New laptop win7, antivirus needed 2

[Sentrif]

Hey!
Got me a new laptop.
Please, recommend antivirus and antieverything.
Thanks

 

[ChrisHirst]

Avast + Spybot or malwarebytes.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[sggaunt]

Avast and proper firewall, e.g Comodo. Or if you want to pay (I don't) McAffee

Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain
That's just perfectly normal Paranoia everyone in the universe has that: Slartibartfast

 

[goombawaho]

I recommend that you run naked through the internet jungle with NO anti-virus just to show the baddies who is boss. Seriously though, you have so many choices and there are so many opinions. Look at AV comparatives and then decide free or paid.
Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[xit]

You will get numerous recommendations for sure but I will second Comodo, just give it a read, has a ton of good features to protect your system.

 

[ChrisHirst]

If your computer is behind a NAT router, a software firewall is doing nothing but slowing the machine down.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[goombawaho]

I'm sure someone will point out that a software firewall will help to prevent OUTBOUND communication of your valuable information in case you got infected by a bot or malware that likes to transmit such information. A hardware firewall or windows firewall won't do that. It's not enough of a risk for me to actually run one, but that's one someone might say.

Personally, if behind a NAT router, I'd (only) run Microsoft Security Essentials and then use the following products to scan every couple weeks OR if something weird happens OR you think you tripped over any online threat. The only reasons I say M.S.E. is that it's free and it doesn't nag you to buy the paid version.
TDSSKiller
MalwareByte's Anti-Malware (free version if you don't want to pay)
Rogue Killer
JRT (Junkware Removal tool) My new fav that cleans up browser crapware Link

If you are directly connected to the internet OR you look at a lot of porn OR illegally download movies/music and other risky behaviors, then you need more protection.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[ChrisHirst]

I'm sure someone will point out that a software firewall will help to prevent OUTBOUND communication of your valuable information in case you got infected by a bot or malware that likes to transmit such information.

Sure, but at that point it is too late, your machine IS compromised. And the 'malware' authors are smart enough to use ports that will not raise firewall warnings, will 'piggyback' on an already allowed application or 'spoof' the reported name so it appears to be legitimate, because users rarely actually read the alert message before clicking [OK].

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[sggaunt]

And don't forget that COMODO does much more than monitor traffic. and yes NAT is on in my little TP WiFi Router. But do you want to just trust that it is working? COMODO lets me know if it sees something sus and yes its usually Defense+ that fires off rather that the firewall. The router never does (Yes I believe it can be set up to send a mail if something happens but how clunky is that? Do I want hundred of scanner detects in my inbox every day).
So in my opinion you need both.

Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain
That's just perfectly normal Paranoia everyone in the universe has that: Slartibartfast

 

[ChrisHirst]

But do you want to just trust that it is working?

Why should i care?

I'm not running a mailserver that could be used to send spam so might be worth "hacking" into.

There is nothing vulnerable running on the ONLY thing that can actually be 'attacked' which is the router, if no ports are forwarded to internal machines what is going to happen?

There are a lot of people with vested interests busy telling anyone who will listen just how 'vulnerable' every computer is. Certainly when using a directly connected modem which mean the entire machine is open to the Internet and is therefore available to every port scanning script kiddie and wannabe cracker, a firewall becomes a useful addition, but behind NAT the only IP accessible is the external IP of the router, and incoming packets without a destination/trigger port that is forwarded to an internal IP just simply go nowhere.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[sggaunt]

Chris see the second line of my signature.

Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain
That's just perfectly normal Paranoia everyone in the universe has that: Slartibartfast

 

[kjv1611]

My personal suggestions:
[ul]
[li]Good router - if you get a good router, it'll have a good firewall without having to think about it.[/li]
[li]Microsoft Security Essentials - no, it's not the strongest, but it is very strong, and it is also 100% free, no nags (as mentioned by goombawaho, and it's super duper easy to see and understand. By far, it's the simplest interface I've seen, I don't think anything else compares - though I don't regularly check others either - been happy with MSE for a good while.[/li]
[li][ul][li] ... alternatives -Avast, AVG (from what I read, has gotten better again in past couple years), Avira - all free, though Avast and Avira do have the AV nags.[/li][/ul][/li]
[li]Comodo or Online Armor for software firewall. I do sometimes use them, and sometimes I don't, honestly. That is, when I'm setting up one of my machines at home, reinstall, whatever, I will sometimes install 3rd party firewall, and sometimes not. I do think the system is safer with one, and 99% of the time, Comodo nor Online Armor cause performance issues - I have seen them lock up the system before, but I've also see diff AV programs lock up the CPU as well.[/li]
[li]Spybot Search and Destroy (SBSD), for me, has been hit or miss. I think that if you really need another scanner, and can install it, go for it, but be careful with it's startup options - it can really bring a system to it's knees at times, and it's slower than most others.[/li]
[li]SuperAntiSpyware - I used to use and recommend regularly, but it seems to have gone down path of SBSD, and I don't typically get a lot of help out of it, honestly.[/li]
[li]Malwarebytes Antimalware - I wouldn't have a system at home without it, at least for now - been a while since started using it, and would always recommend keeping it on the system, and scanning once in a while.[/li]
[li]On your web browsers, use script blockers and ad blockers - this makes a big difference in web browsing performance, annoyance, and security. I now use Ad Block Plus on both Firefox and Chrome, and I use NoScript on Firefox. On Chrome, I used to use one called NoScripts or NotScripts or something like that, but it's not been updated in a couple/few years, so I'm trying others right now - there are actually some good options. Right now, I'm liking ghostery (I think it's called) and another that I forget the name of - can add it here later if I remember. I use Internet Explorer sparingly - it's a good browser, but I don't like how it doesn't have great options, nor ease of installation for add-ons/extensions/plugins whatever you want to call them. Just not a lot of good activity that I'm aware of from developers there either.[/li]
[li]Another thing you can consider is using OpenDNS for your DNS settings on your router. They automatically block/filter a lot of known malware sites, bad content sites, etc. Also, if you have kids, you can go to opendns.org and setup an account (well I've not tried it yet, but heard of good results) to control what your children can access online.[/li]
[/ul]

So yeah, quite the loaded response, but figure you could well not be thinking about all the possibilities.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[goombawaho]

kjv1611 - are you out on a weekend pass?

To that list, I think anyone should add JRT. It's my latest tool of the month, and not meaning TOOL in a bad way. Cleans browser hijackers, re-directors and the like
Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[sggaunt]

BTW After seeing Mr McAfee's video, I don't think I should have recommended McAfee AV at all so forget that bit.

Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain
That's just perfectly normal Paranoia everyone in the universe has that: Slartibartfast

 

[kjv1611]

goombawaho,

I found a moment, and poked around the forums. That's about all I do over the past couple years.

Thanks for mentioning JRT - I've been meaning to try that one out sometime, and I do have a good candidate to use that on probably this weekend.



"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[goombawaho]

Glad to see you back. The JRT is good for things like the CONDUIT (toolbar of the devil) that I've been seeing a lot lately.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[IPGuru]

Behind a NAT router at home is fine, but what about when you are connected to a 3rd party WIFI (in a pub or cafe for example)?
you need a firewall to ensure that other users on that network cannot access you laptop.
You also need to ensure that you are indeed connecting to the correct access point & not allowing a "Man in the middle " attack but that is another thing altogether.



A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[kjv1611]

Tried JRT over the weekend (yes, I know weekend is well past ). Best I could tell, it seemed to work really well - great addition to any tool kit.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[goombawaho]

Funny how we run "this new tool" from "this guy" off the internet "for free". But I trust Bleeping Computer. Don't be a stranger!!

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[kjv1611]

Same thing with doctors, pharamcists, etc, if you think about it.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57