What Spyware & AntiVirus Programs do you use and Why?

[Platypus]

Firewall: Outpost (Free, 98-friendly, not resource hungry, works)
A/V: AVG (Free, frequent incremental updates, wouldn't take it into heavy battle)
Prob the commonest spyware trio:
SpywareBlaster/AdAware/Spybot S&D (Free, do the job)
Mucked about with a-squared, but nuisance authentication procedure.

I don't use any suspect sites, or use the NT-based code that gets most of the attention from nasties, so my needs are not great.

[kato2274]

firewall - smoothwall

antivirus - norton corporate client unmanaged - live updated weekly

spyware - Microsoft antispyware (I find it's actually very good) running all the time monitoring. spybot and adaware on standby as well as hi-jack this, CWshredder

[garthg]

Well I have seen too many NAV machines that have been virused. I use AVG Free and for spyware I use Webroot Spysweeper, and Microsoft antispyware software. These seem to do the best for most of my customers. I dont recommend Norton antivirs software or it firewall software. I have seen too many problems running these software on home user machines.

[Richard1]

I use Nav 2004
SpyBot
AdAware
MS Beta

My network has been infected twice in three years once with a pinfi virus from an unprotected laptop and one time I don't even know what happened, I had to reimage the machine.

[Richard1]

Oh yes and my freind Scott just turned me on to Spysweeper. He swears by it but I haven't used it long enough to form an opinion.

[geoscomp]

Grammatical rant ! .. there's no such word, its VIRUSES .. however you are a vulcan so I'll let you off .. Live long & prosper ( & get some latin lessons !)

Didn't we have that conversation quite a while ago -ed?

Best anti spyware thingee is 'safe surfing' habits, & most anti-virus products are all a much of a muchness anyways once you unblur the distinctions between what is true viral activity & what is trojan, & folks who are a bit keen on dismissing prompts.

True enough, as long as you have a functional and updated antivirus and a fully patched OS..sophos did a test with an unpatched flat xp install and found a 50% chance of being infected with a worm within 15 minutes of just connecting to the internet..not surfing anywhere..
job security for me I guess.

Lately I've been doing the beta testing for the Symantec 2006 products, but on my own machines I use NOD32, Microsoft Antispyware, Spybot/teatimer/Adaware, the xp firewall and a hardware firewall as well as all the appropriate XP updates.

I'm going to give spyware doctor a try as well..good comments on it in this weeks newsletter from spyware info.com, as well as a ten buck discount.

[houseisland]

For my old PIII 800, I use CA's ETrust suite, not because I have supreme confidence in it but because it doesn't bog the system down the way Symantec and McAffee products do. Limited bloat.

For spyware prevention: Spybot and Spyware Blaster

For spyware removal: Adaware, Spybot, and Ewido.

For spyware detection and manual removal: Hijack This

Ewido is slow but very thorough, but if you install it with its realtime protection enabled it is a major resource hog.

[slgrieb]

Posting this at Mayet's request because I had expressed some concerns about Panda AntiVirus to her. About 3 years ago Panda was being pretty roughly handled in AV software tests, so Panda essentially stopped submitting test software to most labs. They would only consent to have their software tested if the tests were performed by Panda techs in Panda facilities. They would then report the results to the lab. right.

Virus Bulletin has not performed a test on Panda since 2002, http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archiv....xml?panda.xml

Neither has the University of Hamburg http://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vtc/naveng.htm

ICSA Labs still tests and has certified Panda, but I think their test criteria are the weakest of all major labs https://www.icsalabs.com/icsa/topic.php?tid=dfgdf$gdhkkjk-kkkk

Some years ago (3? 4? can't remember the exact time), Panda did a loud press release trumpeting the news that their AV software was the first product to detect a new virus (sorry, don't remember the name). Because the y withheld information on the virus for 24 hours from the AVPD Consortium, there was even some talk about expelling Panda from the group.

