The minimum protection available?

[Firefighter]

I'm just a curious how many aps is the minimum needed protection available to feel in safe? The firewall is outcluded but the rest is that what I'm interested in. Here is my choice.

DrWeb 4.32b with Beta AntiSpyware Defs + the browser link scan option
BOClean 4.12
Ewido 3.5 Plus
M$ AntiSpyware Beta
Kaspersky Free online full scan
Spyware Block List File

After these I don't need anything else but I still have some add progs to keep my night without bad feelings.

Best regards,
Firefighter!

[jg88swe]

i say DrWeb with Spyware detection

[rothko]

i feel safe surfing safely and with these to back me up in case i stray or something jumps out at me:

NOD32
Ewido (free - on demand)
MS Antispyware, Spybot and Ad-Aware

[Don Pelotas]

Kaspersky 5.0
A hostfile
Microsoft AntiSpyware or Spy Sweeper
-------------------------------------------
Perhaps, if you are a risky surfer:
Ewido full
BOClean

[The Hammer]

Here is what Blackspear recomends.http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=351107

[RejZoR]

Just some good AV. avast! does a good job for me,but in general KAV should do the trick for anyone. No need for extra anti-trojan/anti-spyare crap.

[YeOldeStonecat]

I just run NOD32, MS Antispyware, and Spybot immunized. Internet Explorer with Google Toolbar, other times Firefox.

What's "safe" varies from user to user, it's not cast in stone. Depends what you do on the web, where you surf, what you're downloading, etc. That certainly varies from person to person.

[Atomic_Ed]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Just some good AV. avast! does a good job for me,but in general KAV should do the trick for anyone. No need for extra anti-trojan/anti-spyare crap.

I agree and also run Avast! Pro. I have only run it a short time but so far it has been great on my system.

[squash]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Just some good AV. avast! does a good job for me,but in general KAV should do the trick for anyone. No need for extra anti-trojan/anti-spyare crap.

I agree.
Windows Firewall, avast! and Firefox - and regularly reimage for me.

[The Hammer]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Just some good AV. avast! does a good job for me,but in general KAV should do the trick for anyone. No need for extra anti-trojan/anti-spyare crap.

Sorry but I have to disagree as all AV's still miss trojans now and then including KAV and Avast.

[Ned Slider]

Originally Posted by The Hammer

Sorry but I have to disagree as all AV's still miss trojans now and then including KAV and Avast.

Absolutely. I had a particularly badly infected machine in for cleaning the other day (I do this for a living). I ran the following sequence and found:

McAfee: 775 Viruses (probably mostly the same few viruses)
Ad-Aware: loads - can't remember
Spybot: quite a few - again can't remember
F-Secure (KAV based): 9 more viruses missed by McAfee
A-Squared: 15 more trojans/malwares
ewido: 2 more trojans

each missed by the previous scans. At that point I kinda gave up on it

But I think this really illustrates how much stuff any one program can miss, and all of the above are generally considered either class leaders or very good in their field (all were fully updated). Admittedly, this was on an unprotected machine that had been visiting some decidedly dodgy sites. But don't forget, these are viruses/malwares that are actually in the wild, not some theoretical lab sample.

Ned

[rdsu]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Just some good AV. avast! does a good job for me,but in general KAV should do the trick for anyone. No need for extra anti-trojan/anti-spyare crap.

Anti-Trojans and Anti-Spywares isn't crap! Why all the stuff that you didn't use or like are crap!?

They are extra-protection, but if you didn't need them don't criticize them for its work...

[rdsu]

Originally Posted by The Hammer

Sorry but I have to disagree as all AV's still miss trojans now and then including KAV and Avast.

Depends of where the users surf on web, and how they deal with the stuff...

