advice on new security system please

[abdul.jones]

I'm looking to ditch my McAfee Security Suite as I'm tired of growing old waiting for my system to become available every time I switch on. Any suggestion on what I could replace it with? I want a firewall, virus scan and spam killer.

[outlaw2001it]

Hello,
You're going to get different opinions on this. The best thing to do is to try out different applications, and then figure what works for you, and what runs best on your system. Here are some suggestions:
Antivirus: AVG: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
Symantec/Norton: http://symantec.com/
Firewall: Symantec: http://symantec.com/
Zone Alarm: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp
As for the spam killer, I'm not sure on that. The best thing would be to check around, or wait for some else on here to make a suggestion. Again these are just suggestions, beause you will get different opinions on this.
I hope that this helped. Take Care.

[sr71000]

While some people may disagree with me I personally wouldn't touch either symantec (norton) or McAfee! I'd personally recommend the free versions of avg antivirus and avg antispyware.
AVG Antivirus is a solid antivirus with a great reputation in the field. From my experience AVG has a GREAT detection rate when trying to clean up a machine (as a technician...that's usually where I start). I have found that avg is not the best for stopping a virus before it installs itself, but on the other hand it doesn't slow your computer at all! I'm hoping the new version (only been out a week or two) is much better about prevention .
AVG Antispyware is their new product. They just released it a few weeks ago (along with the new version of AVG Antivirus. If you've ever used ewido antispyware it should look very similar as AVG bought ewido and just rebranded it. Ewido is known to be a great antispyware and I'm excited to see where Grisoft (AVG) goes with it . Hopefully soon we'll see a bundle for both apps!

For a firewall I really used to love sygate personal firewall. It was one of the best imo but it was bought out by symantec and they stopped distributing it. While i still believe sygate is one of the best out there (if you find an old pre/symantec version) I would personally find a firewall that is still being actively developed. Right now I'm testing out sunbelt kerio personal firewall. I don't like it as much as sygate (doesn't seem to be as intuitive or as easily customized), but I figure we might as well support something that has the potential to improve!! Get the new copy of firefox 2 that was just released to replace internet explorer. I would also upgrade to ie7 that was just released. Just a warning...many pages may not display correctly for a bit in ie7 as web developers adapt their pages to the changed made by ie7 (microsoft just finally decided to follow the w3c rules so all the web designers old hacks to make things work now screw everything up...lol. go figure). Personally I'd use firefox as my main browser as I still assume it's more secure than ie for a few reasons, and only use ie7 for updates and stuff requiring active x .

[Vyx]

Originally Posted by abdul.jones

I'm tired of growing old waiting for my system to become available every time I switch on.

In this case be sure to stay away from symantec products. Some of their older stuff was alright but it seems with every new product comes more wait time.

[sr71000]

oh yea...forgot to say try thunderbird email client. It's a program like outlook but I've found it's got an amazing spam filter. It does have to be trained but if you get a lot of spam it'll learn real quick :-D

[radio1_mike]

Grisoft does offer a 30-day Trial of it's products.

You might want to try their AVG Internet Security 7.5 (AV, Firewall, spyware...)

http://www3.grisoft.com/doc/trial/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

[sr71000]

what firewall do they use mike, do u kno? I doubt the develop their own or else I'd assume they'd offer the free version (given that they offer the av and as for free). Just curious how effective that firewall really is.

[radio1_mike]

Ya know, to be honest I do not know if they developed their own or absorbed it, like they did Ewido spyware detection...

My first thought would be is that they did develop it themselves. AVG does offer a paid version of their anti-virus-- so you can choose to pay for it. So, I am not sure if, just because they don't offer a free version, that it's no good. I am running that suite right now, it's certainly less of a resource hog than BitDefender 10 IS, which was what I was using before.

But, if you want to stick with purely free products, I don't think you can go wrong with:

1) AVG or Avast AV
2) Sygate Personal Pro or Zone Alarm (free) version.
3) Spyware Blaster, SD Spybot, Ad-Aware

There is an upstart called Comodo, they offer free (lifetime) AV/Firewall and free (license) Spyware/Spam programs. I tried them a few months back on my computer, they seemed at least as effective as any of the freeware options I previously mentioned.

http://www.comodogroup.com/products/free_products.html

[zepper]

I recently read an article that suggested to use one of the smaller AV's as the crackers are putting effort into getting around the popular products but not so much on the smaller. So perhaps look at Kaspersky or Nod32 for paid ones or Antivir or Avast for free ones. I've been using the equivalent of TrendMicro's PC-Cillin (comes free with VCom's SystemSuite). It is recommended to have only one AV program installed, but I've always had several. You just have to be sure that the memory-resident part of only ONE of them gets installed or enabled.
. For firewall, I've been using Sygate which also comes free with SystemSuite. Now that Sygate has been snapped up by Symantec, I don't know what Trend and VCom are going to be using but I think I heard recently that whatever it is has been causing problems for people. I have no idea why Trend or VCom wasn't aware that Sygate was on the block - very stupid move letting that get away. The last non-Symantec Sygate is still available on majorgeeks.com. Sygate still works fine on Win up thru XP. It installs easily, uninstalls cleanly and takes very few resources when on duty. Of course ZoneAlarm PE, Agnitum Outpost and another one just became available to individuals for free - I'll have to see if I can find the name. I think I didn't install it to try it out as it requires having .NET framework installed and I've been resisting doing that as I'm not interested in having yet more needless M$ crap mucking up my system. I dug it up. It's the Comodo Personal Firewall: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ if you want to try it. Here is a link so you can check out all their "free" software: http://www.comodogroup.com/products/free_products.html . Comodo's FW got a high score from PC magazine: Review But I will have to install .NET to use the new version of the Postal Service's "Shipping Assistant" software, so I may give the Comodo FW a try.
. As far as I can tell, my Sygate has had nothing to do (except authrize newly installed software's access to the internet) since I set up Verizon DSL - there is a firewall in the modem and I'm very careful about what I install on my system.
. Everyone should be using several spyware/malware softwares. I use Spybot, AdAware, Microsoft's and Trend Micro's (also part of SystemSuite). Use only the memory-resident part (if it has one) of one of them.

.bh.

[SeanC]

I'm using Comodo Firewall but I haven't tried their AV yet because it's not in the ICSA certification list yet. As soon as it is, I'll give it a try.