Ask Leo!

What Security Software do you Recommend?

Home » Recommendations » Software

Summary: I have recommendations for specific products in various places on the site. Here's a short single page summary.

What anti-virus software should I use? How about a firewall? And what about spyware? Should I use one of the all-in-one packages that claim to do it all?

As you might imagine, I get these questions all the time. As a result, I do have recommendations in various articles on the site.

Here's the short version that sums it all up.

All-In-One Solutions

I need to start by disrecommending all-in-one solutions. By that I mean a single program or "security suite" that claims to do it all: firewall, anti-spyware, anti-virus and often much more all in one. What I see in reports coming in to Ask Leo! are simply that these types of suites typically have or cause more problems than other alternatives.

My theory on these types of packages is this: most are built around a company's flagship product, perhaps an anti-virus tool, anti-spyware tool or firewall. That particular product may in fact be quite good. The problem is that in order to create a suite the company creates or procures significantly lower quality products to fill in.

"You want top quality in all corners ..."

You want top quality in all corners, and there's certainly no requirement that the various solutions all come from the same place.

Anti-Virus

I have two recommendations.

CA Anti-Virus I've been using Computer Associates anti-virus software for perhaps a decade or more. It was the corporate solution within Microsoft when I worked there, and I figured that was as good a recommendation as any. I've rarely had an issue, and continue to run it on most of my machines.

CA Anti-Virus is not free, but it is solid and well supported.

AVG Free In response to requests for a free anti-virus solution I've come to recommend the free version of AVG. I'm currently running it on both my primary desktop machine (Windows XP) as well as my laptop (Windows Vista).

I have two concerns with AVG:

  1. When you visit their site and download the program, AVG tries really, really had to up-sell you to the paid version, and their all-in-one suite. You already know how I feel about suites, and it's the free version that I'm recommending here.

  2. AVG Free includes a feature called "LinkScanner" that attempts to check links on the pages of the sites you visit for phishing and other malware. I've experienced and also had several reports of this feature seriously impacting browser performance. I recommend turning it off immediately.

Because of the problems caused by Linkscanner, a number of people have sought out an alternative free solution, as a result I have heard good things about AVast, but I have not tried it myself.

Anti-Spyware

I currently use and recommend Microsoft Defender, which is a free download.

Defender runs quietly in the background and is updated regularly by Microsoft through Windows Update. When Microsoft purchased it some years ago it was hailed as a particularly effective anti-spyware solution.

I have heard some rumblings that Defender might be starting to lag behind other anti-spyware solutions. I still recommend it, but will also throw out Spybot Search and Destroy as a worthy alternative, also free.

Firewall

For home/business use I recommend the use of any good NAT router as a firewall. If all the computers on the local network side of the firewall can be trusted, then no additional software firewall is called for.

When traveling I recommend simply turning on the built-in Windows Firewall.

I understand that some people feel strongly that an additional software firewall is still called for in certain circumstances, but in my opinion those circumstances are infrequent. I do not have a specific product to recommend, as all of the current software firewalls seem to cause issues from time to time.

What Else?

I recommend you backup, regularly. 99% of the disasters I hear about could be completely avoided simply by having up to date backups. Acronis TrueImage is the backup software I use and recommend.

Keep your computer up to date. That means turning on Windows Update or making sure to visit the Windows Update web site religiously. The vast majority of computer infections we hear about are due to the operating system simply not being kept up to date with the latest available patches.

And finally, Internet Safety: How do I keep my computer safe on the internet? has even more tips for keeping your computer safe.

Related:

Article 12721 | Posted September 30, 2008

Recent Comments
24 Comments

Panda is a software that allows you can choose yor protection according to your computer activity and your need for security levels. I've tried many and I love the platinum version. Never have the problems that spyware causes. It's Always giving notifications of actions taken that makes me feel more secure. I've tried Avast but prefer Panda.

