What Security do you use?

wakandem

For a pc that is for personal use there is absolutely no need, reason or advantage to pay for security software. You will be poorer for absolutely no gain what so ever. If you bought a pc with any form of subscription security then get rid of it. Do not even bother with the free trials.

nullogik

wakandem wrote: »

For a pc that is for personal use there is absolutely no need, reason or advantage to pay for security software. You will be poorer for absolutely no gain what so ever.

I think you are being totally unfair about the whole thing.

You state that there is "no gain" or "advantage" to be made. Wrong! Some paid for AVs perform a lot better than AVG Free & Avast when it comes to virus and spyware detection rates, have at look at AV Comparatives.

Its not that "no" gain can be made but rather "some gains" can be made for paying for AV software but that completly depends on what package you go for.

Don't go around posting such comments which are totally unfounded, and have no basis in fact. I'm not rubbishing the free products in anyway, in fact they are far better than some "paid for" stuff, but they are not the "be all and end all" of the AV software world which is what this poster is trying to proclaim.

Lexis200

Completely agree with you there nullogik. It's all a matter of degrees, and piece of mind. Free AV and spyware products are very useful, but they usually require a degree of manual intervention, and usually have limited feature sets. Paid for software on the other hand are often more polished and automated, downloading new virus signatures automatically for example.

That said, they're all there to do just one thing... keep your data as safe as possible. The best advice is to have a look at the various comparison sites (http://www.av-comparatives.org/ for example), as well as the computer magazines (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/230/anti-virus-software/products.html for example) who regularly test all these packages. Then once you have all the facts at your disposal, make a decision that you're comfortable with, based on cost versus features/detection accuracy.

At the end of the day, free might be perfectly adequate for you if you just do a bit of browsing and a few emails, but if you've lots of documents and photos etc, what would happen if your PC got infected and you lost all of them? (Of course you'd just revert to your backup files wouldn't you )

nullogik

Lexis200 wrote: »

Completely agree with you there nullogik. It's all a matter of degrees, and piece of mind. Free AV and spyware products are very useful, but they usually require a degree of manual intervention, and usually have limited feature sets. Paid for software on the other hand are often more polished and automated, downloading new virus signatures automatically for example.

That said, they're all there to do just one thing... keep your data as safe as possible. The best advice is to have a look at the various comparison sites (http://www.av-comparatives.org/ for example), as well as the computer magazines (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/230/anti-virus-software/products.html for example) who regularly test all these packages. Then once you have all the facts at your disposal, make a decision that you're comfortable with, based on cost versus features/detection accuracy.

At the end of the day, free might be perfectly adequate for you if you just do a bit of browsing and a few emails, but if you've lots of documents and photos etc, what would happen if your PC got infected and you lost all of them? (Of course you'd just revert to your backup files wouldn't you )

Thanks for that. Its quite dangerous to tarnish the whole AV industry with one brush like "wakandem" did. I agree with you on all the points made.

I use Kaspersky and consider myself a power user, and am happy to pay for it knowing that it may offer me more protection, more flexibility and better customer support.

yoshef

at home im behind a bog standard linksys router

security software in linux - don't usually use/need any

security software in windows (when i need to use windows) - I use firefox browser, adaware, avg and a collection of sysinternals stuff occasionally to check for dodgyness - sysinternals stuff highly recommended to anybody very technical

wakandem

I do accept what 'nullogic & 'lexis200' have to say, there are some very good paid for av progs, & they do have effective automatic controls. However in my experience in dealing with pc's I have had as many pc's in serious trouble due to infection with paid for av installed as free. This has quite often (not always) been due to the user not updating their subscription either because they don't realise or they keep putting it off. Also I have had users turn bits of the protection off as some prog or whatever hasn't been set up correctly & the security stops it. My own pc is protected for free & is used constantly by me, the OH, for work & teenage son - & god knows the depths of the internet he must be trawling.
I back up all our doc's & pictures to cd/dvd every now and then, I have all the install disks for the pc & progs. I have 2 system restore dvds, one original & one I update mannually, though I'm pretty slack with that & I turn system restore off. Fortunately never had to use any of them.
Yes there may be more user intervention & control doing it for free but if I want to be in control of any part of my pc this is it.

Lexis200

wakandem wrote: »

This has quite often (not always) been due to the user not updating their subscription either because they don't realise or they keep putting it off. Also I have had users turn bits of the protection off as some prog or whatever hasn't been set up correctly & the security stops it.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this statement. Almost all paid AV solutions automatically update every day or so, taking the onus off the user to remember this. My parent-in-law's PC has AVG Free installed, and every time I go round there I have to manually update it because they forget to do it. This can sometimes leave them several weeks out of date. If I could get them to fork out a few quid to get a paid package I would, but they (being computer and internet illiterate) don't see the benefit. I do maintain backups for them, but I haven't told them this... one day they'll come in handy I'm sure, and then I'll be in line for loads of brownie points.

Yes there may be more user intervention & control doing it for free but if I want to be in control of any part of my pc this is it.

It seems like you're quite computer savvy, and therefore aware of the pitfalls, but I would guess that the majority of the population really have no idea what they're doing, and in those situations free security software is false economy. People need to be nursed along so they don't make costly mistakes.

It's no co-incidence that house burglar alarms cost so much to get installed professionally... I'm sure I could bung one in my house, but it wouldn't look so pretty, I'd inevitably cut corners, and it would probably false alarm all the time because I'm not an experienced alarm engineer. It might keep out "casual" burglars, but professional ones would see through the mickey mouse bell box with the generic B&Q sticker on the front and probably nick my PC (which ironically is kitted up to the hilt with security products)

Bottom line, unless you REALLY know what you're doing, £20-30 is a pittance to pay for piece of mind.

C_Ronaldo

I use zone alarm firewall, avg anti virus adn adware SE personal, are these 3 good, should i change 1 of them

Art_2

Lexis200 wrote: »

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this statement. Almost all paid AV solutions automatically update every day or so, taking the onus off the user to remember this. My parent-in-law's PC has AVG Free installed, and every time I go round there I have to manually update it because they forget to do it. This can sometimes leave them several weeks out of date. If I could get them to fork out a few quid to get a paid package I would, but they (being computer and internet illiterate) don't see the benefit. I do maintain backups for them, but I haven't told them this... one day they'll come in handy I'm sure, and then I'll be in line for loads of brownie points.


My AVG Free automatically updates. Why doesn't your parent's one I wonder.

Regards,
Art.

superscaper

adaware isn't really good enough on it's own, I'd recommend spybot s&d and/or avg antispyware