Do I need spyware?

Sweetie_Lavender

Hi everyone

I am the proud owner of a new Medion computer with Broadband , windows xp home and 90 days free Bullguard security (Firewall Anti-virus Spamfilter and Backup )

Do I also need to add some spyware to this ? What do you suggest.

Nothing too techie just something simple to install that will look after itself.

When the free 90 day Bullguard runs out should I buy it ,or is there a better product on the market?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

gcn504

I would recommend it.

I use something called SPYBOT Search & Destroy: it's free. Install and set up is very easy and then I schedule it to run every morning (it can be set up weekly etc). As long as every now and again you check for updates it keeps itself ticking away quite nicely.

ish

After your 90 day bulldog trial runs out then you should get another antivirus and firewall. Its very important to have both of these when you have broadband.

I would recommend for you to get McAfee VirusScan Plus which includes an anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware software. On the McAfee website they are selling it for £39.99 (downloading the software and installing it). I would recommend you shop around since you will be able to get a better price.

superscaper

I think you'll find most people here would recommend Avast for anti-virus, Zonealarm for the firewall and a combination of spybot, adaware, and AVG for anti-spyware. They're all excellent and they're all free. There isn't really any reason to pay for security programs.

Chippy_Minton

I use all these free anti-spyware programs and run them 2/3 times a week:

Windows Defender - http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
AVG Anti-Spyware Free - http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-spyware-free/lng/us/tpl/v5
SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

movieman

Yeah, I'd add Defender to the anti-spyware list. It doesn't seem to impose much overhead while running and I have it run a scan every night (my PC is usually on all night doing 3D rendering, video compression or whatever).

sdj25

Chippy_Minton wrote:

I use all these free anti-spyware programs and run them 2/3 times a week:

Windows Defender - http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
AVG Anti-Spyware Free - http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-spyware-free/lng/us/tpl/v5
SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Seems like an awful hassle! Why not getyour self an Apple Mac? That way you wouldn't have to even think about this sort of thing! Or viruses!

superscaper

sdj25 wrote:

Seems like an awful hassle! Why not getyour self an Apple Mac? That way you wouldn't have to even think about this sort of thing! Or viruses!

Because macs are prohibitively expensive for most people and macs are NOT more secure. The distribution of viruses is a reflection of the effort of virus writers and the market share of macs. The link you provided was hardly and independant view on the security of a mac. I never came across a virus on my acorn archimedes, is that because it's even more secure than a mac?

Chippy_Minton

sdj25 wrote:

Seems like an awful hassle! Why not getyour self an Apple Mac? That way you wouldn't have to even think about this sort of thing! Or viruses!

We're talking about spyware here, not viruses. Spyware comes from visiting web sites and installing applications, so I'll be interested to know if Macs are immune. As for viruses, hopefully MS have learned their lesson and have made Vista more secure out of the box.

movieman

Because macs are prohibitively expensive for most people and macs are NOT more secure.

Yes they are.

For one thing, you don't have to run as an Administrator on a Mac to do... well, just about anything. That alone is a huge security boost as a security hole in your web browser can't replace system files with hacked versions.

Spyware comes from visiting web sites and installing applications, so I'll be interested to know if Macs are immune.

An awful lot of scumware is installed by exploiting security holes in Internet Explorer.

kai666

ish wrote:

After your 90 day bulldog trial runs out then you should get another antivirus and firewall. Its very important to have both of these when you have broadband.

I would recommend for you to get McAfee VirusScan Plus which includes an anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware software. On the McAfee website they are selling it for £39.99 (downloading the software and installing it). I would recommend you shop around since you will be able to get a better price.

whats wrong with Bullguard? I use it, and am very pleased with it. Support is second to none unlike Norton and Mcafie. Nothing better than being able to speak to someone 24 hours a day through their live help instant messenger service, or having emails replied to within 1 hour.

And you get 1 gig of online storage to back up any data thrown in. At £34.99 it's less than Mcafee, and you get more.

uses bitfender antivirus and outpost firewall, both of which have very good reputations

(make sure you upgrade to version 7)