Spyware, viruses, & security forum: To bundle or not? How to choose new products.

<i>"Dell recommends to bundle and get firewall, antivirus, antispy, etc. all from one package."</i>
That's not what I see recommended.
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=si_virus

No company is the best at everything. If you choose not to install "suites" you can select the best of what works well for your system and situation.

Zone Alarm provides the free Firewall - AVG Free Edition is a free antivirus program and it works very well. By using those two alone, I have never had an infection. I also run Ad-Aware SE by Lavasoft occasionally, just in case, just to make sure. It is also free. In my opinion, based on my experience, you shouldn't need anything else.

apatee99

Yes, I too was hoping for some answers from the CNET forum and the best info I received was to go to the dellcommunity forum. Apparently my choice of ZoneAlarm was poor. You will see if you go to the thread listed below. I haven't yet found a working solution. I did an OS re-install and my computer is still slow. I installed the AVG suite and was, well sort of lambasted by the dellforum and will uninstall next. It's feeling like a saga. Maybe someone on this forum will also have suggestions.


http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_virus&thread.id=64461

I have been using the Zonealarm free for over 4 years now.I have had my system checked to see if this provides a secure firewall. The answer is yes it does. I also have used Norton anti virus without any problem or attack. While a friend of mine used McAfee and had a lot of problems. I am very satisfied with the two products I am using. I have two computers running XP on a home network and a laptop running Vista I use on the road, which I have the same protection on. I do use the laptop on the network at times with no problem also. I hope this helps you, good luck Biii5w@yahoo.com

i am a novice. please define:
honey pot and IDS
DMZ
wifi g

btw-the guys at the dell site are totally against using more than one AV package (but rec use of more than one spywear program) and also totally against using all-in-one suites. Today i uninstalled PCcillin as I was running the AVG suite. Next I am going to pack up and return the McAfee suite to Dell. (My DSL provides it for free but I see it has awful reviews on both sites.) I got ZoneAlarm as it had good reviews on CNET but found it had terrible reviews elsewhere.

perhaps security really is an area open to interperatation; the Dell tech advisors said these products change in their value from year to year--like Spybot was terrific last year and now a poor choice. or SpySweeper was good last year and now also not a good choice.

my head is spinning. it feels like this security issue demands way too much time and attention. Any input greatly valued.

OK I missed replying to this and so many people seem to need more info. I tend to think everyone knows what i do and so I use jargon way to much in places where I shouldn't. Hazard of the business I guess.
I also agree that people don't want to know all of this stuff and would rather just use their computers. We in the industry tend to forget this.
Honey pot is just what it sounds like but a computer version. If you put out a pot of honey things get stuck in it. Wel lit's a computer setup to catch viruses and worms and malware spo that they can be studied. Most people don't need one.
IDS, intrusion detection system. A way to detect if you have an intruder (Not a virus checker, for cracks and stuff. Again for people who have a bunch of computers to keep secure not for most people.
DMZ Demilkiterized zone. A [place to put your servers so they can be seen from the internet bit still has a firewall around it but is not inside your cororate lan. If you have have your own web server you should have a DMZ. My wireless lan at home allows for this in a router that a lot of people own for home use.
wifi g ((and now n) is fast wireless networking.

