What's the Best Anti-virus?

[Britton30]

Right Colin, stealthed Ports means your PC won't be visible to port sniffers and most drive-by attacks.

 

[ricco197332]

I have been running Avast for years with no problems at all.It's not a system resource hog and catches evrything that tries to sneak it's way in been good to me 4 years virus free!

 

[panais]

ShieldsUp and routers have nothing to do with the effectiveness of anti-malware products, nor is it an indication of how good they might, or might not, be.

Regards,
Golden

Correct!!

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

ShieldsUp and routers have nothing to do with the effectiveness of anti-malware products, nor is it an indication of how good they might, or might not, be.

Regards,
Golden

Golden? How did you come to that conclusion? Seeing how a Good firewall (Software/Hardware), and common sense says an ounce of prevention. (Prevention - GOOD Security package, Knowing not to go to site that can cause problems to a computer). :haha:

 

[Night Hawk]

You can get winged just by clicking on links in search results even where WOT or other protections don't flag a bad site or one that waits until you arrive to slip something on.

Filters like Web Of Trust as well as having an effective not just firewall preferably one that includes web filtering will do more to steer you away.

Common Sense falls into a different catagory as far as acquiring that! :roflmao:

 

[ICIT2LOL]

You can get winged just by clicking on links in search results even where WOT or other protections don't flag a bad site or one that waits until you arrive to slip something on.

Filters like Web Of Trust as well as having an effective not just firewall preferably one that includes web filtering will do more to steer you away.

Common Sense falls into a different catagory as far as acquiring that! :roflmao:

Hum NH your last comment has always been a beef of mine - I think some think that because they have a security suite on it means they can do carte blanche whatever they like - doesn't happen in the real world eh?

Must get that WOT back on too and I am liking that Do Not Track Plus - nice little side kick

 

[Night Hawk]

The WOT is a great little addon for IE or FireFox as it will tag select sites in any search results when there is any privacy concerns mainly. But that is limited to just that alone just like any other program also sees it's own limitations regardless of how well it is rated.

The facts of how you browse in general will reveal themselves sooner or later. If you browse carelessly you end up tracking mud all over! The idea of having a good IE security program is mostly for not falling into the hidden snares that are out there being cleverly concealed.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum I think I used it a long time ago and just forgot to get it on the new build after I did that.

My Kaspersky -when it's in the mood will tag sites in a Google with coloured "flags" but thats when it feels like it!

Yep agree that there are plenty of little potholes one can fall into the annoying ones are the add on Ask bar etc stuff that one hardly ever notices on downloads and the AVG security search one that is so hard to get rid of - must look at getting a block on it somehow:sarc:

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

hmmmmmmm...This is looking to myself like a security package battle out. Which Security Suite is better? Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, MSE. I personality think in this roundup that Norton takes the led easily. They been doing it longer, and if you look at the new version 6 all former complains have been resolved, and in testing took it to some of the most nasty sites on the internet. I know NH is familiar with those sites, he beta tests too. Of the four packages named (Going with the paid AVG, opposed to the free version) Norton 360 beat them all. Norton caught everything threw at it, not a single false positive showed. AVG & MSE tied at worst - they both caught out of over 1000 only 42%, and Kaspersky caught an amazing 78%. The total here can be found on Maximum PC magazine's website.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well I don't think "shootouts" prove anything really myself except that we all have our own personal favourite apps for different reasons. However I do like to hear others opinions, thoughts, and suggestions on the subject.

For my money I still prefer to pay for than have free other than to try something out and as NH says (and myself) so much depends on ones use of the net no security is 100% and even if it were I bet there would be always be the reckless few who then whinge when they get "wared".

The cost is not a factor to me either as my own personal one costs me $0.13 a day and that is the one year licence and my lot are always having "specials", and currently I am on $0.07 a day for two years x two machines!

I think we should just be grateful to have those apps around - can you imagine the chaos if they weren't?

 

[UsernameIssues]

Mike Lonewolf,
Here are my "GRC" results using an XP VM with its IP in my router's DMZ.

XP's stock firewall off (no security tools installed - free or otherwise)



XP's stock firewall on



So, "free" (no additional cost) works fine for that type of test

 

[Night Hawk]

That only shows the degree of privacy while browsing not how effective the Windows firewall is or isn't! With the av and firewall included in the software run here I can browse while in a VM and still see the web filtering inplace since the protection is extended onto VMs as well as the host OS. (XP Mode, W8 Developer Preview, etc.)

