What is your AntiVirus and Firewall choice?

[DSP8000]

Hi,

I was just curious what you guys use as in software and hardware security solutions.

Here are the categories:

-Software Freeware
-Software Payware(crap)
-Software Payware(most secure, money no object)
-Hardware
-AntiVirus Only
-Firewall Only
-Security Suite

I use soft/hardware solution.

DSP8000

[Inventive Software]

Do we have to give names of the software as well?

On my computer personally, I don't have anti-virus or a firewall because I'm not connected to the internet, and the computers that I download stuff off anyway have anti-virus and hardware firewall.

My parents' computer has paid software for both AV and FW. No prizes for guessing the manufacturer of both. :D

My ideal solution would be a free software anti-virus and a hardware firewall running Linux. The free anti-virus? AVG of course!

[reepa]

I use free software solutions for both. The firewall is Tiny Personal, which Tiny Software used to give away for free. It's been working fine, although it often crashes when you install network drivers or software (for example Microsoft's Services for UNIX). It's got a nice rule configuration instead of vague options like 'safe', 'less safe', or 'more safe'. The antivirus software suite is Anti-Vir Personal (the only free anti-virus suite?) which I started using after Norton Antivirus changed so that it cannot be used simultaneously on two computers (it's still on the other computer). I'm happy with AVPersonal, although I have to update it by manually clicking Start Internet update (it's got some kind of a scheduler software which I haven't made myself familiar with). Also, my FreeBSD laptop has no firewall or antivirus software (should it have?).

[tigerman8u]

I use AVG free and Zone Alarm free. Both have well worked good for me in the past. I did use Norton a couple years ago but it seemed to use more system resources.

[DigitAl56K]

Didn't Tiny become Kerio?

I use Kerio Personal Firewall and Kaspersky Anti-virus Personal Pro 5. I'd recommend both.

I did use AVG for some time and it was good, but IMO the scan engine in KAV is better. AVG used to win over KAV in terms of user interface, but KAV 5 changes all that...

[dragongodz]

antivirus - Avast home edition(free)
firewall - hardware.

[AnimalMother]

firewall - hardware
anti virus - system restore

[stephanV]

McAfee for anti-virus + sygate personal firewall

[Brother John]

I agree with you, reepa. A useful desktop firewall needs to be rule based. A set of some rather generic profiles is not really what firewalls are about, is it?
For a long time I was perfectly happy with AtGuard, but after installing XP’s SP2 it didn’t work anymore. R.I.P. Now I use Kerio 4 (only the free features). Occupies more RAM than AtGuard but provides much more flexible filtering.

Viruses? Had the last one of these 10 years ago on an old pre-internet 386 machine. So for me antivirus software is perfectly useless. Though I scan about once every year with AVPersonal.

[gircobain]

Kerio Winroute Firewall 6 and McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8

[Sirber]

firewall: dedicated linux running iptables with grsec-enabled kernel
a-v: no need, use Firefox instead of IE, and use a webmail, not outlook :D

[DigitAl56K]

From personal experience I would recommend against McAfee and also Norton 2004.

[IgorC]

Kaspersky Internet Security 2006 + Win XP SP2

[Sirber]

Originally posted by Axed
Firewall: Hardware routerThose always have a small NAT table and crash when you use P2P softwares. Better use an good old linux running on your unused P2 :D

[DSP8000]

firewall: dedicated linux running iptables with grsec-enabled kernel

I like that:D


Anti-Virus: You dont really need an A-V program, it only depends on how you use your computer and the internet.

I partially agree;)

Anyone knows some websites that have up to date AV & firewalls reviews?


DSP8000

[DigitAl56K]

Originally posted by Axed
Anti-Virus: You dont really need an A-V program, it only depends on how you use your computer and the internet.

BS.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Not using Outlook Express is one good way of reducing the likelihood of getting a virus. And if you use hotmail (or msn) for your e-mailing, they are automatically scanned for viruses!

I'm using the Firewall software that comes with WinXP Pro... is this so bad?


Cheers

[GrEEk_OuTcAsT]

Firewall: SP2's one

AV: BitDefender Free edition

[Sirber]

Originally posted by Axed
Been wanted to do this since i got axed from my job :/ Any recommendations on a distro, and a guide?I'm using gentoo linux. Here's the guide (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml). Here's the flag list (http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml) and gcc optimization list (http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.4.3/gcc/i386-and-x86_002d64-Options.html#i386-and-x86_002d64-Options). I suggest you print all that if you can't access them online :D. You can contact me by email or msn/icq if you need help.Originally posted by Axed
Anti-Virus: You dont really need an A-V program, it only depends on how you use your computer and the internet. True. Never got a virus in years. Best protection is yourself. A/V and firewall on your WS slow it down.

