Question by grtaylor76: What security software should I have on my computer?
I have Norton INternet Security and Lavasoft Ad.aware. I’ve done a free scan with SpyDoctor from PCTools but need to buy it for £20 to fix it. Is it worth it? or are there any other free downloads. I want to be able to cover everything possible like popups, hijacks, trojans, viruses etc. Thanks
Best answer:
Answer by Black Hero
i think zone alarm is the best http://www.zonealarm.com
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
I spent a fortune on security ware over the years,sigh,, and still got viuses, BUT I found the best is free ad-aware used along side AVG anti-virus free edition. for my pc,, Hope this helps..
Please go to this website for good, free and recommended security programs:
http://www.webuser.co.uk/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/219333/an/0/page/0#219333
Here is a list of free scans.I would recommend running ewido first.
Spybots search and Destroy http://www.download.com/3000-8022-10122137.html?tag=pao
adaware se> http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=lst-0-1
http://www.webroot.com/land/freescan.php
a-squared Free> http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_frame.asp
http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/
X -Cleaner Micro Edition scan http://www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.php
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Spywareguard too.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/
Get free anti virus for free click here.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
http://avast.com
Spydocotor is a good program >>
Check out http://www.Download.com
Thousands of progs to try before you buy!
There is one called AVG, it is free for personal use, but for business use it costs some cash. It’s advised that you use it with another anti-virus program like Norton. I use it with the Anti-Spyware “Spybot” which is also free. You can download AVG at: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-vir...
DON’T buy spy doctor, I did the free test and my pc was infected so i bought it and all of a sudden my pc had clean bill of health on my 1st scan. Use ad.ware for spyware and avg free from grisoft for virus’.
Both free from download.com
AVG free antivirus antispy for me too !
Cee is on the ball but AVG Free does not come with protection for Spyware. I recently went to an AVG meeting and they admit that spyware is becoming more of a problem then Viruses. Hence they purchased Eiwdo. I’ve tried this and it is on the ball, but is only a freebie for 30 days. Lavasoft is the best FREE spyware but in recent performance tests only captured 70% of spyware. Norton uses so many PC resources it can be as bad as a virus. I un-installed it on a customer PC the other day and I recovered a 100mb of RAM! Get AVG free try the Eiwdo. If you like it go for it. Windows Firewall is good but not very informative. Zone Alarm has a great interface. AVG comes with Firewall but I’ve very little hands on with it.
download two free things… search for their names on the web…
1: spybotsearch&destroy…
2: ccleaner…
(download.com is a good,safe, free site for software)
both will protect you… wait and see how much junk that ccleaner finds and gets rid of….
as long as you keep your virus etc all uptodate, and scan EVERYTHING you download on your pc, you shouldn’t have any trouble…..
Zone alarm for a software firewall, its free for non business use and does a good job of keeping unwanted connection attempts out.
For spyware the two that people use mainly are ad-aware or spybot search and destroy, personally im using spybot and its stopped several sites from dumping spyware on me. You say you’re using ad-aware, some people swear by it and the difference between that and spybot are minimal.
As for virus programmes i’ve always stuck to Norton, some people will rubbish Norton but its never let me down and i’ve never had a problem with it. There is always AVG which i think is free, again some people exclusively use that, whether its because its free (if it is – i not totally sure to be honest) is anybodies guess.
I certainly wouldnt pay for spydoctor, run ad-aware and spybot, you’ll catch everything with those. One other thing that people tend to forget is keeping your windows updated, Microsoft are trying harder than ever before to sort security problems with their software, they may not be the quickest but they are trying. The only other recommendation i can make is to swap your browser, internet explorer is riddled with problems, firefox is a much safer way to navigate the internet, its much more security minded and has several usefull featuers that IE doesn’t, its worth checking it out.
Free security software.The stuff i use and thousands of others too i guess lol.
AVG antivirus.
Zonealarm firewall.You just want the free edition of that.
Windows Defender antispyware.
Also get the Yahoo toolbar as that has a bloody good popup blocker and its own antispyware too.
You can safely use more than one antispyware product. The only problem you might encounter is conflicts between them.
Try Spyware Terminator – it’s free and includes resident protection (something you have to pay for with Ewido and others!)
http://www.spywareterminator.com/
and Superantispyware – also free
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Super-Anti-Spyware/SuperAntiSpyware.html
don’t use more than one antivirus product.For added security you can use McAfee Site Advisor to warn you about potentially bad sites
http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ie.html
also use spywareblaster – free and essential
http://www.filehippo.com/download_spywareblaster/
and a free privacy utility to keep your system running smoothly called CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/
http://www.freewebs.com/infosource100/antivirus.html
(for many more articles, check out that website)
“Prevention
The most popular way to protect ourselves against computer viruses is to subscribe to an antivirus program. Personally, Norton Antivirus is very easy to use and works well. It has the feature of keeping up-to-date regularly through Norton’s server and regular computer scans. Although nobody is safe against new viruses, an antivirus software is the best way to protect against existent viruses (in Norton’s library).
Do not give out your IP (Internet Protocol) address to others, as this is th efirst step for a hacker wanting to remotly access another person’s computer.
Do not discriminate others on the Internet; some are potential hackers.
Always do back-ups of your work files. Even if your computer crashes due to hardware problem and not of a virus, you would also have a copy. You can purchase external hard-drives and send files into your own inbox. It’s worth the effort and investment. “
For anti virus there is avg free, for spyware there is spyware blaster (constantly monitors your system and stops spyware before it gets on your machine) and spybot search & destroy (does a full system scan in case spyware blaster misses anything). For firewall there is zone alarm free.
All these programs are free and as good as any of the “Pay Software” out there.
