Internet Security Suites

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

melgish

Distinguished
Jun 23, 2005
3
0
18,510
Not too long ago INorton Internet Security wigged out on me and requried a re-install.

During the process...specifically during the time Norton was absent from my machine...I noticed that my system was *much* more responsive. Boot times were faster. Life seemed better. Then the reinstall completed and everything was bleak.

I got to wondering... Has anyone done / Does anyone know about any side by side performance comparasons to see what security suite demands the least in system resources?

Since it's pretty much a given that *some kind of security* is required on a system today, knowing what won't slow me down so much could be important decision making information.

Further, it seems to me if I ran the company owning the 'blue ribbon resource pig' I'd start flogging my developers to get a better performing product.
 
Norton is a huge hog. Mcafee is better, but a hog too.

Panda Software has a good antivirus and should have a firewall built in.

ZoneAlarm tends to inundate you with pop up warnings..

There's a post around in here somewhere that gives a list of good antiviruses and firewalls.

Kerio was listed as a firewall I believe.

But Panda is good. I use McAfee Enterprise edition at home and I don't have any big issues with it.
 
A couple of good links ... 1. <A HREF="http://lists.gpick.com/pages/AntiVirus_Tools.htm" target="_new">AntiVirus Tools</A> ... 2. <A HREF="http://www.securitywonks.com/en/content/view/32/57/" target="_new"> Malware Solutions for an Advanced Home User</A> ...


<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>
 
I'm a fan of Panda. There are versions of their software that possess a firewall and anti-virus. Plus, they possess a great anti-spyware software built into some versions. Panda is expensive but you get what you pay for. Zone Alarm is a complete joke the problems it possesses.
 
"Suites" bother me ... if one component goes south ... the whole package has to be re-done. If I had to do it today with a new build, I'd use BitDefender AV (free version), SYGATE Free Edition for Firewall and several free Anti-spyware products - ie, Spybot, Ad-Aware SE, SpywareBlaster & SpywareGuard and Microsoft AntiSpyware ... all free. I get Pest Patrol free from my ISP - it's ok, but a resource hog at times. Still, you can't beat the price.


<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>
 
Everything here's free and some are in the links previously provided, but anyway here's a list.

Spyware Malware Adware Scanners/Removers
AdAware SE http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/#free
Spybot Search & Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
A squared (a²) http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

Antivirus
AVG AntiVirus http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php
Avast http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html
BitDefender http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/downloads.php?menu_id=21

Firewall
Kerio Personal Firewall http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html
OutPost Firewall http://www.agnitum.com/download/outpost1.html
Zone Alarm http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?lid=zaskulist_download

Online AntiVirus/Malware Scanners
eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
HouseCall by TrendMicro http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
Panda ActiveScan http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm
RAV AntiVirus Scan http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/
Bit Defender Scan Online http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php
GFi TrojanScan http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/
Symantec Security Check http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym

Internet Browser
Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/

Productivity Applications
OpenOffice http://www.openoffice.org/

Compression Software
7 Zip http://www.7-zip.org/

Image Editing
Gimp http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html
Picasa2 http://www.picasa.com/
FastStone Image Viewer http://www.faststone.org/download.htm
FastStone Photo Resizer http://www.faststone.org/download.htm

Screen Capture
FastStone Screen Capture http://www.faststone.org/download.htm

MP3 Player
Sonique http://sonique.lycos.com/
Winamp

PDF
PDF Creator http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

Clean XP install/Reformat http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Games
FastStone Pacman http://www.faststone.org/download.htm


<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>
 
Yeah, I know but it's pretty useful stuff.
And if it gets to be a sticky we should add more stuff to it.

Actually a well done sticky would be great because that way you don'e need to remember the links to every site and don't have to google everything over and over again.

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>
 
To EVERYBODY:

If somebody has links to good free software please post them with a brief description of the software, and I'll try to make a good sticky.

It's gonna be hard work but that way we'll have a place to have all the good free software links without having to make a ton of bookmarks.

Thanks in advance!

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>
 
I would add SpywareBlaster, SpywareGuard (from Javacool - same guy that does SpywareBlaster), Microsoft AntiSpyware (just updated prgm yesterday), IE-SPYAD ( Restricted Sites List for Internet Explorer),
CWShredder (v2.15), CCLeaner, Stinger, Opera (Free) Browser, and some extra blocking items like a HOSTS file, custom blocking list (reg enteries) - all this is free ... but I'm to lazy to make links today.

