Best Internet Security for E1505? I'm a PC newbie.

What's up NBR,
I purchased my E1505 through my university which added an additional discount on top of the $750 off special when I ordered. Anyways, I'm about to receive my E1505 tomorrow(as the tracking number says), and I ordered it without any internet security software installed or included because of what I've learned from here. I didn't get the 2-year trial software either(I forgot the name of it) and I'm debating which software to purchase. I've been reading that McAfee gives Dell laptops problems, and Avast has been working great for everybody...but haven't heard about Norton. What's the verdict on Norton? Any kind of input would greatly help. I know both Norton and McAfee will slow down my PC as well...I need any kind of input. It'll help me out in deciding a lot faster. Thanks in advance.

BTW, this is an awesome site and a vast amount of knowledgeable people on here.

 

Norton is great software(in my experience I run the corporate edition) catches anything remotely bad, only thing is that it slows down the comp slightly. I have never had an issue running games while running norton though...You may want to see if your university gives you and free software, i know mine gives access to McAfee. Just make sure that you keep your definitions up to date and don't visit those nasty sites

 

This is new, made by Microsoft directly and currently free even.

I've been playing with it on one of my systems for a couple weeks now and noticed no slow downs from having it running, unlike other Anti Virus and Protection Programs that bring even the best systems often to their knees...

Microsoft Windows Live OneCare

http://www.windowsonecare.com/

Here's a getting started guide...

http://www.windowsonecare.com/members/getstarted.aspx

So far so good with it.

It covers everything you need from automaticly running system clean up, defrag and system maintenance, pop up and spyware blocking, anti virus protection and Firewall Protection. You don't even need to know anything about computers to get it up and working. Nice thing about it coming from Microsoft, you know it's very Windows compatable and Friendly.

 

If your ISP is Comcast, you get McAffee Security Suite for as long as you are a subscriber to their Cable Internet access. I know people who had software conflicts with the preinstalled trialware of McAffee. I am using the full security suite and have had no issues. No antivirus software ever captured everything (some Norton catches and some Mcaffee catches). The key is to avoid downloading software and avoiding unsavory websites (warez,porn,gambling).

 

i personally have ditched my dell bundled and gone with

AVG free edition anti virus (runs very clean and very small)
Zone Alarm firewall
Ad-Aware (weekly)
Spybot S&D (weekly)
Spyware Blaster
CCleaner (for registry entries daily)
Firefox with NoScript for Active X Controls
(my friend uses avast and he has no problems with it)

In my personal experience, McAffee, Norton, and now Trend Micro PCillian are great, they just take up too much of my background resources on my slower computers and what I use gets the job done for free

 

Hi dave_b,

Don't know your level of newbie-ness, but I thought I'd throw a few things out. Let me know if I'm going too fast for you.

You mentioned Avast. If you don't want to pay any more for software (I remember those university days...) you may want to give it a try. In fact, both Avast and AVG have a free home edition (non-commercial -- I'm assuming a university student's personal notebook would be okay). I have used both and they work fine.

Another "internet safety tip" would be to install and use FireFox as your browser. According to experts, it is much more secure than using Internet Explorer.

And to echo the advice above, avoid "unsavory" and "nasty" sites.

Good luck and enjoy your 1505!

--Dan

 

Come on you all, some of those "unsavory" and "nasty" sites are my favorite places to hang out at!

 

Here is my reccomendation. First, get Firefox. This will solve 90% of security problems. Also, use Thunderbird (same company as Firefox), not outlook express. Go and get yourself a router, even if you only have one computer. Routers have a hardware firewall. Since it doesn't reside on your computer it doesn't affect your system. I like NOD 32 for anti-virus, very light weight, and it's only $30 per year. Don't get a free AV they usually aren't the best, and $30 isn't that much.

I would never install Norton, McAfee, Zone-Alarm, etc. These are all bloatware that unneccesarily slow your computer down. Also, most malware is aware of these and has the ability to circumvent them.

Perhaps the most important thing is behavior. Don't download attatchments, stay away from sketchy sites, and don't click "ok" to every option you get.

**EDIT** I also forgot that Norton and Zone-Alarm are notorious for causing compatability issues. Seriously just stay away. A router is a one-time cost, that if you have wireless you will want anyway, and there are alot of AV like NOD 32 that are half the price of Norton.

 

might be a personal opinion, but i think norton and mcaffe SUCK
trnd is supposed to be quite good, although i personally just use an AV (Karpersky on desktop, and NOD32 on laptop)
they're both really good

 

AVG is a decent program considering it is free but it is far from the best. Mcafee is among the best its what I use and recommend, get the security suite and your covered. However make sure to add some things to that as well:firefox, adaware,spybot etc.