[GitsLM]

i am using antivir pers. edition and outpost. i was using zonealarm before but switch to outpost because of better posibilities in setting the thing up ;)

[Si]

Originally posted by DigitAl56K
BS.
I don't use any AV either - it does depend on what you do and where you surf.

Once in a blue moon I use the online House Trend scan but its never found anything.

I started using AVG on the family computer at Xmas because my daughter ended up visiting somewhere or downloading something but I use nothing on this one.

Been using computers for 28 years.

Its not BS :)

regards
Simon

[Sirber]

:goodpost:

[SeeMoreDigital]

I don't run any anti-virus software either...

I tried McAfee on a 3 month free trial basis back in the days when all I had was a 56K dial-up connection. Every-time I turned my PC on and went on-line, the PC spent that much time downloading anti-virus updates there was no bandwidth left to do any surfing :(

Just exercise caution is my advice... And running a minimum of 2No boots helps!


Cheers

[Nematocyst]

I used to use Norton Anti-Virus, but I really didn't care for all the non-AV related stuff they put on also. In addition, it caused problems with my computer which took some effort to track down.

I agree that there is little need for AV software if you are careful, but I've been using AVG Free (http://www.grisoft.com) for a year or more now, and have had no trouble with it and observed no slowdowns other than during a scan. Still, good AV software is no replacement for common sense. The only virus I've ever gotten was once when I downloaded a file to verify my own suspicions that it contained a virus. heh.

For firewall, I combine a router with Zone Alarm Pro (http://www.zonelabs.com) and have never had any problems aside from proper configuration. On another machine, I am content with just XP's SP2 firewall.

[spuddog]

norton internet security. also spybot and ad-aware. i agree that if you are careful you can avoid most virus's (virii) but the ones you don't find are the ones that wil bite you

[gircobain]

Originally posted by DigitAl56K
From personal experience I would recommend against McAfee and also Norton 2004.
I don't like Norton either (too bloated)
Have been running McAfee with no problems
Anything in particular on why you would recommend against it?

[Sirber]

Protection vs Performances

Simple choice ;)

[Doobie]

Anyone who is anyone uses one of these firewalls:

Armor2net, Bullguard Suite, 8Signs, Firewall X-treme, Freedom Personal Firewall, HackerSmacker, InJoy, Norman Personal Firewall, Omniguad, pcInternet Patrol, Primedius, Securepoint Personal Firewall, SecureUp Personal Firewall, SoftPerfect Personal Firewall, Surf Secret Personal Firewall, TGB::BOB!, VisNetic Firewall, Webroot My Firewall Plus

Of course, all the old firewalls are not on this list, like Ambra, Conceal, etc.

There are a number of obscure firewalls, like Zone Alarm and Norton Personal Firewall. But, no one uses them.

[Sirber]

Originally posted by Doobie
Anyone who is anyone uses one of these firewalls:

Armor2net, Bullguard Suite, 8Signs, Firewall X-treme, Freedom Personal Firewall, HackerSmacker, InJoy, Norman Personal Firewall, Omniguad, pcInternet Patrol, Primedius, Securepoint Personal Firewall, SecureUp Personal Firewall, SoftPerfect Personal Firewall, Surf Secret Personal Firewall, TGB::BOB!, VisNetic Firewall, Webroot My Firewall Plus

Of course, all the old firewalls are not on this list, like Ambra, Conceal, etc.Those are totally obscure :sly:
Originally posted by Doobie
There are a number of obscure firewalls, like Zone Alarm and Norton Personal Firewall. But, no one uses them. Zone Alarm is one of the best firewall for windows. Most people uses it.

[DigitAl56K]

Originally posted by Sirber
Never got a virus in years. Best protection is yourself. A/V and firewall on your WS slow it down.

And you know this even though you don't have any A/V software because.... ?

[DigitAl56K]

Originally posted by gircobain
I don't like Norton either (too bloated)
Have been running McAfee with no problems
Anything in particular on why you would recommend against it?

I've seen computers equipped with McAfee (even updated versions) fall victim to viruses far too many times in the past, despite having the resident scanner active. On one occasion I actually trusted the McAfee A/V on one PC and brought home a nice little virus on a zip disk to my home PC which didn't have any A/V running at the time. On another occasion my mothers laptop fell victim to a worm, even though I had updated the definitions 2 days earlier. Not fun :)

A/V's are also somewhat subject to the way they are configured, updated, and administered though.

One thing I like about Kaspersky is that it updates every 3 hours by default, and more than that, Kaspersky do actually push updates almost as frequently. Without a good service backing your A/V package you're at risk from new viruses even if the A/V itself is pretty good. Any A/V can catch a virus that has been in the wild for a week. Can they all catch one that is spreading fast only a few hours hours after it was released?

