What's the difference between anti-virus, anti-spyware and internet security software?

AVG Pro works for me scan for spyware and rootkits along with vista firewall, and MBAM for on-demand scanning. I'm quite happy with this combo. of course there is windows defender under the hood not sure how good it is but unfortunately it is not uninstallable on vista. you can pick up a copy at walmart for cheap and it works good.

With regard to internet security, my stance is this: - no one package, however expensive, will catch everything. My solution: Use several free packages. It is a simple matter to use a free anti-virus, free firewall, free anti-spyware, and then take advantage of one of the reputable free online scanning sites, just to check your system now and again.

Whether one chooses an all-in-one suite or individual components, make sure you have real time scanning/monitoring. Doesn't make much sense to let your computer become infected and then scan after the fact to try to remove something. Once a system is infected the only guaranteed way to know all traces of the malware has been removed is to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS. As a precaution, don't run two real time scanning AV programs at the same time. They could view each other as a threat and cause your computer to crash.

I only use trial versions of internet security suites.I change them every month or two.Security suites offer more protection than a personal firewall or antivirus.I think it's worth the money to buy one.

I agree that some of the suites are not that good overall, but they are getting better. There are several good products now that combine anti-virus and anti-spyware (Webroot's Antivirus/Antispyware and Sunbelt's Vipre specifically are two very good ones.) Some people prefer using free products and while many are quite good, I have found most lacking in one or more important aspects. I prefer paid products, but I do use the free ones to double check on my paid versions. Also, as pointed out, no one product finds everything, so best to use an array of products to checks things. Just don't run two anti-virus programs at once or two Firewalls at once, as you can get conflicts.

anti spyware free I have used ADAWARE and found it excellent and also PC Tools Spy Doctor downloadable ffree fromm Google pack (has a lot of good free programs.
AntiVirus free Try Bitdefender also Comodo now has a free one that is supposed to be good

I have to agree with you Leo, Suites are bloated, resource hungry tools that just don't cut it in my opinion. I use AVG free, a variety of free online virus scanners and at least three different spyware and malware tools of the paid variety. My router provides the main firewall and I use Windows 7's firewall.

Have you ever used a Live CD to scan for viruses? I've heard some guys working on a Linux live CD that you basically boot the computer into Linux, and it scans for problems... The idea being a virus written for windows won't effect linux... you heard of it?

Justin Davis

It's a valid technique, particularly when the Windows machine won't boot or behave when booted. I dislike it because anything burned to CD-ROM is immediately out of date, and not all of the tools automatically update themselves, nor are they as complete as some of the Windows based alternatives. But it's definitely a good tool to have in your toolbox.

30-Sep-2009

damn my link looks huge. sorry about that I can blog at work, but they make me put a disclaimer on everything

I have several different "security" apps on my computer. Only is running "real-time" and, that is ZoneAlarm Security Suite (ZASS). The other apps, while installed, are not set-up to run in real-time. I use these other apps to perform scans of my computer (manually - if no scheduler is available) to look for "stuff" that the primary app (ZASS) may have missed. Each app is run on a weekly basis. This may be "over-kill" but, for me, that's what I want. Safe computing yaw-ll!!!

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