In my experience norton does not perform as well as mcafee it finds fewer things, removes fewer things provides less info and is slower at scanning. Mcafee can be more expensive especially their phone support but it is worth it. (I use chat online)

 

Its funny how different peoples experience give them different views of a product... Ive had Mcafee literally eat a machine of mine once forcing an OS reinstall to get things running again... as a result I view it as no better than a Virus and its the first thing I remove from any machine I see with it.

Ive used norton in the past... and had no problems with it... but on my latest machine im trying out avast! and so far I dont think ill be going back to any of the commercial bloatware offerings.

 

I chose not to use mcafee and norton... have used them both recently and both seriously slow down your machine specially at shutdown time... so i got the Pc CHILLIN thingy, never used it before but i needed to get my price up to use my coupon so i thought i would try it... good so far... ....

 

yes either use a router or another workstation or what have you to run the firewall on.

 

Thanks everyone for their input. I haven't been home yet to crack open my new E1505, but I think I know now what I'm going to start off with. I'm going to go with the consensus and install the following: Firefox, Adaware, Spybot S&D, and Avast. Is that all I need?? What other components are there that I need to protect my E1505 from?? Because I saw one or two of you who listed additional internet security programs. What do those do?? All along I knew only to stop pop-ups and viruses...but now, correct me if I'm wrong, there's also hardware to block in addition to protecting the firewall?? I may sound dumb for asking this, but what exactly are you stopping from coming in through the firewall?? Sorry for all the questions, I'm a newbie as mentioned. In case I'm not happy with Avast and the others, I'll probably pay up and buy McAfee Security Suite. I think the free route is what I should experiment with first, and if I'm not satisfied, then I'll just try the other route and pay for security. What do you all think??

 

I'm also planning on getting on getting a laptop and after reading this thread I'm not sure whether I should get Norton(which is what we have on our old desktop and works fine) or try some other free antivirus software. is there a site that compares the benefits and drawbacks of some of the better free antivirus programs. It seems like they each cover slighly different areas(adaware deals mainly with ads spybot deals more with spyware etc...) Would installing a couple of those slow my system down as much as having Norton and Spysweeper on my machine.

 

I have been a ZoneAlarm user since its inception, never had anything get through it. I currently use ZoneAlarm Security Suite, which will cover all your bases. I don't find that it slows the system down (like someone mentioned previously). If you are willing to pay for protection, ZA is definetely the route to go IMO. If you want freebie protection, ZoneAlarm Firewall and AVG Free AV is a great solution.

Norton and McAfee are junk that WILL slow your computer down. It is kind of sad, I remember when these two products were the cream of the crop...Now, they are crammed full of garbage that nobody will ever use.

Also, if PC-cillin came with your computer, it is also a pretty decent suite.

 

I tried Antivir just a couple days ago and HATED it. I have no idea why but it was casuing every single application/process that was running to crassh or freeze in addition to slowing the machine down to the point where it was almost inopperalbe. I managed to disable the process it was running which goy my pc back to a functional state so I could uninstall it.

I've been doing some ressearch just now on the best free antiviru/anti spyware software. I've come to the conclusion that Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D are the best out there right now. What are your impressions of either of them compared to other free spyware protection?

Based on your experiences which antivrus is better? Avast or AVG(can they both be installed on the system? are they fairly compatable with each other like Ad-Aware and Spybot?) All the sites say these 2 are the best(plus antivir but as you can tell my initial impressions of that program aren't great) but neither comes out as a clear winner.

I would greatly appreciate as much feedback as possible.

 

You get what you pay for. A free anti-virus will not be as good as a paid verson. Having said that, Avast or AVG would both be fine. 95% of computer security is behavioral. If you use some common sense and are a little skeptical you won't get infected.

Do not install 2 anti-viruses btw. They will conflict. If you want to be thourough install one on your system and then periodically use a web based scanner like trend micro's housecall. HTH

 

For virus protection I use the free version of AntiVir 7 http://www.free-av.com/ in preference to free Avast http://www.avast.com/ and free AVG http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1 (I have used both), and have had no problems. Much prefer it to Norton Antivirus http://www.symantec.com/index.htm, which I have also used. Antivir updates itself once a day, in the background.

For spyware protection I use Spywareblaster 3.5.2 http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html and Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/. They complement each other: Spywareblaster sets up ongoing protection for IE and Firefox, and is updated once a month. Adaware is updated and run manually once a week.

For a firewall I use the free version of Zonealarm http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp, plus a firewall in the router.

