Iggy Posted October 31, 2009 Report Share Posted October 31, 2009 My computer got a worm. It is dead. Husband bought me a new computer- he is such a sweety. I had AVG Free antivirus on my old computer. This new one has MacAvee. What I am looking for here is the PERSONAL pros and cons of MacAvee and purchasing AVG, and any other system that is out there. In the past we had Norton, but it ate up all the power of the computer. Took forever to do anything, and I am NOT talking about cruising the internet here. I don't think we will ever find out how my computer got the bug- for a year I used Messenger Live chat- I have a FaceBook account. Could either of these have been the open door? If so then I will never use either of them again. Will an antivirus like AVG, MacAvee, Norton, ??? be enough?? My old computer really isn't all that old- I got it for Christmas two years ago. I barely had it broken in. Anyway, help- need input on your personal experiences good and bad regarding antivirus systems, and protecting my computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miztrniceguy Posted October 31, 2009 Report Share Posted October 31, 2009 i recommend Malwarebytes anti Malware, superantispyware, and spybot search and destroy. all free but MAM and SAS have paid versions with more features. cost about $20. also a firewall, like Zonealarm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy Posted October 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2009 (edited) i recommend Malwarebytes anti Malware, superantispyware, and spybot search and destroy. all free but MAM and SAS have paid versions with more features. cost about $20. also a firewall, like Zonealarm. All at once? We had SpyDr on at one time,but every time I tried to run it, it froze my computer up and it would take Husband about 20 minutes to undo it.Right now I really am not going to fuss about the price. This new puter just cost under $600. So even if all of the anti-virus and spyware, etc comes to $100 a year- AND it protects me, then I will be a happy computer- psuedo nerd!Oh, Hubby got me a Dell Inspiron i545s with Windows 7 on it. I have to download Microfost Office Pro Plus 2007- I really like the new Word, Excel and of course Outlook. Edited October 31, 2009 by Iggy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahone Posted October 31, 2009 Report Share Posted October 31, 2009 (edited) My computer got a worm. It is dead. Husband bought me a new computer- he is such a sweety.Why? The hardware is most likely fine, the software just needed sorting out. This could have been done in half an hour with a full operating system reinstall - this sorts 99.99% of virus infections. It's very rare that they infect a place that reinstalling windows wouldn't wipe over. This could have been done for free.I had AVG Free antivirus on my old computer. This new one has MacAvee.What I am looking for here is the PERSONAL pros and cons of MacAvee and purchasing AVG, and any other system that is out there. In the past we had Norton, but it ate up all the power of the computer. Took forever to do anything, and I am NOT talking about cruising the internet here.AVG free isn't as good as it used to be. It's a bit more bloated now - still not bad for free. I don't have that much experience with home anti virus packages, mainly the corporate ones. However nod32 has rarely failed me. I've only used the corporate version, but the home edition should use the same signatures.Also clamwin is a good free alternative. I've recently used this detect all traces of a virus that nothing else, including paid for alternatives seemed to find. The only problem with this is that it doesn't have a real time scanner. In other words, you have to manually tell it to run a scan of a specific file or your entire hard drive.I don't think we will ever find out how my computer got the bug- for a year I used Messenger Live chat- I have a FaceBook account. Could either of these have been the open door? If so then I will never use either of them again.The short answer is possibly. Someone may have sent you a link on messenger or facebook which when clicked on, infected your computer with a virus. But facebook and live messenger will not directly have infected your computer.Will an antivirus like AVG, MacAvee, Norton, ??? be enough?? You need a firewall as well - some of these software packages come with one. Edited October 31, 2009 by Mahone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahone Posted October 31, 2009 Report Share Posted October 31, 2009 (edited) All at once? We had SpyDr on at one time,but every time I tried to run it, it froze my computer up and it would take Husband about 20 minutes to undo it.This would be counter productive. You only need to choose one. If you have them all running, they will interfere with each other and cause your computer to slow down quite drastically. Most anti virus packages also include a firewall and spyware detection. Edited October 31, 2009 by Mahone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miztrniceguy Posted November 1, 2009 Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 I don't like spyware dr. I use SAS with real-time protection, and