Advice on Computer Security

H

Hulk

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
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I installed Windows 7 which came with Norton Security, a message just popped up saying that the free trial is about to expire and they want to charge me $30 a year for it (or 2 years for $75, which doesn't make sense to me because usually when you order something for more than one year you get a discount, the 2 year should be $50). Should I renew it? I know Norton got a bad rap about 7 years ago. Is there a better alternative? What are you guys using for your internet security for your home computers?
 
Norton is still horrible. The choices lately seem to be Kaspersky (if you're fine knowing the Ruskies have it backdoored) and Sophos. I'm wondering what happened to NOD32 as it used to be the top choice.
 
shade91 said:
Norton is still horrible. The choices lately seem to be Kaspersky (if you're fine knowing the Ruskies have it backdoored) and Sophos. I'm wondering what happened to NOD32 as it used to be the top choice.
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I still use ESET / NOD32...seems to work great for us and find a lot that the other scanners didn't
 
I wouldn't pay that much for it.

I use Avast and works perfectly fine for me. And it's free.
 
Ok I think I'll get Avast unless I hear some other options.
 
Cmustang87 said:
I wouldn't pay that much for it.

I use Avast and works perfectly fine for me. And it's free.
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Another vote for Avast. I have it on my desktop PC which gets alot of use downloading, searching for videos, music, etc and have never had any issues.

As a side note I use Microsoft Security Essentials on my laptop, but it only gets used for light internet browsing / streaming music and I dont have anything of importance saved on it. So in the back of my head I know that I can reimage it if necessary.
 
Don't bother with avast or MSE just go buy malwarebytes.

Virus scanners are worthless crap because most things that infect you are malware or spyware. Viruses are a thing of the past almost, while there are some that are still around fat chance you are going to run in to one.

Only buy a virus scanner if its for business.............! And if it is for business and someone else owns the business make them pay for it!
 
Tee said:
Virus scanners are worthless crap because most things that infect you are malware or spyware. Viruses are a thing of the past almost, while there are some that are still around fat chance you are going to run in to one.
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I'm sorry, but this is just terrible advice.
 
Kaspersky or Eset, and Norton is actually not crap these days. The guy who said it was crap 7 years ago was right about that, but he's laughably wrong now. Norton is fairly good these days. McAfee is still garbage.

For free stuff, Avira, Avira, or Avira.

AVG and Avast are both worse than Norton (and Avira).
 
Cmustang87 said:
I'm sorry, but this is just terrible advice.
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Oh, why is that?

You realize that 99% of the garbage a person gets from the internet is because they click on bad things because they don't know any better.

Funny how that works..........................

Virus scanners do not do crap, other then stop some really old viruses, and I am pretty sure there was an article on [H]ardocp about it not to long ago from one of Symantec's VP's.

Most crapware is smart enough to change it's own signature, virus scanners work off the simple fact that they have a signature in a database and if they see something the same or similar they tag it and say "hey, what would you like to do?". I know this is a really technical thing!!!

So once again I think its a waste of money.

Do I think its dumb someone uses one if they want, no. I am simply stating it really doesn't do much of anything. And the real reason businesses even need them is because of audits, regulations, and compliance's.
 
Tee said:
Oh, why is that?

You realize that 99% of the garbage a person gets from the internet is because they click on bad things because they don't know any better.

Funny how that works..........................

Virus scanners do not do crap, other then stop some really old viruses, and I am pretty sure there was an article on [H]ardocp about it not to long ago from one of Symantec's VP's.

Most crapware is smart enough to change it's own signature, virus scanners work off the simple fact that they have a signature in a database and if they see something the same or similar they tag it and say "hey, what would you like to do?". I know this is a really technical thing!!!

So once again I think its a waste of money.

Do I think its dumb someone uses one if they want, no. I am simply stating it really doesn't do much of anything. And the real reason businesses even need them is because of audits, regulations, and compliance's.
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IMHO that is horrible advice!
Does AV catch everything? No of course not how can it. It is a good thing to catch what you can though.
Avast is free, how is that a waste of money?
 
