Community-based security apps? Any recommendations?

I would like to add some apps which are easy for the average Joe to use. He/She is not really a newbie but is someone who doesn't have the computing knowledge to answer prompts properly from a firewall, HIPS etc.

That's what I think which is ideal for an average user.

There is a central database available so the program can help them to make decisions on technical questions (which are usually seen in firewall and HIPS).

A learning mode provided by the security app seems to be a great idea. Let the program run in your computer (of course he/she makes sure it's clean) and the program will adopt to it automatically.

The app could do the job of both a firewall and HIPS. If it's not possible, it's okay to install two good community-based security apps for each of the jobs.

Which security apps available (free or paid) which is close to what I describe above? Thank you so much for your advice.

 

Try Prevx. They are at http://www.prevx.com/ and their forums are hosted here on Wilders. Seem to be the most advanced currently.

 

After some search those products seem to fit what we want:

1. Online Armor
2. Outpost Firewall
3. Comodo Firewall
4. Prevx (thanks sded)

Which are really the best? I would like to read some real tests rather than words from the developers. Are such tests available? I don't want to pick a security product simply because "it looks cool", "I feel good".

I somehow lean towards Outpost because the descriptions from the developers seem to fit well. The description says it has "Blocklist", "Adaptive firewall rules", "Auto-learning mode", "Automatic configuration", "ImproveNet (community network)", "SmartAdvisor (computer-assisted helper, give you advise to answer prompts in case all elase fail)". All sound very great but how well does it really work?

 

I haven't used Online Armor or Outpost much.

I do know that Comodo Internet Security has ThreatCast, which shows what other users have rated. But it seems to be a bit buggy still.

 

I have been using Outpost for a long time now, currently running fine on Windows 7 x64.

 

The Online Armor OASIS database also works very well if you want to start from the vantage point of a firewall/HIPS augmented by central database analysis of safe/dangerous applications. OASIS is an augmentation to the OA firewall/HIPS, whereas Prevx is actually an anti-malware program that has moved the entire database to a central location and maintains live communication to the users over the internet while scanning the local application behavior, trying to minimize the delay for negating new threats. Threatcast is pretty primitive user vote counting, and as Laser Wraith has pointed out, doesn't seem to be very stable in supporting the users. I use both OA and Prevx and think they are worth the price and provide complementary functions as well as some overlap. Haven't tried Outpost, but that and Norton NIS10 has also gotten good reviews. Worthwhile to spend some time with the trial versions to see what suits you.

 

These are all great software but IMHO Prevx is probably the best choice because it requires the least amount of user interaction.

 

Yes, Prevx + Windows Firewall... that is all you need for a silent and automatic protection.

 

Is it bloated?
Do you feel it is stable and doesn't cause compatibility problems?

 

Prevx 3.0 all the way!

TH