Did Spyware Doctor pick something up that you need to remove? If thats the case try Ewido anti spyware, its just as good and free. You may need to switch off System Restore and run it in Safe Mode to clean all the spyware files out. Give it a try, then scan again to see if the files have re-installed themselves.
If they have, you must switch off System Restore as back up files will be hiding in there, and it will just restore itself. Go to Start – programs – accessories – system tools – system restore.
Run Avast and Ewido in Safe Mode. To get into Safe Mode repeatedly press the F8 key after the bios screen loads but before Windows loads. You’ll know if you made it because the screen will be at 800 x 600 and your pc will be slow.
You need;
a firewall
an anti virus
an anti spywar/trojan
an anti adware.
Here’s a list;
The Windows firewall doesn’t stop malware on your pc from dialling out. Either of these firewalls are free for personal use and stop unwanted incoming and outgoing traffic. You choose which programs are allowed to access the internet. They are both fairly easy to use and updated regularly.
http://www.zonelabs.com Zone Alarm firewall
http://www.kerio.com Kerio firewall
Shields Up security site, check your firewall works
https://www.grc.com
http://www.mozilla.com/ Firefox web browser
http://www.opera.com/ Opera web browser
Instal both these web browsers, turn off javascript on one and use that browser for vising unknown websites. They don’t support Active X so thats one less way for problems to get on your pc.
Winpatrol is a handy utility that tracks cookies on your pc and stops unwanted changes to your startup folder.
http://www.winpatrol.com
Spywareblaster works with Internet Explorer and Firefox. It won’t uninstall spyware that is already on your pc, but it will prevent hijacks and other malicious changes to your browser.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com
http://www.siteadvisor.com -Site Advisor warns about malware on sites you are about to visit.
http://www.avast.com – Avast Antivirus
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/ – Trend Micro online virus guide
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ – Trend Micro PCillin online scan
http://www.ewido.net – Ewido anti trojan
Ad-Aware SE Personal anti adware
http://www.lavasoft.com
Spybot Search and Destroy anti spyware
http://www.safer-networking.org
http://spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm – The Spyware Warrior site identifies fake anti spyware programs.
http://www.bitdefender.com -BitDefender can be used as a second, on demand anti virus.
http://www.ccleaner.com Cr*pcleaner Registry cleaner and privacy tool
You can also download Microsofts free Windows Defender from the official Microsoft site, and the Malicious Software Removal Tool.
Remember to update and run all of you anti malware programs at least once a week.
PLEASE NOTE – Ewido will continue to work as a scanner after your 30 day trial is up; it just won’t run in the background. You will still be able to scan files and your pc with it. And its free.
First get rid of Norton. It slows your system down. and You cannot have 2 anti VIRUS running at the same time. You can have all of the other running though.
Here are my FREE recommendations.
I use all of the following Free software with Windows XP SP2 and Internet Explorer with MSN toolbar and the pop-up blocker turned on and have never had a single problem with my computer sense Microsoft came out with SP2. (knock on wood.) (And be sure to keep Windows and the following software Updated)
The best Anti-virus is: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. (www.grisoft.com)http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01
The Best Spyware defense is: SpyBot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html)< --English version
AND: AdAware SE (www.lavasoft.com)
AND Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.info/kb/)
The best Firewall besides the one that comes with Windows is: Zone Alarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/co... or just (www.zonelabs.com) and select the FREE version.
These are all FREE and are all that are required. There is no reason to pay for this kind of software, except to give a donation to the writers if you can.
ALL the above programs are recommended and should be run on a regular basis. With some the free versions they must be run manually.
The best way to avoid getting any Malware (virus, Trojan’s, spyware, etc) is to practice safe computing. Microsoft and many others have countless articles on the subject of safe computing. (something I think should be taught in schools)
for further information on computer safety.
NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL -> http://www.ncpc.org/media/Internet_Safety.php
http://all.net/journal/50/cybercop.html
And here…
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/viruses/zombies_and_botnets.mspx
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
CNET these 10 programs comprise the best free security software
http://www.download.com/Best-free-security-and-spyware-software/1200-2023_4-5163183.html?tag=nl.e497
not sure
what ever you think is safe
the best you can afford
Here is a complete package that I recommend to keep your computer almost 100% safe. Download all these:
ANTIVIRUS:
1.AVG:
http://free.grisoft.com/softw/70free/setup/avg71free_405a791.exe
ANTISPYWARE:
1.AdAware SE:- http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5
2.SpyBot Search and Destroy: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Spybot_Search_and_Destroy/1043809773/1
3.Spyware Terminator: http://www.spywareterminator.com/
FIREWALL:
1.ZoneAlarm: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en
All these are completely free and are highly compatible with each other. Spyware Terminator has an embedded antivirus(ClamAV); but don’t activate that because it will obstruct AVG. You have got Norton which is the market leader, but I don’t recommend it. It is a huge resource hog and its detection ability is lower than AVG. So you should uninstall it and then download the above freeware. The extra work that you have got to do is that you have check for their updates everyday. You can schedule a daily scan or scan manually once every three four days to keep your system clean. In addition to that, I also suggest CCleaner which cleans all the crap, including unused files and registry keys. You can get it from ccleaner.com. I saw your question a bit late, so I am mailing you my would-be answer. Money always does not necessarily bring the best. Good Luck!
Only one thing to say on this one
Get Zone Alarm suite it covers everything but it costs you
Or get the free AVG from http://free.grisoft.com/
Zone Alarm from http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp do the scan first
and get Superantispyware or Bug Doctor from
http://www.superantispyware.com/...
BUG DOCTOR http://downloads.zdnet.co.uk/0,39025604,391084
you already have two effective solutions – i could not recommend more highly spyware doctor as i use it; its actively scanning it finds much more than ad – aware i assure you.