I'll also put a word in for Sophos as the pricey option. I used this once several years ago and was pretty impressed. It's an extremely fast scanner targetted more at the corporate market, but I believe from what I read that it's also very effective. You will probably have noticed their communications manager, Graham Cluley quoted quite often in the online press. He does go over the top marketing the impending doom from the latest viruses on occasion, but I know back in the day he would also participate in popular anti-virus news groups, so kudos to him for that...

[Sirber]

Originally posted by DigitAl56K
And you know this even though you don't have any A/V software because.... ? I had norton for some years. Beside reducing my HDD speed, made no good.

[dragongodz]

i have to agreee with DigitAl56K and his "B.S." statement. :)

my wife has got virii in spam emails etc and i can tell you she hardly ever surfs the net and even those times its to 3 well trusted sites only.
while i rarely get virii even though i do the most browsing.

so why you ask ? most likly answer is from freinds email addresses being compramised or such. to think you are safe because you "surf safe" is wishful thinking. :D

Been using computers for 28 years.
why is it when people say this i get annoyed ? hmm maybe because it proves nothing and yet is supposed to say "i know what i am talking about.". ;)

I'm using gentoo linux.
Sirber - that isnt a nice suggestion for someone just wanting to make the leap to Linux. they would be better off dipping their tow with Mandrake or SUSE or even maybe Fedora first no ?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by dragongodz
i have to agreee with DigitAl56K and his "B.S." statement. :)

my wife has got virii in spam emails etc and i can tell you she hardly ever surfs the net and even those times its to 3 well trusted sites only.
while i rarely get virii even though i do the most browsing.

so why you ask ? most likly answer is from freinds email addresses being compramised or such.... Please confirm...

Does she use Outlook Express for receiving/sending e-mails... I think so!


Cheers

[Sirber]

Originally posted by dragongodz
Sirber - that isnt a nice suggestion for someone just wanting to make the leap to Linux. they would be better off dipping their tow with Mandrake or SUSE or even maybe Fedora first no ? There are 2 kind of linux, WS distro and Server distro. Server distro runs on older HW and have a better performance. Gentoo is very easy to install using the guide. I even offered help :)

[Slogra]

Antivirus: AVG Free
Software firewall: Mcafee Guardian (if i uninstall i lose my network connection and i really can't fix it :angry: )
Hardware firewal: in router
Spyware busters: Spybot and Adaware

[Arachnotron]

Does she use Outlook Express for receiving/sending e-mails... I think so!Many virus make use of internet explorer exploits or other problems with windows components. This means that even if you do use other mailingprograms, the mere fact that it *is* a windows program can make you vulnerable. For instance, Eudora by default uses IE parts to view HTML mails. And what about embedded jpg files? (GDI exploits).

It is virtually impossible for a mere mortal to predict how any of M$ security bulletins (or even non-published security holes) is going to affect the software they are using themselves, since you cannot know which windows components are being used by it.

The only way around using a local scanner that I see is using a separate machine with a scanning web and mailproxy to filter out the baddies before they reach your computer. But then there is MSN......

Personally, I use McAfee. I have had too many problems in the past with symantec products. The build-in firewall of XP is not bad, at least better than none at all. I mostly leave it on. For a firewall for my home network I am going to use gentoo, perhaps freeBSD (building it right now).

By the way: if your internet connection is coming in through a single ethernet point, consider using a bridging filewall instead of a classic one. Most distro's allow for it out of the box by now, and they are the most secure firewalls available. The only downside to them is that they cannot NAT or do routing, so you still need something else to set up the connection with your isp. Mind, setting one up is not beginners stuff.

[Sirber]

Originally posted by Axed
Yeah thanks for the offer Sirber, ill have a good read thru all that information. I think i have to get a new network card in the least before i do this, so thats next pay check before i start. You need 2 LAN cards, one for your ADSL/Cabme modem and one for your LAN. A good old 10mbps LAN card is sufficient for your modem.

[dragongodz]

Does she use Outlook Express for receiving/sending e-mails... I think so!
well you think wrong and missed the point. that being that virii has come from her freinds emailing her and some random ones that may have come from HER FREINDS email address list, not my wifes, being comprimised. also emails can be got from hacked ISP's. a former big ISP i was with was hacked and the only information they think the hackers got was user names, so they would be able to work out the email pretty easy no ?

so you can use whatever safe software, visit whatever safe sites you like but it still doesnt mean you will never get a virus sent to you.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Arachnotron
Many virus make use of internet explorer exploits or other problems with windows components. This means that even if you do use other mailingprograms, the mere fact that it *is* a windows program can make you vulnerable. For instance, Eudora by default uses IE parts to view HTML mails. And what about embedded jpg files? (GDI exploits). Agreed some virus can enter your PC in this method... But the bulk still like to enter your PC via e-mail and spread across the world wide using addresses stored in emailing applications like Outlook Express.

