Reccomendations

I've been reading alot about computer protection, mainly antispyware. It seems that many use at least one " pay for" program. Lavasoft, Webroot, and Giant(which ranked highest in the Howes test) seem to be the most used. For someone with little computer experience and wanting the best for the buck, what would be the reccomendation?

 

Ad-aware SE Plus is my only paid anti-spyware app. I haven't tried the other ones u listed but Giant, from what i have read here, is gaining in popularity.

I also use SpyCop for Keyloggers, it is also a paid program.

I have 4 other anti-spyware apps. but they are all free.



snowbound

 

Thanks for your input. Hows the online support for Adaware?

 

Been good for me. Anytime i've had a problem, i have always had a prompt response when visiting their forums,

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/

I have never used the email support so i can't comment on that.



snowbound

 

How does the paid version differ from the free version besides the ad-watch feature?

 

Other than Ad-Watch ... the main differences are Process Watch ... and all the available addins extensions & tools come bundled with. The settings are also more configurable ... the greyed options of the freeware version are available.

Both Webroot's SpySweeper & Giants AntiSpy are both excellent programs also IMO.

dog -

 

these are free programs you can read about and use...

http://www.webroot.com/services/spyaudit_03.htm
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html
http://www.winpatrol.com/winpatrol.html
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/xcleaner.html

 

Thanks for the info. I have some of those free programs. Spy sweeper seems to be slowing my computer down and Giant won't respond to any of my emails so I am not sure. Thanks again

 

I think the biggest resource pull of SpySweeper is the Memory protection feature ... try unenable that and see how it goes.

Personally I don't run either of them with their resident protections at all.

Steve

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Giant are known to have a customer support service based on the 'Symantec' model - i.e. once you've bought the licence you're more or less on your own!!!

Despite that, and the many other problems I have been having with the product, I have today just bought a licence! Time will tell whether that was a good decision, but I do expect the glitches to be ironed out shortly.

I do, however, think it is very sensible to have real time protection, whether from AdAware, Spy Sweeper or Giant. Trying to deal with the intractible problems presented by new spyware, with a demand scanner, after it has got into your machine is nigh on impossible! Don't forget that those Eric Howes tests did not even include the worst of the new CoolWebSearch varients, which are practically impossible to remove; if they had been included the scanner 'fix' results would have been a lot worse.

 

I have tried many combinations. The one I settled on is:

1) Process Guard - Primary
2) Giant - Real-time
3) Ad-aware/Spybot - backup scans.

Giant, Ad-aware, and Spybot will all give false-positives, so delete with some care. Giant, I have found, seems to be better than Spysweeper in the False Positive department. TopperID is correct, that support has become somewhat lack-luster. But I live with it, especially since I have Process Guard as my primary vehicle for keeping out real nasties like keyloggers and rootkits.

Rich

 

Thanks to all for your help. It seems that they are all good companies and everyone has their own likes. Webroot is the only one who responded to my emails and I like good customer service. Thanks again.

 

myself, i use, adaware SE, spywareblaster, and spybot S&D1.4beta. theyre all the free ones and they work great together. plus i have nis2005 for av and firewall.

 

This is what works really well for me, very simple to use and maintain: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=315075

You may want to take a look here for further discussion on security and how to make your system that much stronger and here for more.

Let us know how you go…

Cheers