Whats Needed Now

My Subscription to Eset AntiVirus is up.
I need to renew or move on.
Have been out of the loop pretty much as to what is now needed to protect against all the new latest and greatest nasties.

Is a Antivirus still needed or should I be running something else? or something to run along side a virus scanner.

Thanks

 

What's your operating system and surfing habits? Not to turn this into an a vs. b thread but I was in your same boat with my Eset license expiring. Nod32 is nice and smooth but I have tried out Avast 5 for a while and will stick with that a while. Of all the free antivirus programs, Avast 5 reminds me of Nod32 the most. Very light, smooth and configurable.

 

Maybe Avast and DefenseWall.

 

Things have changed, my personal approach is to have a system protected with light but effective applications. If you use sandboxing/virtualizing programs you can really avoid overloading your system with active guards, which always use some resources and slowdown your system.

The following thread might help you choose:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=230459

An antivirus can be used on demand if you are running your system sandboxed or virtualized.

 

Well
1 computer XP Home
1 computer XP Pro
and no I dont want to turn this into A vs B.

XP Home is Parent's computer so want to keep them safe and secure without a lot of headache for them. Kinda want something set it and forget it. Dont want a 2 page instruction sheet say do this and then scan with this then update this and then scan again and then when thats done open up this...(you get the picture).
I have instructed them not to open attachments and click on links within emails but am afraid some day that will happen.
Thinking back over the year, they have only had a few infected emails that came thru that NOD picked up and something else that Malwarebytes picked up but that was after the fact. I want something for them that will nip it before it lands on their doorstep.

XP Pro is what I use.

 

Do they run XP as limited users? That in itself could curb some potential problems. Then there are free programs like Returnil which are effective and pretty easy to use.
And is their email web based mail or sent to an email program like Outlook? If it's sent to their computer I would suggest a spam filter like Mailwasher although the free version just works for one email address. There are similar free programs that can be use on more than one email address. They could also route everything through gmail which is pretty good at filtering spam and malicious attachments.

 

No they are set up as admistrators.
and their Email gets sent to Thunderbird

 

Good Morning ! I Like you and the majority of us are continually trying to improve are A/V Apps. During the past six months I've been using Paid against unpaid etc. But I'm currently using Avast 5 Free...and am completely satisfied with it's performance. The only paid app I'll continue to use will be Prevx 3.0 with Web Safe. I have MBAM and SAS as on demand only and both are the Pro Versions and have been purchased long ago. And P.C.Tools Firewall Plus is a Super Set it and Forget it Firewall. In my case for far so good. Sincerely...Securon

 

Well I agree witg G1111, this worked for my mother of (now) 76

Avast Free
+ comes in a lot of languages (it is so much easier for her to read Dutch)
+ free is a full version
+ can be set to automatically delete found threats (has low FP's according to AV-comparatives)

DefenseWall V3 paid
+ completely transparent, it does not matter where the files are located they are allways protected by DefenseWall (so no moving in or out of sandbox or claering sandboxes)
+ comes with a black list of untrusted threatgate programs
+ comes with a white list/signed executable check
+ has a outbound application firewall
+ when you set their My Documents as their Download Area, DW will automatically allow signed executables to install
+ my mother still uses 2.56 in Dutch (my mom was the reason for me to translate DW in Dutch), which does not has the whitelist options (so she manually sets something to trusted before installing)

My mom is on IE8 and Outlook Express (that is what they learn at senior web intro for the elderly)

In laymans terms you get a stronger than LUA protection with the comfort of running Admin.

Try it first on your own PC, you will be convinced (my mother is still on 2.56, I have to translate DefenseWall into Dutch before she upgrades to V3).

 

It makes not really a difference if the rest of your security configuration is safe enough - AV is only one gear in the box.

what is your current security setup?
any script and ad filters in (secure) browser?
any sandbox for new or unknown software?
any backup for desaster recovery?

i use eset now for ~4 years, but it makes no difference if would be avira or avast or...

 

I'm going to give you the best advice I can give to anyone who is willing to listen. Please make the effort to try Linux, especially Ubuntu Lucid Lynx or openSUSE 11.2 (soon to be 11.3) and then forget about exploits, virus, trojans, scareware, rogues etc... Your peace of mind and sanity is at stake here and I have the best intention for you since computers and the Internet should be enjoyable hence, Linux at least to me is the way to go. Yes, to answer your question you should be running something else and that something else is LINUX.

Thanks.

 

microsoft security essentials panda cloud or avast
and firefox with wot and no script add ons

 

Then I how would we test our security software? Some of us like OS riddled full of security loopholes.