn't consider blocking ALL outgoing email traffic when the email scanner is enabled to be trouble. I mean, people buy email scanners just so they can disable them, right?
I similarly wouldn't consider eating up all of my resources trouble. I like computers that run slower than Rosie O'Donnell with lead weights taped to her ankles.
Naaah, Norton's awesome for me! I recommend it for everyone! It keeps me and other techs in business!
WebGizmos
Reply #116 Tuesday, January 1, 2008 3:31 AM
Reply #116 Tuesday, January 1, 2008 3:31 AM
Ok...shoot me now....but I've been using Norton since I got my rig about 5 years ago and have never had a virus or any other problems with it...except once when some cleaner I was using deleted a Norton file it shouldn't have and screwed everything up. But my rig flies around pretty quick even with Norton on it. I also use Spybot & Adaware. I know a lot of people don't like Norton but like I said I haven't had any problems with it.
DarkSpooky
Reply #117 Saturday, February 9, 2008 4:40 PM
Reply #117 Saturday, February 9, 2008 4:40 PM
For the moment I use :
MS baseline Baseline Security Analyzer- free and useful
Spywareblaster- again free and helps prevent browser hijacks
Avast free
RootKit Hook Analyzer
HijackThis
Spybot - Search & Destroy
AVG
Drivesentry (trying it out)
Peerguardian (does this qualify?)
A few programs I may install soon
comodo firewall
counterspy
kaspersky
I know that Nod32 does not get along well with avast (found that out the hard way) but what about kaspersky? Would it integrate well with my other anti-virus stuff? Can nod and kaspersky work together? what about if I try to add panda to that?
Yes I know I am extremely paranoid about my desktop.
MS baseline Baseline Security Analyzer- free and useful
Spywareblaster- again free and helps prevent browser hijacks
Avast free
RootKit Hook Analyzer
HijackThis
Spybot - Search & Destroy
AVG
Drivesentry (trying it out)
Peerguardian (does this qualify?)
A few programs I may install soon
comodo firewall
counterspy
kaspersky
I know that Nod32 does not get along well with avast (found that out the hard way) but what about kaspersky? Would it integrate well with my other anti-virus stuff? Can nod and kaspersky work together? what about if I try to add panda to that?
Yes I know I am extremely paranoid about my desktop.
rustysam
Reply #119 Saturday, February 9, 2008 5:43 PM
Reply #119 Saturday, February 9, 2008 5:43 PM
I have used avg free antivirus and the windows firewall for several years with no problems.
Bushman
Reply #120 Saturday, February 9, 2008 6:05 PM
Reply #120 Saturday, February 9, 2008 6:05 PM
ZoneAlarm Internet suite plus Ad-Aware Plus along with XoftSpy 
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Reply #101 Wednesday, December 26, 2007 3:06 PM