Am I using the right amount of security software, or am I being paranoid?

[sunnybacon]

Hi.
With all the talk about viruses/malware etc., I've gotten into the habit of using quite a lot of security software on my new Vista Dell laptop. Am I being paranoid, or is this the right thing to do?

Firewall: ZoneAlarm
Anti-virus: AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 Professional (I got this for free, see my other post on how you can too)
Anti-spyware: Windows Defender, Ad Aware 2007 Free, AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 Free, Spybot S&D
Anti-rootkit: RootAlyzer, AVG Anti-Rootkit 7.5 Free
Registry protection: TeaTimer (part of Spybot S&D)

Thanks for any advice.

[avinitski]

personally i think its over the top, others will surely disagree.

i wouldnt want all those extra apps using my precious cpu clock cycles.

i dont use a software firewall as i have a router. the only other program i use is AVG, although as with many virus protection programs different people prefer different packages and admittedly AVG does get a little mixed reviews although from research ve done on AVG it does seem to get the general thumbs up.

i think the best security out there is ones common sense.

[MartinN]

I would have thought it's a bit over the top. Your nice new Dell laptop must be running like a Spectrum. Dell preinstall a bucket load of stuff that doesn't exactly help (certainly on our office XP desktops)

Although if the security software don't start up automatically when your PC boots then I guess it doesn't hurt to fire them off occasionally.

I'm a bit paranoid myself. A lot of "stuff" comes in via Javascript (so I've been told!). But if you turn off javascript using the noscript plugin with firefox, you can decide what sites you trust. That way you're less likely to get hit in the first place.

[sunnybacon]

I personally have loaded this much because I think you can never be too careful.

[limblee]

Is Zonealarm the free version or the pro version?

Here is a link to the leak test results for free and paying firewalls

http://www.matousec.com/projects/win...ewalls-ratings

Personally, I'd use a hardware firewalled router, software firewall on every pc (ie Outpost Pro), Highly recommended Antivirus independant software (ie NOD32), Spybot S&D (DL'd from safer-networking only), Adaware SE.

[sunnybacon]

Are 4 anti-spyware programs too many? I only use Windows Defender because it came with my Vista laptop, and I use AVG Anti-Spyware because it was recommended when I got AVG Anti-Virus.

[Oggie]

i've got router with firewall and windows firewall that came with vista laptop. also got avg anti-virus professional( thanks for the link), ad-aware and also ccleaner to clean all rubish thats not needed. i dont go onto any dodgy (porn) websites and def dont use share(p2p) programs cuase they are virus haven, so think its enough protection for my use

[Fast Jon]

Firewall in the router
ZoneAlarm
AVG

Didn´t stop me getting a trojan last week. AVG couldn´t get rid of it so I tried SpyBot and ended up with a terminally damaged registry.

You can´t rely 100% on any of these tools.

[treacle]

How much is your PC/LAPTOP worth, apparently not much if you can't be bothered to give it the best protection possible,

Buy a good suite, and forget all the other garbage cluttering up your machine,

[Iccz]

Minimum security is all you need to keep the script kiddies out.
Freebies do this just fine.

If someone who knows what they're doing wants to get into your computer for whatever reason they'll get in. It's that simple.
Unless you're a big target i'd not worry at all. Viruses are protected against with a scanner and a bit of common sense.
A firewall on your router will help against incoming threats, as will a software firewall, which will also cover outgoing.

Spyware stuff is always useful doesnt hurt to use more than 1 of these as long as they dont conflict.

[kayzee]

That is by far enough imo! Well, I installed my current install of Vista at home in August 07, and have never added anything extra that the normal firewall & Windows Defender that comes with it... and it's been absolutely blinding, no problems at all.

with XP I had AVG, firewall, spy-bot and CCleaner and got infected all the time

Vista FTW

[treacle]

I agree with Kayzee, Vista defences are good enough, all the other free things, just take up disc space and don't realy do anything that Vista can't do.

The only I would possibly entertain would be ccleaner.

Mind you having said that I do have a Security suite (paid) for backups, fraud site monitoring, disk optimisation, transaction security as I do quite a bit of buying online.

[Iccz]

Originally Posted by kayzee

with XP I had AVG, firewall, spy-bot and CCleaner and got infected all the time

Vista FTW

That's quite worrying really because XP is relatively secure, to get infected you must have been opening things to cause it, if you had a firewall and anti-virus set up correctly the threats generally only become infections if you allow them to (by opening them etc).

Vista has improved the security, but to be honest, there are better free software packages out there, i've disabled most of the vista stuff and installed AVG / Zone Alarm etc instead, they're a lot more user friendly and you can set them up to how you need them.

At the end of the day firewalls and anti-virus software falls down to personal experience and opinion, the best way to find something you like is try it and see how it goes, if you browse safely, don't open unsolicited emails and don't install dodgy software you'll generally be fine.

I found the best way of reducing my Dad from getting spyware etc on his laptop was to move him away from Internet Explorer and onto Firefox.

[mjpartyboy]

I just use Avast Home Edition, SpywareBlaster, Spybot, Ad-Aware, and Peer Guardian 2, all free and never had any virus or spyware problems. I only use Firefox for browsing and I like the Adblock Plus add-on, amongst others. I also occaionally use CCleaner. I've got XP MCE SP2, haven't taken the SP3 plunge yet, and just use XP's own firewall, which I know is one way.

I recently installed the new AVG Free Edition on a friend's laptop, I think it's Version 8, and I quite like it so am considering going back to AVG from Avast.

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by Iccz

Minimum security is all you need to keep the script kiddies out.
Freebies do this just fine.

If someone who knows what they're doing wants to get into your computer for whatever reason they'll get in. It's that simple.
Unless you're a big target i'd not worry at all. Viruses are protected against with a scanner and a bit of common sense.

This is pretty much my view as well. I've had a computer since 2000 or 2001 and I don't think I've ever had a genuine virus (several false positives of course).

I occasionally try the latest popular spyware or malware scanner but they never come up with anything.

I've been using an IE-6 on windows 2000 pretty much since it was released.