Best Security Suite

Hi guys,

I'm about to receive my new computer (a Lenovo T60), and I'm wondering what I should do in terms of security software. For spyware, I plan on using Ad-Aware and Spy Sweeper. However, for anti-virus and firewall protection, I'm not so sure. I've heard bad things about McAfee and Norton from various users, but, on the other hand, PC World rates them very well. So basically, what is the best security software out there?

 

For anti-virus, I use AVG Free. It's not a resource hog like Norton. As far as firewalls are concerned, Tweakguides.com says that the windows firewall, when combined with regular virus scans, is sufficient for most users, so that's what I'm doing.

 

AVG Antivirus (Free) + Zone Alarm (Free) + Spybot S&D (Free) + Ad-Aware SE (Free) = maximum protection.

 

That's what I do, minus ZoneAlarm.

 

Well, me neither, I use Windows Firewall rather than Zone Alarm, I will use it though when I upgrade to 2gigs of RAM next week.

 

For AV, NOD32, Kaspersky and BitDefender are the best paid scanners and Avira is the most accurate free scanner. Avoid Norton. For firewalls, Comodo (free), ZoneAlarm (paid or free), and Sunbelt Kerio (paid or trial) are all good.

 

I have bitdefender, it works great, updates regularly discretely, scans nice and fast, and hopefully accurately, and it has active protection, is easy to use, and provides lotsa features. I like it.

 

For AV, NOD32 or Kaspersky. They use very little resources and have great protection rates.

 

Another vote for Kaspersky.

 

BitDefender for an all in one solution

IS10 for user friendly power, Pro Plus for corporate simplicity and competence

 

I think I will go with NOD32 for anti-virus. Would Windows firewall be enough to go along with that? Or should I get something better?

 

I use all freeware stuff

Virus = AVG
Firewall = Comodo although after much reasearch I too also believe XP firewall is sufficient.
Spyware = ewido

Today Comodo is coming out with a beta version of all-in-one Anti Virus and Spyware product. I think I'll give that a try.

 

Windows FW will not keep anything on you pc from sending stuff out. So you your pc is bot it will continue to be.

Comodo and others, you have to tell it which applicatons are allowed to send trafic out.

But if your are clean now and run behind a HW firewall you should be fine. I only run Comodo on my laptop, since it is portable.

 

Similar to ZoneAlarm Pro, Comodo has an internal database of 7600 common applications that it knows to provide access. Still there were quite a few I had to give permission to send traffic. I tried Jetico because it was free (but eventually will not be) and it was the most annoying experience I ever had as I spend enormous amounts of time answering tons of popups. Yet this FW is highly rated but in my opinion it was too hands-on.

Note that I tried Norton Internet Security and while it did its job, I felt it was too much of a resource hog for my tastes. Nothing shall come between me and my online fragging.