WHICH SPYWARE FREEWARE & OTHER PROGRAMS

I'm new to this so please excuse my questions.I'm not sure which freeware is best for detecting spyware & covers all the basis for protecting my PC from trojans ,malware tec. I have hijackthis downlaoded, cwshredder, Bho, ad-aware free version & spybot free version downloaded on my PC. I have windows xp & windows service pack 2 downloaded also. I use the AVG anti-virus software 7.0 the free version. With a different freeware antivirus software out there I would like recommendations as to which is best to use & that goes for detectig spyware, trojans etc.? To keep my PC from being messed up by viruses, trojans spyware etc. I'm not sure if I have downloaded too much software or these are sufficent being a beginner. Can anyone please shed some light on these subjects? Thanks

 

if you want an av that detects trojans worms and viri you probably would need Kaspersky or Mcafee but if viri is basically what you want from an av Nod32 is about the best in that field with a very good hueristics. You should also consider getting spywareguard and spywareblaster which are both free and excellent programs

bigc

 

personally i prefer avast! home edition for a free AV. neways, some other programs u might wanna try are sygate personal firewall standard, prevx home, protowall or peerguardian 2 lite, and a-squared free.

 

Well, Markus Jansson's website is a good starting place. The Links and Software section of Markus' website has an extensive listing of options. There are as many strategies available as there are users. Most recommend some type of layered approach with discrete applications handling different tasks. The advantage of this is a level of redundancy if any one portion is defeated or ineffective. The downside is that it is very easy to go overboard and render a system operationally unstable. The best-in-class of the payware software will outperform freeware options - but a completely freeware based solution is viable. This is how I'd cover it....

• General resources beyond the sites mentioned above
  • Blackspear's General Cleaning instructions - a general set of instructions and links
  • DSL Reports: I think my computer is infected or hijacked. What should I do?
  • Rogue Anti-Spyware, what to avoid out there masquerading as anti-spyware
  • Home Firewall Guide
  
  
• Get a router with SPI - I know, not free, but it will pull some of the security load off the PC and good inexpensive options are available. Linksys is solid. Many folks have had success with D-Link. Not required, but recommended.
  
  
• Free software firewalls - control outbound communications (I'm assuming that a router is already handling most in-bound duties]
  • ZoneAlarm Free
  • Sygare Personal Firewall
  • Kerio Personal Firewall, limited edition
  
  
• Free AV options - check out performance metrics at av-comparatives.org
  • Avast Home Edition
  • AVG Free edition
  
  
• Free AT options - you don't see the level of testing here as you do with AV solutions. Both a² and Ewido seem popular. I'd probably lean towards Ewido only because I tried it and it did look good.
  • a² Free
  • Ewido Security Suite. After the trial period expires, the download Plus verion reverts to a more spartan free option.
  
  
• Anti-spyware/Adware. The two major standbyes are Ad-Aware SE Personal and Spybot S&D. These can be augmented with a number of the applications Javacool provides
  • Adaware SE Personal, also get the VX2 Cleaner add-on
  • Spybot S&D
  • Javacool Software SpywareBlaster
  
  
• Specialized diagnostic and treatment tools
  • CWShredder
  • HiJackThis
  • McAfee AVERT Stinger
  • WinsockXPFix, automatically reset a broken Winsock lsp chain
  
  
• Be aware of on-line AV/AT scanning options. Some are single file submission approaches, others mimic a full or targeted system scan.
  • Jotti's malware scan, a multi-engined tool
  • VirusTotal, another multi-engined scanner.
  • McAfee Free Scan
  • eTrust Web scanner - requires the use of Internet Explorer
  • mks_vir online scanner - also requires the use of Internet Explorer

This isn't a comprehensive list, but it's a reasonable starting point. You're already asking the right starting questions - especially what constitutes too much. As long as you keep realtime activity under control (and this is strongly dependent on a lot of factors, including surfing habits and machine power), you'll be fine. Make sure that the options you choose to run real time do not have completely duplicate functionality - backups approaches are fine, but duplication of effort is overkill.

What do I run? See here, it's mainly payware but it does provide some structural context.

Blue

 

If you are looking for excellent detection without regard to cost (money and resources), this is what I decided for my machine:

1) KAV 4.5
2) ProcessGuard (guards against dll injections, rootkits, keyloggers)
3) Ad-aware
4) FireFox 1.0

I have other on-demand programs that overlap the above programs. I use these programs for verification and overlap checking, but under almost all circumstances, the above set of software has proven to be very reliable and comprehensive. ProcessGuard 3.0 has proven to be an indispensable part of my overall protection system together with my firewall (ZoneAlarm).

Rich