Am I on overkill with my security?

Discussion in 'other anti-malware software' started by A.K., Jan 4, 2007.

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  1. A.K.

    A.K. Registered Member

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    I've had bad luck in the past as I am a novice to security issues and had to reinstall my system from cd software several times.. Here is a line up of my software Comodo personal firewall,lavasoft adaware SE plus, CA antivirus, Arovax shield, spyware blaster, SUPERantispyware free version.... If this is too much please make some recommendations...
     
  2. cheater87

    cheater87 Registered Member

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    Seems pretty good to me
     
  3. MalwareDie

    MalwareDie Registered Member

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    I think you should change some of them. CA has weak heuristics and a weak detection rate. Lavasoft also has a weak detection rate and maybe you should consider avg antispyware
     
  4. EASTER.2010

    EASTER.2010 Guest

    WELCOME TO WILDERS'S PROFESSIONAL FORUMS!!! ....and personal greets A.K. my friend.

    Maybe you're not, but i sure am, (as others) and it's serving plenty of CONFIDENCE!

    Not suggesting you go quite to the extremes that some of us have since i regularly unleash MALWARE/ROOTKITS upon myself (UNITS) for local research purposes.

    You could however review some if not all the SAFETY PROGRAMS listed below in my own forum signature at the bottom of this posting. There are yet MANY others besides those you'll find below that i currently use and some really thoughtful & good suggestions will be offered by forum membership on your behalf right here.

    Takes a little effort & time to try them and see how they stack up for you and the confidence they will offer, but you are definitely on track and your concerns will be addressed as you study thru these posts & examine different and BETTER programs for your system's and (conscience's) protection.

    REGARDS: EASTER
     
  5. como212

    como212 Registered Member

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    if u like to change replace CA antivirus.
     
  6. eyes-open

    eyes-open Registered Member

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    Hi A.K

    Generally I would say that luck is rarely the deciding factor here. But if we accept that it exists and so has a place at the far end of the scale, then we start to look at how we begin to stack the odds in your favour.

    So you have a fully patched system OS ?, your various software components are up to date, you have your AV installed and checked it's updating properly. Finally you have a firewall, with which you have considered carefully each request for access you were presented with.

    You haven't mentioned, or been asked, how your 'bad luck' came about, whether or not you consider your browsing habits to be reasonably secure, how you deal with e-mail, what other ways you interact with the .net such as the use of IM, P2P all that kind of thing. Maybe you're the sort of person that just can't curb their curiosity and has to click on stuff. If so, do you know how to minimise your chances of this behaviour impacting on your system ?

    Unless you are experiencing conflicts or resource issues, I think get these basics right first - then concentrate on refining the extras. I cannot even remember the last time Nod32 gave me an alert, or any scanner produced a find that wasn't a false positive.

    I'm not amongst the totally paranoid that think there's a rootkit in every download. However, that the seriously intrusive malware, is increasingly difficult to detect & reliably remove - puts the focus increasingly on developing habits that speak to prevention, rather than post event detection by on-demand scanners.

    It may well be that you already have those bases covered, or simply have a different philosophy around your security needs. In which case I apologise for interrupting the flow of the thread and leave you in the capable hands of those that follow this.

    Cheers e-o
     
  7. QBgreen

    QBgreen Registered Member

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    Not too many programs, just need to bolster your protection by replacing some of your on access protection, IMO . I'm not a fan of CA products. I would replace that AV with AVAST or AntiVir PE Classic. Also, I would consider running Spyware Terminator as an active anti-spy/malware instead of Lavasoft's product.
     
  8. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    With the acception of the CA antivirus, I also advise to get a better one. After exhaustive investigating on my part, I subscribed to NOD32 and am glad I did. A great AV. Comodo is a great choice, as is SpyBlaster (a must have) and SUPER antispyware is supposed to be good to. I just installed it myself yesterday. I have had AD-Aware personal for a few years and it to has served me well. I have AVG antispyware running on my pc to pick up the crap live because it's low on resources and updates definitions a few times a day. The others are for on demand scanning. Everybody has personal preferences but a few apps are better than others. What you have are good choices other than the CA, so you're in good shape. :ninja:
     
  9. beanpole

    beanpole Registered Member

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    These are enough.I only have Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classical and System Safety Monitor Free Edition.I almost don't have nips,you have had comodo,that's enough.
     
  10. Long View

    Long View Registered Member

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    Netgear DG834 Firewall, Avast, ProSecurity, Firefox ( no scripts) and nothing else. Having too many programs doesn't do any real harm normally. Tends to slow things down and conflicts may arise but I seriously doubt if most programs really do much good either - law of diminishing marginal returns and all that....
     
  11. duke1959

    duke1959 Very Frequent Poster

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    I think Antivir PE or even AVG 7.5 would be a better choice for your AV than CA, and at this point Spyware Terminator instead of Adaware Plus for RealTime. I have settled on using Comodo Firewall as well, and use AVG 7.5 Anti-Malware, plus a Linksys Wireless Router SPI Firewall while surfing on Firefox with NoScript and Adblock Plus extensions. I would like to add Arovax Shield again at some point, but the latest version was spiking to 100 percent usage in task manager when signing on to FF or changing websites, so I uninstalled it. I think AS is a better alternative than AVG AS for RealTime, and may uninstall the AVG Spyware Component and use Arovax Shield again when this is fixed. Other people have mentioned this in that forum, so I'm sure it will be. I also now have a-squared anti-malware as on demand, it has a nice interface and updates quite frequently. All I need to do now is try to do what I did last Friday, and stop all this installing and uninstalling and stay out of this great and informative forum. LOL. I'll try again starting tomorrow, wish me luck. LOL.
     
