Some security suggestions please

[leon]

Hi Guys, Seeing that I have only been using Microsoft essentials security for the past few years, i figured it was time to get some more advance virus control on my machines.

So I'm up for any suggestions for something which is both good and reasonably priced, and not overly intrusive.

Thanks in advance.

Leon :thumbsup:

[bojan]

AVG antivirus is free.

[mithrandir]

... but they keep badgering you to upgrade to the paid version. I just keep saying no.

MSE is not actually that bad, especially compared to the memory and CPU hog that is SAV (Symantec Anti Virus - the current incarnation of Norton). Like any AV product it needs to be kept up to date.

[MrB]

I gave up on 3rd party AV resource hogs years ago.
MSE works fine and I've never had an issue.

I had huge issues with AVG on an Acer machine years ago. A quick google search found I was far from alone.

[Astro_Bot]

I switched to Linux years ago and have never had a problem. Of course, Windows programs won't run on it, but there are ways around that if you know how*, and mostly the Linux substitutes are as good (for routine purposes) and in some cases better ... at least in my experience. And it has all been completely free!

That's probably more than you want, but one of the main strengths of Linux is its relative security - it's not utterly impervious to vulnerability, but, IMO and that of many others I know, it's a couple of orders of magnitude better than Windows, particularly if you use a feature called Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux).

For astronomy software, you'll probably still need Windows, but you could set up "dual-boot" where you no longer use Windows online, just for astro, and leave the dangerous online stuff to Linux. You can still get Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel natively in Linux, though.


* Some programs run well in a Windows emulator called Wine (and some don't), whereas I prefer to use a virtual machine (in a program called VirtualBox, which is free, though you'll still need a license for Windows inside the virtual machine) that'll run just about anything. The downside is accelerated 3D stuff, such as games, which need both direct hardware access and the Windows APIs, so they won't work well, if at all, in a virtual machine.

[leon]

How will MSE go when Microsoft don't have any more assistance or updates after 2013, or is that not a problem.

That was probably my reason for actually up grading to something in the first place.

I do have to say though, MSE has performed very well over this period of time.

Leon

[MrB]

I was not aware there was an end date for MSE?
If we assume the support end date is determined by the version of Windows being used, support would end on the following dates:
Windows XP 8/4/2014
Windows Vista 11/4/2017
Windows 7 14/1/2020

[sheeny]

Leon,

I used to use VET, which became Computer Associates (CA) Antivirus, but that eventually became a resource hog and clashed with the drivers for my DMK cameras. RB put me onto ESET, which I have had no problems with, and its not resource hungry.

Al.

[bojan]

Not really.. I disabled everything else apart from virus scan, and there is no nagging.
(It detected couple of nasties already and placed them into vault, so I know it is functional).

[JB80]

I have three, avast for general real time security and as back up I have MalwareBytes and Super anti-spyware.
Some pick up things that others miss and between the three of them if you do regular scans nothing should get through. Well at least since I have changed to this nothing has got through apart from one annoying PitAware which is invisible to most scans.
All of the above are free as well.

I changed to this after getting some malware onboard and the first piece of advice I got was to ditch AVG for avast. So I did. :D

Some people are far more experienced and knowledgable in the protection area and truth be told half the time I haven't a clue what they are talking about without heading to google for a translation.
But this seems to work fine for me without needing to be too technical.

One point though is to only use one of them as your full time security and disable the other two otherwise it can crash the PC, as others say they are resource hogs.

[leon]

Thank you for your suggestions, will have a look at a couple of them.

Leon

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

I'm certainly with Jarrod on MalwareBytes (MBam), based on experience. I was using MSE and nonetheless my PC contracted a real bugger of an infection (from visiting Internet sites on crocheting :D), a rootkit which was the devil to get rid of. This turned out to be a brand new nasty which was not yet in the MSE database (that however is common enough).

MSE could not even see it directly, just the fallout from it (files it altered), so I got MBam for $25, perpetual licence, one-time payment. This entitled me to open with them a "ticket" on my PC infection, and then, prolonged advice from one of their experts, named Tom Mercado. He seemed to have seen everything before, and directed me to use one industry virus killer after another from various sources on the Net. Soon the infection was gone.