For the web I use Firefox 1.5.0.3 http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ 95% of the time, but IE6 when necessary, and Opera 9 beta http://www.opera.com/ and Mozilla 1.7.13 http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/ sometimes. I use Spoofstick http://www.spoofstick.com/ to make IE6 a little safer by checking the authenticity of the web site (a feature built-in to the new IE7, out at present only in beta). For e-mail I use Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/. Thunderbird has a very good spam-killer built-in.

I have print and file sharing for all networks connections turned off.

I check my on-line security through the ShieldsUp site https://www.grc.com/.

 

So I shouldn't have more than 1 antivirus program? But I can have a couple adware/spyware programs. Will having 2 or three free apps slow my system down as much as having a security suite?

 

See above... Just GOOGLE "firefox secure" or "firefox more secure" and start working through the results!?

In the end it's your choice... but read what's out there before you you make a descision on someone else's word... or alternate and use both! I think people having 2 or more browsers is fast going to become the trend!!

 

I use Zone Alarm’s security suite with Spy Sweeper to back it up. (Initially Zone Alarm didn’t come with anti spy ware.)
I’ve tried Norton and believe me, it doesn’t do half as good a job as Zone Alarm.
I’d be curious to see if anyone uses an ‘anonymiser’ i.e. software that routes web surfing through an anonymous server to conceal the i.d. of your computer?

 

While you are correct that all software has bugs and vulnerabilities you miss a key component here. Firefox patches its holes quickly. Usually with in a few days of discovery. Microsoft only patches the first Tuesday of the month. In fact, there is a least one major vulnerability that Microsoft has known about for some time, but has not patched. See the difference?

As for Active X, I have no clue what you are talking about. Firefox does not have ActiveX. That is what makes it more secure. The problem with IE6 is Active X and Active Scripting. In fact, I believe if you were to use Firefox, you wouldn't need all that other security software you got. I run NO anti-virus and NO anti-spyware on my system. I also have ZERO infections in as long as I can remember. A hardware firewall(router), good browser, and good behavior is all you need.

 

I have tried a number of free web-proxy software options...Honestly, I have found none of them to work very well (Tor, WebPrivoxy, and ProxyWay). Granted, I probably really didn't give them a chance. I was mainly looking for something to cure boredom on a Sunday afternoon, lol.

Two problems arose: 1. Setup. Even for someone with a pretty decent knowledge, the setup of these programs was confusing to say the least. 2. Reliability and speed. The number of times the connection would drop was terrible and trying to find a reliable, *updated* public proxy list was not worth the effort. If you have a fast connection, you would be sacrificing your speed for 'security.' I have a 11MB/s cable connection that was thrown back to 512k DSL speed on the best connection (56k most of the time).

Just like anything else (for the most part), you will probably have to pay to get a decent proxy software. A friend of mine uses SecureTunnel and loves it. So, if your serious about it, that might be a good place to start looking.

 

ActiveX is supported in Firefox through a plug-in (stable with release 1.5). I The only difference, I believe, with ActiveX in Firefox is you cannot push an EXE which they have maintained for "security"!

http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/plugin.htm

ActiveX and Scripting in IE is both a curse and a blessing at the same time! That being said, it can all be completely disabled!

 

"ActiveX support is a double edged sword because any mechanism that launches executable code can be abused, but I do think the dangers have been grossly exaggerated since the modern version of IE that comes with Windows XP SP2 is sufficiently locked down by default. Any ActiveX code that has or hasn't been digitally signed will be blocked by default and you really do have to go out of your way to infect yourself with something nasty. Firefox's method for securing ActiveX is to simply not support it, but that's kind of like securing your Internet connection with a sharp pair of scissors instead of using a Firewall."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=22

 

I'll reiterate my question; Will having 3 free security apps(1antivirus 2spyware/adware) slow my system down as much as having a security suite like Norton?

 

3 free security apps(1antivirus 2spyware/adware) will not slow your system down as much as having a security suite like Norton

 

And should I use avast or AVG? Will 3 security apps plus firefox and my own common sense be enough protection for my laptop?

(sorry for all the questions, I just have a lot of things I'd like to know.)

 

I've fixed alot of computers for alot of people and have seen first hand, and used probably every single thing avaialble out there now and in the past and the new Microsoft Security Suite is the only one I've found that you do not notice it running in the background AT ALL. This coupled with a decent hardware firewall (if you want even more piece of mind) is more than enough for your needs.

