Best Home Computer Security package? 2

[Frink]

Hallo,

I've finally decided to do something serious about security for my home computer, so am after some advice.
Does anyone have any recommendations (+ve or -ve) about any products available.
I'm looking for some sort of firewall and anti-virus software (I think)
Must be easy to set up/use and not be annoying!

- Frink

 

[bjverzal]

I use ZoneAlarm from zonelabs.com.

A free firewall and very good. It was written up my Mark Gibbs (Network World) a while back, and I've been using it ever since.

For Anti-Virus, I've been using McAfee since version 3. They are at version 6 now and except for a few issues (not related to virus scanning), I use no other scanner. My employer recently switched from CA/Innoculate to McAfee as well.

Bill.

 

[Frink]

Hallo,

Thanks, I've installed ZoneAlarm, without any problems, and it seems to be working on maximum internet security.
It does seem to slow my dial-up connection down by about 20%. This is normal? I can't believe my computer is having trouble keeping up with 56b/sec. Is there any settings I should be changing?

- Frink

 

[GiaBetiu]

Test Jana Server also, it's a freware and very powerfull application!

http://www.janaserver.de/en/download.htm

Gia Betiu
m.betiu@chello.nl
Computer Eng. CNE 4, CNE 5

 

[bjverzal]

I've seen no slowdown, and I've run it for a while. There might be some impact as the program intercepts packets and compares it with its rules.

Bill.

 

[johnbarrow]

uh oh, this might sound like a sales pitch, but here goes:

Network ice or Languard are very good software firewalls. A report of who may ping a port, sniff for a trojan or anything is reported in detail (sometimes even being able to pick up the MAC address of the intruder). The log files generated can also be passed to ISP's who can then atke action against a user. Personally I think this kind of software is an absolute must if you have a DSL connection at home.

As for Virus scanners I really like Sophos, Vet & Antigen. Others are certainly good but it depends on your bias. Personally I find McAfee often flakes my system more often than I like, or others have a high over head on the system.
Sophos -

http://www.sophos.com/

Antigen -

http://www.sybari.com/home/

Vet -

http://www.vet.com.au/

I've used these on some large e-mail systems an all have worked very well (with Mail Marshall and Mail Sweeper). Vet you say? I heard of it through the British defense department security bulletins an it was very good. Its now owned and run by CA.
All are easy to use, and you can subscribe to alerts so you know whats going on and configure the scanners to update themselves so you've got excellent protection. In the work environment we do it daily or more, but at home you could do it once a week at least, or as often as you get alerts...

Something like system mechanic (iolo.com) is nice for keeping a system clean, and leaving no trail on your system (and being able to permanently delete things is nice too). I initially used it for cleaning my registry, but found it also placed a series of tools and options into one nice console.

Pest Patrol is simple, but works well and picks up on spyware, cookies planted when web surfing to monitor your patterns...

Hope that helps a bit, good luck.
John

 

[KarveR]

Being a fan of the dedicated firewall, I use smoothwall GPL at home.

http://www.smoothwall.org

<- free download and useage, very secure well worth a look if yoiu have an old 486+ to use as a firewall.

Until recently I was using a 486sx25 to run smoothwall on my cable connection and had no problems with it at all.
Download and web speed in general remained unchanged, and security was about 90000% better. ***************************************
Party on, dudes!

 

[Luckyfour]

Well, despite a few problems I've liked the Norton Internet Security 2002. As well, I recommend this trojan sniffer called &quot;The Cleaner&quot; available through moosoft.com

I also have xcleaner and ad-aware (free programs) to look for spyware, etc. Note: if using ad-aware, always use their back-up system.

 

[stonebender]

If you understand TCP/IP then try Tiny Personal Firewall. It's tecnical, really simple, small and does the job. You can find it at

http://www.tinysoftware.com/.

 

[tangram]

My favourites; Sygate Personal Firewall. I think the GUI's more intuitive then ZoneAlarm and the advanced rules are easy to build. It's free too, though I've bought the Pro' version which is a great product.

I did some extensive testing of AV products last year. I didn't test the AV properties as such, they're all pretty good I gather, but Sophos was the least resource hungry of the ones I tried (McAfee, Norton where the other two). Norton ground my test machine to a halt! I’ve had reports from loads of people about the recent spate of Klez too. Sophos stopped all the variants in it’s tracks having downloaded a IDE file for an early variant in February. Norton purportedly didn’t stop all the latest variants even with the latest updates available.

 

[drkestrel]

Right, I just installed Sygate Personal Firewall on Win98. It doesn't allow any internet connections made from IE, Netscape, etc. at all. I tried all sort of stuff. Like mnaually enabling port 53,80,8080, 443, and also for some TCP and UDP access for %SYSTEMROOT%\system\fwmac.vxd. No luck. Yes, I could get internet connection when I enable all internet traffic (Allow All). I then examine the traffic log and for each logged allow accesxs (e.g. TCP to remote port 80, UDP both directions where remote port=53) I create a customised rule, but as soon as I revert to the &quot;Normal&quot; mode, IE cannot connect to any site, although no access denied logged!! Weird

I use Tiny Personal Firewall on Win2K, which is very good and reliable and powerful, but on Win98, it causes system crashes, especially when system is starting up or shutting down!

Also tried something called Agnitum Outpost Personal Firewall (

http://www.agnitum.com/products).

The only way I could get Internet connections with it is to Disable it, even adding IE to &quot;Trusted Application&quot; or using the preset Web Browser rule for IE wouldn't do!

Zone Alarm is good, but not good enough for advanced users which more customizable features (e.g. only allowing an application specific access against known remote ports, local ports and protocols).

Could anyone recommend a free software firewall that allows such easily usable customisable functionalities (preferably simpler than the newest version of Tiny Personal Firewall)?

 

[hnd]

What i could additional recommend is a Registry Check, wich enforces all autostart entries in Registry, and initialsation files. If something changes it gives you a message.

A know in Germany the Product Trojancheck.

hnd
hasso55@yahoo.com

 

[gargouille]

Gotta' add my 2 cents for AVG antivirus from grisoft.com...free to personal users...have put it on almost every system I've worked on the last 2 years and it's not failed me, yet.
It even did some recoveries when users let their definitions lapse...