Best security suite?

The Astroman

The Astroman

Active Member
Hey all!
My ZoneAlarm subscription is coming to an end, and so I have a choice: extend my subscription to ZA, or change software altogether.
There are tons of differing opinions on the 'net, so I thought you guys might throw in your 2 cents.
I'm looking for a security suite (combining anti -virus, -spyware, firewall, etc.) which is lightweight (i.e. not ressource intensive), offers excellent protection (frequently updated virus definitions, rock solid firewall, real-time defense, etc.) and is user-friendly (i.e. not like Vista's UAC, bugging you every 2 seconds to ask if you trust program x or y, something as non-intrusive as possible).
I like Zone Alarm, but it frequently asks me whether to trust a program, and although it isn't too much of a problem for me (albeit highly annoying), I will be installing this software on computers used by less tech-savvy people. :P

I read Norton's Internet Security 2010 matches the first two criteria, dunno about it being intrusive or not.
Thoughts?
 
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personally i just stick with a solid AV and a hardware firewall. i bought a watchguard off of ebay for $5 including shipping a while back. no subscriptions, no bloatware slowing your computer and better protection for your whole network. my personal opinion.
 
The best for your needs is ESET NOD32 Smart Security. It has everything you want and also doesnt intervene with the performance of the computer.

Better one is Kaspersky Internet Security but it will probably slow your computer a bit.
 
I recently switched from webroot to norton 2010 and the difference was amazing. My system was freezing up with the webroot when searching the web and now my system boots quiker and I do not notice any lag at all and best of all no more feeze ups.
 
A/v

Well I have really liked having Trend Micro. Its got a great scanner, its active defenses are strong, a great firewall, and its got loads more features than I will ever use. And its light on my system, and that is really important to me because I try to run my computer as lean an mean as possible.

And it doesn't hurt that Trend Micro is the one who makes HiJackThis.

Their support department is excellent as well. I have had to call them a few times and I talked to someone right away and had my solution in a few minutes, and they speak good english! Definitely a bonus in my opinion.

Their software was easy to install, easy to maintain and it does a good job.
 
I think whats 'best' depends on what the user needs or wants.
Based on my 9 yrs experience using computers, having a definition-based and a behavioral-based detection is much better. Most AV's are definition-based, while firewall such as ThreatFire or Comodo are behavioral. These two combined plus the users awareness provides great protection.
 
lubo4444 said:
The best for your needs is ESET NOD32 Smart Security. It has everything you want and also doesnt intervene with the performance of the computer.

Better one is Kaspersky Internet Security but it will probably slow your computer a bit.
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+1 ESET Smart Security is the way to go. Very lightweight and easy to manage. If you use ZoneAlarm, you will enjoy the advanced setup capabilities of the firewall that comes packaged with this and enjoy the other modes that the firewall can interact with you. You will also know that you are fully protected against pretty much any type of virus/spyware. I've only been infected once, and that was when I disabled all protection and ran it on my computer on purpose to see what would happen. I feel that ESET has the least amount of false positives out there, but I know that there are others that probably surpass ESET. However, that's when the performance starts trailing off because Kapersky, for example, slows your computer down much more than ESET's background scanner. I run Win7 and my download speeds and startup speed with ESET on startup are relatively unchanged maybe add an additional tenth of a second, but it loads seamlessly.

Seriously, if you are going to change altogether, consider the all in one package that ESET Smart Security provides.
 
My security kit of tools is:

- BitDefender Antivirus
- Norton AntiVirus
- Mil Shield
- Lavasoft Firewall


I have 8 years experience in the computer field; these applications do absolutely what they say. And they do their job properly.
Cheers
 
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N4styDawg said:
My security kit of tools is:

- BitDefender Antivirus
- Norton AntiVirus
- Mil Shield
- Lavasoft Firewall


I have 8 years experience in the computer field; these applications do absolutely what they say. And they do their job properly.
Cheers
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May i ask why you have 2 antivirus running at the same time?Its not recommended as they could conflict and a waste of system resources imo.
 
I used to use Eset, but now I use Norton 360

Eset is definitely the best choice of security suite if all you care about is minimizing the performance impact of your computer; however if you read recent reviews comparing different suites you will see that all the reviews show that Eset has very mediocre results in terms of actually finding and preventing viruses, spyware, etc. Since this is the whole point of having security in the first place I fail to see the benefit in using Eset.

Norton on the other hand, either the security 2010 version, or the 360 version which adds tuneup and backup functionality, has consistently scored as either the top or close to the top in terms of performance. It is reasonably lightweight, and is specifically designed to be user friendly and require the absolute minimum of user interaction by default.
 
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