Best Security Software Combination

[Amit Bapat]

Hi there,

What is the best combination of security software i.e Antivirus, Firewall, spykillers, etc... which is also low on memory scale.

I have Mcafee AV 8 Enterprise with Anti spyware 8, Zonealarm 5.5 suit (without AV).

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

McAfee Enterprise 8.0i is a great AV.

Personally I think the AV is infinately more important than the firewall, almost all firewalls offer enough protection to save you from the common worm not covered by an AV, and SP2 actually did a good job on that front too. But low memory usage aside I'd go with Kerio or Sygate for a firewall, add a rputer to the mix and I'd just use Microsofts SP2 firewall.

[Jayzee]

I would suggest NOD32 for AV and Tiny Firewall if you can't have hardware firewall

[HoochieMamma]

I use TrendMicro Internet Secuirty 2005, Anti-Virus, Firewall, Anti-spyware all in one, used in conjuntion with my NAT == :D

[Amit Bapat]

People remember the LOW ON MEMORY thing. Earlier i had mcafee personal FW, then just for a change i shifted to ZA and noticed that ZA gave me more control on the Programs, Components, cache cleaner, privacy features, etc. So i think i am better protected by ZA. I had earlier installed Kerio, but found it very difficult to configure. But one drawback of ZA is takes more time to load at start up and takes more resources.

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

Something to remember with stuff like cache cleaners/history cleaners/etc is all of that can be done from within the browser. Both IE/Firefox and probably Opera as well allow you to turn those features off, so having a firewall watch and delete those is a waste of your resources.

Try Sygate, it's almost as easy as zonealarm and almost as light as Kerio, a nice mix.

[Amit Bapat]

Sure i will give that a try. But security wise, protection wise which is the better FW???

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

There is no best firewall. A very important part of a firewall is being able to set it up properly, if you use Kerio but just open everything then it isn't going to be effective, however Kerio has the capability to be far more effective than an application based firewall such as ZoneAlarm, but again if you're lost when using it how secure will you get it? If there was a true "best" there'd be no choices.

TBH I think any of the firewalls that are free and well known are secure enough. You have to weigh ease of use with protection and performance for your uses and your knowledge level. For instance with Kerio with one rule you could have it block cookies, http referrals and images from your email client so that a spammer won't get a hit when you open his email, you won't have that control with ZoneAlarm, however then you'll also run into issues with the email you do want images inand do want to know it's you when you click on it. The highest level of protection is not always the best.

The chances of getting hacked, really hacked are very slim. buy a cheap NAT router, turn off Windows File Sharing if you're not on a network, and run a simple firewall and chances are you'll never ever be hacked. You don't need the best draconian setup out there to be safe, and if you did run the most draconian setup you would never use your computer because it would suck and you couldn't do anything. Without temporarilly opening ports or changing permissions in windows.

[TheCardinal]

ZA + Kaspersky + adaware = SAFE

[Amit Bapat]

I find adaware very suspecious. I suspect it irself transmits some info and keeps some spyware on ur system to report some hits. Why i am saying this is, my Home PC is not connected to any network for a 1 month now. I have Mcafee AV & Mcafee Antispyware module installed on it. Even when i am not connected to internet, adware reports some spy programs with dates of today or yesterday. After seeing that i have uninstalled adaware. I think my Mcafee Antisyware module is enough for the Job.

[dotRoot]

Best security setup with no memory use would be a gateway pc.

[HilariousNinja]

I use alot. AVG and Avast. Adaware SE, Spybot-Search & Destroy, Spyware Doctor and Microsoft Antispyware. My PC hasn't seen spyware for ages. :D

[sfalcon]

Symantec Corp, MS AntiSpyware, and regular old windows firewall + router are good enough for me. Not much mem usage either.

[null_]

FSI F-Prot, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, Windows XP SP2 Firewall, and a Router