the other 2 for on demand scans. sometimes one finds things others miss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbean98 Posted November 3, 2009 Report Share Posted November 3, 2009 I'm the I.T. department at work and keeping a computer safe is really pretty simple. I use this setup and my home computers survived 4 years infection free with my 4 kids and their friends using them. Didn't cost a dime to set up either. My work computers have a more complex setup but I won't go into that here because it costs money.Use Firefox instead of IE. I have nothing against IE but you can't use the following addons with it. Firefox web browser | Faster, more secure, & customizableGet the adblock plus and flashblock addons for Firefox.Adblock Plus: Save your time and trafficmozdev.org - flashblock: indexFlashblock will block any flash on websites. Just click the arrow in the middle to make it run. Right click the arrow to tell it to always allow flash from the site you're on.Use avira free antivirus. In the last round of antivirus testing the two top programs were Avira and NOD32. NOD32 costs money but it's really good. AVG scores very low and is pretty useless for anything.Free antivirus - Avira AntiVirThat's it. The only thing left is learning basic internet safety. Things like, when a window pops up and tells you that you have an infection and you really NEED to install their program, don't do it. You're already protected. Don't install anything you don't actually really need. Don't install "free" games from a website. Either buy a $10 cd of 1,000 games at walmart or play flash games that appear in the browser window.Your best bet is find a geek that's good with security and talk to them. Anyone who has to take care of computers as their job is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahone Posted November 3, 2009 Report Share Posted November 3, 2009 That's it. The only thing left is learning basic internet safety...Don't forgot a firewall a very vital part of securing any network or stand alone computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbean98 Posted November 3, 2009 Report Share Posted November 3, 2009 Ah yeah you got me. I use a Linksys WRT54GL wireless router with a built in firewall. It's kinda old and needs an upgrade, but I'm waiting till the new wireless n standard becomes a little more common place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy Posted December 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 Don't forgot a firewall a very vital part of securing any network or stand alone computer.Husband says that NETGEAR has a built in firewall- that is where our computers are hooked up to get internet. Do we need another firewall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahone Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 Husband says that NETGEAR has a built in firewall- that is where our computers are hooked up to get internet. Do we need another firewall?For a standard home network, the built in firewalls that come with routers are fine. They are generally basic, but most home users don't need much more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierGuy Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 I've seen recommended to use both a soft and hard firewall. The hard firewall would be your router. Then your soft firewall would be something like Windows Firewall. I've read a Dell newsgroup for many years now and I've always seen recommended free AVG. They say they even put it on their client’s computers. I will not use Norton. My first computer was a bad computer, it had Windows Me. I also had Norton on it. I had to do a hard recent on that machine so many times I wanted to shoot it. I blame Me and also Norton. The last three years I've used Trend Micro and am happy with it. If you use wireless make sure you are using WPA and not WEP. WEP is very easy to crack - very very easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahone Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 I've seen recommended to use both a soft and hard firewall. The hard firewall would be your router. Then your soft firewall would be something like Windows Firewall. It wouldn't cause any harm if set up correctly, and I can understand why some people would recommend it. IT folk can be very paranoid and rightly so - it's part of their job usually to be paranoid. Bear in mind though that this setup can be awkward when using more than one computer on the network. If you install a software firewall on each machine on the LAN, it can block things you might not want it to block, such as file and printer sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moksha Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 A package with full internet security (firewall with active antivirus protection) is a good idea. I like Symantec. My son the computer guru uses NOD32. Zone Alarm Pro Suite for my daughter. Update you virus definitions daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazed-and-confused Posted December 6, 2009 Report Share Posted December 6, 2009 Anyone familiar with CyberDefender? I'd like some feedback on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.