I haven't changed a thing!

Currently it's simple, minimalistic and it works. I have no complaints.

I translated some thread in the russian user forum with google translator, and I'm not 100% sure but I think they will release a new scan engine or new scanner component during this autumn.

If this is true, maybe we can expect faster scanning speed and improved detection.

 

It may but then again I have such a hard time submitting malware and FP's to their lab. When they detected YIM as a virus I submitted them a FP report and later that day I was informed it was a FP and it will be removed from their database in the next update. Five days later it was still being detected so I submitted it to them again. Later that day I got a note saying it would be removed from their database in the next update again then about 2 days later they finally removed it.

Then most of the time as I submit malware to them I never get a response back with the analysis report and the detections are never added most of the time. Maybe their engine just can't handle some threats or their automatic threat analysis program is not working correctly?

 

Very well said trjam!

And if I may be so bold to add to those good words.

Honestly people, you don't need a ton of crap on your system, especially if we are talking about Home users or Small Office, Big Business and Corporations, that's another story.

The only reason people need a lot of tools on their systems is because they haven't learned how to be safe with out them and then they think they need them to be safe.

You not educating yourself to understand security and safety while online, instead you are relying on these tools to do the job for you and with education and experience you'll be the best tool!

Granted I'm not saying to ditch everything, but for the majority I bet you can toss half of it out.

I'll tell you right now all I've ever used in the past 10 years is a small home router/firewall and just one av sitting real-time running, that's all. Then of course I use a few apps for on-demand when needed to scan, and that's it.

After all how many ways do you think you can have a problem? Once you realize all the ways you can have problems, with experience you learn how to eliminate them.

There are many ways to skin a cat, but the end results are all the same, there are only so many ways to get into the system and basically that is through the ports and protocols and holes, learn what some of that's all about and how to look for things and you've basically learned how to eliminate the need for tons of apps to keep you secure, because now you are the security.

Your best weapon is between your ears, because most of these so called apps, don't do anything more then you could IF you had experience and knowledge between your ears!

Knowledge is your best weapon not all these apps!

But of course here's the big crutch, until you get the knowledge and feel comfortable you'll need your tools, but in time you'll be able to ween yourself off of them.

 

Me neither! and i agree with DasFox, once you know the weak points of your system, you simply avoid exposing them. I started to dig into this matter (computer security) at the beginning of this year and I used to read Wilders, Bleeping Computer, Gladiator, Remove-Malware, Gizmo's and a lot of other forums focused on antivirus and antimalwares and stuff... and lately I've noticed that even though I wouldn't need nothing but just a standalone AV and a FW to be safe, the apps are helpful (and I'd say needed) for those not-so-savvy (my folks, my grandma, my grandpa, my sister, my cousins) cause they really don't care about being secure, they just like doing what they need or what they want without being bothered by some banner with a bunch of tech jargon that they can barely understand (i really think they don't). I've never tried system hardening tweaks other than immunization cause I simply feel that a computer must let you do whatever you want without restrictions (is totally up to you what to do)
So i really don't see any real advantage on changing security setups very often. I'd rather stick to a long-term license with a good vendor (or invest on some worthy lifetime licenses) or pick a reliable freebie, backup important data every now and then, pay your internet bill on time, keep your OS fully patched/updated and you're done... that's my humble opinion...

 

Even though I like the idea of sticking with what works
and don't believe in changing security programs constantly...
it sure is easy for me to understand how much fun it can be to jump around, adding and subtracting programs.
It is a (somewhat) new hobby that has really picked up steam,
and probably enjoys growing numbers of participants.
Most of the people here who do it seem to me to be fully cognizant of their fickle ways, and don't seem to want to change what they do.
I've already said it on this thread, I'll say it again... many of us benefit from the experiences they share here on the forums.

 

Yeah! jumping between setups is hell of fun. testing this against that, measuring responsiveness, effectiveness and so on... I also did it but I had to stop cause it was too time consuming for me, specially since I do not have a VM and my boxes are not that high-end to support dual boot. Also had to share the computers with the family... so it was not a good idea...
But yeah! Thanks to those brave souls who are commited to test and compare each and every single piece of code released that has to do with security! keep it up guys... if you were not there, forums like this would be quite empty...

