What are the best security products to use for a newbie?

Hi I was just wondering what are the best security/privacy programs to use that meet these 3 criteria:

*Easy to setup/use with least hassle and knowledge required

*Provide excellent security performance

*Relatively low resource usage

Please give your list software you use for your personal security setup as well as a list that meets the above criteria.

 

Well , I don't use security suits , only stand-alone programs

In my opinion NOD32 is great anti-threat software because it easy to use and with really small footprint , extremely fast scanning , excellent detection rate and marvelous heuristics

You will need a firewall woth it since it doesn't include one . I use and recommend Windows Firewall , the one that is built into every Windows XP . Another good firewall (but not so light on resourses is Zone Alarm free)



Other privacy / security softwares I use and could recommend :

Ad-Aware SE Personal (free antispyware software)
www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware

Spybot Search and Destroy (free antispyware software)
www.safer-networking.org/microsoft.en.html

Ewido Micro (free antispyware software)
http://download.ewido.net/ewido_micro.exe

Mozilla Firefox (alternative browser for safer surfing)
www.mozilla.com/firefox/
www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/faq#mozvsie

McAfee SiteAdvisor
This is free plug-in available for the most used browsers that can tell you useful security information about web-sites if they are OK or if they are bad sites so you should not open and download from them
www.siteadvisor.com


Hope I can help !

 

Macguyver

~snipped un-necessary rhetoric~
The standard advice here is to take the time to trial a few different products and then make your own choice on what runs the best on your system.Here are a few to start with and all offer Suites or will be offering Suites in the near future.

Kaspersky
NOD32
Bitdefender
Antivir

 

Last I checked (a while ago) Avast home (freeware) was the easiest & met your other requirements as well.

No to Antivir IF you have a slow connection. Cause the updates are/were? huge. Like 1-8MB.

No to NOD32. Cause if you don't follow Blackspears guide or use the automatic .bat file. You'll never figure out how to set it up.

And for a firewall. I suggest GhostWall. Freeware & no interaction. Set it & forget it.

And for a browser, Opera.

 

Although it is not the best AV as detection rates go, Avast Home has served several folks I know with satisfaction. If you are not a high risk surfer it will do the job in my view.
You will need a firewall, but probably the Windows XP firewall will do OK.

For anti-spyware, etc try a-squared free for a scanner, and Spyware Terminator which is free for real time monitoring.

Win Patrol free is also a good program.
Spyware Blaster is recommended.

Best,
Jerry

 

Another vote for Nod32 or Antivir; I'm still torn between the two. The only reason I might go back to Nod32 is because I can get student pricing out of them; Antivir doesn't seem to want to do that for me.

All the usual other stuff applies - Firefox or Opera for a browser instead of IE, Spyware Terminator / Ewido / Spybot, so forth. Hitech gave you some useful links!

 

Macguyver,

i am not an expert, actually far from it but i have used nod32, kaspersky (KIS6.0), Avira AntiVir (beta-presently using), mcafee, norton, etc.

Gdata is also very good acording to the site i am going to link, the only prob is it is very heavy on resources according to the site.

in my opinion the best overall product is KIS 6.0 everything in 1 very light on resources, i do see some system slowdown, not sure if that was caused by KIS though.

The best advice i can give you though is this go to : www.av-comparatives.org look at the information there in my opinion it is the most informative site i have seen.

 

veri antivir is really cheap so you dont really need a student discount on where as with nod32 student disocunt it will bring it in price with antivir.

anyway back to the main question, if you use broadband i would reccomend antivir classic or premium I mean its only £13 a year. great detection so easy to use. its my fav atm.

avast is quite easy to use but as mentioned not best detection.


lodore

 

Actually, it depends on the speed of your pc and the size of your RAM memory. Also if you want an all-free set-up or an all paid shareware programs, or maybe much more better a combinations of both...free and paid softwares.

I have tried a lot of them, but since my pc has only a 256MB RAM and I am only using a slow dial-up internet connection so I have to "change" my set-up for what really works fine on my pc and also suited for my own connection speed.

My anti-virus is CA eTrust EZ anti-virus, but Avast Home is also good. CA is lighter on my system. But if you have money to spare NOD32 is really good and also light, just follow BlackSpear settings.

I also uses WinPatrol Plus, Spybot, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Ewido free, A-Squared free,ProcessGuard Free, Snoop Free Privacy Shield and SpywareBlaster. You can add HardenIT, SafeXP, and Windows Worm Doors Cleaner(WWDC) for system hardening.

Firefox Browser with NoScript, McAfee SiteAdvisor, and SpoofStick extensions. Also I have CallingID to identify the exact location of the owner of websites.

I only uses the built-in Windows XP/SP2 Firewall set to no exception, as I found out that most of the third party firewall I've used consumed lots of resources and ram and at the same time slowed down my surfing. But if I have a broadband connection and high ram memory, I will surely use a 3rd party firewall like Comodo or Look'NStop firewall.

Another advice is to use only limited account when surfing the web, you are safer in that than using the admin acct.

As I've said it really depends on your needs and in your pc and net connections. Again, I have slow dial-up connections and my set-up just works fine for me and I think also for others who just have slow net connections.

