Anti-virus/firewall suggestions...

[Zyler]

Zone Alarm/Avast
WSE
Some combo?
Thanks

[Mikanele]

Nothing wrong with that combo.
I use comodo and avira.

Keep in mind:

Windows kept updated
Flash and adobe updated
Use a user account for normal use not admin account
Use Firefox with no script add on
Spyware blaster
Router with firewall
Antivirus/firewall kept updated.
Ccleaner cleans cookies temp files

[Braden]

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=38537

[Malaikat]

If you're looking to combine products, there are several built specifically to compliment an antivirus program. It's typically not recommended to run multiple unless you're going to disable virus protection on one and just keep it for its firewall?

I'd look into ThreatFire, which is more of an application firewall. There's a bit of a learning curve and it can be annoying at times, but it will certainly keep you secure.

Additionally, Immunet is lauded for its ability to work well with other a/v products, and it's a fantastic program. Not a firewall but it is easy to use, and there's no sense in having two firewalls anyway.

[Hemperor]

install linux

[Braden]

install linux

Linux is not immune either. Rootkits can make short work of an inexperienced Linux user.

[Hicha]

I use Symantec Endpoint Protection 12; its well-rounded all-in-one solution and I've never had any issue with it (plus its free for military.) I've done plenty of experimentation in virtual environments with it, and it's caught just about everything I've played with. It's especially a pain if you do your own programming as it'll catch anything it considers 'not legit' ie reg changes or messing with system files. My #1 choice.

McAfee is just as great and a close second, however its a huge resource hog and will bog down your system if it isn't a performance machine (not recommended for media center/laptops.)

As far as free products go, I couldn't help ya; I'm a firm believer of you get what you pay for.

[Corbin]

I use Symantec Endpoint Protection 12; its well-rounded all-in-one solution and I've never had any issue with it (plus its free for military.) I've done plenty of experimentation in virtual environments with it, and it's caught just about everything I've played with. It's especially a pain if you do your own programming as it'll catch anything it considers 'not legit' ie reg changes or messing with system files. My #1 choice.

McAfee is just as great and a close second, however its a huge resource hog and will bog down your system if it isn't a performance machine (not recommended for media center/laptops.)

As far as free products go, I couldn't help ya; I'm a firm believer of you get what you pay for.

You've never read the AV comparisons, have you?

Symantec and McAfee are two of the worst AV companies you can use. They are bloated and regularly misdiagnose or completely miss infected files. However, these companies still exist for the very reason you've stated: the world has this mentality that if you pay for something, it will be better. Fact is, they both have fallen way behind the competition, the competition that is free even.

That being said, I use Microsoft Security Essentials. It runs 24/7 while I run spybot and malware bytes maybe once a month.

I'm thinking I might dump MSE for Avira though. While MSE had great comparisons the past few years, it seems MS has been a little slacky with it lately while Avira still is a very well taken care of option. G-Data is still the best option out there, but it's not free.

[Braden]

I prefer ESET NOD32 (paid) and Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) (free). If you have not read my forum link, please read it. Others have also contributed in that thread as well.

[Hicha]

I use Symantec Endpoint Protection 12; its well-rounded all-in-one solution and I've never had any issue with it (plus its free for military.) I've done plenty of experimentation in virtual environments with it, and it's caught just about everything I've played with. It's especially a pain if you do your own programming as it'll catch anything it considers 'not legit' ie reg changes or messing with system files. My #1 choice.

McAfee is just as great and a close second, however its a huge resource hog and will bog down your system if it isn't a performance machine (not recommended for media center/laptops.)

As far as free products go, I couldn't help ya; I'm a firm believer of you get what you pay for.

You've never read the AV comparisons, have you?

Symantec and McAfee are two of the worst AV companies you can use. They are bloated and regularly misdiagnose or completely miss infected files. However, these companies still exist for the very reason you've stated: the world has this mentality that if you pay for something, it will be better. Fact is, they both have fallen way behind the competition, the competition that is free even.

That being said, I use Microsoft Security Essentials. It runs 24/7 while I run spybot and malware bytes maybe once a month.

