Need some help selecting a new internet security software.

[chaos5061]

Well I just had some more fun with AVG. The new update tonight at 8:24 pm CST messed up something in the Firewall. If you have updated you no longer have a Internet Connection at least not a wireless one. The only reason I'm writing this now is because the AVG on my Desktop has not updated yet most likely. So now I'm through with them. They have mad me really This and the other update that I wrote about that really messed up my computers has just put me off of them. What has really made me is that about a month ago the refund for my money expired. So I just wasted about $165 on this thing for about 3 1/2-4months of protection. So anybody got any ideas on a new internet security software? I don't mind Microsoft Security Essentials but it sure takes a long time for the scan to finish on a full scan. Norton I use to have back in 2004 but it became such a resource hog I left. Couldn't even surf the web with Norton running. Right before AVG I had Webroot but with the latest update from them it became the same resource hog the Norton is. Have been thinking about Avast and Avira. Anybody have any experience with them? McAfee and Trend Micro and Kaspersky I've read reviews about and they are very mixed some say good some say bad. So anybody got any suggestion?

[raynman]

I am running Microsoft Security Essentials on my rigs. Yes the full scan seems like it takes an eternity, but I only run it once a week and usually while I am at work so it doesn't bother me. You definitely can't beat the price and the updates seem quite seemless. I was using ESET NOD32 prior to switching over to MSE, I found it to be a great program with very little overhead. The only reason I changed was that by sub was expiring and I had seen some good reviews for MSE.

A lot of the bad reviews for McAfee are based on previous versions of their AV software at one point it was a bloated mess like Norton which seemed to let more in than it kept out. In the last few years they seemed to have gotten things straightened out and have become a much better product. I have never used Avira and it has been an eternity since I have used Avast, I quit using it when it and some home recording software I was using at the time didn't want to play nice together. It was cheaper to replace the AV software than the home recording software. I have had some friends tell me that Kaspersky has caused them some odd issues with WoW. It's nothing I have been able to verify yet, but I thought I would throw it out there. My only experience with Trend Micro is with their AV software is on the business side of the house. They are completely different animals since they don't carry much bloat which could bog down a network.

[chaos5061]

Thanks. Will keep those in mind. Anybody else got anything to add?

[jerothas]

I use Zone Alarm as part of an identity/credit protection monthly service I'm enrolled in. $10 a month, and the antivirus/anti-spyware/firewall software is free (including updates). Also included is free credit monitoring, online backup, credit/debit/bank account monitering, and a few other nice bonuses.

Not sure how much it is if you would look into getting just ZoneAlarm, but $10 a month, for me, is absolutely worth every penny.

[dulak]

I use Microsoft Security Essentials as well and don't have any issues. You could also check out Avast!. I used it for quite a while and it worked really well but doesn't have all of the features that MSE has.

[cabby]

Honestly Chaos, as long as you personally don't do stupid things like downloading pirated software, going to the links in those fake Blizzard account emails, etc. then the MSE along with Defender are more than enough protection for you. All of the anti-virus programs running on your machine at once would still only account for maybe 10% of your total security because 90% of it comes from your own common sense while online. Yes, sooner or later you'll get something no matter how cautious you are, but realistically if you surf smart then you can easily get away with never loading up any anti-virus software to begin with. I actually tested that out for 3 years on my desktop, and that's how long it took before I finally got a small annoying virus that was just some stupid malware. I had it cleaned off my system in about 5min with simply using msconfig and a boot into a command prompt to delete the files. Either way, the MSE is really no different than Avast or McAfee or Norton and there's absolutely no reason to be shelling out money every year for those products. No one single AV is superior to the others and the only real differences in them is the costs. This isn't like trying to compare Zygor's to some cheap freebie guide, more like comparing Zygor 2.0 to Zygor 3.0. The only real difference is maybe a couple of bells and whistles and a different look, but at the core it's still the same thing.

[chaos5061]

So I can run MSE and Defender at the same time? I thought MSE did what Defender does also? If I can run both at the same time then that would be a good solution. How about Windows Firewall? Is it good enough or should I be looking for a different one?

[chaos5061]

I use Zone Alarm as part of an identity/credit protection monthly service I'm enrolled in. $10 a month, and the antivirus/anti-spyware/firewall software is free (including updates). Also included is free credit monitoring, online backup, credit/debit/bank account monitering, and a few other nice bonuses.

Not sure how much it is if you would look into getting just ZoneAlarm, but $10 a month, for me, is absolutely worth every penny.

On there website for just one year of what you got it's 49.95. So you got a deal with that company jerothas.

[cabby]

MSE and Defender play well together, but 99% of the work is done by MSE. I actually have both installed, but seldom see or touch Defender. Firewall should be good enough too. As I said, 90% of your internet security comes from how you browse and your own common sense. It's also a lot easier to keep your system secure if you're the only one that uses it.

[jerothas]

Yeah, I get it through a service called Identity Guard which is $10 a month for Costco employees and $15 a month otherwise.

[dudedafool]

I have AVG 2011, and did the update.. Haven't had any internet issues at all.

Strange that you're having issues.

[chaos5061]

I have AVG 2011, and did the update.. Haven't had any internet issues at all.

Strange that you're having issues.

You got the free version? I had AVG 2011 Internet Security thing. 2 years 5 user. I don't know what to tell you. It was that update that caused the problem though. The firewall in it said that the firewall was stopped. I tried everything to reenable the thing but every time I disabled it from the options menu it would come up and say I think it was NIDS not available or something like that and then in the options it was enabled again. But as soon as I started to uninstall it and it reached about the 35-40% mark the wireless internet came back on the computer and that was about the time the little box popped up and said that no firewall was on and then the box said the windows firewall was turned on. I tried just turning on the windows firewall before I uninstalled AVG but it didn't work the AVG one wouldn't ever turn off.

[chaos5061]

As I said, 90% of your internet security comes from how you browse and your own common sense. It's also a lot easier to keep your system secure if you're the only one that uses it.

Problem with that is I'm not the only one on the network. My mom and dad are also on it and I'm the one who has to take care of the problems that happen. They like to go to different sites and look around at things so they don't really watch what they are doing when they surf the web. And if they get something it can't handle and takes like editing the registery to remove then I can't do that. We would have to take the computer to a shop to get it fixed and the I have to listen to them bitch about the security thing not being good enough. I can't win

[cabby]

One very nice software suite that I use has a tool to allow you to clean and backup/restore the registry. It's a reasonably priced item and makes life pretty easy when it comes to basic PC maintenance. Just do an occasional backup (maybe once every other week) and then you don't need to worry about the virii that like to make registry entries (almost all of them) because you can just restore an old backup after it's removed.

Might want to check out the trial version to see if it's something you'd be interested in. http://www.yamicsoft.com/index.html

[dulak]

Windows firewall is shit, plain and simple. I don't even use it. The internal firewall of my router is more than sufficient. Reason I say the windows firewall is shit is due to an experiment my tech class done a few semesters ago. We made a brute force program that could bust through gigabit encryption which is what the firewall is supposed to be. It took the program all of 10 seconds to get through it.