 

agree

 

My system has been the same for about 7 years. I don't believe I have ever had a virus or malware get through but who knows

I use
AVIRA Antivirus premium (which I buy 2-3 year license to save money)
OutPost Pro Firewall (with a lifetime license)
Spyware Blaster - Free

I do full images using Macrium Reflect once a week (to a second harddrive) and incremental images every night. It is set to only keep one spare backup set. Hourly data backups with AIS backup.

I find this system is pretty light - I am considering changing from AVIRA but only because I have a second computer and the cost of 3 licenses with AVIRA is to high - I may go with the free AVIRA on my netbook - or Panda cloud

 

Are you sure about that?

 

indeed

 

it is fun man

 

agreed

 

I might be able to post in this thread soon, I am changing software less frequently after the last 6 months of learning about security. Now it is just fine-tuning, like turning on Windows Defender yesterday.

 

Once you settle on a comfortable combination, it really is surprising how much more time you have for other things in your life.
Once that setup is doing what you put it in place to do...
and once you trust it...
you can leave it alone and breathe a sigh of relief.
Ah, I'm well-protected and my computers are humming right along.
Life is good.

 

My setup has been the same for a couple of weeks. Really happy with performance.

 

High-end computer to support dual-boot

Please, on an old PentiumM 1.6GHz, upgraded from 512MB to 1GB and 40GB to 160GB HDD, I can run dual, triple, quadruple boot.
You only need enough HDD space for multi-booting.
Running VM's is a different game, that will require enough RAM and CPU power to keep it 'pleasant'.

Also, VM software is freely available so don't let that be an obstacle for future ventures.

 

Thank you for the advice mate! I run almost all my PC's with ~40GB which I know it's kinda VERY low... but my family is quite big and none of them needs too much HD space... also we all share computers and everybody has their own USB drive... I'm saving money so I can build myself a high-end machine hopefully by the end of the year... sort of like a desktop alienware.. haha

 

How u like immunet? Howz the detection and removal?

 

People who ARE NOT addicted to changing their security software constantly...

 

good people man they should be added to the Ako list

 

Multibooting takes very little additional of anything except hard drive space. I have a old Celeron 366MHZ with 160MB RAM that has 5 operating systems installed on 3 small hard drives, 3 Windows, 2 Linux. They all work fine. Only one is running at a time, so performance will be no different than it would be with that OS by itself.

Depending on what you're going to do with it, Virtualization doesn't need to be heavy either. I'm running it on a 2.4Gb Pentium 4 and 1Gb RAM. For software and security testing, it's more than enough. The virtualization software itself doesn't take that much to run. You don't really need more RAM or processing power unless you're running other tasks on both the host and guest systems. If your host system is running just the virtualization software, it won't be consuming much of either.

 

For two months on Safe-admin + Windows FW 2-way + Norton UAC (only realtime) No other security software besides freebies MBAM + HitmanPro on demand

Sometimes changing snapshot to add a program for comparison, but on my daily use snapshot I return to this naked setup (okay I use SiteAdvisor for Chrome on Iron and Sunbelt ClearCloud)

 

After a few infections, my anxiety level was high, having just built my first machine and also being new to Windows, I came here to try to figure out what needed to be done. Gradually I learned to trust some good security programs. As you say, now that things have been humming along for a while and I can just use the computer, life is good.

As a side note, I had my own criteria for choosing security software that I haven't read that others have used, and may not really be a good measure, maybe someone can give me an opinion. Besides the usual looking for crashes and conflicts, reading test results, and listening to what people here have recommended, I looked at the number of Event IDs, and also at Process Monitor to see how active the software was, looking for less usage of the computer. Now Mamutu is my most active software in ProcMon, constantly checking. Everything else is pretty quiet. And my Event IDs are way down.

 

Good point about Event IDs. I think you and I might have discussed them via PM, or at least I was mentioning to you how many I was getting with some of the previous set ups I was using. I felt like all I was doing was chasing down causes, trying to isolate issues. I won't knock the softwares that I feel were causing problems for me, for the simple fact that I have no desire to discourage others from using them.

The upside to experiencing mass quantities of Event IDs is that it sure is great when they go away! Reminds me of the old joke about the guy who kept banging his head against the wall. When asked why he was doing that he replied, "Because it feels so good when I stop!".

I haven't changed a thing in a long time, and I believe it's gonna stay that way for a long time.