Website Browsing Security Software

May I please raise a point with regard to the variety of software and mini-programs available which attempt to vet all the Internet websites for possible threats and give a "security" rating. Usually a marker placed by the side of each site which is listed on any search to indicate GO, CAUTION or STOP.

There are quite a few of these systems available and I do not know the various options.

I did have the Crawler Web Security Guard for many months and it worked efficiently without any problems. It was in fact very, very good. But as it was incorporated in the Crawler Toolbar, I deleted it as the CT completely wrecked my response and loading times. Since the CT was deleted, my system has improved enormously, but I lost the Web Guard.

As recommended in another thread on this Forum, I installed the McAfee SiteAdvisor, which I have found excellent apart from two points ;-

Frequent online updates are not included, therefore the security rating depreciates daily as new Websites come on stream and others are found to be dangerous. The only alternative is a complete new download, which is held in suspended animation until McAfee decide to release one.

Secondly - SiteAdvisor seems to be conjoined with Yahoo on search, setting and Toolbar - which I declined. I use Google and suspect that there is some conflict between Google and McAfee SiteAdvisor/ Yahoo, from the site markers I have seen come up.

I would welcome the comments, comparisons and recommendations of our Forum experts on this matter, bearing in mind that I personally use "freebies" and do not invest in any Payware.
KAS

 

Personally, AVG LinkScanner. http://linkscanner.avg.com/

 

My apologies, I already have AVG 8.5 with Linkscanner and it works fine. It has already quarantined three web infection attempts.

But your recommendation is not wasted - I value it, after all that is exactly the kind of information I asked for. Many thanks.
KAS

 

Well, compared to McAfee SiteAdvisor, that's what I would choose, and that I use.
It's that I just dislike that kind of tools that only base their ratings on a database, rather than inspecting the domain real-time, like LinkScanner does.

One other alternative, and I forgot to mention it, would be BrowserDefender from PC Tools, which bases it's ratings on a database and real-time inspection for exploits.

http://www.browserdefender.com/

I've been playing with it along side LinkScanner. It's in beta development, and I have no idea if will be kept free or even as a stand-alone tool, or if integrated into their other products.

 

WOT is also very good. And LinkExtend is an interesting Firefox addon which incorporates the ratings from many different security rating services.

 

I am using AVG linkscanner also. seems to work perfectly.
I have the "Safe Search" feature turned off, however, because I don't want the overhead of vetting EVERY site that pops up in a google search.