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sudsmcgee

sudsmcgee

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So my subscription to Norton Internet Security is up and I want to try something else. I recently installed the free version you get from Comcast and I ended up getting some adware/spyware that it wouldn't even recognize nor remove (roicharger and some coupon thingy), so I'm done with that crappola.

I have heard good things about Kapersky and I'm looking for opinions on what other software to consider.

I'll pay if it's worth it, but if the free ones work well enough so be it.
 
I've used AVG and Avast before and been happy with both. My ultimate solution though is Ubuntu. The only thing I'm missing with my switch to Linux is a CAD program. Although, Sketchup gets me by. Don't be afraid of leaving Microsoft and don't be fooled by the Apple hype machine. A fine example of everyday people using Linux is all Droid enabled phones.
 
sudsmcgee said:
So my subscription to Norton Internet Security is up and I want to try something else. I recently installed the free version you get from Comcast and I ended up getting some adware/spyware that it wouldn't even recognize nor remove (roicharger and some coupon thingy), so I'm done with that crappola.

I have heard good things about Kapersky and I'm looking for opinions on what other software to consider.

I'll pay if it's worth it, but if the free ones work well enough so be it.
Click to expand...

OSX works great for me.
 
I can tell you Kaspersky works great. I'm not a techy type, so I don't know anything about Linux or the other free programs that are on the other posts, but I do know that my computer doesn't seem to fight with Kaspersky nearly as much as it fought with Norton or McAfee. Again, I don't know if it's the best, but it works great for me.
 
I use AVG free, along with Spybot.

Biggest thing you can do is STOP using Internet Explorer. Install FireFox, and install addons: Ad Block Plus, No Flash, and No Script.

Internet Explorer (even version 8 and 9) are gaping holes in your security, even with antivirus installed.

If you run Vista or Win 7, be sure that Windows Defender is running and updated (its like a built in Spybot app).
 
I highly recommend MS Security Essentials, though I'd also consider Google Chrome or Opera instead of Firefox, though they are more of a "security through obscurity" in some ways too. I run MSE on all of my machines and haven't had any issues, plus it's free, so worst case scenario you're out some time and have to find something better. If that doesn't do the trick, Komodo is a very paranoid option, but will work, I just find it to be too pesky about everything going on in the system. MSE is hardly intrusive at all except when necessary, plus it takes up almost no memory so you don't notice it slow down like McAfee/Norton tend to do from my experience...
 
I really like the Kaspersky Internet Security product... I've used the Norton POS product before, as well as SAVCE. Had a brief time with McAfee (learned to hate it quickly) and a few others...

I web surf 99% of the time with Firefox, so I'm a bit safer than IE (or at least past releases)... I do use IE 8 from time to time, and am waiting to see what version 9 brings to the table.

I have Windows Defender installed, and getting updates as it wants (very often it seems)... I don't let any updates get installed automatically. I need to allow them since I need to confirm those updates won't cause software I run, and need to run, fail to function. I've had that happen before. Far better to review and allow installs that are confirmed as being ok than to not and have to weed through all those updates when you discover something's not working.

I've used spybutt before, and never really cared for it.

The free version of AVG is very limited, and won't protect you from far too many things. My nephew's computer had that on it and it still caught a nasty (from a kids web site too)...

I will be looking to renew my Kaspersky license in 44 days... :D But, it's pretty damned cheap for a 3 system license pack... Helps when you have a few systems to protect. :D
 
Thanks everyone. I'm going to give MSE a try for a while and see how I like it. I asked our IT guy what he recommends and that's what he uses on his home PCs.

BTW, he hates Norton and McAfee as do many it seems.
 
I had Norton 360. Dumnp it cause I was tired of it holding my machine hostage yet still allowing hits through.

Went to MSE and haven't had anything flare up.
 
I'm not a fan of Microsoft, but I got to say that the free Microsoft Security Essentials is great. The AVG is also fine, but I don't like it as much as Security Essentials from a user point of view.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Also download the free version of malwarebytes. Just run a scan every few weeks:

[ame]http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html[/ame]

And, as other people have said, stay away from the current build of Internet Explorer, use Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or ...

Also, make sure that you keep all software updated (especially your browsers, OS, adobe flash & acrobat).
 
CrankyOldLibrarian said:
And, as other people have said, stay away from the current build of Internet Explorer, use Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or ...

Also, make sure that you keep all software updated (especially your browsers, OS, adobe flash & acrobat).
Click to expand...

When used wisely, IE 8 can be fine. You just need to tweak it slightly. If you know how, or have a friend/family member that will do it for you, it's a good browser. But, as I mentioned, I use Firefox ~95-99% of the time. It is set as my default browser.