One thing I agree is prefering a paid over free program and the need to run several rather then one or two! The most common problem found with the freebies is needing one for this and another for that and then another and another and finally I want one good one that actually works! Rather then another 2yr. license I'm looking at the lifetime license offer by one company.

The recent inquiry on that met with a response from a product specialist who explained when the life time offer was first introduced you had the option to license up to 10 machines. Mostly it applies to one machine only for the life of that one machine. If you build a new case for example you would need a new license.

That would come down to spending only $.08 plus $.002 a day over a 4yr. period. 8.2 pennies a day isn't bad at all for the full range of protections this one apparently offers. But it's even more effective when you make sure to uncheck the new toolbar items and change of home page seen often when downloading some other freeware like CCleaner.

The addons what most may not realize tend to intrude on your privacy as far as browsing habits as well as leave your system a bit more open to exploits.

 

[UsernameIssues]

...not how effective the Windows firewall is or isn't!...

My point was that the test will not tell you if a paid firewall is better than my "free" firewall as suggested by Mike's challenge:

........Lets test that out. Go here and RUN all those tests. https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 this will give you a truthful accounting of your system security.

Brink?? This URL has already been posted by another member. I swear it is not spam.

 

[Night Hawk]

That it won't! For testing a firewall as well as other system protections there are some security sites that will evaluate the effectiveness. You usually have to sign up and download a utility they provide however to run the tests.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Come on Night Hawk, YOU know Shields Up is the best one out there to check if a system is secure. It was given a "thumbsup" by Gordon at MPC magazine. Also it is one of the only free products that give you piece by piece security checks. This really surprised me that you feel that this isn't a good way to check your system security
YOU"RE always saying in chat that better to be secure and save yourself hours of rebuilding your system for downloading a so-called freebee (freebee = Warez) online that will FUBAR you entire computer.

 

[Ricorik]

I can't comment about Avira, but the AVG 2012 installer is awful.

It doesn't:

• Ask for a "Start Menu" path.
• Ask if I want a desktop shortcut.
• Remember the existing program locations.

I install my programs on a separate partition and I categorise my "Start Menu".
If I do that with AVG, the next time there is a program update, it installs itself to the OS partition.
It also creates a new "Start Menu" folder and desktop shortcut.

I didn't have these problems with the previous versions.

Otherwise, it seems to work OK.

Mabey thats right, but it works good

Can not Quote LOL

 

[Ricorik]

AVG and Avira are the best!

Only the version from Avira 2012 dont like it (to much protection)

So i use now AVG (all free)

Hiyya Ricorik welcome - not keen on AVG the site is becoming quite "invasive" with the constant add ons for the search bar etc - have you tried Comodo Premium free - best firewall around and very thorough.

Still for my money I get my ISS for AUD$0.07 a day and I haven't had a problem in nearly three years. Depends on whether you want to constantly wander around looking for the best and free (which I don't understand to be honest) and as always depends on how careful or reckless one is on the net

I have always windows firewall (seems also works fine)

 

[lehnerus2000]

Surplus /

Can not Quote LOL

You had a surplus / in the very first QUOTE tag.

 

[Ricorik]

Can not Quote LOL

You had a surplus / in the very first QUOTE tag.

Fixed thx

 

[UsernameIssues]

Mike Lonewolf,
Just to me clear, I'm was not saying anything one way or the other about the usefulness of Steve Gibson's website and tools... but I will do so now: I have used his website since it was first put online - he is a bit nuts about somethings - but overall, the site has good info and tools. It is because of Steve's podcasts that I use/like Hamachi as a VPN client. I waited until he dealt with the security of how it negotiates the connections before I started using it. This was before LogMeIn bought the product.

Remote port scanning has value. For a quick test, I use GRC; for a longer test, I use a website that will scan all ports - but there is a danger in doing that - so I'll not link to it here. [The danger being: the test takes hours. People typically start it and come back later to see the results. You could be giving some blackhat/bot a list of exploitable ports to work on while you were away. Or worse yet, you see open ports and you leave them open without further investigation. And yes, it is possible to have "open" but secured ports.]

The scope of my post was very limited - it was to merely point out that the port scan that you linked to will not help one evaluate the performance difference between the stock firewall and a paid one. It will give feedback one how well/poorly a particular firewall is setup - which might have been your point all along and I just misunderstood.


And to the OP - so as to not be totally useless to the original topic at hand - I'll make a suggestion that will probably not ingratiate me in any camp. I suggest using MSE even with its poor track record and the issues being discussed here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/216727-question-about-mse.html