Can anybody offer some solid advice on some seriously up-to-date effective antivirus/firewall solutions for the home user like me?
Hey all! I know i'm probably the only person to ask this question (obvious LoL) but, can anybody offer some solid advice on some seriously up-to-date effective antivirus/firewall solutions for the home user like me? I spend alot of time on the internet, and have had no infections or incidents since installing Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security 2007 a year ago. However, its now time to renew my subscription, and there where in fact some things i didn't like about Trend Micro. And here they are:
1. Seems like it takes FOREVER to load at startup.
2. Updates very frequently, which i appreciate, but it's nearly impossible to use the internet for anything else while its updating.
3. Not sure if the Personal Wireless Network Monitor feature does what i thought it would.
4. Not sure if i renew will i get the 2008 version.
There are quite a lot of things i like about Trend Micro, namely that i haven't had one incident since installing it a year ago. But, i figured this might be a good time to do a little researching before i commit myself to another year.
I've heard a few good things about CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008 and The Shield Deluxe 2008, but am not familiar at all with either one.
I know this is a question that gets beat to death here at EE, but i didn't have much luck when i tried to search for possible solutions prior to asking.
Anyhoot, thanks all!
1. Seems like it takes FOREVER to load at startup.
2. Updates very frequently, which i appreciate, but it's nearly impossible to use the internet for anything else while its updating.
3. Not sure if the Personal Wireless Network Monitor feature does what i thought it would.
4. Not sure if i renew will i get the 2008 version.
There are quite a lot of things i like about Trend Micro, namely that i haven't had one incident since installing it a year ago. But, i figured this might be a good time to do a little researching before i commit myself to another year.
I've heard a few good things about CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008 and The Shield Deluxe 2008, but am not familiar at all with either one.
I know this is a question that gets beat to death here at EE, but i didn't have much luck when i tried to search for possible solutions prior to asking.
Anyhoot, thanks all!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ashutosh_kumar
zone alarm internet security suite
I'm not keen in any Security Suite as they tend to be heavier in resources. I've tried 2 of them.
What we have now in our home pcs is the free Avast and free Zone Alarm and a SpywareBlaster. They're light on resources and I haven't experienced any software conflicts with them.
We've been lucky with them so far as we haven't had any viruses and 2 of our users use P2P sharing programs.
If you're quite happy with TrendMicro and the good outweighs the bad I would just stick with it. There's no such thing as a perfect antivirus/firewall solution. Not one antivirus/firewall or any Security Suite that can catch every viruses. It's more of how the user is "security-aware" on his internet or surfing habits and the awareness of viruses that can come from all sources like emails/clicking on bad links etc.
Just my $0.02
What we have now in our home pcs is the free Avast and free Zone Alarm and a SpywareBlaster. They're light on resources and I haven't experienced any software conflicts with them.
We've been lucky with them so far as we haven't had any viruses and 2 of our users use P2P sharing programs.
If you're quite happy with TrendMicro and the good outweighs the bad I would just stick with it. There's no such thing as a perfect antivirus/firewall solution. Not one antivirus/firewall or any Security Suite that can catch every viruses. It's more of how the user is "security-aware" on his internet or surfing habits and the awareness of viruses that can come from all sources like emails/clicking on bad links etc.
Just my $0.02
Agree with rpggamergirl, it's pretty much down to personal taste in av software.
I have used the trial version of PrevX on a number of customer's pcs, and several of them have liked it so much they have purchased it:
http://www.prevx.com/
At home I stopped using a standalone firewall because all the pcs are behind a router with a hardware firewall and I found whichever firewall I used it was too intrusive. A useful comparison of firewall products is here:
http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm
Anti-virus software is entirely down to what best suits your needs. I used to use Bitdefender, now I use AVG, tomorrow I might use PrevX...
If you are reconfiguring your security per se, you should consider a good spyware scanner. Superantispyware (I HATE that name!!!) is my own choice, and seems to find and remove more than anything else:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
Good luck!!!
I have used the trial version of PrevX on a number of customer's pcs, and several of them have liked it so much they have purchased it:
http://www.prevx.com/
At home I stopped using a standalone firewall because all the pcs are behind a router with a hardware firewall and I found whichever firewall I used it was too intrusive. A useful comparison of firewall products is here:
http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm
Anti-virus software is entirely down to what best suits your needs. I used to use Bitdefender, now I use AVG, tomorrow I might use PrevX...
If you are reconfiguring your security per se, you should consider a good spyware scanner. Superantispyware (I HATE that name!!!) is my own choice, and seems to find and remove more than anything else:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
Good luck!!!
My advice:
(1) Any one AV program. Get one of the free ones, e.g. http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
Just make sure it gets updated.
(2) Windows Defender: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
(3) Enable the Windows Firewall (Control Panel -> Windows Firewall)
(4) Make sure Windows Updates are applied regularly. (Control Panel -> Automatic Updates)
If you're just careful what you click on (email attachments and links, esp.) you will find you won't ever need any of the first three items above. Everyone needs (4), however.
(1) Any one AV program. Get one of the free ones, e.g. http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
Just make sure it gets updated.
(2) Windows Defender: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
(3) Enable the Windows Firewall (Control Panel -> Windows Firewall)
(4) Make sure Windows Updates are applied regularly. (Control Panel -> Automatic Updates)
If you're just careful what you click on (email attachments and links, esp.) you will find you won't ever need any of the first three items above. Everyone needs (4), however.
Kaspersky. You can go to Kaspersky.com and look at the home user addition. You cna get a good price if you look around for it. It Is super effective. You can have all your updates behind the scenes and it looks for new local virus defenitions every hour. You can set it to scan only files that have been altered or added since last startup. That saves a lot of time.
Hope this helps
Hope this helps