I have to be cautious about what updates I approve/apply/install on my main systems. I've had times where I've updated something, like the .NET Framework, only to have critical applications no longer function. Typically, an update from those other software manufacturers fixed the issue. But, there were times that said update was a good amount of time away, so I needed to roll-back to the previous state. I'm now in the habit of checking before installing most updates (beyond minor things like Windows Defender, or other third party apps)...

While most home users can blindly apply updates without worry, some of us need to take a more granular approach. I can use a VM to test updates before moving them to other systems. Especially since I can take a snapshot and simply roll-back to that point in time if things are not 100% kosher. Love VMware products... :D
 
Rick91981 said:
No need for that, it won't mess anything up. It is by far the best AV I have used recently.
Click to expand...

If I had a dime for every time someone told me that, I wouldn't need to work another day in my LIFE...

1. I need to be sure it will let me exclude directories from being scanned, ever.
2. I need to be sure it's going to play properly with ALL my software, not just most of it.
3. I'm not about to install one app that could bring my system to it's knees and then spend the next couple of days either trying to get it back to where it was, or at least pull off my files and rebuild it.

I've been in IT long enough to be very cautious with ALL AV try software. One person's claim that it will do no harm has to be confirmed across several system configurations before I'll start to believe it.
 
Golddiggie said:
If I had a dime for every time someone told me that, I wouldn't need to work another day in my LIFE...
Click to expand...

It sound like you've been in IT around the same amount of time I have...

To the OP - any AV is better than none... for what its worth I've been using Symantec Endpoint Protection v11 for the better part of a year now and have had no issues. If you have AV and are still getting hit with viruses, there are 4 things you can do:
1) Update your AV definitions and engine and make sure your OS and applications are patched.
2) Stop letting people use your computer, if you can't, make them use non-administrative accounts on your machine.
3) Use a different browser... I highly recommend Firefox with the addons mentioned earlier.
4) Lay off the XXX stuff, this is where most of the nasty stuff really lays... the internet is just like real life, no chick you've just met 30 seconds ago is going to show you her naughty bits for free... your going to pay for it one way or the other.

I manage IT security for a living and the vast majority of system infections can be avoided by following those 4 rules.
 
Golddiggie said:
If I had a dime for every time someone told me that, I wouldn't need to work another day in my LIFE...

1. I need to be sure it will let me exclude directories from being scanned, ever.
2. I need to be sure it's going to play properly with ALL my software, not just most of it.
3. I'm not about to install one app that could bring my system to it's knees and then spend the next couple of days either trying to get it back to where it was, or at least pull off my files and rebuild it.

I've been in IT long enough to be very cautious with ALL AV try software. One person's claim that it will do no harm has to be confirmed across several system configurations before I'll start to believe it.
Click to expand...

1) Can exclude file locations with no issue.

2) Never encountered an issue with any software, though I don't use anything overly specialized.

3) If you are such an IT guru why would it take you so long to recover from a crash? Don't you have backups? Create an image file for easy restoring. (that probably comes off as being an ass but I don't mean it in that way)


I'm in IT as well and i do find MSSE to be the best AV out there. I have yet to see it cause a problem.
 
I have a good amount of specialized software on my system. I do have a NAS/SAN now, but didn't while I was installing everything the last time I reinstalled everything.

I've built system images at places I've worked before. My time frame for rebuilding has more to do with recovering many GB of files, and rebuilding the system right. When you have over 500GB on your drive arrays (RAID 0, this run) doing a reimage from saved image could take just as long as me rebuilding it the 'long way'... Besides, I've not had time to mess around with imaging tools for Windows 7... If this was xp, then I'd have an image set and scripts to push the extra software ready to go at a moments notice. Of course, I would also need to use my laptop to initiate this, since I only have the one tower now, and my imaging tools reside on a VM on my ESXi host server.

I do have most things backed up, right now, but I do need to go through and make some more transfers. Just takes a while when you're moving 200-300GB of files around. Even with two Gb NIC's to use for traffic. Even with jumbo frames enabled on all legs...

My hardware is stable, which is why I've not felt the need to go through all of that... Windows 7 is stable too. My other software all plays nice with everything installed. So why would I go and install something else that might not play well? Doesn't make sense to me... At least not without doing extensive testing on a VM first. I do the same thing whenever I'm in charge of software deployments, or OSD... If you don't test this 10 ways to Sunday, it's your ass when something goes wonky...
 
I used to use F-prot back in the day. Now I run linux and don't worry about it.
 
