The Right Balance Of Security Software

I hope this is the correct forum in which to address this question.

1600ghz Athlon 512 gb DDR Win XPSP2

Firefox Opera & Thunderbird

I am not an expert and have put together security software not out of logic but "on the hoof", mainly by reading good reports.

I am now finding some slowing effects on my system. I therefore wish to rationalise my list of software on the following bases

1) If there is duplication

2) If there are more effective products out there

3) If for a particular duty the software I have is a "resource hog"

This is where I need your help and suggestions.

My software is as follows:

Avast 4.7 Home A/V

Comodo Personal Firewall (latest beta version)

GESWALL

DropMyRights

Windows Defender

Win Patrol

Process Guard

Spybot Search & Destroy

AdAware

Ewido On demand scanner only

Spyware Blaster

Could forum members make some suggestions on those programs that I could dispense with against the criteria I defined earlier. Generally speaking I would prefer freeware.

Many thanks for all your help

Terry

 

I would really sugest to remove this weak software: AdAware & Windows Defender.
SpywareTerminator is not the best realtime AS, but it is better than previous 2 together.
You can also use SuperAntispyware (AS) as on demand along with Ewido (more AntiTrojan).

 

Hello,
First, on demand programs do not really hurt.
Second, in your place I would remove:
GESWALL - it's an application firewall and you use PG.
Winpatrol - you don't need it for the same reason, you use PG.
Windows Defender - just useless.
The others take no brunt on your cpu while not running.
Mrk

 

id remove teh following:

winpatrol
geswall
windows defender
spybot s&d
adaware

PG and dropmyrights are enough, u dont need winpatrol or geswall.

as for three antispywares. theyre quite weak and id suggest u just use superantispyware for on-demand scans.

 

at all times A2 and Ewido would be better ondemand (free) then SUPER(sic)antispyware .. again :

software with: SUPER or PERFECT or ULTIMATE or ... please:

BE CAREFULL!!!

Could someone intelligent enough, with a decent backup like enough sigs and a good method, test this newcomer??

the GUI is waaaay to much eye candy and at the moment it has not satisfied my needs .. there are others at the moment and IMHO way much better ..

best regards,

 

In addition to the above suggestions, I think I'd try to find out which of your resident programs is producing that "slowing effect" you're seeing, and then remove that app. One thing I can't tolerate myself is slow browsing or a sluggish system. I'd much rather lighten up on the apps and use some common sense instead.

 

What I'm trying to say is this:

isn't this just the same hype as SpyWare Doctor? bset wishes,

 

This is a typical BlaBla reaction, no facts no figures and not of any help for TerryWood.

Gerard

 

it is a new comer but it isnt that new. several people at this forum have already tried it, are using it currently, and/or even recommend it.

also superantispyware has too much eye candy? i beg to differ and i find it to be a nice app overall.

 

Myself, I take the minimalist approach to security, my signature line is my current setup. I use my computer daily and surf the web with immunity, having never encountered the kinds of problems I read about in newsgroups.

Guess if you do alot of downloading from across the web and your adventuresome when you surf, you'd need all this stuff to protect your computer.

I am not a security expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I know it doesn't take redundancy and mutiple security applications to keep me safe on the internet. I value pc performance over security applications and think I have found a good balance of protection and performance to meet my needs.

Marc

 

Ewido is great AT, but it detects almost none spyware as some user tests proved, I saw about 5 in past few weeks (from skilled user) and they also proved that AdAware is the worst AS (the worst, because people think, that it is actually good) along with Windows Defender of course. As for A2, it is also nice scanner, I used its free version for a few months, but since there are not many tests about it, I can not tell, if it is a good AS or not, it started spyware updates only this year with a few false positives time to time. Spyware Terminator is the only real realtime freeware AS I know, and the rest free AS apps is too complicated for common users.

 

I agree with most of what's been said in this post and other posts in this thread, but why are you telling him to drop Spybot S&D? I've cleaned up a few PCs using this software, so it definitely has its use. It also has a rather nice Immunize feature (which complements SpywareBlaster nicely), plus it doesn't take much CPU power/resources.

I'd also use HijackThis and check the log at http://www.hijackthis.de/ to make sure no nasty processes are running.

 

This statement was true for me when I played with beta but the final version I foind to eb good in this regard. It does catch spywares in real time when I tried to run some spyware/ adware exe files.

 

I am using geswall but never used DropMyRights. I have the concept that GesWall is more easy to play and gives more comprehensive protection. Don,t know my imagination is true or not? What u think?

 

I will suggest to remove adaware and spybot and replace with SuperAntispyware free on demand.
GesWall and DropMyRights seem to be overlap but I am not sure and don,t know which one is better and to be kept.
Windows Defender will do all the job of WinPatrol alongwith real time spyware protection( I found it to eb improving in this regard now than few months back), winpatrol only has extra feature for hidden files/ rootkits but I think it is useful only for advanced users as many system files are hidden as well. Anyway I will keep Defender rather than WinPatrol( Defender monitors new services, drivers, start up enteries, IE componenets, home page etc just like WinPatrol with additioal featurses).

