'Puter Protection

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » November 27, 2007 3:05 pm

What do y'all use to keep trojans and spyware away from your 'puter?

We just reimaged and within two days we had somethin' so nasty that as soon as you started an Ad Aware scan, the 'puter would reboot. So, hubby is re-reimaging and I wanna have something ready.

You know, for protection.

How do I keep those viruses from penetrating?

Skibo · Post by **Skibo** » November 27, 2007 3:09 pm

I'm a big fan of Norton. That is all I use. Never had a problem and I hit a lot of "dangerous" sites.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » November 27, 2007 3:11 pm

Skibo wrote:I'm a big fan of Norton. That is all I use. Never had a problem and I hit a lot of "dangerous" sites.

Our 'puter visits its share of some "dangerous" sites, too.

I'm debating between McAfee and Norton.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » November 27, 2007 3:14 pm

This might help, too...

We run XP Pro, might upgrade to XP Media (we're not Vista people because IE7 conflicts with our work portal).

We use IE6 and whatever the current version of Firefox is regularly.

We'll pay a little, but not a lot.

ph4ever · Post by **ph4ever** » November 27, 2007 3:26 pm

buffettbride wrote:
Skibo wrote:I'm a big fan of Norton. That is all I use. Never had a problem and I hit a lot of "dangerous" sites.
Our 'puter visits its share of some "dangerous" sites, too.

I'm debating between McAfee and Norton.

don't go with McAfee - go with Norton

SharkOnLand · Post by **SharkOnLand** » November 27, 2007 3:28 pm

AVG.

Norton is a system hog, plus it costs money. AVG is free. http://free.grisoft.com/

As for adware and spyware tuff, I use ad-aware (free version) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

As a self-proclaimed "computer geek", these get my seal of approval.

Edit: You'll also probably want a firewall, try zonealarm. They also have a free version, $19.95 for a full license. http://www.zonealarm.com

Capt.Flock · Post by **Capt.Flock** » November 27, 2007 3:35 pm

ph4ever wrote:
buffettbride wrote:
Skibo wrote:I'm a big fan of Norton. That is all I use. Never had a problem and I hit a lot of "dangerous" sites.
Our 'puter visits its share of some "dangerous" sites, too.

I'm debating between McAfee and Norton.
don't go with McAfee - go with Norton

actually Macfee outperforms norton for this year panda has one of the better free sites

ph4ever · Post by **ph4ever** » November 27, 2007 3:35 pm

SharkOnLand wrote:AVG.

Norton is a system hog, plus it costs money. AVG is free. http://free.grisoft.com/

As for adware and spyware tuff, I use ad-aware (free version) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

As a self-proclaimed "computer geek", these get my seal of approval.

ad-aware is good for a free program but it still doesn't catch everything. I'd rather spend a few bucks and get something better. I use No Adware. I bought it after I ran it and got stuff that ad-aware missed.

ph4ever · Post by **ph4ever** » November 27, 2007 3:37 pm

Capt.Flock wrote:
ph4ever wrote:
buffettbride wrote:
Skibo wrote:I'm a big fan of Norton. That is all I use. Never had a problem and I hit a lot of "dangerous" sites.
Our 'puter visits its share of some "dangerous" sites, too.

I'm debating between McAfee and Norton.
don't go with McAfee - go with Norton
actually Macfee outperforms norton for this year panda has one of the better free sites

I've gotten stuff using McAfee twice. The second time my IT manager advised strongly against McAfee. In his words, it doesn't come free with all those isp's for nothing.

Capt.Flock · Post by **Capt.Flock** » November 27, 2007 3:40 pm

ph4ever wrote:
Capt.Flock wrote:
ph4ever wrote:
buffettbride wrote:
Skibo wrote:I'm a big fan of Norton. That is all I use. Never had a problem and I hit a lot of "dangerous" sites.
Our 'puter visits its share of some "dangerous" sites, too.

I'm debating between McAfee and Norton.
don't go with McAfee - go with Norton
actually Macfee outperforms norton for this year panda has one of the better free sites
I've gotten stuff using McAfee twice. The second time my IT manager advised strongly against McAfee. In his words, it doesn't come free with all those isp's for nothing.

I use kaspersky but it does not come with a firewall

SharkOnLand · Post by **SharkOnLand** » November 27, 2007 3:41 pm

ph4ever wrote:
SharkOnLand wrote:AVG.

Norton is a system hog, plus it costs money. AVG is free. http://free.grisoft.com/

As for adware and spyware tuff, I use ad-aware (free version) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

As a self-proclaimed "computer geek", these get my seal of approval.
ad-aware is good for a free program but it still doesn't catch everything. I'd rather spend a few bucks and get something better. I use No Adware. I bought it after I ran it and got stuff that ad-aware missed.