All the other stuff mentioned here I've seen and/or used first hand and all of it is either mildly to extremely buggy or just about dogs your system resources down to a halt while it's running. Some of it could also be a nightmare for a newbie to get properly installed and correctly configured. I typically don't use anything myself other than my hardware firewall

(I've been very happy with the Proventia Integrated Security Appliance)

http://www.iss.net/

http://documents.iss.net/literature/proventia/ISS_ProventiaM_PCPRO_Review.pdf




and the proper configuration of my system and software settings I use, as well as several years of experience and I've never had a problem. The only reason I tried the Windows Live OneCare was to just check it out. Since I don't even notice it being there and running I've left it. It's performed perfectly for me on any virus and security checks I've thrown at after tossing it out in my DMZ while trying to see if I could easily break it and it performed perfectly.

http://www.windowsonecare.com/members/getstarted.aspx

 

Thanks guys for the info. I have just installed Firefox, Avast Home Edition, Ad-Aware SE Personal, and Spybot S&D 1.4. I have a quick question though: after Firefox was installed, I installed the other three programs in the order mentioned; but instead of Firefox just 'running' the .exe file for each program, it only gives you the option to save the .exe files to disk (which ends up saving to the desktop). All of the other programs installed without problems, so finally, here's my question: is it important to keep each .exe file? Because from my experience in IE, I simply ran a .exe file instead of saving it. Should I just delete all three from my desktop?? Thanks in advance.

 

If the program you want is already installed, you can safely delete the downloaded .exe file. It serves no purpose saving those unless it's software you bought and paid for online, in which case you might want to save it to a special directory (folder) on your drive dedicated to saving these types of file with a notepad note reminding you all the details of it in that same folder for future reference and then maybe burn to a CD. That way, should you ever loose all your data, you won't have to rebuy the same software downloaded again.

 

Internet security for me

Antivirus- if u want free- Avast is best, install and forget- but if u don,t mind to play a bit with it, then go for Antivir
Paid-- brst are Kaspersky and NOD32

Antispyware- Free-- On demand scan-- Spybot and adaware
R eal time scanning-- no one good but if u want to try u can use windows defender beta 2 but it might cause some problems for some people, to me it was ok although I am now using MS antispyware beta 2 but again it too causes problems for some but not with me- however i am not using it in real time as I have other means to secure my system.
Paid-- the only best is Spysweeper but if u like to play around with it then OnlineArmor is very good.

Firewall-- Router is good choice and in software firewall Kerios is best if u want free, it has both advanced and beginner modes( but don,t use its latest version as it has many BSOD issues that i experienced personally. Get version
if u want Paid- LooknStop is good.
And the most important thing is Safe Surfing, i will cal it a cornerstone of security.

Browsers- Opera and Firefox both are good enough.

For relatively safe surfing, two good things that u can install on Firefox are SiteAdvisor toolbar(that tells u about the risky sites) and SpoofStick( antiphishing)- both are free.

If ever u are going to use IE( I will not recommend) u can install SiteAdvisor toolbar are SiteHound Toolbar free version by FireTrust.

It might look a lot of things but for good security u need layered defence and u need time to build this defence.

BTW some body mentioned ZoneAlarm Internet Security, that is a good all in one choine if somebody is ready to pay and don,t want to play around with so many separate programmes.

At the end i will say if u decide to buy a commercial product, don,t forget first to run its trial on ur system, if u are satisfied with the trial only then u should go for purchase unless money is not a matter for u.

Another interesting thing is instant recovery of OS and for that I use RollBackRx- only paid programme on my system- really great!
Your best place for internet security is wilderssecurity.com.

 

Just make sure you're not deleting the exe file that runs the software, since most apps create a desktop shortcut for the exe file durring installation.

Is the Windows defender program different than the MS antispyware program? I've heard of both and I'm confused as to what the difference is between each one.

 

Windows Defender is the new name for Windows AntiSpyware (AntiSpyware was Beta 1, Defender is Beta 2)... FYI, there are 2 versions of Defender floating around (both Beta 2) the newer one is called Windows Defender (Beta 2) Refresh! (I believe it is build 1347.)

 

Personally, after a lot of trial by error & frustration, I've found that the combination of:

Avast (anti-virus)
Keiro (firewall)
router (hardware firewall)
Ad-Aware (anti-spyware)
FireFox w/ the NoScript & AdBlock Plus extensions (browser)
Thunderbird (mail)
&
WinASO (registry cleaner...paid, but works great)

works great for me. If you're interested in a pretty straight forward review of good free utilities, check out:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

The guy that runs the site give a great run down of the pros & cons of each program.

I tried both the free & paid versions of Zone Alarm, but man...what a pain that was to deal with. And Norton? Used to be kinda handy, but wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole now.