Which free AM compliments my current setup?

As stated elsewhere, I'm doubting that I need another layer, but I might feel better if I had an occasional 2nd opinion scanner on board. I'm willing to try these applications, but would appreciate some advice as to where to start (in the hope I can settle on one and be done).

My setup is Avira free, OA full paid (Web Sheild, Program Guard and Firewall activated) and SandBoxie paid (which I use for higher risk surfing, but not for everyday surfing, and my wife doesn't understand or use Sandboxie at all). I'm also behind a router w/firewall. I just retired BoClean.

I make image backups at least twice per month, and my data is backed to a NAS on an hourly basis.

Considering:
A-squared
MbAM
PrevX
SAS
Threatfire.

I have a pretty long track record of no infections (it's been at least a couple of years). Quiet apps would be strongly preferred. Thanks in advance for all advice.

 

Uhm... with A-Squared, do you mean paid or free? I don't use free as it uses an unnecessary service. Right now I'm using avast! Home Edition in Silent Mode.

 

I like Prevx, but for most you have listed the free version is an on demand scanner. Only the paid versions of Prevx, A2, MBAM and SAS have upfront protection.

 

The following review of ThreatFire 4.5 in PC Magazine suggests that a combination of Prevx 3.0 (paid) and ThreatFire together can prove very effective: -

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347577,00.asp

I run this combination alongside Avira AntiVir Personal 9 without any problems. They're all very quiet apps and I haven't felt the need for any additional on-demand scanners.

EDIT: Apologies - you did say free AM so in that case ThreatFire on its own would still be a good choice.

 

Understood. Perfectly willing to go with an on demand scanner.

 

Prevx and Threatfire may be great together, but leaves me wondering if the two would make OA unnecessary on my machine. Since I paid for OA, and really like it, would rather not sideline it.

 

As you have already got OA and AntiVir, one option would be to add ThreatFire on its own and see how you find it. It's designed to run alongside firewalls and anti-virus, provides additional real-time protection, is fit and forget, and best of all it's free.

If that combination works for you, I doubt whether you would need anything extra.

 

Since OA also has a HIPS they'll probably be a lot of overlap, and possible conflicts.

 

You should go to Online Armor's forum and search for Threatfire. I think Threatfire works best with a good antivirus and windows firewall turned on. You can go to Options and click on Exclusions within OA and click on TF to avoid conflicts. Do the same with Threatfire under custom rules in that program.

I'm sure you are quite covered w/out needing TF under your current set-up.

 

You can set that Service in Manual: it's runs only if you launch an on demand scan, can you stop it.

 

I think we, or someone else, discussed this elsewhere - it shouldn't have been there in the first place and is prone to FPs anyway. If I clean up a PC I'll just use Hitman Pro (which incl. it BTW).

 

I think Hitman Pro doesn't have a full scan feature so it might not be the most optimal program if you want to verify all your files are clean? Of course for cleaning an infected computer that is a different matter.

 

I guess that moves Threatfire toward the bottom of the list. Will probably try A-squared and MbAM first thought PrevX is interesting. I'll just create a new image first...

 

All uninstall cleanly, so you won't have problems trying any of the above.

Running Avira and OA, you won't need much more.

Prevx edge free version will provide real-time protection, but not removal. One of the best programs around, but with your setup, depending how 'risky' your surfing is, you might not need it. If you did without Avira, I'd go Prevx Edge paid.

MBAM, most people will run regardless of their setup. It is good to check if the odd program you're running is rogue, or a program has installed something 'extra' you don't know about. If you are downloading from trusted sources, and you have sandboxie running, the chances of anything being installed that you aren't aware of, are slim.

a-squared free will install a running service, which will use about 2MB of ram at all times. If 2MB of ram won't break your ram bank, then give it a go as you can right-click files recovered from sandboxie. You can scan these with Avira, and then a-squared before deciding to keep these files. Two opinions are better than one, its detection rates are right up there with the top group, and the free version will allow you to simply just right-click and scan files. You have to update it manually, and as blacknight above mentioned, if the service running bothers you, you can set this service to run manually, and not at all times.

Otherwise, you might throw into the mix Hitman Pro 3.5. It has 30 days removal but can be used for an unlimited period of time as just an on-demand scan. It doesn't have any service or process running in the background, starts up only when you launch the program and closes when you finish. Scans your system, and running processes, uploading anything 'suspicious', and cross-checking these files with several scanning engines (Avira, G-Data, Nod, prevx, a-squared). New version is still being developed, should soon have new features, such as being able to 'right-click' and scan any file to the cloud (to be checked by scanning engines above). You might want to run this tool, once a week or once a month or so - not only scans running programs, makes a thorough scan of your whole system in under a few minutes.

Or you might try the do-it-yourself method, and download a process manager such as a-squared's hijackfree. You can delete and remove running processes, uninstall services, delete autoruns, delete any program making an outbound connection (eg. malware), cross-check files with emsisoft's online database, or just shutdown processes that have locked-up. Awesome tool, and there's a portable version available as well.

 

Thanks Saraceno! Now THAT's a lot of useful info - right on point with my post. Will report back with how it all works out.

 

Just noticed the screenshot at the hijackfree site needs to be updated, and that you can stop/start services, and uninstall them.

 

One last thing, you might just want to download CureIt each week, and use it for a full scan (takes a long time), or just to scan a folder of downloads you've recovered from sandboxie.

http://www.freedrweb.com/

 

You basically have my current setup and it really is great. The only on-demand scanners I would use is MBAM and SAS. I have this setup running on a Vista Home (sp1) pc and XP pro (sp3) PC. Just Sandbox your browser, crank up Avira to High heuristics and let OA do it's thing. Whether you surf on the dark side or play it safe, it's a great combination of security apps.

Just my .02 cents,
Ice

 

Dr Web CureIt and SAS are my on demand scanners

 

Agree. Hitman Pro 3.5 rocks!

 

Or you can completely disable the service if you run an administrator account.
It will come on with the on-demand scan,and turn off when you close the
GUI.

 

Prevx, Prevx, oh and did I mention Prevx? It is so light and the support is great, in my opinion.

 

My setup: Avira free realtime, OA paid, Sandboxie free, SAS free on demand. Should be more than enough. I probably dont need Avira and SAS but still...

I tried Threatfire in this setup a while ago, but there were some conflicts. But then I did not do anything to avoid conflicts. I uninstalled Threatfire.

I use BING for imaging of my OS partition. And here is what I have thaught of to make sure my PC is clean:

Instead of having 3 or 4 scanners on my PC I could make an image, install 10 or 20 different on demand or online scanners. Scan my PC with all of them. Restore image and all scanners are gone. Repeat this once or twice a year just to be sure.

All this scanners would of course not find anything because I have OA and Sandboxie and use Avira realtime.

 

Thanks one and all.

Just as an update, I've installed Prevx and A-squared so fare and am evaluating. I appreciate those that have reassured me I'm adequately covered without an additional AM. Guess I'm just satisfying my curiosity. Will post my impressions soon, if anyone is interested.