By the way these are all in wikipedia, you can look them up.
Now for the use of more then 1 AV product. I always use 2 but only one for on-access scanning. I thoiught that was a given, sorry I didn't say it directly. Why two because I don't trust any of them to catch everything. Use your favorite for on acccess scanning and for scheduled scanning but run the other once a week or so to cover just in case. If you don't want to install two use one installed and then usae say Housecall from the web. (Housecall is an AV that is run from a web page at TrendMicro I believe.)
Yes security is complicated and with developments in virus tools (as opposed to anivirus tool) to the point where viruses are likely to start having the ability to not be caught by AVs that use signatures you really have to keep up with things.
Most people want to just use their computers. They don't want to worry about security.
I think we have proven that OS developers also don't want to worry about securty.
People in the industry seem to want to blame either the OS developers and the OS developers want to blame the users.
Both are wrong. The people to blame are the malware and virus writers and the people who support them either by selling them the tools or paying them to use those tools for attacks. (Think SPAM.)
We in the industry and our users seem to have decided that the only thing we can do is apply technology (AV) to stop the problem. We blame Microsoft for making buggy software and users for not patching their systems when I am starting to think we are not doing enough to actually stop people from making it or vigously tracking them down and stopping them.
Why should we force users to continually do things they don't want to do in order for them to send email (or whatever)
I know lots of people not running Windows that do not use anivirus apps. But most people use Windows and whay can we not let Windows users not worry about virii? We have tried making AV products and while they work people don't want to worry about them. And we have had numerous Windows versions that even though MS has tried to make them secure against virii well virus writers get to then pick it apart and they always will, if we let them. Yes MS puts out a lot of patches but they cost money and if MS didn't have to produce them it would probably be cheaper.
So what is the one thing we have not done? Stopped the virus writers from writing them. I am afraid that is a task that we habe not figured out yet but stay tuned.
For now, patch your systems, use the best AV you can get and use a second one in a while to be sure you are OK. Use spyware detectors, watch for phishing schemes. And keep your eyes on this space and others to keep up to date because for now there are still people out there who want to steal from you.

Sysopdr, you're obviously highly learned, but your advice is useless when you're talking over everyone's head. You walked into the middle of a thread started by and contributed to by newbs, but you're talking about honey pots and DMZ's and firewalled subnets(?) Why not throw in some string theory in your next post and maybe some Ph.D level macroeconomics?

But that's OK because people aren't likely to try any of that if they don't understand it; However they *do* understand your statement about using two AV's and that could very well get them in trouble if they follow your example. What I'm saying is that's bad advice to give to novices without differentiating between real-time and on-demand scanning.

So for anyone who read sysopdr's comment about using two AV's, you can do that if only one of them is set for real-time system monitoring and the other(s) is configured for on-demand scanning only. Two AV's trying to run real-time protection are quite likely to conflict with each other and slow your system down significantly.

Thank you Stillman for answering our questions instead of going on and on about having or not having 2 AVGs! So you advise not having a suite of protection, but installing one good one for each? Is Comodo, Spysweeper and WPA security free? Where do you find Comodo (never heard of this one?)and also WPA (what exactly is it?) I had to use wireless since I don't have a phone jack in my room, so I have never felt secure not knowing if my computer was protected? Can you help me with figuring out why my computer/internet is so slow? Tell me what to do please!!! Hope to hear from you.
Thanks,

So go ahead and run two full-time antivirus at the same time. Sorry I brought it up. Run two firewalls too.

Apatee99 I accept your apology and offer one back to you. I just thought it was strange that people didn't know what sysopdr was talking about, but no one called him on the two AV's which, although *you* know better, some may not.

This is my free security buffet by the way:

I use Comodo's Firewall Pro v2.4, Avast 4.7 antivirus, Comodo BOClean antimalware (for real-time shield), Spyware Blaster and Spybot S&D (for immunization).
My primary Browser is Firefox, I use McAfee's Site Advisor to keep an eye on the safety of the sites I visit, and I do any 'strange' surfing using Sandboxie.
Not to mention that my Micro$oft patches are always up to date.

I keep Superantispyware and A-Squared Free on board just to run the occasional on-demand scan.

I would *not* recommend (free version) Ad-Aware 2007 at this time because it is a resource hog for an on-demand; its aawservice.exe used 24,000K *just to sit there*, and if you turn the service off, it won't update.
* If you want to use Ad-Aware, the older free version, Ad-Aware SE still updates and is still available at snapfiles(dot)com.