I'm gonna jump on the "horrible advice from Tee" wagon as well.

I've used avast free and was happy with it. It blocked a number of shady websites(sites I knew were shady before clicking the search result link) and a number of back-end action/downloads. It also had patch management which was pretty cool. I however lately grew annoyed with the alerts for additional software and pc optimizers that they try and get you to trial/buy. I'm giving bitdefender free a run now. I have also heard nice things about Avira.
 
ChedWick said:
I've used avast free and was happy with it. It blocked a number of shady websites(sites I knew were shady before clicking the search result link) and a number of back-end action/downloads. It also had patch management which was pretty cool. I however lately grew annoyed with the alerts for additional software and pc optimizers that they try and get you to trial/buy. I'm giving bitdefender free a run now. I have also heard nice things about Avira.
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You'll find this out shortly if you haven't yet, but BitDefender free is terrible about popups - worst I've used yet - worse than old Avira versions that had one popup a day in the big window through avnotify.exe. BitDefender was popping up multiple times per HOUR and had no configuration screen. Though most of it popping up was to show me the system status, not advertise - so it might have been a bug - but it was unacceptable either way.

Avira is less bad.

I might just buy Kaspersky Internet Security on one of the free after rebate deals, myself...
 
ChedWick said:
I'm giving bitdefender free a run now. I have also heard nice things about Avira.
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Warning about BitDefender like above poster stated. Popups are pretty bad with this and the last I used it, it's super embedded and really in your face. I didn't like it, and it was such a task to get it fully removed off my system.
 
Just for the simple fact that people would like to chime in on my advice, what makes you think your antivirus is doing anything for you? Do you actually know that it's caught all the really super bad stuff and not just the easy stuff? Maybe you have some really bad things on your computer and don't even know it because you rely on software that doesn't find them. I do not see how its good advice on your part to tell someone to use an AV product by simply installing it and hoping for the best.

In reality the AV actually makes you more vulnerable because its one more application to exploit on your machine.

I would compare AV's to going to a car dealership and buying a car because it has a 100k warranty, in reality the warranty does nothing more then covers some very basic crap.

I do not care if people do or don't use AV go for it if you think its doing something magical, all I am saying is any of the bad stuff you should worry about is not going to be stopped by it, this isn't a farce its truth and if you would go read and Google you might see that. If this was the 90's id be all like get an AV!!!!!!!! Now its not as important and UAC actually probably stops more crap then an AV.

And as a side note none of you have actually said why my advice is bad other then you think you should have an AV..............
 
Tee said:
I would compare AV's to going to a car dealership and buying a car because it has a 100k warranty, in reality the warranty does nothing more then covers some very basic crap.
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Except for, you know, there are many free AV options these days that are just as good if not better than some paid products.
 
I have seen avast and panda mentioned as free alternatives and both seem alright. I personally use and recommend the following free products:

Super AntiSpyware
MalwareBytes
MS Security Essentials

HiJackThis is sometimes still helpful. If anything can't be removed from control panel or the above solutions I wipe the computer...chances are the traces run deeper than visible.
 
I use a combo of SEP 12 and windows defender, it does enough.

The real solution is to keep copious and thorough backups on a segregated network with little contact to the outside and keeping a tight control on access to your network and its files. Go ahead hose it all, at least what you can touch, I'll just restore. Losing a few PC's in a battle is fine, hell maybe even a server or two. Big deal. My unrecoverable data is locked away from your malware etc.
 
Hey Hulk...why not try using kaspersky? Norton is anyway crap and they have a lot of service issues. Whatever antivirus you use, make sure you run malwarebytes occasionally.
 
I used to use Kaspersky but I use Eset Nod32 now with Malwarebytes
 
Depending on your pr0n habits, any A/V is worth it. Obviously some are better at detection, less annoying with popups, etc, but necessary anymore. Personally, for home I combine a MSE with a Malwarebytes Premium subscription (I got in during the lifetime subs) and A/V filtering on my gateway.
 
Sign up for a free Checking or Savings account at Ally bank online, and then get a free copy of Webroot Anywhere.
 
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