What are best security programs?

[Remacno]

I just redid Windows XP due to the problems caused by the Blaster Worm's new variant and was wondering what security programs that I should get?

Right now I have Avast, Super Anti-Spyware, Ccleaner, any suggestions on an anti-malware and anything else I am missing? Just trying to keep security tight on this computer so that even my brothers can't **** it up. :eek:

[Olle P]

I prefer to pay a fee to get better security software with less performance impact.

There are two options I recommend:
1. Vipre (http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/VIPRE/) antivirus and antispyware, combined with Sunbelt Personal Firewall (http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/) or any other two way firewall of your choice.
Vipre is new and the fastest antispyware program around. The exact level of protection is to be determined though, but I have confidence in Sunbelt.
I use this for my wife's computer.

2. ESET Smart Security (http://www.eset.com/smartsecurity/), based on award winning Nod32.
Proven very efficient with marginally higher system load than Vipre.
I use Nod32 combined with Sunbelt Personal Firewall and Counterspy on my own computer.

Cheers
Olle

[RagingShadow07]

My personal favorite is Avast anti-virus. It's one of, if not THE, best free anti-virus, as well as being an anti-spyware, and actively scanning your web browsing and downloads in the background and closing a connection if it detects a virus. Spybot Search and Destroy would be my top pick for anti-spyware. As far as paid goes, I've heard good things about NOD32. Don't use more than one anti-virus and one anti-spyware at the same time, though. It'll create conflicts, and they may see each other as a virus or spyware.

[Olle P]

In my experience Avast is a mixed blessing. There are issues with some versions, whereas other versions run like charm.

The best feature of Spybot is "immunisation", which helps blocking known vulnerabilities. (I run it once every few months to keep my system somewhat immune.)

Cheers
Olle

[RagingShadow07]

I've used Avast for a year or so now, and I love it. It's saved me from quite a few attacks. The only problem I've ever had is where one update made it think Punkbuster was a virus, so I couldn't play half my games online for a day. It was fixed the same day, though.

With Spybot, it was a little annoying when installing programs, because it kept asking me if I wanted to allow the registry changes needed to install. Reminded me of Vista's old user account control, but a bit worse. So I'm only using Avast for now and there doesn't seem to be a problem running without Spybot.

[Remacno]

Alright, I will check some of them out. Right now I am using Avast and Ccleaner as well as Super Anti-spyware.

[Olle P]

Check out this article (http://windowssecrets.com/comp/090226/#story1) for some great advice on the topic of preventing malware from infecting your PC.

Cheers
Olle

[Daryl Greene]

Norton suite is one of those that I have never had much success with. Plus the fact that a large number of systems will be brought to a crawl with it running. My brother has a PC at his house that was running super slow and they couldn't figure it out. I went over, booted it up and quickly removed the Norton suite and it immediately doubled in speed.

[RagingShadow07]

I've got to admit, I haven't heard many good things about Norton, either. I think there was some problem with uninstalling it, or something. I had an HP laptop with a 60 day trial of Norton on it, so I used it for a while. Then a friend recommended I try Avast. So I uninstalled Norton and got Avast, and the system did seem faster.

[Olle P]

Norton seems to have shaped it up now (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330018,00.asp)...

/Olle

[tinfoil]

I realise this is a dead topic, but still worthwhile.

Avast, Kaspersky are my favourite AV solutions. Firewalls? Firewalls should never be used on the client machine as the primary line of defence. A dedicated machine or a reasonable quality router will be more dependable than that. A router compatible with dd-wrt will be much better than any windows firewall.

Also, it shouldn't need to be said, but it hasn't yet so I will: ditch IE for everything except the sites you absolutely must use it for.

Make sure your brothers accounts aren't administrators, but since you're on XP that may or may not work.

If you're really paranoid, setup virtual machines under vmware or Sun's excellent VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads) and only browse the weeb from that. It wouldn't have saved you from Blaster, however, since your host OS is still exposed. Once you get the VM setup, make a copy of it (it's dead easy to do) and if your virtual machine ever gets hosed, you can restore it from the backup in a couple of minutes.