Antispy ware & trojan protection software selection

[Guest]

Hey guys, what is the best and most effective software out there with your experience for

1. scanning a computer for trojan/spyware?
2a. real time protect vs trojan/spyware?
2b. real time protect vs trojan/spyware but not a resource hog?

Any suggestions would be helpful, cause there are soo many out there... would love to hear your pros/cons/opinions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[uberman]

I use the firewall that comes with windows XP SP2.Also AVG,the free version,and spybot search and destroy which comes with an immunize feature for realtime protection.

 

[kaoru780]

Agreed

 

[slim142]

For antivirus I use NOD32 (which also protects from spyware/adware/malware/trojans etc)

For further spyware/malware/adware I use Ad-aware SE Pro (I scan my system once every 2-3 weeks) and I also use Spyware Search and Destroy which is a nice one for free which I also use once very 2-3 weeks.

I also have Windows XP firewall activated since my NVIDIA ActiveArmor has been giving me problems this lasts days (I believe because the last drivers, 9.53, were released on november? something that got me annoyed from NVIDIA, starting to give more attention to vista than XP grrrr)

 

[coldmast]

Agreed
Spybot: Search and Destroy "worked for me!"
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Hijack THIS! {great to install on a clean system}
http://www.merijn.org/programs.php

Spyware Blaster {REAL TIME pro... block list}
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

oh and...
ad-aware {not to be installed with S:S&D}
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

and my old time favorite anti-spyware resource site
http://spywarewarrior.com/

 

[ZOldDude]

Use Blink.

Written by a guy that was busted by the Feds for hacking into Goverment computers when he was 17!

The company he is now part of (eEye) is the one that is always finding exploits in Windows and a driveing force for most all Microsoft security updates.

Blink and other eEye products are HOW this company finds these exploits.....the software it's self does it when the computer is attacked.

They have a free 1 year trail version as well.
http://www.eeye.com/html/index.html

You can hear his interview with Steve Gibson from a few weeks ago on Security Now by going to http://www.grc.com

 

[apache_lives]

Hey guys, what is the best and most effective software out there with your experience for

1. scanning a computer for trojan/spyware?
2a. real time protect vs trojan/spyware?
2b. real time protect vs trojan/spyware but not a resource hog?

Any suggestions would be helpful, cause there are soo many out there... would love to hear your pros/cons/opinions.

Thanks in advance.

as a tech, ewido or now known as avg anti spyware works a charm for spyware and antivirus, avg has to be the worse selection ever, not worth it, its like false security.

PcCillin and Norton do protect your systems well at a cost...

 

[Guest]

Hey guys, what is the best and most effective software out there with your experience for

1. scanning a computer for trojan/spyware?
2a. real time protect vs trojan/spyware?
2b. real time protect vs trojan/spyware but not a resource hog?

Any suggestions would be helpful, cause there are soo many out there... would love to hear your pros/cons/opinions.

Thanks in advance.

as a tech, ewido or now known as avg anti spyware works a charm for spyware and antivirus, avg has to be the worse selection ever, not worth it, its like false security.

PcCillin and Norton do protect your systems well at a cost...


LoL you said AVG works like a charm, then say its the worst ever... which is it?

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

As a person who does this for a living (cleaning spyware/viruses...)

Virus protection / removal:

AVG is great. Most customers already have the standard Mcafee, Symantec, Norton, Panda.... But AVG is still the one we use as far as reliability, simplicity, and most of all, ability to detect and remove viruses.

Spyware protection / removal:

Sorry to say, but one program will not do the job.
Each genuine spyware scanning program will find upwards of 50-70% of spyware on any given system. Our shop uses up to 10 different antispyware programs to clean a machine and 3 to defend against new infections.

Recommended products for protecting a "CLEAN" machine.
Spysweeper. $30: This is a great real-time scanner that does it's job very well. We recomend this to all our customers (we do not sell it) so we make no money by giving our opinion.

Alternatives:
Spyware doctor works great as well, though I find it lacking behind Spysweeper. Cost is also $30.

Ewido: A better alternative to other options.

-------------------------------------------------
addition to your active high quality scanner, you need some more programs to catch what active scanner missed.

Ad-aware / Spybot search and destroy. These are almost a requirement.
Run them once a week.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

as a tech, ewido or now known as avg anti spyware works a charm for spyware and antivirus, avg has to be the worse selection ever, not worth it, its like false security.

PcCillin and Norton do protect your systems well at a cost...

LoL you said AVG works like a charm, then say its the worst ever... which is it?[/quote]

Pardon? Norton is at most mediocre. It uses way to much resources, and most importantly, has the tendency to break, taking the system with it. Since the program integrates into all parts of the computer, I have seen it take out MS Office, Engineering tools, or the OS due to registry errors.

Also: Norton AV has a hard time removing viruses it can catch, and a seemingly easy time removing viruses attached to system files (aka required to boot).

Pc Cillin is not one I have extensive positive results with.

As a comparison, the government uses Symantec, which uses the least amount of resources and rates very well.

 

[orangegator]

For spyware I use a combination of Spybot and SuperAntiSpyware. A while back my computer got infested with spyware/trojans. SuperAntiSpyware was the only thing that finally cleaned everything up. I had used AdAware, Spybot, and Norton Antivirus before that without luck. SuperAntiSpyware sounds like a cheesy name, but it works well.

For antivirus/firewall I use Norton Internet Security 2005. I know lots of people hate it, but it works well for me.

 

[orangegator]

As a comparison, the government uses Symantec, which uses the least amount of resources and rates very well.

