Antivirus and firewall replacement

Hawk16

New Member
I was wondering what would be a good permant replacement for Norton Internet Security, because for me its just been too buggy and im really sick and tired of it and i thought that now that my subscription is about to end, i might as well get rid of it. Any suggestions?
thnx

~HaWk16
 
For retail Grisoft is one place to start looking for antivirus, antispyware, antispam as well as the built in firewall. http://www4.grisoft.com/doc/products-avg-internet-security-b/us/t5/0?lcpd=12m

Trend Micro is another retail name that comes to mind. http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/internet-security-2008/index.html

Then there's the option of going with freewares like AVG 7.5 for antivirus, AVG Antimalware, and AVG Anti-rootkit. For freeware firewalls Commodo and Jetico Personal Firewall are the two big names there. Zone Alarm's free versions is pratically worthless compared to the two free programs.
 
I totally agree about the firewalls.... I do differ a bit on the Av tho.... From what I have read lately, antivir is doing alot better than avg in the freeware market... Of course I will also mention nod32 which is an absolute must try... If you want something all in one then they have jsut released this
http://www.betterantivirus.com/catalog/eset-smart-security-home-edition-licenses-c-55_30_43.html
What I would do if I was u would be to use free av and firewall but buy a good antispyware program... I like counterspy its light, works very well and is like $20 :)
 
What I find with most anti spyware programs is that they are good for finding adwares more then anything. Some rather slippery trojans and trojan downloaders is they simply hide undetected and download other things that then create entries in the system registry in order to download even more crap.

This stuff gets past retail products just as easy as many of the freeware programs and often will need a special scanning/remover tool to locate and manually remove them. At least AVG spots them and points out where they are in many cases. Choosing one that sees regulars and automatic updates usually means that the data base on new bugs has also been updated as well.
 
Some rather slippery trojans and trojan downloaders is they simply hide undetected and download other things that then create entries in the system registry in order to download even more crap.

Yes I totally agree, thats why I also run threatfire along with nod32 and counterspy real time. I will check with hjt once in awhile and seldom find anything that has snuck by.... and have yet to see something dangerous get by anyways... have u guys heard about or tried threatfire or a-squared??
 
Threatfire may be a more recent program since that one is unfamiliar. Nod32 is an older and familiar name. As far as a-squared(formerly A raised by 2) that can be looked over at http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

The thing I found the most useful about AVG is that even with the program completely disabled in both the startup and services groups found in the msconfig utility it can spring to life out of nowhere when some site sees a trojan copied onto the drive. But that was also when IE 6 was previously used. The web site checking filters now seen in IE 7 simply veer you away from most garbage sites where I rarely see anything at this time.
 
Their comparison chart shows that to be a crap program if it only has to add 15% to McAFee! McAFee is right at the bottom of the barrel for antivirus programs along with Norton. :P

Trend Micro should be the one seeing the least out of that list of programs there. Webroot is another one that is on the low list so seeing a high percentage is no surprise!
 
and again, I agree lol I don't think that chart is to be taken literally, I was wondering the saem thing when I looked at it, but I can vouch for threatfire it has found a few things and doesn't slow me down or cause any problems.... I have read a few good reviews about it also... I just like having 3 real time scanners and love the fact that the only diff in speed I notice is the 1.5 secs when I first boot into windows.. other than that I wouldn't know they are running and its always fun to see who catches what and whos asleep at the wheel lol and when all 3 find something its all havoc lol
 
Results produced by testing over 1300 malware threats collected from the ThreatFire Security Community and secured from other 3rd party sources. Competitor products tested were Trend Micro Internet Security 2007, Webroot Spy Sweeper with Antivirus v. 5, CA Internet Security 2007, Norton Internet Security 2007, and McAfee Internet Security 2007, all with the latest available updates as of the date of test.

this is posted right under said chart... who knows what they used I have seen so many diff results from so many sources and none of them agree really... I really think that we are going to see a shift to smarter heuristic based scanners than definition based... I really like threatfire so far and we have been using it and asquared at the shop for a little while now. I have tried my own little tests with av's on infected computers and that is why i like nod32 so much.... I rarely find anything left over no matter what I run after it.... I have seen a trojan or two get by it tho.. but u can't win em all and thats why I use multiple apps
 
The only part of that I could confirm was the use of multiple programs and utlities at times to offer a hgiher level of protection. One thing to add to that would be simply being familiar with several not just a few since one will find what the other misses. That always seems to be the golden rule to apply.
 
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