And even though I use Spybot, I would *not* recommend it at the moment because this version is buggy. There is a beta patch (SpyBot-Search & Destroy 1.5.1.18 Beta 2; available at majorgeeks.com) which fixes that long start-up and the immunization issues, but I wouldn't advise a new-comer to use a beta anything(*). When you see a Spybot version higher than v 1.5.1.15 and is a final release, not a beta, then it is ready.

Likewise,if you are considering the Comodo firewall, I suggest that you hold off for a few days, because the new version 3.0 is literally just hours away and it promises to be an improvement over the already excellent Comodo Firewall Pro v2.4; but why subject yourself to the (rather steep) Comodo learning curve twice?

(*) Notice the disclaimer.

And again, I apologize for my smart-ass previous post.

"many downloaded programs (especially if free)"
Do actually come with spyware/adware?
Sounds like you're talking about rogue cleaners (see here) http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm, not respectable offerings.
There are plenty of good freeware security applications, that have no spyware/adware. And do a good job. Not knocking Nod or Spysweeper at all; they usually get very good reviews, just that there are alternatives. It's up to each user to determine what runs best on their system.

I'll answer the last part of the q first. The XP version you run is currently the latest. I think in referring to version 6 or 7 it was regarding the Internet Explorer version, which is the browser built into windows. So Windows XP Pro 5.1.260 is your OS. (It will also say, I hope, "SP2", for service pack 2.) The OS runs all your programs; browser, email, photo, sound, office, security, etc. The browser is one of the means of using the internet. Firefox, for example, is a third party browser that can be installed, and works with windows. So no, you don't need to upgrade to another version of Windows. The next upgrade available is currently a different OS; Vista. ($$). SP3 for XP is in the works, for release next year, I think. (Should be free or token $.)
There are two basic ways to find your firewall: Click on "start" mouse over "all programs" and a fairly large list should open. Locate an entry for "Comodo", mouse over it, and a sub-list (or two) will open. Find the one that says "Comodo firewall pro" and click (or double click) on it. The firewall GUI (graphic user interface) will open. It will inform you that the protection is "on" or set to "custom" or something like that, and allow a huge number of options, which I suggest you leave alone. Default settings are fine. One option I do suggest you take, though, is to find (probably in the miscellaneous section) and tick the box that says "show icon in system tray" (or similar). The system tray is the area to the bottom right of your screen, if you have a lower taskbar, and it shows running applications you've elected to display, such as AV, clock, internet connection, etc. The Comodo icon is a blue and yellow shield, assuming it's version 2.4. (all software has a confusing sounding version number.)If it's version 3, the shield is white. If there is an icon there, right click on it, click on "open"; that is the second way. (And the reason I like to have stuff displayed there.It's quicker, and you see what the status is at a glance.) Hope that helps.

is also the one I am now using. Some users have reported bugs; I have none, and I love it!

The "miscellaneous" section is got to by right clicking on the tray icon, select open, and in the GUI near the top right, clicking on the obvious box. The help file is available from here (and from many other areas within the firewall, specific help available for whatever firewall component you are "in" at the time. They are excellent.

44 applications active and running is a few more than I have (35) but not at all unusual. The ways to reduce this include disabling services at startup, or setting them to manual. Some of the services active by default in Windows are not necessary for a lot of users. And some of them are absolutely vital, not to be touched. There is an excellent tutorial/guide here:http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/supertweaks.htm
There is a huge amount of easy to follow info in this entire site. I suggest reading everything pertinent before you start actually doing stuff.

How many icons is "too many"? Are they all in the system tray, or do you include the "quick launch" applications that are sometimes present? (beside the start button) How you configure any of these to display is down to user preference. If you have icons representing programs you would rather not be running, then depending on the application, they can be disabled from starting.
Can you list all the names of these icons, please.

Browser=mouse. Good one. But if you aren't joking, a browser is a program like IE7/Firefox/Opera/(not Oprah)/IE6 etc.

You're welcome for the help, it's no problem, I like things to run properly.
BTW what time zone do you live in/are you posting from?