I see that some real pain-in-the-ass viruses/spy-wares are entering PC's as Internet Explorer "tool bar" add-ons!


Cheers

[TactX]

Firewall: Windows 2000 IPsec service
AV: My brain

[Sirber]

IPsec is not a firewall, more like a VPN. Maybe M$ just named their firewall badly.

[Arachnotron]

Not quite. You can use ipsec policies to "firewall" windows 2000. It is just not really well-known. Here is a nice introduction:

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~mchugha/w2kfirewall.htm

[TactX]

Originally posted by Sirber
IPsec is not a firewall, more like a VPN. Maybe M$ just named their firewall badly.
I use it as a packetfilter which filters unwanted stuff. So I call it "Firewall" for myself. I don't care what you call it.

[Sirber]

Cool! Didn't know :) BTW TactX, I didn't ment to offence you :(

[TactX]

Originally posted by Sirber
Cool! Didn't know :) BTW TactX, I didn't ment to offence you :(
Hey, I didn't feel like you wanted to offence me ;)

I just had too many discussions about "Firewalls" and almost anybody has got a different opinion on how a Firewall should work and look like.

Peace :D

[Si]

Originally posted by dragongodz
i have to agreee with DigitAl56K and his "B.S." statement.

Wher I come from "B.S" means Bullshit which means "you are lying"

My reply was made in order to confirm that I also don't run AV on my computer and confirm the OPs statement that it is not essential if you are careful.

Now, the OP could be lying (but I think not) but I know that I am not.

So agreeing with the statement just makes you look foolish.

I did state my experience on computers to show that I am not a newbie and to imply that my experience should carry some weight. I'm sorry it makes you upset.

Have a nice Easter.

regards
Simon

[DigitAl56K]

It doesn't mean that you're lying, it means what you are saying is wildly inaccurate.

Whether you are careful about downloading files, opening e-mails, using a firewall or not, you need anti-virus software.

If you download files from "trusted" sources you're putting the security of your PC in someone else's hands. Even when the hands are those of a reputable company, nothing guarantees that their practices afford you adequate protection. How many companies actually publish details of how they test their products for viruses before a release?

If you're careful about opening e-mails: What if your mail client is vulnerable and the vendor hasn't announced the vulnerability or released a patch yet? What if your mail client isn't vulnerable directly, but common components it uses are? What if you are duped by an uncommon new type of scam?

What if your OS has a vulnerability in one of it's network-enabled services and the vendor hasn't released a patch yet?

What if you pop a magazine coverdisk into your drive and it has a virus? This kind of thing happens frequently, hell: I even recall a music CD released last year that had special features for PC and was shipped to millions of people with a virus on it.

There are so many routes of attack that by being careful you only reduce your vulnerability. Even if you run A/V you are only reducing your vulnerability. But at least if you have A/V your system is less likely to suffer severe damage in the event that you do become infected, and at least with A/V the chances of you being alerted that you are infected very quickly are high, and at least with A/V there is an additional preventative measure in place other than "being careful".

Have you ever gone out with a girl and told her you don't need protection because you'll be careful? How did that go down?

I imagine that very few of us here are security proffesionals by trade, and I imagine that no security proffesional alive could possibly prepare their system in such a way that it was absolutely invincible from viruses under typical Internet use.

It annoys me no end when people tell me they don't need A/V because they are careful - I bet at least 25% of the crap that hits my firewall on a daily basis comes from those people alone...

Please don't take this as a rant at you personally, more so the "I'm careful.." concept in general.

[gircobain]

Originally posted by DigitAl56K
One thing I like about Kaspersky is that it updates every 3 hours by default, and more than that, Kaspersky do actually push updates almost as frequently. Without a good service backing your A/V package you're at risk from new viruses even if the A/V itself is pretty good. Any A/V can catch a virus that has been in the wild for a week. Can they all catch one that is spreading fast only a few hours hours after it was released?
Well I do really hope their support is better than their servers
It took me a good half hour to download lousy 3mb of updates...

To those claiming antiviruses are useless, my opinion is that just running a Windows OS is a good reason to have an AV on already :rolleyes:

[Doobie]

Originally posted by DigitAl56K Whether you are careful about downloading files, opening e-mails, using a firewall or not, you need anti-virus software.

I've never gotten a virus from downloading from any reputable source. The chance of it happening is so slim as not to worry much about it.

Have you ever gone out with a girl and told her you don't need protection because you'll be careful? How did that go down?

If you only went out with reputable girls...

It annoys me no end when people tell me they don't need A/V because they are careful - I bet at least 25% of the crap that hits my firewall on a daily basis comes from those people alone...

That's probably true. Being careful means not using P2P for any sort of executable, not opening email attachments, having your computer correctly configured, etc. At least people don't trade floppies anymore.