TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Just wondering what programs people use for stopping those nasties .

I voted for AVG, but Avast is apparently just as good. here are some programmes I recommend.

AVG free or Avast antivirus programmes.

Zonealarm or Kerio free firewall programmes.

Spybot Search & Destroy.

Ad-Aware se personal.

Spyware Blaster.

AVG Antispyware.

Ccleaner.

Regards Howard

I use norton. Haha..jk..i wouldn't let that within 10 feet of my cd drive. I use zonealarm/avg

I use Norton, unfortunately; but I disabled the firewall and used Kerio instead. I'm gonna try to convince my dad to get AVG or Avast after Norton's subscription runs out.

None. I'm confident in my ability to stay clean.

No email other than gmail.
Running OpenOffice rather than MS Office (but Viruses aren't the reason I'm using OO, and neither is a dislike for MS).
Hardware firewall + whatever XP's firewall adds.
Opera.
I don't click IM links unless I'm expecting one, and I use Trillian.
Maybe some others I can't think of right now.

I took the liberty of adding a couple more poll options.

Avira AntiVir + Comodo Firewall. I also run Spybot S&D and Ad-aware and no, I don't keep them running in the background, I run them all at night when I'm asleep or just anytime I'm not at home.

I'm generally pretty good at keeping nasty stuff of of my machine, but just in case I miss something I'd like to know I'm still safe. I haven't been infected since Win95 or Win98 (can't remember).

I can see how the many options in firewalls like Comodo can confuse newbies, so for anyone not very experienced I'd recommend something like ZoneAlarm or Kerio.

AND for anyone wondering if other products from Comodo (like Antivirus) are any good, NO, they aren't. Firewall is AFAIK the only thing good that Comodo makes.

I currently have three PCs at home. On my best one I'm trying Kapersky, on the middle one I have McAfee and on my oldest I'm using the free version of Avast.

Don't you run linux? you don't have to worry about much with linux.

Depends on which computer. I have 2 Apple computers, 2 Windows boxes (one I rarely physically touch, media center), and 1 linux box. In reality I use linux the least, likely because its only single monitor setup

Most of the time when I'm on TS at home I'm using my Powerbook.

No antivirus on my Macs, none on linux, none on 1 windows machine - AVG on my media center.

I run AVG anti-malware along with a hardware firewall.

Techspot does not condone any use of piracy, or P2P programs. In no such way, should anyone use these programs and openly talk about them in Techspot Openboards.

Agreed, post deleted.

Regards Howard

Brilliant! If we could only teach everyone this concept! :giddy:

humbug! EVERY system has problems and no system is immune.

I'm one of the two people who said "I don't use Antivirus." I don't use it because A) I've never got a virus in my life (only spyware). B) I reformat my HDD(s) every 4 months. And C) I never have anything valuable stored on my HDD. That's all on my removable USB drive that's never plugged into my system except for while I'm copying things to it.

I would use it if it didn't complicate the process of playing online games, and if it didn't slow my boot times and have a small impact on game performance (depends on the brand I guess though).

Since I reformat every 4 months, I don't really care if I get a virus because I'm so used to reformatting that it barely bothers me if I have to do it 2 times in a week.

I voted for AVG for free users.I used it till i purchased,
Fix-It 6.
Does that and much more.Money well invested.