 

FWIW, here is a site where e Trust has a 12 months free trial. There are others there also.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/viruses/wsc/en-us/default.mspx

In the end you will just have to trial several to see what is best for your system. If you don't mind paying those mentioned are great, Avira, NOD32, and KAV6. The last is my own favorite, but you cannot go wrong with the others if they run well on your system.

Jerry

 

I recommend you:
NOD32 - AntiVirus
Comodo free firewall - Firewall
Ad-Aware SE Personal - AntiAdware
Firefox - Web browser.

 

nod32 isnt really to good for newbies really. antivir has great heristics great detection and unlike nod32 is for anyone to use.

 

I am trialing the free AOL (Don't let that scare you) Active Virus Shield powered by Kaspersky Antivirus, and so far I like it. I installed it without the toolbar that comes with it, and have not received anything from AOL in my E-Mails since I installed it two weeks ago. It seems to run light on my PC (only using 7MB in Task Manager as I type this) which is a 3 year old DeskTop using Windows XP with 512MB of RAM. I currently am only running Windows Firewall with it, as I await the next release of the free Comodo Firewall due out this Friday. Kaspersky was very close to Antivir in the AV Comparitives, which is another AV that I have used and liked very much except for a Notifier Window with info on the Pro version that pops up during updates. I get no such thing with the Auto Update feature of AVS, which updates sometimes 3 times a day. The GUI takes a little bit of time to understand, but is quite easy to use once you do. Other than that I have both a-squared free and SUPERAntiSpyware free as my on demand scanners, but nothing in realtime. I feel safe enough with FireFox and McAfee SiteAdvisor because I don't surf a whole lot. However I may install Spyware Terminator once it is able to be used on more than one account at the same time for my realtime protection.

 

It depends. I got used with it very fast.

 

The updates and size were changed.
They are no longer that large.

 

Firewall:Comodo.
Antivirus:Trial some.I'd try Avira(AntiVir).
Antimalware:Ewido,A-Squared,SUPER Antispyware,and Spyware Terminator offer free programs.The first 3 have Pro or Premium versions available also.
BoClean is one that I would definitely purchase though!

 

*Easy to setup/use with least hassle and knowledge required....

I think this is what some here mean by not using NOD32.

Think about it, if you are a newbie and someone asked you to setup NOD32 on a computer without the knowledge of Blackspears settings, how far would you really get setting up this AV going through the different modules (AMON, EMON, IMON, etc.)

I use NOD so this is nothing negative towards the AV, just reading what the OP wants that meets certain criteria.

Now as for excellent security performance I'm all for NOD32

 

ye precisely nod32 is great but is intended for people who know what there doing and like to tweak the av just right. they are not intrended for newbies.

antivir is intended for all users hence its simple interface but its still really light on resourse and great protection.

lodore

 

Most newbies, which make up about 90 percent of sales, are one, not the type of folks who come here, shame, and second want one product to take care of their PC. It was at one time either Norton or Mcafee. The demand holds strong today as sales are what drives each vendor, regardless of each internal application and its ability to perform. Most consumers never know.

So hate as much as we might, suites are the future for the majority. And of those for the newbies, you have Kaspersky, Bitdefender, Norton maybe in 2007, Microsoft, ugh, and 2 future great prospects, Eset and Antivir. That is reality.

 

i like suites but i dont like bloated suites e.g. f-secure. it slow down my system to much. soon to be replaced with the new antivir suite.

 

There's no need to tweak anything, NOD32 fully protects you against threats with default settings. Just if you want NOD32 to detect commercial applications that might be exploited for malicious purposes you'd need to enable that option, and that's all.

 

I am currently using Windows XP Home SP2, Windows Firewall, with IE6 and DrWeb antivirus, both at default settings. I use the internet with impunity. If I should encounter a problem, I would download and use the tools necessary to clean up my system, then I would uninstall them. So far, I have not had to do this in several years. Smart computing habits go along way to keeping your computer secure. I do not run multiple security applications or am I a proponet of layered security. I believe in the minimalist approach to computer security. I prefer performance over paranoia.

Marc

 

and your simplistic approach, is what many are finding out to be sufficient. If you dont do your banking on line and store specific information about yourself, it will suffice. But if you do use your PC for your office, you better lock that sucker down tight.

 

While NOD32 might seem intimidating with the user interface, which is not very friendly, if one just downloads and uses the default settings he will have a high degree of protection. Nothing else is really necessary.

I am not a NOD user, and hesitated to trial it because I had heard so much about how difficult it was to understand. However, when I trialed it, and ask a couple of questions on the forum I found that it is not that difficult.

I had the same concern with KAV6, but did trial it and kept it.
I find it difficulty to think that if one comes here and asks for advice that he doesn't have enough knowledge to try any of the well known AVs. He will probably have questions, but here are some experts.

Now if one asks for an AV for his mother or wife who has not interest in computers or security, and just wants some protection without having to decide what to do when asked by the application, then just go with AVG or Avast, and use the default settings.

Jerry

 

A good reliable backup program is right up there with with a firewall and anti-virus.