forum.datacad.com

I need a good internet security system with bells & whistles for my new computer.

low to mid range in price, cause i'm po'.

any help would be helpful.

www.avast.com

It's free.
It updates often.
It's free.
Super easy to use.
Did I mention IT'S FREE!?!



-Redd

Greetings,

Security on the Internet, huh? It is a relative term, really.

I would say that at a minimum you would need three types of programs, for a minimal level of security:

Firewall: Sygate which is (was?) free, but has been purchased by Symantec. Look for links the the latest version, 5.6, that are still available.

AntiVirus: I have used AVG, which has a free version, but lately, I have been buying NOD 32, which is just $39. According to Fred Langa, NOD32 is the best antivirus program. http://www.eset.com/products/nt.htm

MailWasher previews your email and allows you to delete and/or bounce any junk email before you download anything.

Always run Windows with a user that is not Administrator, and I would highly recommend a hardware firewall/router, too. Here's a site that might have some other helpful hints: http://www.firewallguide.com/, and I would also highly recommend that you read this: http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm and then, check out the rest of that site: http://www.grc.com/default.htm.

Greetings,

I just changed my antivirus program on my home computer from AVG Free version to NOD32, because the AVG was taking longer and longer to do it's daily scan. It was updating itself every day.

But after I installed NOD32 (which comes highly recommended by Fred Langa), and ran it's "in depth" scan -- it found about 15 virii on my system! Yikes.

I have been running NOD32 for several months now at work, and if you are using an older version of Norton or McAfee and/or you don't like their bloated nature, you can download a trial version of NOD32 from Eset:

http://www.eset.com/download/trial.htm

Or, if you want to purchase it for $39, go here:

http://www.eset.com/download/download.htm

It has two versions; one that runs on Win95/98/ME, and one that runs in WinNT/2K/XP/XP 64.

I also have switched from Sygate (free) firewall program, to Sunbelt's Kerio program. It too has a small "footprint" in your computer, and it's default mode is great: it has no popup queries! It also has a mode for a little higher security that does have you answer the popup dialogs. There is a trail version available; a 30-day evaluation:

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm

Kerio is just $15 (until the end of March) and annual updates are $10, and there is a (small) savings if you buy multiple licenses:

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio-Buy.cfm

The only version of Windows that Kerio won't work in is WinXP Pro 64...

A bit late on this reply but after a recent meltdown on my PC I installed McAfee Internet Security Suite & found it brilliant. Constant automatic updates, and alerts help to minimise the need to check for updates each day & so far no problems with it. Great package for around $80 US
Mike

I was a big McAfee proponent from ver. 3-about 6. Versions 7-9? left me feeling like I shoved 20 Big Mac's into my floppy drive. So slow and poorly pieced together software. I used AVG like Neil mentioned, and came across the same thing where it was missing viruses. When I got our broadband setup at our new house, McAfee's Security Service was a free service. I figured I'd give them another try, it's free right. Boy I'm glad I did. Their new package runs really smooth. The firewall is quick and responsive, easy enough for the noobs to understand when it pops up a message about new apps running. They have really pulled the bloat out of this package and returned to the "faster-than-norton" comapany I turned to so long ago. I'm very happy with the package now. It comes with their Virusscan, Firewall and AntiAbuse (which honestly I have not installed). Check them out for an option. Cool thing about this package is I can install it on multiple systems at home. Thanks Comcast!

Greetings,

I found a stand-alone hardware firewall that works inline, in tandem with the firewall in my network switch: it's called Alpha Shield from a company (in Canada) called Saafnet. Best Buy has 'em for $10 after a $45 mail-in rebate (or at least my local store does). It is meant for use on a laptop when you plug into a network, but it works for my purposes, too.

(click on image to link to the company's web page)

It can "physically" disconnect your modem after 15 minutes of inactivity, and they claim to hide your ports, too. So, anybody who uses their laptop on somebody else's network can use this device to protect their machine; or I'm using it to add another obstacle to protect my network from hackers/worms on the Internet. The blue button (on the left portion of the "S") connects you to the Internet/network, and gray button (to the right portion of the "S") disconnects you from the Internet/network.

Greetings,

I just found out that there is a new beta of the (same?) Microsoft security/anti-spyware program available, and apparently it is pretty good. It probably can't hurt!

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

I discovered something this weekend about Windows; much to my relief:

Windows 2K/XP creates a folder C:\Program Files\microsoft frontpage that contains subfolders version3.0\bin -- that is totally normal! I was quite worried that this was a Trojan/worm of some sort, but in fact it is related to Internet Explorer and it's ability to use Front Page extensions on web pages (and it is not the Front Page program). If you delete them, as I did -- they come back, and this got me worried; but actually, they are normal and so you can leave them...

Whew!