I have AVG now with Spybot on Win 7/Firefox. Haven't had any issues at all. I've also used Avira in the past, along with Panda Cloud (but not long enough to seriously form an opinion).

I don't have Windows Defender or Security Essentials. Haven't had a virus/trojan horse, etc. yet. But, I scan every file before I open it and when I boot my computer, I update both the AV/anti-spyware first before I even open FF.
 
Golddiggie said:
I've built system images at places I've worked before. My time frame for rebuilding has more to do with recovering many GB of files, and rebuilding the system right. When you have over 500GB on your drive arrays (RAID 0, this run) doing a reimage from saved image could take just as long as me rebuilding it the 'long way'...
Click to expand...

I've got roughly 1TB of data but it is spread across many data drives. My OS is on the primary drive and it is not for data storage. If I have a crash, I restore the OS and all the data remains in tact on the secondary drives.


Besides, I've not had time to mess around with imaging tools for Windows 7...
Click to expand...

Hard to believe, but the built in backup and restore on Win7 works very well. Particularly the whole drive image. Backing up files/directories works well too but does not overwrite properly so you need to stay ontop of the drive space.


I do have most things backed up, right now, but I do need to go through and make some more transfers. Just takes a while when you're moving 200-300GB of files around. Even with two Gb NIC's to use for traffic. Even with jumbo frames enabled on all legs...
Click to expand...


Agreed, moving that amount of data can be a bit of a nightmare.


My hardware is stable, which is why I've not felt the need to go through all of that... Windows 7 is stable too. My other software all plays nice with everything installed. So why would I go and install something else that might not play well? Doesn't make sense to me...
Click to expand...


Not saying you personally should install MSSE just saying it works very well and does not cause conflicts in every day use. It works great for most users.


At least not without doing extensive testing on a VM first. I do the same thing whenever I'm in charge of software deployments, or OSD... If you don't test this 10 ways to Sunday, it's your ass when something goes wonky...
Click to expand...

On a corporate network absolutely need to test things thoroughly. But this thread seems to be directed more towards the home user which is why i absolutely reccomend MSSE.
 
I run an always updated version of Firefox with NoScript, AdBlock, Flashblock, and Better Privacy Most sites don't work well with all enabled, so you'll have to figure out what to allow, and if you don't have Better Privacy enabled, you'll be amazed at how many Flash cookies are stored on your machine that other spyware progs don't find. I can't remember the last time Spybot found anything to remove. Free AVG works well, even if it occasionally conflicts with Zone Alarm.
 
Rick, my main issue with partitioning a setup, since I'm using a RAID array, has more to do with making sure the primary partition is properly sized. I've seen too many issues crop up where the C drive/partition was thought to be of sufficient size, only to run short on space later. Plus, if I go and break the RAID, I'll end up needing to rebuild everything. Not what I do for fun.

I've not needed to reinstall the OS on this system since I installed Windows 7 (64 bit)... I might do it in the future, but that will be onto higher performance drives, also in a RAID array. Those drives will most likely be smaller...

I've not gone through an image capture/deploy with Windows 7 just yet. I have a set of tools that I prefer to use, so I just need to get familiar with the latest versions. But, chances are, I won't use that for this system anytime soon.

I still need to carve out the LUN from my SAN to make a network share to use. Right now, the SAN is being used to hold the VM's for my ESXi host. Chances are, once I can get another host server, or two, I'll reuse my current host as my main system. Or, I'll just keep using what I have for hardware... Dual quad core E5345 Xeon's power my working system... Plus 16GB of RAM, and 3 750GB hard drives (RAID 0)... Displays (two 24") are fed by a GeFroce 8800GTX video card... Even at ~4 years old, the system still has plenty of power in it, and life left. Of course, my ESXi host is sporting a pair of E5405 Xeon's and 16GB of RAM... :D

I do try to 'cleanup' the system every year or so... More to get rid of files that I don't really need on it than anything else.

I've seen plenty of issues crop up when using multiple partitions on systems, pushing the user data off to a secondary partition. Far too often, if the OS gets hosed, you'll need to rebuild the user data, or go through a lot of work to try and bring the old data in for the rebuilt OS to use. I usually just say F it and pull over what I need from the old account into the new one and rebuild the rest. Since I have the SAN now, I might push my profile off to that. Maybe... Of course, now that I have my domain name set on the LAN (I have an actual Windows Server 2008 R2 AD DC online) it should make things a bit easier. I was playing around with different settings on that for a while... Wanted to make the structure more logical. Plus, I have three external domain's that I can tap. I basically have a mini-data center here in my living room. :drunk:

Anyway, before I install anything that could be invasive on this system, I just have to make sure it's not going to whack my VMware apps, or my other LAN tools, and such... I do like how Kaspersky keeps me safe... It did it again tonight when I was checking what my hosted email flagged as spam... Kaspersky blocked some potential nasties, and told me so... I need to renew that one pretty soon...
 