 

i dont use IE.

i wouldve even recommended he drop spywareblaster too (i handle firefox coookies myself).

drop my rights would be similar to running the app under a limited account. i think it would be less problematic than geswall adn it doesnt run in the background using resources.

 

I hope you had nice weather on that Desert Island you must have been on!!! SAS is a relative newcomer as a stand alone application, but it has in fact been around for about two years as it started life integrated into SuperAdBlocker. And not a lot of people know that! And you are one of them! SuperAdBlocker over the last few years has been tested to death by all manner of websites and they all give it glowing recommenation's. No one has noticed any 'sly' or 'suspect' behaviour from it, in fact quite the opposite, it has received much recommendation. So there's every reason to feel relatively confident with using SuperAntispyware. If the company are good, and trusted then that's a great head start when assessing a new piece of software. They have taken the SuperAntispyware module, adapted it and created a stand alone application but with added bells and whistles.

If you would like to catch up on the in's ad out's of this application now that you are back from your desert island jaunt then you can search around the popular AS forums and find out for yourself. There are plenty of threads covering it. Here at Wilders there are a few. You could head over to BBR and look at this http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,16363927 where it actually beat Process Guard to the punch!!! Or have a read of this one http://www.spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=20207 which i actually started(and left alone not realising how big it had got!).

Read up and educate yourself on it before spurting comments on things you clearly have no knowledge or experience of...

Oh, and welcome back. We missed you!!!

muf

 

Hi Muf, to be honest untill a few months back, I have never heard of SuperAntispyware, and as I have used Spyblocker and Admuncher for my ads since a long time, I never searched any other adblocker cause I was satisfied with the ones I had..so no, I didn't knew them until recently I began to read posts and threads here on Wilders about SAS..I installed it several times and I didn't like the program that much..altough it had a fast ondemand scanner.

and now again I installed it, still I do not like it that much, I'm sorry .. you're talking about bells and whistles, I don't see them to be honest
are you talking about that hijackprotection?
the fact that it had better scores then Processguard doesn't make this ok for me what so ever .. you cannot compare both products (you know that)

I think, honestly that there are better products available with more bells and whistles, also with a good backup, forum and support..
about the facts: I hope one day Eric will come up with another test on AntiSpyware programs, I truely hope so ..

everybody has it's own favourites, just like you, the fact that I'm rather preserved about this SuperAntispyware is that I doubt it'll perform better then SpySweeper/A2/Ewido/Boclean (cause that's what I'm running now)

it found 8 cookies, no f/p's so that's better then two months ago..

regarding education about security software, I am not an expert, nor am I trying to come over like one ..

I'm catching on, been back here since two weeks (had a rough period ..) and I'm glad to be back .. but there is a lot to read so .. thanx for the welcome and goodluck with SAS. !!

best wishes,

/edit: does anybody know how much spyware definitions it has and how it counts it?

 

Sorry, i wasn't saying that. I was saying that you needed educating on SuperAntispyware. You indicated it was a young product. I was just clarifying that it has been around longer.

I was only referring to Bells and whistles compared to SuperAdblocker. You see SAB has only resident protection and a scanner, none of the other options that are present in SAS. I wasn't comparing it with say Spy Sweeper which has lots of configurability(if you are in to that sort of thing). Incidently, if you like lots of bells and whistles then you should maybe look at Zerospyware as it has them by the bucketload.

I don't have any 'favourites' as such. I have 'preferred' software that i use because it does what i need it to do and plays well with my other apps. Like you i use BOClean and Spy Sweeper, but only use SS for on-demand scanning.

Anyhow, it appears SAS is not for you. You feel there is not enough bells and whistles and you would like to see more. Each to their own. I prefer software to be functional and only want extra option's that actually 'do' something. There are a lot of bells and whistles in SS that i just don't need as they are covered by other apps that i use. SAS on the other hand has a much lower number of bells and whistles and with that comes virtually no overlap with my other apps.

Thanks for the response. Thoughtful and well defined.

muf

 

thanx to you too and I understand what you're saying .. we just like what suites us the best .. layerd security and that can be different for everyone

 

Wow thats a lot of apps to be running! Back in the days when i used to have a lower spec machine and limited funds i used to use Zonealarm free, avg free and spybot s&d teatimer. I also had adaware free which i scanned with weekly. It didn't seem to noticeably slow my computer down (i used to have a duron 1ghz cpu, 256mb ram, windows 2000) and i never ran into any problems.

 

My experience with it is very good. Very easy to handle. No pop ups( execept first launch of a browser etc). Low resources use( 6.6 MB), no conflicts, no slow down. No configuration needed. Just install and forget. I feel much easier to use than DropMyRights.

 

lu chin - I've split your post and it's replies off this thread since your problem would require direct support from the vendor, and also to keep this thread on topic. You can find your new thread located here.