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AstralOrigin
n00b
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2007
- Messages
- 63
What are the current best programs for anti-virus, anti-spyware and registry cleaners?
And just how reliable is a hardware firewall?
I made the move away from software firewall (ZoneAlarm - which I liked only due to the password encryption capability) to a hardware firewall (Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall), and am running NOD32 (anti-virus) and AdAware and Spybot for anti-spyware.
Though after some port testing, which revealed that the firewall is indeed keeping my ports hidden from the outside world and masking my IP (but not from all sites, apparently - my true IP can still be seen, which I don't get), I'm still concerned about exactly how "safe" (though the net is never "safe") my set-up really is at the moment.
Every program works differently, and that's part of the problem here.
NOD32, which I've been using for quite some time, is proported to be an excellent anti-virus program. However, there are many who've claimed to have found viruses on their systems that NOD32 didn't even come close to detecting, and this was even with free downloads, such as AVG anti-virus.
AdAware and Spybot have always been great to me throughout the years in terms of finding and even protecting my systems from a lot of spyware/malware, but I'm starting to doubt their strengths in the field.
I have a couple of different registry cleaners, but although I know what I'm doing (I "gut" a lot of my own systems manually), it always makes me nervous to have a third-party program weeding things out of the registry.
RegVac is a good program, but the problem is that is eliminates all things first, not giving an option of what you do or do not want remove. It just makes a back-up of your registry so you can reverse what it did, should it remove something and cause any system problems.
I'm not even sure at this point if it's worth "cleaning out" my registry with a third-party program.
I don't particularly like installing numerous random programs on my system just to test them out anymore, clogging things up, and many online scans require Java etc. (which is garbage) to be installed in order to even work (i.e. Trend Micro's free online scan, for example).
So, I'm trying to get the most accurate information and opinions on what others are running, any comparisons they might have etc. to other programs.
Any suggestions and discussion regarding these things would be appreciated.
P.S. - I have an uninstalling program called YourUninstaller, which removes registry keys etc. and garbage that is left behind from uninstalling programs. It can also clean out a lot of other random garbage you pick up over time.
Is this a decent program to continue to use?
P.S.S. - I am also a hardcore gamer, so I like the non-intrusiveness of NOD32, for example, though I also browse around a lot at various sites (such as PC, gaming, music sites etc.) and want to be as sure as I can be that I'm not getting nailed with any trojans, keyloggers, etc.
And just how reliable is a hardware firewall?
I made the move away from software firewall (ZoneAlarm - which I liked only due to the password encryption capability) to a hardware firewall (Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall), and am running NOD32 (anti-virus) and AdAware and Spybot for anti-spyware.
Though after some port testing, which revealed that the firewall is indeed keeping my ports hidden from the outside world and masking my IP (but not from all sites, apparently - my true IP can still be seen, which I don't get), I'm still concerned about exactly how "safe" (though the net is never "safe") my set-up really is at the moment.
Every program works differently, and that's part of the problem here.
NOD32, which I've been using for quite some time, is proported to be an excellent anti-virus program. However, there are many who've claimed to have found viruses on their systems that NOD32 didn't even come close to detecting, and this was even with free downloads, such as AVG anti-virus.
AdAware and Spybot have always been great to me throughout the years in terms of finding and even protecting my systems from a lot of spyware/malware, but I'm starting to doubt their strengths in the field.
I have a couple of different registry cleaners, but although I know what I'm doing (I "gut" a lot of my own systems manually), it always makes me nervous to have a third-party program weeding things out of the registry.
RegVac is a good program, but the problem is that is eliminates all things first, not giving an option of what you do or do not want remove. It just makes a back-up of your registry so you can reverse what it did, should it remove something and cause any system problems.
I'm not even sure at this point if it's worth "cleaning out" my registry with a third-party program.
I don't particularly like installing numerous random programs on my system just to test them out anymore, clogging things up, and many online scans require Java etc. (which is garbage) to be installed in order to even work (i.e. Trend Micro's free online scan, for example).
So, I'm trying to get the most accurate information and opinions on what others are running, any comparisons they might have etc. to other programs.
Any suggestions and discussion regarding these things would be appreciated.
P.S. - I have an uninstalling program called YourUninstaller, which removes registry keys etc. and garbage that is left behind from uninstalling programs. It can also clean out a lot of other random garbage you pick up over time.
Is this a decent program to continue to use?
P.S.S. - I am also a hardcore gamer, so I like the non-intrusiveness of NOD32, for example, though I also browse around a lot at various sites (such as PC, gaming, music sites etc.) and want to be as sure as I can be that I'm not getting nailed with any trojans, keyloggers, etc.