What is the best combination of Security software for my pc??

There is so much information available on the internet about what measures one should take in order to adequately protect their computer to all of the threats out there.
The problem I have encountered is "How much is Enough??" I think overkill may be just as bad as insufficient protection.

Can anybody tell me what is a common-sense compromise to security software?

I currently have a relatively new AMD64 running XP-sp2 with all patches up to date. I have installed:
NOD32 antivirus ver 2.5
Zonealarm firewall 6.5.737
Lavasoft Ad-aware 1.06r1
SpyBot Search & Destroy 1.4 plus Tea-Timer
SpyWareBlaster 3.51
D-Link DI-604 router/hard-firewall
Is this enough?

Do I realistically need more, such as Ewido, or ProcessGuard?

Enquiring minds want to know!!

 

IMHO that's more than enough. Have a look at my signature, i have less and never had big problems or infections. You may think of an alternative to Zonealarm. Also, possible changes depend on your knowledge of what's going on regarding Internet, Traffic, Malware, etc. There is allways something new or better.

But for all: Never change a running system. So if you have no problems, no infections, why change.

 

STAY SAFE!
STAY ALIVE!

 

Yeah looks good. I assume thats the free version of ZA and ad-aware. If so then run spybots teatimer alongside ZA and NOD and you should have yourself some decent protection.

 

I think it's not a bad idea, if you have the room on your drive, to have an extra anti-trojan scanner, such as AVG antispy, (formerly Ewido) or Asquared, for the stuff AdAware and Spybot can't kill. (Have experience of this. My A/V at the time couldn't kill it either.)
They all have (some) different definitions, different update periods, and different "kill" and scan engines. What is "overkill" is up to you, provided it doesn't bog you down or waste space. Then again, I'm probably in an overkill type situation - some of the applications I have have never needed to be used in anger. But they don't take up much space, they don't run at startup, so I don't mind keeping them, just in case.

 

Do you realistically need more? IMO, yes, but not much more. Firstly, if you're running ZA free, I'd replace it with Comodo. Much better protection, still free. Actually, I'd replace any Zone Labs product with CPF, but that's just me.
NOD32 is a stellar anti-malware program. Bolster it with a great freeware app called Spyware Terminator that has real time spyware as well as fairly extensive system protection. Some (including myself) would say to run an on access anti-trojan. NOD32 does nab a lot of trojans, so it's not really an absolute necessity. However, if you choose to spend money for one, I'd go with BOClean for on access protection. Ewido (now AVG anti-spyware) will run as a free product, so get that for your on demand anti-trojan needs. Also look at a-squared, another anti-malware program that has an effective free version. I'm also no longer a fan of ad-aware, and would remove that and replace it with the free version of SUPERAntiSpyware. I know it looks like I've bombarded you with all of this (), but you asked!

 

I think the best 3 anti-spyware of your choice, an AV and firewall is all anybody needs. Your set up is almost identical to mine. Don't bog down your computer with more utilities than apps, it's not necessary.

 

Thanks for the info!

I had forgot to include Spybots Tea-Timer to the list, Is is also installed on my pc.

I was using Norton AV 2005 up until it expired in August. Had no real issues with it but always felt it was bit of a system hog for using pc resources.
I tried BitDefender 9 AV for 30 day trial on the advice of the Sep/06 issue of Consumer Reports magazine, which rated it #1. After the DB trial, I installed NOD32 to try, with the expectation of trialling ZoneAlarm AV after. I was so impressed with NOD32 functionality, and other peer reviews such as at http://www.av-comparatives.org/ that I bought a 2 year subscription. The front end does not treat me like a brain-dead idiot.

By the way, after its own testing, the Sept/06 issue of CR magazine ranks anti-virus software as follows:
1: BitDefender 9 Standard
2: Zone Labs Zonealarm AV
3: Kapersky Labs
4: Norton AV
5: McAfee
6: Trend Micro
7: Alwil
8: F-Secure
9: Panda Software
10: CA/eTrust
11: PC Tools
Note that it did not even test or rate ESET's NOD32. I don't know why.

Consumer Report's ratings for anti-spyware are:
1: F-Secure 2006
2: Webroot Spy Sweeper 4.5
3: PC Tools Spyware Doctor 3.8
4: Trend Micro 3
5: LavaSoft Ad-Aware 1.06
6: Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4
7: Zone Labs ZoneAlarm anti-spyware 6.5
8: Sunbelt Counterspy
9: CA/eTrust Pest Patrol
10: BitDefender
11: McAfee
12: Microsoft Windows Defender (beta 1) - dead last!!

The only incidence of malware penetration I've experienced in the last 3 years was this summer when I tried to install a cracked version of Webroot's Spysweeper 4.5 this which I had downloaded from a bittorrent site. Bad news.. had a moment of stupidity. If you dabble in cracked programs, be prepared for the consequences.

The only other conflict's I've experienced recently was after installing both Ewido and JavaCool's SpywareGuard. On rebooting, my pc took about 5 minutes to boot up. I was able to watch XP's Task Manager.. although CPU usage remained low, vsmon.exe was wrecking havoc with it's Mem Usage, a times it's size climbed to over 100,000K. Obviously ZoneAlarm did not like something. After uninstalling both Ewido and SpywareGuard, everything worked great again.

Back to my point about having too much installed, I think it can cause more problems than it cures. My concern was whether I have adequate anti-spyware software installed.

 

I can't believe ewido caused you problems, as it's light on resources and doesn't have a big foot print. I use it for my active anti-spyware program, and Spysweeper as a standby. Ewido (AVG) updates definitions on bootup and you wouldn't know it's there. I suspect there was some sort of incompatability problem in your system that involved the ewido.

 

Think your going way beyond what is necessary. I see that you have NAT routed your internet connection (make sure all ports are ghosted) which is the best protection for your system.

Unless you downloading all sorts of free crap from the net, realtime AV is not necessary and is a drag on your system. Trend Micro has free online AV for on demand scanning.

Lastly, instead of all the realtime antispyware apps, just use a sandbox instead for your browsers/ outlook apps? Most spyware that you catch these days are o day type attacks which your antispyware probably wont catch. A sandbox like sandboxie will contain any zero day payloads.

Best low overhead security:

1. NAT Route your internet connection with all posts ghosted.
2. Use Firefox with Scripting turned off for unknown sites.
3. Some sort of Sandbox.
4. Set Outlook to only accept Rich text.
5. Use dropmyrights for IE and Outlook.
6. Be very aware of downloading "free software"!

 

Excellent post Budfox.
This is exactly the state of mind I try to stay in... keeping safe in the most cost-effective (both $$ and CPU useage) manner, while avoiding both excessive risk and paranoia.
I thought I was a relatively seasoned pc user, but never heard of the dropmyrights application. Thank you very much, am checking into this as we speak...