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Summary: I have recommendations for specific products in various places on the site. Here's a short single page summary.
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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.
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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, 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:
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.
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:
Internet Safety: How do I keep my computer safe on the internet? Internet Safety is difficult and yet critical. Here are the seven key steps to internet safety - steps to keep your computer safe on the internet.
Viruses: How do I keep myself safe from Viruses? Computer viruses are a fact of modern connected life. Anti-virus software is required, and both it and the database it uses should be kept up-to-date.
Do I need a firewall, and if so, what kind? Firewalls are a critical component of keeping your machine safe on the internet. There are two basic types, but which is right for you?
Spyware: How do I remove and avoid spyware? There are some important steps to take to deal with the ever-present concern of how to remove and avoid spyware.
Article C3517 - September 30, 2008
This happened the last time, you never answered me! Norton told us Cyber defender are "Hackers' causing computers to become well, screwed up? Question: I have CA or Ca security for Anti-virus&Spyware only as I could not get Norton again, bec/ I cannot use credit card on comp/ They gave me free 3 mo's w/ ACER then another 3 when CyberD messed me up!"Why did 17 then 42 pages show up STACKED w/ connecting at top of empty page one by one until it finally stopped beeping? Will this happen again/was it a "glitch" cause it happened once before a while ago,long time ago/ Does this happen only w/ dial-up bec/ I cannot get DSL/Answer me please or I'll go away, it is a sad thing to be ignored and ran all over the place!
Posted by: catherine fusco at January 7, 2009 5:11 AMLeo, Your sight is so informative, I've written down AVAST& MicrosoftDefender/Firewall& Serach-and Desroy[broken link removed??]means what? Are those all I really need?WindowsVista IS part of Vista, but are they free too? Is AVAST[free] better, your opinion only? Please, why did those empty pages STACK up after leaving site,kept r-clicking to "close" until they ALL did, just tell me that if you cannot tell me the others until another time, you're intellegent AND knowledgeable not always a duo, you know!
Posted by: catherine fusco at January 7, 2009 5:36 AMI have been using Norton AntiVirus since Symantec bought IBM's AntiVirus program. At the time, IBM's software and research facility for AntiVirus software seemed to have the best credibility I could find.
My firm had a McAfee site license, but I found some items that McAfee would not catch (on floppies) would be blocked and removed by Norton (NAV).
The 2009 version of NAV seems to have gotten many things right. Symantec has shrunk the side effects of NAV - boot up is only marginally slower after NAV is installed; scans seem to truly run in the background, and don't drag down other processes that are running; the auto update feature has two modes, and neither have a negative impact on other programs; web browsing is not much slower than before NAV is installed.
I used to agree with Leo's assertion about security suites. But after reading PC Magazine's thorough review (Jan 2009) of Norton Internet Security, it seems that the anti-spyware portion of NAV is as effective as any of the others. NAV is the anti-virus & anti-spyware portion of NIS.
Here's the best part of Norton - SystemWorks Std. Ed. includes NAV as well as Norton Utilities.
I have never had any success with Ad-Aware or SpyBot S&D. In clearing out spyware from others' PCs, I've used SpySweeper to much success.
In any case, I have historically always recommended NAV for the best anti-virus protection, despite some installation & upgrade problems with this software, as well as the performance hits.
Now, with the 2009 version, the performance hits have been minimized.
It would be great to find free security apps, as there are many fantastic free apps out there. But when it comes to security, free does not seem good enough for me.
Now, I will wait for the newest version to be offered for free or close to it. I have seen NAV 2009 offered for free when buying tax software, NIS 2009 and Norton 360 for under $20, but not yet for NSW 2009.
Posted by: Robert M. at February 25, 2009 5:44 AMAVG is pretty good and it goes well with a peeson on a tight budget.
Posted by: ron at March 7, 2009 8:14 PMThere are 3 good free anti-virus products:-
Posted by: Chris B at March 17, 2009 2:25 PMAVG, Avast and Avira. Of these three AVG has the biggest performance hit so I prefer Avira or Avast, especially on low powered machines.
I just uninstalled AVG and installed Avast (free for personal computers). AVG did not pick up the virus software that Avast found. It seems to do a better job and its FREE!
Posted by: Janice Totten at March 26, 2009 12:43 AMJanice
About keeping your computer up to date: Windows Update is not enough! In addition to Windows itself, it is important to update all programs that you use for
- accessing the net
- opening files that you got from the net.
This includes not only browsers, mail, chat, and P2P programs, but also office programs, PDF readers, media players, archive/compression software etc...I have three recommendations for helping with that:
- Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector) is a free (for personal use) program designed to run constantly (without using a lot of resources) and check your security-critical installed software against a database of updates.
- FileHippo Update Checker (also free) does the same thing, but only when you manually start it. Its database (range of programs covered) seems larger than Secunia's, but it doesn't distinguish between critical and non-critical updates.
- If you have installed programs that are not covered by FileHippo or Secunia, set a Web service to watch the home pages (or, maybe better, the download pages) for those programs and send you a mail whenever they change. I use one called WatchThatPage.
Posted by: Henrik Nielsen at March 31, 2009 2:19 PMFor a free firewall, I recommend Sunbelt. At the beginning, the popups asking what you want to do are slightly annoying, but once it learns your habits, it works well. And it consumes little resources. I have also used Avira Free Anti-Virus for years, without a hitch.
Posted by: John at April 21, 2009 9:31 AMI cant decide What to get Kaspersky or SYMANTEC, please be honest. Which is better
Posted by: RJ at June 1, 2009 11:36 AMI find that GFI Backup works equally well for hard disk backups. it does not do any hard disk clones, but i can do without this feature considering that GFI Backup does what it does for free! :-)
Posted by: Matthew Hall at June 2, 2009 3:42 AM