Lenny, I completely agree with most of your post! There are lots of free programs that equal or exceed the paid programs. One of the biggest problems is weeding out those who are truly free from those who are malware or those who contain spyware/adware. A lot of the paid programs have a free program without all the bells and whistles. There are also freeware programs but with these you have to carefully chose the program. Most open-source programs are safe.
We often hear an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and this is especially true on the Internet. NEVER, EVER click on a banner that says your computer is infected with spyware or a virus, click here! They are always Trojans or malware. Instead, close your browser and run your own anti-spyware or anti-virus program. Create a limited user and use it to surf the net. This will prevent a unwanted program from installing on your computer. At the moment I use Avast! 4.8 free version which means I have to run the scan program but it has real time protection. I also use SuperAntiSpyware Free Edition , it also offers real time protection. It detects spyware, adware, trojans and malware. During the registry scan, it also detects hidden entries that many malware programs use such as WinSpywareProtect. I used to use ZoneAlarm free firewall but I found it to be a resource and time hog, I also tried Comodo Firewall but it had too many bugs. AVG is good but I prefer Avast! LNVTM1 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I disagree about not using free programs... since there is no paid version of an anti-spyware that will fully protect your computer either. There are enough free programs that can be used as a multi-stage defense that will use less system resources than one of the paid security suites. I run AVG Free 8.0 (anti-virus), ZoneAlarm Free Firewall and I've used several different free anti-spyware programs. I do currently have a paid version of CounterSpy that I got as a special post-beta price for only $9.95 a year but I wouldn't spend $29.00 or more for any anti-malware program. There are simply too many good ones for free. If Sunbelt ever asks me for more money, I'll simply move back to one of the many free versions. My suggested FREE arsenal for most people would be: AVG Free 8.0 Anti-Virus (there are other GOOD Free Anti-virus programs as well) - running full time and doing daily scans ZoneAlarm Free Firewall (or Comodo Pro Firewall - Free also) - running full time One of many free anti-spyware programs from a reputable company that runs full time in the background. I currently use CounterSpy but I've used Windows Defender (free) and I understand that AVG has a free version of their anti-spyware and there are several others. SpywareBlaster - Free - is a great little program that doesn't use any system resources except for when you manually update it on a weekly basis and it goes in and sets up parameters in your system registry, hosts file, etc. to PREVENT spyware from getting on your computer in the first place. You should still use an anti-spyware program that runs full-time in the background along with this program. Other free anti-spyware programs that I use but only turn on and scan once a week or if needed are... Spybot and Ad-Aware and one of the many online scans... Window Live One Care is one I sent earlier since it not only does a scan for malware but also cleans out temp files, fixes registry issues and defrags the hard drive(s). Remember this... THERE IS NO ONE-SOURCE COMPANY OR PROGRAM THAT WILL COMPLETELY PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER. NONE OF THE SECURITY SUITES WILL DO THE JOB EITHER. BESIDES HAVING YOUR MAIN THREE... FIREWALL, ANTI-VIRUS AND ANTI-SPYWARE RUNNING FULL-TIME, YOU MUST ALSO USE DIFFERENT PROGRAMS ON A WEEKLY SCAN BASIS (OR AS NEEDED IF YOU ARE HAVING ISSUES) TO BE SURE YOU ARE KEEPING YOUR COMPUTER CLEAN. DON'T FALL FOR THE PEOPLE THAT SAY MAC'S ARE SAFE OR FIREFOX IS SAFE... WHILE THAT OS AND BROWSER MIGHT NOT BE UNDER ATTACK AS OFTEN AS MICROSOFT PRODUCTS, THEY STILL SUFFER FROM SECURITY ATTACKS. IT'S JUST THAT SINCE MICROSOFT WINDOWS IS THE MOST POPULAR OS AND INTERNET EXPLORER IS THE MOST POPULAR BROWSER, THE LOW-LIFE, SCUM-BAG, I-WISH-THEY-WOULD-DIE-AND-BURN-IN-HELL HACKERS SPEND MOST OF THEIR TIME CAUSING PROBLEMS FOR MICROSOFT.... kind of like a David vs. Goliath thing... except hackers aren't helping people like David did. Lenny Vasbinder FREE and automatic online remote backup of your documents, photos and files... https://mozy.com/?ref=SY4ZSI Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy remote backup system. Mozy will back up your most important files and folders every day/night while you aren't using your computer. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of richard Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 11:37 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Y!M] Help !!! most if not all Free anti virus programs will not fully protect you from a virus or spyware. spend the money and get an anti virus program that has virus protection and malware / spyware protection. google antivirus programs and read about them, then buy it on ebay for 1/2 price, its worth it not to have problems with virus / malware/ spyware. there is nothing free in this world. ----- Original Message ----- From: kathy kendall To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 11:29 AM Subject: [Y!M] Help !!! LENNY, I need to ask for your expertise (again..lol) I have another spyware company added on to my computer wanting me to buy thier service, and they have attached to my system i cannot get rid of them. They won't even let me on the internet to go to pogo, or poker or anything, everywhere I go is " spies" to it. The name is WinSpywareProtect, do you know anything about them? Or can you look up and see how to get rid of them, you are only one I know who can find out this stuff. Thank you, My anti virus is Avast my spyware is Spyhunter Kathy No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 8.0.100 / Virus Database: 269.23.21/1454 - Release Date: 5/19/2008 7:44 AM ------------------------------------ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unsubscribe from Yahoo_Messenger mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Switch from Normal to Digest mail mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Switch from Normal to NoMail mail mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Switch from Digest or NoMail to Normal mail mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Write to the Moderators and Owner of the List: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Suggestions for improvements to the List should be sent to the "owner" address listed above.Yahoo! Groups Links
