Windows 7 - what is the best internet security for Win7?

as its been said before every user has individual needs when it comes to anti-virus

me personal have been using nortans for years now and haven't had a problem. even with 7 and nis2010 i find it flawless... a little resource hungry but not at all bad

that being said .. dont let me or anyone sweet talk you into anythying try em all and find what best suits you

I have tested Bitdefender, Norton 2010, MSE and Eset Internet Security.

I think Norton has done a great job in making their product resource friendly and it worked well for me. Bitdefender was too 'talky' for me and if I turned off all the alerts it seemed to be of little use.

I had installed MSE on a client's machine and within 3 days the machine was infested with nasty critters.

I personally use ESET Internet Security and have renewed my license for another year. I always seem to come back to it.

Hi all

The best and ONLY safe security system is IMO THE USER.

If you follow basic simple rules there is absolutely no reason why you should EVER have a problem with viruses / trojans / malware etc.

I've been using Winows machines since Windows 3.0 and have NEVER had a virus problem on a home computer (corporate / work machines is another matter).

False positives on Home Anti Virus software cause more trouble than the wretched programs are worth. To me home AV software is a 100% waste of time and slows resources down horribly.

1) Don't open ANY email attachment unless you know who its from and trust them.

2) NEVER EVER run programs that offer to scan your computer for you - such as Driver detective, Registry fix etc. - Some might be OK but once you let people mess around with the registry (Still a weak point in Windows) you've thrown away the keys to the kingdom.

3) Torrents --if you must use --USE WITH CARE and only D/L stuff with known decent trackers.

4) Unless it's a well known commercial site such as Acronis, Microsoft etc - don't bother with Trial / demo / other software "in development" unless you know and trust the developers.

5) Only use online banking where an EXTRA security pops up such as Barclays Bank in the UK -- and never give out logon details. Most Banks now if they are any good usually prompt you randomly to enter character x in you password a number of times -- the positions varying each time you use the service.

6) Password crackers are usually fairly powerless if you have special characters (especially fairly unusual ones) and lower case in them.

For example the icelandic letter eth (ð) doesn't get used much outside the country if at all - this is a good one to insert somewhere in your string. You need a multi-key combination though to enter it on a normal qwerty keyboard.-

7) install and test software on a VM before migrating it to your real machine. If you need the actual hardware test it out on a special machine that is DISCONNECTED FROM THE NET.

8) don't let kids EVER use a machine you need for work. I use a server which controls and logs internet site access - this machine is physically located in the loft so I'd know if someone was trying to physically access the server. which brings to point 9) - physical access - restrict who can physically access your machine --if you are in a workplace always leave it locked with a password required to activate it again.

10) use online shopping with care - check "phishing" warnings.

11) Keep firewalls switched on and DON'T OPEN unnecessary ports. Always check your routers logs regularly.

If you follow these rules you can junk AV software.

Hacking per se is now old hat and not cool any more -- these guys have moved on to "Phishing", Identity theft and extortion by threatening Denial of Service attacks to service providers --much more profitable for them.

Home type AV software is trying to solve a 20th century problem in a 21st century environment - so its bound to be a loser however you look at it.

(Note this post applies to HOME AV stuff -- corporate firewalls and protection is necessary but that's a whole different ball game).

Cheers
jimbo

This is all great advice but, imo, there is no reason to also not use a good AV app and firewall in addition to your excellent suggestions. I don't agree that there is much, if any, of a penalty attached. I don't get many FP's at all. I think perhaps that many AV products have significantly improved since you may have last tried them. In fact it's extremely rare for me to get a FP and when it happens, it's easy to check the file in question on something like virustotal to get a more complete picture and then exclude the file in question from future scanning in the AV app if it's truly a false positive (like for example Shark007's win codecs which gives a FP to Eset users who have set the protection level to include "potentially unwanted software").

But if you are comfortable running bare, that's cool. But although I am careful, my usage habits are such that I would never want to do that. I like that my AV app has my back if I get careless or make a mistake.

PC Tools Internet Security. Never had problems with it.
But it is each to his own. It`s best if you choose the one that suits your needs (and your pocket )

Avira works for me and is free.

hi !

reece86: we already have a BIG thread
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/7106-antivirus-best-win7.html
perhaps you should take a look there first, BEFORE you create another ?
there is a lot of useful info there...