Antivirus Protection

[dajogejr]

You guys need to do a little more research...

Norton is terrible, a system resource hog and handles trojans and worms like shit.
McAffee is junk, why do you think it comes for free on some computers, and some providers offer it for free.

AVG misses 15 to 20% of the shit out there, has the worst scanning engine, etc. And that goes for the free and paid versions of it.

You guys need a layered approach to security, you also need to educate yourselves and kids/spouses, etc on how to not just "Click OK" for anything that pops on the screen.

There are two consistently ranked Antivirus programs out there.

The first is Kaspersky, made by Kaspersky labs. The second is NOD32, made by ESet.

In completely anonymous testing (read...no corporate $$ Sponsorship) they always place in the top two. I was a Norton user since thd mid to late 90s.

I've switched to Nod32, and haven't looked back. Any antivirus program worth having is worth paying for. It cost 25 bucks a year, you can get the OEM version from newegg.com for 25 and free shipping.

That's only one issue. You need a hardware firewall in place first. Some ISPs provide them, some don't. If your ISP doesn't provide them, get a Linksys, Netgear or D Link router. They can work with cable, DSL, satellite, etc.

The second is a software firewall. It monitors incoming and outgoing from your PC. Windows XP SP2 or Vista's built in firewall are about 50% efficient. They monitor coming in...they do not monitor what is going out.

Kerio, Zone Alarm are both good choices. I personally use Sygate. Although Symantec bought them out...you can still find a "Pre-symantec" Sygate firewall if you try. Free version works great.

Then there's spyware/malware.
Webroot spysweeper usually gets the high marks. Keep it updated, scan freequently. Spyware blaster is another nice utility, update it and enable all protection, it's free.

TrendMicro and Panda Online both have nice online scanners that work and should be used as a backup to your antivirus software...just to be safe.

There is NO be all, save all all in one box solution that works worth a damn. I test and RD quite a few for work, often before they become publicly available.....

Many of the all in ones are just resource hogs...bring even the fastest/newest computer to it's knees.

I hope some of this helps someone out there.... I see all kinds of infected computers by people who SWEAR they're not...until I show them, then I show them the bill....LOL.

[dajogejr]

CC Cleaner is also a nice, free download that can fix up corrupted or empty registry entries, delete stale internet/browsing cache...cookies, etc.

[FPMXer]

I also use window washer 4.0 and dustbuster pro. Both work great at cleaning out all the registry's and dead files. Another thing I do after the cleaning is defrag and scandisk. I will check out the antivirus you talk about daj.

[dajogejr]

Diskeeper is the best defrag program out.
Don't need to run scan disk on W2K and XP machines. Today's hard drives are pretty robust. Sure, they fail once in a while...
You're better off running the manufacturer's diagnostic tools to check the integrity of your hard drive. Western Digital, Seagate (which bought out Maxtor) etc., all have drive fitness tests on their website than can be downloaded and burned to a bootable CD and often they can create a bootable floppy as well, whatever you're comfortable making.

[dajogejr]

Here is a free, non-biased review of Antivirus products.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

[climb any hill]

Dave, do you have a link to that fee CC Cleaner?
I've tried a few of those programs you guys discussed. Only successful one I liked was Zone Alarm so I think I might go back to it.

Good read, thanks for posting up guys!

[dajogejr]

Yep...sure do! It deletes a lot of JUNK that IE or Firefox don't when you use their "built in" clean features. I recently had a friends computer...I KID YOU NOT, CC Cleaner deleted 16.4 GB of cached/stale data. ON a 40 GB drive that was nearly full....it made a BIG difference.

Keep in mind, if you have websites (as we all do, forums, etc. that you save your user name and password on, you will have to reenter and save that the next time you go to the site.)
I have to re-enter my user ID and password on here, HQ and PS when I run the cc cleaner....big deal...LOL.

Here you go...

http://www.ccleaner.com/

[dajogejr]

Tell you what...guys. I'd be happy to put together a sticky of useful tech tools for cleaning and maintaining your computer...and I'll see if Jason or Chris can sticky it...

Any of you guys interested in something like that??

[climb any hill]

Hell, Antivirus is a big necessity on computers, we are in the puter forum, lots of good info on the thread. So let's pinn it! There done lol..

I rather not save my password info, you're not not a big deal to log in every time.
Thanks for the help!

[dajogejr]

Nice..
Give me some time, I'll post up a bunch of helpful links...