[rdsu]

Originally Posted by Ned Slider

Absolutely. I had a particularly badly infected machine in for cleaning the other day (I do this for a living). I ran the following sequence and found:

McAfee: 775 Viruses (probably mostly the same few viruses)
Ad-Aware: loads - can't remember
Spybot: quite a few - again can't remember
F-Secure (KAV based): 9 more viruses missed by McAfee
A-Squared: 15 more trojans/malwares
ewido: 2 more trojans

each missed by the previous scans. At that point I kinda gave up on it

But I think this really illustrates how much stuff any one program can miss, and all of the above are generally considered either class leaders or very good in their field (all were fully updated). Admittedly, this was on an unprotected machine that had been visiting some decidedly dodgy sites. But don't forget, these are viruses/malwares that are actually in the wild, not some theoretical lab sample.

Ned

You didn't had any active protection to get all these Malware, right?

[mercurie]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Just some good AV. avast! does a good job for me,but in general KAV should do the trick for anyone. No need for extra anti-trojan/anti-spyare crap.

IMHO this is false!! Only do this if you can not afford anything but an AV. AVs are not good enough to stand alone. YET.

[The Hammer]

Originally Posted by VaMPiRiC_CRoW

Depends of where the users surf on web, and how they deal with the stuff...

Don't forget email and IM.

[Blackspear]

Nod32
Process Guard
RegDefend
Look n Stop
SpywareBlaster
CounterSpy

My Choices

Cheers

[World Industries]

I currently use

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal
Outpost Firewall Pro
WinPatrol PLUS
Ad-Aware SE Professional
A-squared Personal
SpywareGuard
SpywareBlaster
Spybot S&D
BlueTack's Host File

World Industries

[bellgamin]

DrWeb + AdInf + Online Armor is a good strong *minimum* I think.

[WSFuser]

firewall excluded; for the bare minimum i would have a good av like nod32 with a good antispyware/antitrojan like ewido. it should be sufficient for safe hex. to expand this (if necessary) id add processguard, mvsp HOSTS, and online armor.

[Meltdown]

Paranoid2000 in another thread:

Originally Posted by Paranoid2000

If you stick to mainstream websites with a locked-down browser (preferably non-IE) and only receive small amounts of email then you are very unlikely to encounter anything not recognised by standard AV-software. If, on the other hand, you download cracks and warez from anonymous sources (P2P, IRC, etc), you will encounter malware in spades, much of it encrypted, compressed or edited to slip past AV scanners.

It is therefore important for people to assess their risk profile and choose an appropriate solution - low risk users can stick with a single mainstream AV while high risk should consider multiple scanners (AV/AT) along with process protection (Process Guard, SSM, etc). Of course, a firewall should be deployed in every case due to the number of automated probes/attacks going on.

[rdsu]

Originally Posted by The Hammer

Don't forget email and IM.

Right It's a dangerous way to be infected...

[TAP]

I only use these 3 apps to protect my machine and home network machines

- avast! Home Edition
- Spybot S&D
- Kerio Personal Firewall

All these free, I feel safe with it and haven't been infected.

[RejZoR]

I meant "crap" as for something that you don't necessary need.
You can eliminate infection vectors by using smart replacements,so you don't need loads of extra scanners for this and that.

IE6 replaced by Firefox or Opera
Mail clients replaced by GMail service operated through Firefox (basically zero infection chance)
avast! as main and only antivirus
Windows XP SP2 firewall (read below why it suits me just fine even though everyone are screaming that WinXP firewall sux)

Well thats pretty much it. I used to check PC with Adaware and Spybot,but i found out that it detctes only tracking cookies (harmless anyway) so i uninstalled them.

I haven't seen ANY (i mean any) malware since i started using GMail. It's a bit more restrictive with executables,but thats just a small tradeoff for basically perfectly safe mail viewing. avast! keeps back all those more common things pretty well too. Forefox blocks majority of spyware trash and avast! detects more common Adware nasties. Thats it. Never had any infestation since ages.

[wildman]

(1) Zone Alarm

(2) AVG 7.0 (Free)

(3) SpyWare Blaster

(4) AdAware.

(5) SpySubtract (Came with the machine) (has 33 days left).

All the security patches for WindowsXP are current.

Thanks
Wildman