And HijackThis - for advanced users only ...





<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>
 
Thanks.
I'll try to come up with the links and description and then I'll post to see if something needs to be corrected.

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>
 
Just google the names ... you'll find your way my friend ... :)


<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>
 
Do you know if there's a way in MS Word to have a paragraph work like the comments in Excel, that the text is there but it doesn't show until you select the cell?

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>
 
Nope - I don't know ...


<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>
 
We could get a huge list like that.. but then it wouldn't be useful.. we need like the top 3 of each..

Top antivirus plus their alternatives, software firewalls, spyware removal, etc.

We can just post 50 links under "spyware removal" because.. we'd have posts about 'which one should I use?"

Just get a list of the top 3 thing go with that.

Ex. Spyware:

Spybot S&D, Adaware, Microsoft Antispyware - and links to them.
 
I see where you're coming from ... but I don't think 3 is enough ... should be "top tier" apps ... and in some cases, that might be 5-6+ ... for example I use:
Spybot S&D v1.4 - Advaced Options + (Tea Timer)
Ad-Aware SE v1.06r1
SpywareBlaster v3.4 (with additional custom blocking list)
SpywareGuard
Pest Patrol (I get it free thru ISP)
Win Patrol (de-activated at present)
M$ AntiSpyware Beta 1
HOSTS File (MVPS+Spybots = 304 KB)
SpywareGuide Block List File (reg. kill bits)
IE-SPYAD ( Restricted Sites List for Internet Explorer)
CWShredder (v2.15)
A Square Free (not active - scanner only)
CCLeaner
HijackThis - when I need it
Avast! AV

On Line AV Scanners:
Trend Micro (Active-X and Java)
BitDefender
Stinger

Firewall:
D-Link Router (Hardware)
Zone Alarm Pro (Software)

Browsers:
Firefox 1.0.4
Opera 8 (Free Version)
IE - but rarely used

*This does not include Registry Cleaning/Editing Utilities
Click to expand...
*Note: I would have added SpySweeper if I wasn't pissed at Webroot ...




<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>
 
Look at the track changes functions - maybe there's something there that will work acceptably for you.

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>
 
My understanding is that CWShredder is kaput. Months back the only guy who worked on it quit because he said they were getting too good for him to keep up. It's outdated from my understanding.

I find that with Spybot and M$ Antispyware (Giant) that it covers enough. While a registry cleaner and another program might be worthwhile.. we need to understand that the people we're helping are probably, most likely, not technically savvy and don't want to download 10 programs to get rid of some spyware. That's my thoughts on how to help the community out. Take the best that cover most bases. If that doesn't solve it, then we can step in and list more programs and give help.

Figuring those 3 programs alone would take out 90-99% of spyware that exists today.. It's like a condom. :)
 
I still say "top tier" even if it's a bunch (Free AV, for example). Yea, CWShredder is probably less effective, but does get updated occassionally. I have always thought of a "menue" of free apps - and who are we to say which is "best". Just offer a menue - then each of us can add our "2¢ worth" ...


<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>
 
Alas I wasn't looking for off-the-cuff opinions, however informed and accurate, nor was I looking for freeware.

Instead I'm seeking the exacting test conditions, repeatable benchmarks and 32 bit color bar graphs 🙂 worthy of the tomshardware community.

Millions of corporate and home users, their machines all bogged down by poorly-written, but absolutely necessary security software. And nobody's figured out once and for all who's on top, and who's not?
 
Trend Micro has picked up CWShredder.

<A HREF="http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/" target="_new">Here it is on their website.</A>

Last updated May 2005.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>
 
Ahh that's cool. I didn't hear anything about them picking it up since the guy said he was done with it.

I'll have to keep that in mind.. how long did ago did they pick it up? I want to say in September of '04 is when the guy stopped updating it..
 
yeah panda works real nice.

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
80gb Maxtor
200gb WD 8mb cache..
Lian-Li PC-60
LiteOn 52X/LiteOn 811s DVD-RW
AMD XP2800+
LeadTek GF4Ti4200 128mb
Hitachi CML174
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom