sick of internet security suites

Hi.. first of all, i used Kaspersky Internet Security for years now.. i think i started with version 7 on xp.. used a later version on vista, and then for 1-2 years 2010 on win7. I also tried Norton Internet Security 2010 some days ago and it wasnt any better:

Laptop: Asus G50vt-A1 + SSD (Intel Postville 80gb)

I just did a fresh OS installation and everything runs like.. like i had another 2 cores.. as soon as i install an Internet Suite the speed will go down. Starting programs, starting smth in the explorer,... everything runs so much faster without an Internet Suite. And i guess its logical since this suites guard everything you do (and thats good.. i havent had any backdoors/stealers on my systems for ages). But still i get annoyed by this slowdown. I even thought about switching complety to linux & ubuntu. But then i got this idea and i wonder if its any good:

Simple AV (e.g. MSE) + Firewall (which will ask me for EVERYTHING that wants to make a connection.. if i says "yes" or "no" it will save that as a rule and wont ask again except the file changes). I always was against such a security because the most effective guard was always the "proactive security" of kaspersky (or other internet suites like norton). The AV itself couldnt dedect a backdoor/stealer due to it beeing fully undedected to any AV, but the proactive security always caught it. And if not, then the firewall told me that something wants to send something
But i would forget about the proactive security.. just getting smth which will save me for common trojans/stealers/bots,... and a firewall which is hard to bypass and tells me whenever a program wants to start a connection.

Is that idea any good?

As a side note: I dont use UAC,Windows Defender,Windows Malware Removal Tool. Also Windows Firewall is disabled as i dont belive that it is an good firewall at all.

If yes, which AV & FW should i use? I always found that most backdoor/stealers had undedection problems with avast. But no idea if it is a slowdown again and which FW i should use together with it.

thansk

 

You should enable Windows Firewall dude.. I've been using it ever since Vista and its okay i think..

If you insist on 3rd party either comodo firewall or pctools firewall plus

 

from what i read , the windows firewall is the easiest to bypass.. especially since 90% uses this firewall, people who make malicious programs will put more effort to bypass this firewall than some other firewall which isnt used that often.

Dont know if that has changed in win7 tho

 

Comodo, Zone Alarm, and Windows 7 firewall all very good and keep your Windows 7 fixes up to date.

I use a combination of Zonealarm, Avast, Threatfire and Windows 7 FW.

 

Hmm i now thought about MSE + Online Armor

altough i have seen some tests on youtube where MSE didnt rly worked well..
author infected himself with 40 backdoors/virues and 19 didnt got dedected (but malwares anti-bytes found them)

anyone got experience with online armor? does it work together with MSE?

thanks

 

MSE is one of the best, if not the best, free A/V program, easily rivaling most paid A/V programs. Windows Defender is also a very good program, they basically bought it out from a company that made very good antispyware software (Giant Antispyware). Windows Firewall is also very good, especially with Windows 7. Majority of users will suffice with these programs.

 

+1 with the answer above.

 

This type of argument is classic and a bit faulty at the same time.


Allow me to elaborate.
MSE is one of the best free av programs. Light, effective, high detection rates and low false positives (on par with most paid programs that have been rated to be 'top' ones).

As for 19 viruses the MSE failed to detect ... well, I can assure you that NO av program will be able to 'catch them all'.
That's why Malwarebytes is used alongside of MSE (or any other av) in case of an infection.

As for Windows firewall ...
Your best bet is to use that and set it up to how you want.

Software based firewall is the weakest and the first line would be the hardware firewall built into your ADSL router (if you have one).

 

There's your problem right there. You seem to be a believer in "security suites", so I make this brief: If you run a modern Windows system in its intended proper configuration (meaning, of course, with UAC enabled, and always running your regular work as a Standard User), and with some proper care regarding what stuff you install, there is no need for any anti-this-or-that software, or "security suites" of any kind. I have been running all of my machines without any third-party "protection software" at all, for about ten years now. Never had a single virus. And yes, you'd be floored by how fast, responsive, and problem-free these machines are.

 

I belived that MSE is pretty lightweight too.. until i saw some performance comparison test from december of 2009 - september 2010.. MSE was pretty much the worst when it came to unpacking .rar files, copying files,moving files aswell as starting programs.

for the 19 files which MSE didnt dedect: Avira or Avast dedected them (not all.. i think Avira had 1 left).. but ye Avira also gets alot of false positives which is quite annoying :S

I have a router already.. the reason why i want a software firewall which is hard to kill and bypass is that i want to block suspicious programs sending information from my pc. Windows firewall would propably do that job with the right configuration, but from what i experienced in the past, the windows fw was the one who got bypasses by the most backdoors/stealers since it was also the most used one. Besides that a FW like online armor provides HIPS which is (read that in many articel ans issues) today real solution against backdoors/stealers/etc.. especially against polymorphic stuff.
@edit: just found this article about the win7 firewall: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/smb-security/articles/35789.aspx

Both , MSE & Windows Firewall wouldnt offer HIPS.

And UAC.. google for "dark comet rat".. its one of 1000 free public rats which will bypass UAC,disabled UAC, etc.. aswell as u would need to run 75% of files as an administrator anyway to make them work/install correctly.. and if the same .exe file is binded with an stealer, then UAC doesnt help at all ?

thanks for help.. i guess i will go with MSE.. Online Armor would be a good addition but unfortunuatly it seems to be a bit buggy with win7 x64 atm

 

None of these will do anything whatsoever while running as a Standard User. Yes, obviously, in order to install just about anything, you will need to elevate the process to give it admin privileges.That's why you need to understand what it is you are installing. Once you allow an installer to run with admin privileges, there is no software on the planet that gives you absolute protection. Any security solution can be circumvented or disabled by such a process. In that sense nothing "helps at all". Bottom line: Understand what it is you are doing, and acy accordingly.

And, no, no properly written user mode program will require admin privileges to run. I know that there are still programs around, written by various incompetent outfits, that require admin privilege to run (that write their config files in C:\Program Files, or even C:\Windows), but that kind of garbage is getting fewer and farther in between. If you have such a program, dump it, and get something that was written by people who haven't slept through the last 20 years of PC software development.

 

Got MSE & Comodo Free Firewall now

 

I run Avira and outpost pro , so far things run well on win-7 64 . Don't like suites .