The only other difference between the freeware version (no support) and the paid version of MBam is that the paid version (MBam Pro) is resident and starts up each boot on your PC, whereas the freeware resides in the Cloud and has to be called manually whenever you want it to run.

I have no connection with them except that they saved me :thumbsup:

Cheers

[xstream]

Leon, as Al has pointed out, get ESET Nod32 (http://eset.com.au/)it's one of the best!

[leon]

Thanks John and others, have looked at the site, and it dose look like a pretty good option.

Leon

[acropolite]

Avast and Malware bytes is my current AV spyware combo on my home PC's.
AVG has also proven itself to be problematic in my experience, both on my own machines and on customers machines that we have had to do installs on.

Nod32 has been our resident AV at work for over a decade, it's been a reliable and low resource solution on our somewhat dated hardware and software.

[bojan]

Thanks for this, time for me to look for something better.. just in case ;)

[RAJAH235]

Hi Leon,
I'm another one who recommends Avast, SUPERAntispyware & Malwarebytes.

I also use Comodo free firewall & Spyware Blaster for those irritating tracking cookies etc.

Avast & Comodo auto update, the rest do not, but all are free.

Never had a problem with any of them, nor had any nasties.

Stay safe.

[RobF]

MSE + full Malwarebytes = low cost, high protection

Used ESET for many years, but have been happy with MSE - except one recent nasty that required MWB to recover from.

[Forgey]

I also use and recommend Avast. Before avast, I was using Trend Micro and would recommend that if your willing to purchase a yearly license for it. I only switched to Avast due to I kept forgetting to pay the yearly license for Trend.

[Dooghan]

MSE and I run my browser in a sandbox environment. The most likely way of me getting a virus is going to be through my browser. The virus gets installed into the sandbox and all I do is delete the sandbox. No more virus. I also have a script blocking plugin for my browser which helps stop virus getting on my PC in the first place. And I don't go to dodgy websites.

[ZeroID]

We run McAfee at work and one pC at home has it, part of the ISPs service free but otherwise I am now just using MSE. Previoulsy AVG free seemed ok, most others are resource hogs especially Symantec.
MBAM in emergency only.
If you stay away from torrent and music sharing sites (dodgy) you normally don't have too many problems. Only real bad in our household was when the young fella got onto limewire I think.
Maybe I've been lucky ... or careful ... or both.

[troypiggo]

Out of interest, how do you sandbox your browser? Virtual machine?

[Dooghan]

I use a program called Sandboxie (http://www.sandboxie.com/). Not only can you use it sandbox your browser but any program.

[RAJAH235]

A bit of relevant info...

I just loaded a USB Flash drive with a couple of .exe files, which I intended to load onto a lady's M/C.
They were both versions of the Media Player Classic, one older version & the latest MPC HC.
She didn't have an app that would play an .flv/flash video that I had loaded previously.
I duly inserted the USB, the auto play UI kicked in, I opened the folder & low & behold....
her Nortons (paid for), immediately removed one & a pop up stated it had stopped a trojan from being loaded.

What!

Another false positive from good ol' Norton.

Seeing as she was in a hurry, I had no chance to check where Nortons had placed it.

I installed the "good" MPC HC version & showed her how to open/run/view the .flv/flash videos.

She was happy, so left it at that.
She said that her daughter would look for where Norton had hidden my file.
(Not that it matters.)

Nortons strikes again.

:)

[Barrykgerdes]

I am not sure how the anti virus programs work but I would imagine that they search for a binary pattern that corresponds to a sequence in their data base.

This should work OK if the search looks at the whole virus but if the data base is simplified by reducing the length of the search pattern a small number of anomallies can occur. This can happen particularly with some compresion programs that end up with a binary sequence that resembles the search portion of a virus.

The simplified free programs will find the sequence and inhibit the action to be safe wheras a top notch program may look deeper if the abrieviated sequence appears and not record as a virus if the rest of the virus sequence is missing.

The biggest problems with the simplified programs is they usually wipe the (wanted) program so that you can't get around it.

Barry

PS there is a program in MinGW named elfedit.exe that has two versions one is 680KB and one that has 1.05MB. Malware bytes stops the 680KB version but not the 1.05MB version. A detailed examination of both files by Anti Virus program suppliers does not support the suspect Trojan. No harmful effects have yet been discovered by executing the suspect version of the program.

B.