  12. A.K.

    A.K. Registered Member

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    When I first got this computer, I understood very little about the nature of firewalls..(Just had the basic windows one installed) then I started having my homepage changed and all sorts of interesting things happen. I had dial up at the time, and was using a dial up service... so to download updates for windows would have been impossibly slow. I had to reinstall my system from cds several times because those little buggers move quick. I got kerio and it worked for awhile but just about a month ago my system locked up my internet connection.(I am now on cable) I had to reinstall again, this time I dumped my paid version of Kerio and just got Comodo (Comodo seems more stable)which is doing fine.You all asked what my habits are, I don't click on those ads that pop up. In fact since i had to do everything all over again, I dumped my email addy I had for nearly seven years and started a new one(Overwhelmed with email offers and spam) When I was younger I was fairly naive and would do all the stupid stuff,like enter email and info to sites promising stuff. (Now in retrospect, I know that is dumb, but I've moved and have a change of address now am not relaying that info or clicking on that stuff ) My new email is spam free for now and I wisely pick websites that I do enter info in. I'd also like to add I had grisoft antispyware (paid), and apparently lost the license, and notified Grisoft about it and when I didn't get a satisfactory answer I just dumped it..(all I had then when I re-downloaded it was a stripped down version)( I know I should back up stuff, but tried in the past and couldn't do it, I might not know how to properly do that though and was also told in the past by friends that I didn't need back-up unless it was important documents and stuff) I don't usually go to sites other than educational, news-worthy and things like that. I also now primarily use Firefox 2 and have calling ID which is a browser extension that checks the validity of website. I know no security is fool-proof, so I have to have some common sense. But I know one thing, those baddies are out there, and will exploit any vulnerability on your computer in a blink of an eye.. I was really astonished and how fast they could do that... Perhaps I'm a little paranoid...and I do have the latest security patches for windows.. Fortunately with cable it doesn't take 12 hours to download everything. I'm just learning about the dialers(which installed themselves when I had dial up and messed up my system) rootkits and keyloggers.Only this time I hope i don't have to learn the hard way.
     
  13. duke1959

    duke1959 Very Frequent Poster

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    I asked myself the same question and am now just using Comodo Firewall, AVG 7.5 AV Pro, and Spyware Terminator, with Firefox and NoScript, plus AVG AS Free for on demand. I wanted to go back to Arovax Shield, but one of the main reasons I didn't is because of the differences between their Forums. ST's Forum offers lot's of help and responses, while AS' forum offers very few. Plus I have used the last 3 versions of ST without any problems, and can't say the same for AS. It's ashame really as I liked what AS had to offer as far as an easy to use HIPS like software, and feel using it instead of ST would have been less overkill, and just about right.
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2007
  14. ccsito

    ccsito Registered Member

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    How much is enough security? That is often not easy to find the answer. You obviously need at least a AV and firewall if you access the Net. With so much floating around the WWW, you often need to add additional protection programs to root out the infestation on your system. Some programs offer better protection than others, but a lot has to do with what you specifically come across when you use your system. The best insurance, IMHO, against a corrupted hard drive is to have a backup (or several) if your system becomes heavily infested. You can install multiple programs to provide a more difficult barrier to malware, but whether you will have a performance hit will depend on the characteristics of each system. You have to take a bit of scrutiny when you surf the web or respond to online offers. Remember, that for most commerical sites, the main underlying reason why they exist is to find potential customers.
     
  15. EASTER.2010

    EASTER.2010 Guest

    OVERKILL is not too much IMO. Yes, you have to add plenty of alternative safety programs if you want to ensure confidence and theres nothing better then covering as many bases as possible. Better safe then sorry and monitoring many possiblities keeps your good system safe IMHO.
     
  16. Badcompany

    Badcompany Registered Member

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    Hi AK,
    IMO I would change your AV for : Kaspersky Dr Web or Nod32, Which are all first class AV programs. Comodo Fw is excellent.Spyware Blaster and Superantispyware are also first class programs.With this set-up your Pc will be very secure, and not over the top.All these programs work well together, and should not slow your Pc down.
    Badcompany.
     
  17. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    or superantispyware as an antispyware app.
    @badcompany you got the same two links in you sig as me but the other way round=d
    lodore
     
  18. JerryM

    JerryM Registered Member

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    I would choose a better AV than CA. Most any of the ones mentioned would be better.
    My personal preferences are KAV 6, F-Secure 2007, NOD, Avast Home, and AVG 7.5 AV free.

    If you are inclined, try several and see what runs best on your system.
    I like F-Secure as it runs well, and has a very high detection rate. Some complain that it is very heavy on their systems. If you want a trial, here is a 6 months trial offer.
    http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/viruses/wsc/en-us/default.mspx

    Regards,
    Jerry
     
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