Interestingly, this virus was only detected on a single Spanish website which was taken down immediately after discovery. Panda is a Spanish company. What a co-incidence. Bottom line is this just isn't a product or company I'm willing to trust with my data or my customers data. ICSA certification or no.

Really, anybody who takes the AV issue seriously should take a look at the major labs test methods and results. The top performers in AV software are a small group, and there are pros and cons to each of those products that may influence your choices. I would just like to see folks stop reccomending products that perform poorly in test http://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vtc/naveng.htm

after test http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archiv...ts.xml?avg.xml

[medic13]

well I use ZoneAlarm security suite
SpyBot
AdAware
MS Beta

[Guts3d]

So far I am the only one who uses Norton Corporate, I guess... According to our MAJCOM, everyone working on military bases across the USA can legally use it on their home computers as long as they work for the Department of Defense. We can also use the full Norton suite of speed killers... I mean firewalls and etc. Spyware Blaster, Adaware, Micro$oft Anti-Spyware and Spybot round out my choices as well.

[ADS_Tech]

NOD32
MS Spyware
Adaware
Spybot 1.4
Firewall - I always try to get b/b customers behind a router with firewall, and then use the MS firewall. If not, its ZA.

I have completely gone off Norton. Its become a behemoth of a prog requiring too much user input. NOD is much easier for the average PC user to deal with.
The only thing with NOD is you have to set the scan/action variables right ready for the user, otherwise it then requires too much user input itself.

As Ive mentioned in another thread before, I always put a "Housekeeping" folder on the desktop of any PC we deal with here. It it are shortcuts to all the above tools, along with a .txt file on how to run them all once a week.

[deepblu]

Sygate Personal Firewall Pro
Panda Activescan
SpywareBlaster
Ad-Aware 6.0 Pro
Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3
WPA encrypted wireless router

[Potato Salad]

NAV 2005
Adware Pro
Panda Scan
Zone alarm
and ocasionaly trend micro housecall

[Potato Salad]

Well I have seen too many NAV machines that have been virused. I use AVG Free and for spyware I use Webroot Spysweeper, and Microsoft antispyware software. These seem to do the best for most of my customers. I dont recommend Norton antivirs software or it firewall software. I have seen too many problems running these software on home user machines.

Well most people think they jsut set automatic update and leave it alone and itl keep up to date but acutally you have to manualy update it once every 2 weeks or so.

[thaynejo]

Antivirus: Norton AV. I use both 2000 (I refuse to update it) and 2005 on different machines. The reason I use the older version on that machine is because the machine is a bit slower and runs on a dial-up ISP. The other machine is an Athlon 64 and runs mostly on a high-speed connection. I have not noticed a system slowdown due to either version. I have been running both on Windows XP, but have no complaints. The best part of the software is that it is reliably updated and does not run with too much overhead.

Spyware: AdAware from Lavasoft; Spybot Search & Destroy. Between the two when run alongside NAV, the only spyware I that will get through will come from disreputable sites. Both have regular updates to both the software and the definitions. Spybot also has a program called TeaTimer that can be run in the background and set to run at startup. It can get annoying when you are installing a new program, but it will ask you every time the registry is modified if you want the change to be allowed. The only problem I have found with Spybot is that when updates to the program are made, they do not let you know and the newer definitions do not work with the older versions. You then have to go to their website, download the newest version (I believe they are on 1.4 now), and then install it. It is a little bit of a pain, but well worth it in my honest opinion.

Avoid: MS Antispyware. It has a history of finding and blocking some legitimate programs (I have seen it block Firefox a couple of times). It also seems to run slow and take up more than its share of processing power. That is just my preference.

Avoid: McAfee VS. It has a HUGE overhead and will completely slow down your computer while it runs its autoscan and updates. Don't even try running it and trying to open help for the first time on Office 2000. It takes up to 10 minutes for help to open then.

Hope that helps.