FAQ: Which virus/malware protection should I use?

[barongreenback]

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Also, I see AVG has free Anti-Spyware & Anti-Rootkit programs. Anyone know if these are any good?

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I'd like to know this too.

Also, how good is windows firewall (vista) compared to free zonealarm?

Thanks

[Freakin]

doesn't avira popup ads all the time?

[LordBrun]

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I use:

- Zonealarm's free firewall
- Snoopfree (described above)
- McAfee's virus scanner, free from AOL (which is also free now)
- Lavasoft's AdAware, a free spyware scanner

I'm also hardwired into a router sitting between me and the DSL modem, and I think the router has some firewall capabilities. I think I have the Windows firewall turned on, too.

Edit: I also have used a free root-kit scanner called RootkitRevealer I got from sysinternals.com.

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Im no expert but having two firewalls running simultaneously is probably a very bad idea.

[Ray Zee]

i just have dial up and if i try to use one it takes too long for my email to load.
i have been on the net for twenty years without any protection and have never got anything at all. i do worry though, but never open attachments i dont know about, or load any crap from the net. and i dont feel my life is missing out for it.

[funkyworms]

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i just have dial up and if i try to use one it takes too long for my email to load.

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If you try to use what? None of these programs will make downloads take any longer.

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i have been on the net for twenty years without any protection and have never got anything at all.

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If you dont have an anti-virus, anti-spyware, or firewall, how do you know?

You are somewhat insulated from these problems because you use dial-up, but I'd give you a decent price that you have more malware on your computer than you claim.

[IceCrystal]

Comodo Firewall - very good free firewall
AVG antivirus - good free antivirus, Kaspersky may be better
WinPatrol - patrols in the memory, monitors malware, detects new autorun processes, monitors new scheduled tasks etc.
Spyware Search and Destroy - free, but not the best spyware detector
AVG Anti-Spyware - free too
Roboform - keep my passwords safe and allows entering password without using the keyboard (keyloggers are not able to detect my passwords). Free up to 10 logins (I bought it).

[SirFelixCat]

Kaspersky suite is quite good. Although it's not free, it comes w/ a 30 day free trial and has one of the best detection rates on the market. Not to mention, it works w/ Vista 64 as well....

[CORed]

I run AVG (switched from MacAfee after my subscription ran out, primarily because the updates would not work unless I logged in as an administrator. This is not a problem with AVG. I also run Spybot scans daily. I do not run any software firewall, but I am behind a NATted router.

I am also very careful about not using an administrator account unless I need it, and often do tasks that require administrator privileges from my user account using "run as".

While not a security program per se I also use PrivBar, which is an Explorer add-on that displays the user ID and group. This helps keep me from forgetting that an explorer window is running as an administrator, or, if I have two Explorer windows running under different accounts, allows me to keep track of which is which.