Posted by: E Johnson at October 7, 2008 9:18 PM

Personally i use comodo.com
for firewall-clamwin for antivirus.
No issues for the past 2 yrs.

Posted by: Fastfreddie1959 at October 7, 2008 10:00 PM

Is it possible to be TOO clean with your computer? At the end of a day my husband and I run CCleaner,Spybot,Ad Aware, Spywear Terminator and Spywear Dr. ( not at same time) . People say we are silly but some programs find things others won't.

Posted by: Kelly Poole at October 8, 2008 12:13 PM

I have found that most anti-spyware is a waste of time...I've made a c: partition (8 gigs) strickly for the os and a d: partition for everything else (my docs, program files etc.) and use acronis to image my c:. Anything happens to the os and it's a simple 10 mins to reinstall the imaged os. I do use antivir for realtime antivirus and kaspersky for scanning new installs, not realtime. Online armor for firewall and that's about it. I've found adaware and spybot just too bloated and doesnt really help all that much. Oh and I also use sandboxie for questionable .exe's. Needless to say I don't worry abit.

Posted by: David at October 9, 2008 3:58 PM

If you use AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 and choose to turn off LinkScanner as recommended by Leo, the AVG tray icon will show an 'error' state (appears with a big red ! over it). It is possible to turn this off as follows: open the AVG user interface, from the Tools menu choose Advanced Settings... On the left-hand side click Ignore Faulty Conditions, then check LinkScanner.

Posted by: Martin at October 11, 2008 5:12 PM

NOD32 from ESET has worked well for me for a few yrs now. Only lately have they gone to the suite thing where they now have anti spyware which I am informed is not compatible with Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy. Counter Spy seemed to be a very good anti spyware program. Have also been using aSquared along with Windows Defender. I guess I got carried away and paranoid. But aSquared has become a monster bother and soI may uninstall it.

Posted by: JayD at October 13, 2008 7:41 AM

I use Avast antivirus and found it to be the best

Posted by: Ronnell at October 14, 2008 8:31 AM

Most successful software
serach-and-destroy [broken link removed] has been the only software to successfully detect blocks and removes spyware, adware, pop-ups. It is the only one which could defend my computer from hijackers. No other software could do it. It's simply great.

Posted by: James at October 16, 2008 2:21 AM

A great help
As a student I was always worried regarding my presentation files getting corrupt.
Re-doing all my files was always an extra work for me. But After installing serach-and-destroy [broken link removed] all the problems regarding my pc were solved. Now I am least worried about trojan invading my pc. This software has helped me to a great extend to make my pc spyware free.

Posted by: James at October 16, 2008 2:23 AM

Leo,
thanks for all your good advice. In this summary, you don't say anything about "Registry Scan software to Repair Process Errors". I've seen them advertised here and there, and also on your website. I have recently had a virus attack, and Kaspersky personnel suggested that it (the virus) might have changed the registry. Fortunately, with their help, the virus was finally identified and eliminated without having to recourse to working at the regisrty. I know from your previous comments that if something is advertised on your site, it does not mean that you recommend it. Fine, but if you say nothing about registry scan and repair softwares, does it mean you do NOT recommend them, and of course my main question is: what do they do?
Thanks in particular for your advice concerning backup. I retired recently, and realized that at work our IS department had taken care of that for us, ... Now, I have to take care of myself. If it was not for your excellent newsletter, I would be lost!
A million thanks (sorry to be so long)

I address registry cleaners and scanners here: What's the best registry cleaner?
- Leo
30-Nov-2008

Posted by: Andrevm at November 29, 2008 7:08 AM

Post a comment on "What Security Software do you Recommend?":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

New!

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Ask Your Question:


ask-leo.com
Web

Stay Informed

Weekly Newsletter

Archives

By Category
By Date

Advertisers

Advertise on Ask Leo!

««   »»

Question? - Ask Leo!
Who is Leo?
Link to Leo!

Terms, Conditions & Privacy