Help me to decide please!

Hi buddies,

I have spent more than 3 months to find a security solution to protect my pc. I trialled so many programs both the single ones and the suites, but I haven't found any that fulfill my expectation. Properly, I'm kinda strict for evaluating them. What I'm concerned are feeling safe and performance. Some programs such as:

- Kaspersky AV/IS 6,7,
- Trend Micro IS 2007,
- Norton AV/IS 2007,
- Mcafee 3 in 1,
- Panda IS,
- Symantec Client Security/ CE
- and so on...

They make me feel really safe, however they are so heavy on my system. For example:

- Some of them like Kaspersky, Norton don't impact Windows start-up speed but they do make my system perform the tasks slowly (opening a program or download/upload the files);
- Some of them make my system perform the tasks quickly, but they do impact Windows start-up speed like Mcafee, Panda, Symantec.
- Some, like Trend Micro, fulfill both of situations (fast windows star-up speed, fast performing the tasks), but they are consuming a lot of memory and the CPU usage is getting high so easily.

I decided not to use the suites but installing AV + firewall separately. I trialled some AVs + firewall such as:

- NOD + Comodo/LookNStop,
- Avast free/Active Virus Shield/Antivir + Comodo/LookNStop

They are so light on both Windows startup speed and System performance, however I don't feel so safe with them (I don't know why )

Anyone please help me to figure out the solutions regarding to above situations.

My laptop specification:

Pentium M 1.5 Ghz
~1.2 G of Ram
Windows XP professional SP2

Thanks!

 

Hi.

If you are safe surfer you can try F-PROT AV. I'm just trying it on two PC (2K and XP SP2). During these tests it performs very well. Not particular slow downs neither during boot nor during internet navigation nor at sw start-ups.

According to AV-Comparatives it perfoms well in detection even if it hasn't detection rates such as KAV, but if you don't need super-protection, for normal navigation it could be your choice.

Also F-Prot is cheeper than NOD32.
GUI is simple but effective. And if you do not need particular settings it is good for you.

You can try BitDefender AV. It light (but not like F-Prot). Very powerfull, with good detection rate and very powerful B-Have euristics.

I know that selecting a good combo is an hard work, but only you can decide the best for your PC.

Here you can find some screenshots (in particular for BD and F-Prot) so you can take a GUI virtual tour

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=179976

Best Regards.
Mike

PS: Dr.Web is a good choice. It performs like F-Prot.

 

Thanks, I've never tried BitDefender 'cause according to PC World, its system slowdown is 124% (not sure if they're right )
Thanks for recommending me F-Prot, I'll try it + a firewall.
I'm a moderate web sufer.

 

You are wellcome.
On my PC I can't feel this great slow down. (I saw that PCWorld review).

About firewall:
I never tried comodo or Look 'n stop. Actually I'm using ZA Pro with my personal PC. This combo run well. (ZA Pro requires 40/60 MB RAM, but do not slow down my PC).
I'm trying F-Prot on-board two business PC, under Router-Fwl, and without Fwl-Sw, so can't tell you anything about F-Prot+Sw Fwl.

I hope my 5 cents could help you.
Best regards.
Mike

 

Avg Pro(paid) + Boclean(free) or Nod32(paid) + Windows Firewall

 

Dr.Web or F-prot for your PC-Spec and needs for performance.

 

Hi tisungho,

I am not sure what it would take to make you feel safe, but if you are a safe surfer, and use some judgment most any of the well known AVs will give you adequate protection.

I would suggest that you go to AV Comparatives, and examine the various AVs and decide what you need in the way of detection rates to feel safe. http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Any of the firewalls mentioned by others on this thread would be adequate. I use LnS, and Kerio 2.1.5 if I am not using a suite. I don't know much about firewalls but that is what I use. Others here can give much better advice than I can.

I would also use an AS application, such as AVGAS, a-squared, or SuperAntiSpyware. There are others, and someone here can give you additional help. You can use them either on-demand or active. If you use a suite it is my opinion that you would not need an AS, but still I would use one as an on-demand scanner periodically.
I have found that the ones mentioned do not conflict with the AV including suites, or one another on my systems. You might have a different experience, and trials are the only way to make that determination.

It is necessary that you trial the various applications on your system and in the configuration you are considering. That is a rather long process if you trial many, but is 'kinda fun SOMETIMES.

Don't get too hung up on A vs B, etc. Be a safe surfer, and get what runs the best on your system. I would avoid the AVs with the worse detection rates, but probably any that show on AV Comparatives would be OK. Most folks I know use AVG free if they don't use the AV that came on the system.

There are a lot of very bright folks here (I am not one of them) that can give you some excellent advice. Sort through it, trial several, and I think you can reach the point that you feel safe enough. Nothing is 100%.

Keep Windows up to date, as also your security applications.

Regards,
Jerry

 

Avira hands down. It won't slow you down at all and it has as good or better detection than Kaspersky and doesn't come with the risks that Kaspersky has. I would wait until version 8 of Kaspersky if you want that particular AV (that will be a year from now).

I like F-Prot also but Avira's detection is much better IMO. The ONLY really irritating drawback to Avira is that it does have some FP's. Norton is the best for having almost no FP's. You could try the free version of Avira and then move to the paid if it works well on your computer. The one drawback to using the free version permanently is that whenever there is a large update (like earlier this week) the slower free update servers get totally bogged down for days sometimes and you cannot get the big update or virus definitions (which you can set to get every hour if you want and you can set the free version this way also) for several days. Usually the servers for the paid versions are very fast and do not get bogged down when there are large updates but this time even they got bogged down a bit. I was told that it would take 6 days to download the big update on a fast cable modem. But I got it with no problems later that evening when Germany was asleep so the servers were not crowded. Avira will correct the problem very fast for servers for the paid versions but they do let the free version use slow servers which usually causes no problem but does when there is a big update.

http://www.free-av.com/

 

how about one security suite?

i tried a lot of combination before i settle with KIS7.

less program conflict, less problem and less maintenance time (babysitting) of your security software....

 

Avast free/AntiVir free and Comodo/LookNStop should be secure.
I use Avast free + Comodo Pro + WinPatrol Plus and that combination has worked well for me.
AntiVir free was very good also aside from the problems associated with the occasional bigger updates.

 

Thanks for your advice!

I did try AVG free before. After several months it didn't find anything. I somewhat suspected it. I installed another one (don't remember which), and started full system scan. That one found almost 10 threats including worm, spyware, trojan... Since then I have had bad feeling with AVG.

For Avira, I don't like the free version because it doesn't have spyware protection. Moreover, I heard that the paid one doesn't have very good firewall.

Actually, I really love Norton! They have many-year experience on security research, and I also feel safe while using it. However as I mentioned, it's not suitable for my pc very much in terms of system performance (system slowdown in some programs like MS Office and CPU usage gets high very easily)

PS: Do you think that using hyper-threading CPU (Core Duo...) could solve high CPU usage?

Regards,