To the OP, +1 on using Microsoft Security Essentials, plus Spybot, plus Malwarebytes.

I follow the regime recommended for non-IT guys by www.savemybutt.com If you go there, you'll see a tab or link for 'downloads' with links for all of these free programs and a document on what he suggests for weekly maintenance and security.
 
I had a plethora of virii microsoft's security essentials didnt catch, but nortons did. So im back to norrons, free from my isp.
 
doctorRobert said:
I had a plethora of virii microsoft's security essentials didnt catch, but nortons did. So im back to norrons, free from my isp.
Click to expand...

Norton from comcast allowed a nasty adware on my computer which is why this thread was started. Plus, it kept deleting files I know were safe. I'm done with it.

I know other people who never had problems until they switched to Norton.
 
You need more than anti-virus / anti-vandal protection anymore. You need something with the type of internet protection that blocks malicious links in pages. The bad stuff is coming through advertising streams on otherwise safe web sites. I work in the business and use / recommend Trend Micro and the customers I see that are more trouble free are the ones with the newest software that blocks reportedly malicious URL's. Not advocating any particular product, just make sure you get one where the vendor can block you from the constantly changing threats on web pages.
 
Golddiggie said:
Rick, my main issue with partitioning a setup, since I'm using a RAID array, has more to do with making sure the primary partition is properly sized. I've seen too many issues crop up where the C drive/partition was thought to be of sufficient size, only to run short on space later. Plus, if I go and break the RAID, I'll end up needing to rebuild everything. Not what I do for fun.

I've not needed to reinstall the OS on this system since I installed Windows 7 (64 bit)... I might do it in the future, but that will be onto higher performance drives, also in a RAID array. Those drives will most likely be smaller...

I've not gone through an image capture/deploy with Windows 7 just yet. I have a set of tools that I prefer to use, so I just need to get familiar with the latest versions. But, chances are, I won't use that for this system anytime soon.

I still need to carve out the LUN from my SAN to make a network share to use. Right now, the SAN is being used to hold the VM's for my ESXi host. Chances are, once I can get another host server, or two, I'll reuse my current host as my main system. Or, I'll just keep using what I have for hardware... Dual quad core E5345 Xeon's power my working system... Plus 16GB of RAM, and 3 750GB hard drives (RAID 0)... Displays (two 24") are fed by a GeFroce 8800GTX video card... Even at ~4 years old, the system still has plenty of power in it, and life left. Of course, my ESXi host is sporting a pair of E5405 Xeon's and 16GB of RAM... :D

I do try to 'cleanup' the system every year or so... More to get rid of files that I don't really need on it than anything else.

I've seen plenty of issues crop up when using multiple partitions on systems, pushing the user data off to a secondary partition. Far too often, if the OS gets hosed, you'll need to rebuild the user data, or go through a lot of work to try and bring the old data in for the rebuilt OS to use. I usually just say F it and pull over what I need from the old account into the new one and rebuild the rest. Since I have the SAN now, I might push my profile off to that. Maybe... Of course, now that I have my domain name set on the LAN (I have an actual Windows Server 2008 R2 AD DC online) it should make things a bit easier. I was playing around with different settings on that for a while... Wanted to make the structure more logical. Plus, I have three external domain's that I can tap. I basically have a mini-data center here in my living room. :drunk:

Anyway, before I install anything that could be invasive on this system, I just have to make sure it's not going to whack my VMware apps, or my other LAN tools, and such... I do like how Kaspersky keeps me safe... It did it again tonight when I was checking what my hosted email flagged as spam... Kaspersky blocked some potential nasties, and told me so... I need to renew that one pretty soon...
Click to expand...




You put my setup to shame :D

I have nothing fancy here at home, but a old C2D (Overclocked a good deal though) with 4GB RAM and a ton of hard drives.
 
I use Avast on all my pc/laptops along with most of my friends.
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Browser of choice is K-Meleon - http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
Second is Mozilla Firefox - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/


HP Desktop running dual boot:
Win 7 and Ubuntu
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101206 Ubuntu/10.10 (maverick) K-Meleon/1.5.4

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.24pre) Gecko/20100228 K-Meleon/1.5.4

Travel setup>
Toshiba Satellite Netbook running dual boot:
Win 7 and Ubuntu 10.10 netbook
 

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