I'm thinking I might dump MSE for Avira though. While MSE had great comparisons the past few years, it seems MS has been a little slacky with it lately while Avira still is a very well taken care of option. G-Data is still the best option out there, but it's not free.

I don't base my opinion on what random website AV comparisons say (which I did a quick google, PCMAG has SEP !2 at 4.5, McAfee at 3.5, they didn't even bother with MSE.) MSE is probably one of the worst products you could use for free AV, it has a horrible detection algorithm that honestly doesn't flag half the things it should.

We run a huge virtual environment at work, roughly simulating a network of 12,000 machines with supported infrastructure that are simultaneously sending email, chatting, and browsing scripted websites, running apps, etc. We then inject different types of virus and malware into this environment and see how it affects our traffic, workload, and overall network. We can monitor how it spreads, and modify our live infrastructure to prevent spreading if an attack did happen. SEP is one of the most reliable AV products we use, however it doesn't have as many 'tool's per-say as what McAfee can provide, so we go with the latter (McAfee includes Host Based Intrusion Prevention by allowing us to restrict activities per user, per machine, ie: no thumb drives, cannot write to cd.)

[Mikel123]

I'm sure this is super lame, but I've had exactly one issue in the past 5 years, using only a combination of Google Chrome browser and the plain old Windows Defender which I believe can be found on just about every windows machine. And that one issue was found and resolved by running a Windows Defender virus scan & fix. I don't even use Windows Firewall, just the Defender (the castle icon) to scan for stuff every month or so.

I don't know if other browsers have the same security features as Chrome these days, but it has a nice feature whereupon if you try to visit a website which has something sketchy going on, the whole browser turns red and gives you a warning sign just in case.

[Malaikat]

Most viruses these days don't jump out and alert you to their presence, Mikel. They're silently logging keystrokes or attaching themselves to sessions with your bank or credit card company. They go to great lengths to ensure you remain clueless...so the fact that you haven't experienced any "issue" isn't a guaranteed indicator.

[LKP]

Some good tips here. I hadn't thought about using an admin account for everything, and that bit me in the ass a year or two ago. The computer in question came with Vista, and I had to run some things (including UO, I think) as administrator to make them work right, so I always used an admin account.

Well, I was trying to catch up on the TV show Lost. They were about 5 weeks into the final season and I had just finished watching all the other seasons on Netflix. But for some reason, ABC in its infinite wisdom decided to put all but the first few episodes of the last season on their website for streaming. They had seasons 1-5, and season 6 from episode 4 on. I never understood why; not letting people catch up on the show stops them from watching it at primetime, and loses viewers/ratings/ad revenue for ABC.

Anyway, It's the kind of show where you can't skip an episode and have any idea what's going on, so I had to find the first few episodes somewhere if I was going to catch up in time for the finale. ABC also made all the legit streaming sites like Hulu take down the first few episodes. So I found an illegitimate one. They actually did have the videos, but about 5 minutes into the first episode, my computer was going nuts. What's the first thing you do? Hit ctrl+alt+del to find and stop and suspicious processes, right? I got a message that the administrator had disabled the task manager. Fun stuff.

tl;dr. Long story short: using admin access when you don't need it = reformat.

Oh, and this was in my Army days, so I was running Symantec everything. It didn't help at all.

[Mikanele]

My advice is win xp not sure about anything later.

I also forgot to mention mcfaee site advisor is on every desktop and laptop. Sometimes you get false positives but overall it's great. My wife will google something like pumpkin pie recipe and if she sees red x on google search results she doesn't go to the link.

I also use opendns for my home network that blocks a lot of stuff if you have several people in your home that just google anywhere.

[Braden]

My advice is win xp not sure about anything later.

I also forgot to mention mcfaee site advisor is on every desktop and laptop. Sometimes you get false positives but overall it's great. My wife will google something like pumpkin pie recipe and if she sees red x on google search results she doesn't go to the link.

I also use opendns for my home network that blocks a lot of stuff if you have several people in your home that just google anywhere.

Recommending someone use XP is bad advice. Stick to a modern fully supported OS that releases consistent security fixes. XP is flagged as end of life by microsoft.