OT: Which INternet Protection Suite?

Get the free AVG virus protection,

Don Henthorn

>and the free Zone Alarm program, use AdAware and Spybot, both free and you will be as well protected or better than with the paid program. You can send in donations to the above providers if you want to help with the free stuff expenses.

Re: OT: Which INternet Protection Suite?

Greg Bailey

>Hi Bart,

I am not a computer expert, just another guy with computer issues like everyone else.

My computer repair guy wised me up about the Internet. He said that almost all the virus, spyware and adware malware are devised with MicroSoft and the Internet Explorer as targets. Sounds reasonable, since they were basically the first to put this wondrous Internet together. He advised me to switch my Internet Explorer to Firefox and my email to Thunderbird email. T-Bird is an add on component or choice you can make when you have Firefox as your access to the Internet. Because Firefox is relatively new, there are not so many malware programs that have been designed to attack it. That in and of itself, conquers much of your problems. The good news is all this is free and no pop up ads or other bolony. Of course, as time goes on, more and more attackers will target Firefox and then we might have to switch to another, less known Internet access account.

Also, he put me onto three, malware programs that are free! Again, no pop ups and no subscriptions to buy to keep them updated.

For virus: AVG Free. Wonderful program and daily virus updating.

For spyware: Spybot. An aggressive programs, that is updated daily for spyware.

For adware: Ad-Aware SE Free. An aggressive and daily update if you need it.

To install, I removed Norton and other pay malware programs first and then went to each site (just Google the names)and downloaded the AVG Free first, and then went to the others. I have used these programs on my private and business computers (you have to pay for some of those programs if you have a business computer) for almost two years and have not had a virus, spyware or adware issue that wasn't handle and saved my computer.

Hope this helps you.

SAV and WinDefender

Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie

>I support hundreds of computers that simly have Symantec AntiVirus, Windows Defender and the bulit in Windows firewall. Never have a problem. The SAV is the corporate version of Norton AntiVirus. I have many customers that can't afford SAV and use NAV and the key is keep it simple. Those with NAV (Norton AntiVirus) never have probnlems, those with NIS (Norton Internet Security) always seem to have problems.

And WindowsDefnders has pretty much obsoleted the othe Spyware checkers. I still run a few others from time to time to make suer WindowsDefenders isn't missign anything, but it doesn't.

AVG for home computers is a good (free) alternative to SAV/NAV.

SAV + WinDefender + WinFirewall

or

NAV + WinDefender + WinFirewall

or

AVG + WinDefender + WinFirewall

all seem to work well.

Hope this helps.

Happy Woodworking!

Re: OT: Which Internet Protection Suite?

Bart Goldberg

>Thanks - I'm already a user of the Mozilla products. Wrt AVG Free, I believe that it is probably on par with Alwil Avast! antivirus, another free virus product. While they are decent products for freeware, I wonder if they have dectection capabilites that are as good as Bit Defender or Zone alarm, two products whose detection capabilites were rated excellent by Consumer Reports.

Anyone out there using the new MS Live OneCare service yet?

Thanks

Bart

Re: SAV and WinDefender

Robert Hutchins

>I would never dispute what Mark says. He makes his living doing this stuff and can't afford to be wrong often.

I will add my expereince FWIW: I've used Grisoft's AVG for quite awhile now and it has defended my turf adequately. I also use aVast. The two seem to coexist quite well on the WinXP (HE/ME/Pro) computers in our household. Avast seems to work wonders on e-mail warnings.

Call me paranoid, but that doesn't mean that b@$t@rds out there aren't trying to get me.

HTH

Savannah, GA?

Rod Peterson -- Ormond Beach

>Oops, sorry. After nearly 40 years in aviation, I can't see three capital letters without thinking of the airport that they're the location identifier for. It's automatic—I can't help it.

Rod
OMN

I would prefer not to be blind with WinFirewall

Mike in Paradise

>The problem with windows firewall is that it only protects from the outside coming in, not the inside going out.

This leaves you blind as to what programs are contacting the outside world from within your pc.

I like to know when all the "Good" programs are phoning home and block the vast majority of them, especially microsoft.

Windows firewall assumes that programs with administrative privilege have the right to use the internet whenever they want.

I prefer to know and have some control over who is sending out my information to the internet.

Re: OT: Which Internet Protection Suite?

Greg Bailey

>Bart,

For me, I have found those free malware programs I talked about more than sufficient. I looked at Zone Alarm and Bit Defender, but those are pay programs. I'd rather pay nothing for great protection than a fee for great protection. I guess it all depends on how you look at the old adage, "You get what you pay for." I have had Norton and McAfee and they caused me so many issues with my computer it cost me hundreds to get the computer back up and running a couple of times. Like I said before, I have been using these free programs for a long time now and so far, they have performed very, very well.