Free or Paid protection for your computer?

Just wondering what you are using and if you feel that paid protection, is better and you feel more confident and protected with it. I am trying to decide whether to buy anit-spyware or stay with a free version. My Dad always said "you get what you pay for". Are we being overly worried about protecting our computers or is it really worth it to pay for the full versions of these programs?

What I am looking for here is more your experiences and not just opinions, I would like to see what is really working.

I have a paid version of my anti-virus and firewall, but not anti-spyware for the moment. What do you think?

Thanks,
HelpFromFrance

 

I don't and wouldn't ... the cash is better spent elsewhere - either an imaging solution or an application firewall.

 

dog,

Thanks for your input here, I do have a good paid firewall and anti-virus, just not sure about the spyware thing. I od a lot of surfing, but not on sites that are "dangerous", if we can say that and there are so many programs out there that are trying to get our money. it seems $20 here for a year, $20 there for a year and all of a sudden there is a lot of money spent. I am just not sure that it is worth it and need to make that decision.

What imaging software do you use and have you had good experience with it?

Thanks,
HelpFromFrance

 

For Imaging I use Acronis TI8 - Which is the best money I've ever spent. I've also used Norton's Ghost and haven't been as successful with it ... to date I've never had an issue with TI8 ... it's simple outstanding. I have heard Terabyte's product is just as good from several members, but I've never switched from Acronis ... there's no need IMHO. Image/Disaster recovery is a much wiser investment IMO ... you can recover from anything with a good imaging solution. You're too advanced to be concerned with spyware/adware or malware in general.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve,

I have bought TI 9.0, and have done my imaging, but of course this is the type of software you buy and hope you never have to use. I have been following the TI forum here at Wilders and seems like a lot of people are having a lot of trouble with version 9. Since I have bought version 9 is there a legal and correct way to get version 8 and the serial number to go with it? I do not want to pirate and am not asking for a crack, I am looking to "downgrade".

Thanks,
HelpFromFrance

 

The best way would be to contact Acronis support directly.

 

Great minds, run in the same thought , just sent them an email. Hope they will let me do it.

Thanks,
HelpFromFrance

 

Well talking about experiences, I used AV + Firewall for 2 years (no realtime AS, no IE or WinXP tight settings that time, so scripts and etc allowed), I was visiting "nasty" pages and never got infected. But if I would decide to use any protection aplication, I would choose only freeware.

 

TheTOM_SK,

Thanks for your experiences. As I said I don't go to "dagerous" sites, so that has been my thought up until now, freeware.

Thanks for the advice,
HelpFromFrance

 

I wouldn't purchase an anti-spyware application. Until very recently, I used freeware security software exclusively. The one exception I've made is System Safety Monitor. Used to have a couple of the free anti-spyware installed, AAW and SpyBot, but haven't re-installed them since I reformatted. System Safety Monitor will catch any new applications that try to install or start up on my system.
None of the anti-spyware apps come close to catching everything, especially when they don't agree on what apps are adware, spyware, etc. Even their definitions of the terms vary. What one calls spyware, another calls low risk adware. One even resorted to calling it consumerware, making it sound desirable and useful. IMO, it's all unwanted software, and I will not rely on someone elses definitions of what is and is not acceptable, let alone pay for it. For the most part, they all represent obsolete technology, detections based on signatures, definitions, and reference files, reacting to threats after they're discovered. As difficult as some of this is to remove or to even detect (rootkits), it's far better to prevent its installing to begin with. I'll trust SSM to prevent them from being installed at all and not worry about whether an anti-spyware vendor opted to detect it.
Rick

 

Rick,

Thanks for your experience. I know 3 votes cannot be considered "definitive", but there seems to be a tendancy to "no".

Thanks again,
HelpFromFrance

 

I only use freeware a/s, and I would have to say HijackThis gets used the most... it just tells you what you've got and asks what you want to do with it...200Kbytes, go figure

 

Thanks for your participation.