Aren't Norton products made by Symantec? I thought essentially they were one in the same.

 

[bruce555]

I use Kaspersky. It isn't a hog and you'd be surprised on how much it picks up.

 

[ZOldDude]

Use Blink.

Written by a guy that was busted by the Feds for hacking into Goverment computers when he was 17!

The company he is now part of (eEye) is the one that is always finding exploits in Windows and a driveing force for most all Microsoft security updates.

Blink and other eEye products are HOW this company finds these exploits.....the software it's self does it when the computer is attacked.

They have a free 1 year trail version as well.
http://www.eeye.com/html/index.html

You can hear his interview with Steve Gibson from a few weeks ago on Security Now by going to http://www.grc.com

Why do people keep saying Norton/Symantec "use too much resources" and then use usless AVG/NOD32.....do they have old Vic20 computers?

I run both Blink and Symantec Corperate at the same time while I play online.....no problems.

Also Blink is a AV as well as trojan/spyware.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

They are completely different products. Symantec is geared towards network environments. I have not used AVG's cooperate version so I can not offer a comparison.

 

[capnbfg]

Personally, I'm a big fan of Avira AntiVir. It's free and works. For spyware, Spybot S&D is great, especially with Tea Timer (registry protection) and SDHelper (IE protection) enabled. I've yet to have a problem since I started using these apps a couple years ago.

I've fixed computers for people who were using Norton Antivirus or Symantec Corporate, and in most cases the viruses/trojans/malware had assumed control of the antivirus software. To me that says a lot about the quality of the overpriced, above-stated products.

 

[smelly_feet]

What I use now:
avg
windows defender
adaware
windows firewall
linksys router

if worried about getting a virus from email or browsing then try vmware player with the browser appliance. You can set up your email in the virtual machine and also safely browse the web. The virtual machine loads and runs fast on my Pentium D805 as if it was running natively.



hope this helps.

 

[mrbbq]

I use Spybot and Adaware for spywares and Avast! for viruses. Hijackthis is also a must but you have to know what your doing with it.

 

[HYST3R]

at my store we recomend a combination of AVG, Adaware SE, and Spybot.

between those 3 you are pretty much covered. some people have preferences towards different antivirus programs. but for the price and performance AVG is great.

we used to recomend Avast but have noticed problems with virus removal and deleting import system files.

Symantec is network based, it is a proven fact Norton is a resource killer.
McAffee will tell you theres problems, but it wont fix them. and yes both are suseptable to being over run by viruses, why? because they are the 2 top corporate antivirus programs. might as well put a BIG RED target on your chest and turn off your firewalls.

my personal experience with NOD32 was good, and even better in XP x64 as it is a native 64bit kernal. its very easy to setup and use. also does a pretty good job.

Adaware and spybot are definate musts. then antivirus is pretty much your choice.

i also saw that someone said not to run spybot and adaware on the same comp, why? or did i misunderstand.

 

[desidude006]

kaspersky ftw

 

[StevieD]

My business computers are bug free.

Just installing the WinXP SP2 Firewall and keeping the employees away from the Russian p_rn sites is about 90% of the solution to keeping a clean computer. Alas, for the remaining 10% of the problems we have to use antivirus software.

(For webtrollers and active downloaders the % of problems is most likely higher, but that is directly related to their activity.)

By the way, ALL antivirus, spyware etc etc detectors are resource hogs. Some may be more that others, but those crying resource hog seldom provide any analytical data to backup their marketing claims that their products are actually better.

 

[slim142]

IMO, I dont recommend Symantec, any solution (probably ghost or pcanywhere but not other)

I used them for 2 years and I dont know why. Made my system slooooooooooooooooooooow, booting times and perfomance. Never gonna buy it again nor try it.

Also, has one of the worse spyware detectors in the world.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Okay, I will say this one more time.....

1, 2, or even 3 products alone will not catch all spyware.

Our shop uses:

Spybot SD
Adaware
Ewido --> now AVG antispyware
Windows Defender
Spyware Doctor
Spysweeper
Trend Micro
HijackThis (not quite a spyware scanner)
Rook kit scanners
----------------------
And each program finds spyware to remove that the rest doesn't.
I am not talking about cookies either.


Now: If you think just because your system isn't slow, and you dont get popups.... and adaware doesn't find anything, You Are Clean....

 

[slim142]

Okay, I will say this one more time.....

1, 2, or even 3 products alone will not catch all spyware.

Our shop uses:

Spybot SD
Adaware
Ewido --> now AVG antispyware
Windows Defender
Spyware Doctor
Spysweeper
Trend Micro
HijackThis (not quite a spyware scanner)
Rook kit scanners
----------------------
And each program finds spyware to remove that the rest doesn't.
I am not talking about cookies either.

Now: If you think just because your system isn't slow, and you dont get popups.... and adaware doesn't find anything, You Are Clean....

First 2 are obligatory.
Antivirus, each one decides what to go for (I recommend NOD32, AVG and Kapersky)
Windows defender was a good one too, but I notice it slows down your system a little bit.
Spydoctor, never heard that much people using it
Spyweeper is one of the best antispywares out there together with adaware and Spyware SD

Never tried hijackthis and rootkit remover, dont know what to say about them.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Hijackthis is a tool for removing spyware and other forms of infections... as well as some program code that gets left behind... services,....


Spyware Doctor is near equal to Spysweeper.
And Rootkit scanners are something that most spyware scanners dont have (except for a few, such as Spysweeper). Nothing like having a clean system except for a rootkit hidden infection.