Your Opinion Please

After going through lots of discussions & comments posted here, I have installed the following free security suites :
1) Online Armor firewall
2) Antivir
3) Syware Terminator
4) Super Antispyware - for on-demand scan

My Computer config :
Athlon 3000+ processor
Asus A8N-VM mobo
1 GB DDR RAM
80 GB SATA HDD
WIN XP with SP2

There is a wee bit of slowing, but it is tolerable.
I request comments from forum members on the pros & cons of my choices.
Do you think I shall get adequate proection?

 

Whether you get adequate protection depends a minimal amount of what security software you use, and a lot on how you use it and your general surfing habits.

There's, of course, also no definition of adequate. Maybe you could get hit by only (?) one virus a year - would that count as adequate?

In short, learn more about security practises instead of getting grey hairs over whether your security software is good enough, because the latter question is irrelevant 98% of the time.

 

I agree with solcroft, and you might want to get some kind of imaging program (I use Acronis). If something gets by your AV and trashes your system, you simply restore to the day before (I make a complete image each day) the malware invaded. I never, ever, worry too much about malware and you should not either if you take the proper precautions.

 

Hi Century!
If was was in your shoes, I would:

1) Replace Spyware Terminator with
Spybot Search & Destroy AND the new SpywareBlaster 4.0.
If they don't conflict with the rest of your programs,
Spybot Search & Destroy and the new SpywareBlaster 4.0
offer, by far, more protection than Spyware Terminator.
Spybot Search & Destroy -alone-
is much stronger than Spyware Terminator.
Just try this combination.

2) SUPERAntiSpyware free is a good scanner.

Other FREE options include:
PC Tools Spyware Doctor.
AVG AntiSpyware.
A-Squared.

3) Don't use: Ad-aware 2007 Free and MalwareBytes Antimalware.

You have to try & decide.

 

Keep only first two. It should be enough. If u want more, either a behav blocker like TF or a Sandbox.

BTW what Solcroft said is the actual thing u need to do.

 

Hi,

I only miss a Web/http Scanner, Antivir Free lacks of it and in OA Free is no Web-Shield available.
So either an AV like Avast Free with its Web Shield or a sandboxing tool for browsing etc. would be my choice.

Cheers

 

My 2 cents: Why don't you use Superantispyware 4.0 as your real time app, it's the best. and AVG will be discontinued soon in favor of the AVG 8 Suite, so don't bother with that one. If you decide to try PC tools products, be alert during the installation to a radio button which says something like "if you DON't want automatic annual renewal of your subscription, UNCHECK the radio button". In the heat of the moment most folks don't see the above notation, and a year later you get a love letter from PC Tools informing you that your Visa has been charged for another year. Nice touch.

 

For SAS free, I totally agree with you.
Using Spybot and SpywareBlaster will offer
additional protection (they are both light products).

About PC Tools Spyware Doctor:
I guess you must talking about the PAID version,
(when you buy it online).
However, our friend uses FREE applications.
The -FREE- edition of PC Tools Spyware Doctor
has no problem.
I prefer it over Spyware Terminator and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

 

I automatically thought of the paid PC tools because that's what I had. I wasn't aware of a free version. Sounds good.

 

-PC Tools Spyware Doctor Free version has
about 1/3 of the signatures of the Full version.

SAS free,
Spybot S&D,
AVG AS (as long as it exists),
and PC Tools Spyware Doctor Free
are the ones I use to check my Security.

No more Spyware Terminator, Ad-aware, and Malwarebytes AntiMalware.

 

Thanks for all the comments. I shall act accordingly.
At present I am replacing Spyware Terminator with Spybot SD & see how it goes.

 

Century - how frequently are you getting contaminated ? when was the last time you allowed malware to run? do you know how you became infected ?

 

Long view,

Nice angle, risk = problability times impact.

With an image backup/restore you can reduce the impact to a bare minimum.
Then you are left with what is your usage habit, what risk does that involve, so what protection to choose.

Example on old XP box for a friend (Athlon 3200+)

Profile: mail + surfing + downloading a lot + paid music files + burning CD for hobby, tries hardly ever new programs

First line of defense a router + DefenseWal sanbox
To protect against leftovers (Registry keys in the user space) a reasonable weak but adequate freebie like WinPooch would do (offering for create keys/values the same functioality as Regdefend, like creating a rule from a log-book entry). When you ask people over here what they think of WinPooch

As freeware AV Antivir (you can also use WinPooch to kill the nagscreen).