HelpFromFrance

 

I like to spend my money on non-security softwares.
I bought Acronis True Image (ATI), because I consider a backup as a MUST even when you don't have an internet connection. I have no pity with people who don't backup at all.
I bought FirstDefense-ISR, because it's very convenient and faster as an ATI-image restore and it's much better than WinXPproSP2 System Restore (ISR = Immediate System Restore) and I'm speaking of real experience.

Once you are connected to the internet, you need at least a ROUTER with or without a software firewall. I'm not going to discuss this, because I'm not an expert in anything that is related to internet. My readings recommend a "router + firewall" and that's what I did.
I bought Look 'n' Stop, not because it's the best firewall, but because it's for me a learning process to the better firewalls : rule-based firewalls.

I don't like to pay for the rest of security softwares : scanners, HIPS, virtual protection,...
Frankly I consider these security softwares as the biggest mess, I've ever seen in a software group.
All these security softwares look very misty to me and I never know for sure against WHAT I'm protected.

Any software that is based on blacklists has my disapproval, because it's the worst strategy to fight against the bad guys.
I don't know the answers, but I know at least what is wrong and right.

 

ErikAlbert,

Thanks for your thoughts,
HelpFromFrance

 

like others have said, the money is better spent on other software.

ATI, for example, is very handy when im troubleshooting my computer or when im testing new software. i only have one machine after all.

security software such an AV and FW are also much more worthy of your money. nod32 catches any viruses i may come across and looknstop protects my computer from hackers.

what would an AS catch? cookies? a new startup entry?

 

Never had an infection. Rely primarily on my imaging program. Had Drive Image 4/5. Purchased TI6 and Bootit NG. Been using DI5 until 2005 when I encountered issue with DI5 and my NF3 chipset. Bootit NG is now my default imaging software.

My AV scanner is OFF (McAfee 8.0i). Update virus def and run a full-system scan twice a year. Was using Avast Home before 8.0i. Again, same protocol as 8.0i. In addition to my hardware firewall, I also use ZA Pro 4.5.594.000. No other application loaded during PC boot (23.5 seconds from power ON to desktop). Shut down time is 3.5 seconds.

My WXP Pro SP1 partition is only 900MB (FAT32 with 2K cluster size). 40 seconds to backup/restore a good image file. All other data including MY DOCUMENTS, e-mails, and X:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data are moved to another extended logical partition should I need to restore the OS partition.

KISS.

 

It depends also on what you are already running in your pc, using a paid AS sometimes would just be something you wont need if you already use a good antivirus. With freeware AS is ok. Suggestion: Use the money to buy HIPS protection.

 

You don't have to spend money on this either.
System Safety Monitor has a good free version that works on the older operating systems as well.
If one is willing to spend a little time researching, you can get good software for almost anything you want to do. Start with Open Source software. Much of what's available is equal to or better than the pricey stuff you see advertised.
The statement "You get what you pay for" doesn't hold true with software, at least not yet and especially not with security apps.
Rick

 

I depend on BoClean to handle this area in realtime...however my OutPost Firewall has a feature in there firewall to deal with this as well.

There are both good pay and free this should not be the deciding factor. However,
one should be able to be secure with only two or three. AV, Firewall and "Other Malware Protection" which would cover spyware in particular. One should never have to have four or more realtime security apps going to be protected.

 

FREE is always most desirable especially when it's been well researched and proven as effective and in many instances much better than the paid one's which seem to never be able to get up to a long-term stable release but always plagued with bugs or issues no matter what version is introduced whether by design of because of some new interference forced on their product by malware writers.

 

I use TI9 and FDISR but I still use a paid security setup. It is a personal preference to pay for security or not. But in the decades that I repaired and built custom computers the ones that came back with the most infections were the ones with out of date software or were running free security software. It didn't take a rock falling on me to see the pattern in that.