There's no one "golden" spyware program that will catch everything. I use 3 on a regular basis. Hijackthis, Ad-Aware, and Spybot - Search & Destroy are the 3 programs I use. All free. Hijackthis and Spybot I don't recommend to just anyone, they could do more harm than good if used by someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

chippewa · Post by **chippewa** » November 27, 2007 3:45 pm

SharkOnLand wrote:AVG.

Norton is a system hog, plus it costs money. AVG is free. http://free.grisoft.com/

As for adware and spyware tuff, I use ad-aware (free version) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

As a self-proclaimed "computer geek", these get my seal of approval.

Edit: You'll also probably want a firewall, try zonealarm. They also have a free version, $19.95 for a full license. http://www.zonealarm.com

Another vote for AVG. Easy to use, free updates too.
Norton slowed my XP system down to a crawl.
I also like ZoneAlarm.

ph4ever · Post by **ph4ever** » November 27, 2007 3:46 pm

SharkOnLand wrote:
ph4ever wrote:
SharkOnLand wrote:AVG.

Norton is a system hog, plus it costs money. AVG is free. http://free.grisoft.com/

As for adware and spyware tuff, I use ad-aware (free version) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

As a self-proclaimed "computer geek", these get my seal of approval.
ad-aware is good for a free program but it still doesn't catch everything. I'd rather spend a few bucks and get something better. I use No Adware. I bought it after I ran it and got stuff that ad-aware missed.
There's no one "golden" spyware program that will catch everything. I use 3 on a regular basis. Hijackthis, Ad-Aware, and Spybot - Search & Destroy are the 3 programs I use. All free. Hijackthis and Spybot I don't recommend to just anyone, they could do more harm than good if used by someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

that's true - I've heard tons of good stuff about Spybot but never tried it myself. I guess it wouldn't hurt.

ph4ever · Post by **ph4ever** » November 27, 2007 3:48 pm

chippewa wrote:
SharkOnLand wrote:AVG.

Norton is a system hog, plus it costs money. AVG is free. http://free.grisoft.com/

As for adware and spyware tuff, I use ad-aware (free version) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

As a self-proclaimed "computer geek", these get my seal of approval.

Edit: You'll also probably want a firewall, try zonealarm. They also have a free version, $19.95 for a full license. http://www.zonealarm.com
Another vote for AVG. Easy to use, free updates too.
Norton slowed my XP system down to a crawl.
I also like ZoneAlarm.

I guess I've been lucky cause it hasn't slowed my XP. of course now that I've said that I'll probably crash tomorrow

gassman · Post by **gassman** » November 27, 2007 3:55 pm

I use Mac OS X 10.4

RinglingRingling · Post by **RinglingRingling** » November 27, 2007 3:59 pm

Spyware: both Spybot and Adaware

Anti-virus: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Firewall: combination of things

SuperTrooper · Post by **SuperTrooper** » November 27, 2007 4:00 pm

I get McAfee for free as part of my Comcast internet. Previously I paid for Norton. When i did the first scan Mcafee found several problems Norton missed. No program gets them all.

I also use the following free programs:

Ad-Aware

Spybot - for me as simple to use as AdAware.

SpywareBlaster

ZoneAlarm - the latest update has caused it to take forever to load.

In April PCWorld magazine reviewed the latest security programs:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130869/article.html

Moonie · Post by **Moonie** » November 27, 2007 4:13 pm

SharkOnLand wrote:AVG.

Norton is a system hog, plus it costs money. AVG is free. http://free.grisoft.com/

As for adware and spyware tuff, I use ad-aware (free version) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

As a self-proclaimed "computer geek", these get my seal of approval.

Edit: You'll also probably want a firewall, try zonealarm. They also have a free version, $19.95 for a full license. http://www.zonealarm.com

that's what I use...once you get Norton installed it takes forever to get rid of it...and it let a worm into my computer that took me 6 hrs. to get rid of...MicroTrend House Calls finally eliminated it...

I've used AVG for over 3 years...never had anything get by it...I use the free zone alarm, and adaware (lavasoft), and spybot, also

I have XP Pro, too

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » November 27, 2007 4:14 pm

gassman wrote:I use Mac OS X 10.4

When our Dell dies, we're getting a Mac.

Skibo · Post by **Skibo** » November 27, 2007 4:17 pm

Norton does have to be renewed annually. I need to renew now. Familiarity (over 15 years) is my main reason for fandom. I started with the Norton Utilities back in the good old DOS days and have been using their virus protection from the first version. Mcaffe works well also I have used it on work computers. I don't like free stuff, no warrenty/guarentee. I believe you get what you pay for. I don't know how often the free stuff updates, but both Norton and Mcaffee update very very regularly.