Protecting against malware with combinations of free progr..

External Since: Jan 31, 2005 Posts: 15

I've collected a bunch of free (or almost free) programs for preventing
malware from entering a computer and detecting any already present:
AdAware, AVG, Avast, Avira, SpyBoy, Malwarebytes, SUPERAntiSpyware. I'm
sure there are lots of others that I don't know about.

Any suggestions for program combinations that will prevent most of the
bad stuff from ever getting into my computer? I'm looking for
thoroughness, compatible with each other, and minimal slowdown of
incoming material of all sorts (mainly email, photos, videos, music).
XP, SP3, OS.

(I know this kind of question often triggers flame wars, but I hope this
doesn't happen here.)

One of the things I didn't like about AVG (or was it Avast?) was that it
was daily downloading huge update files, make the computer sluggish
while the d/l was in progress. I find it hard to believe that there are
that many new threats every day. I suspect it is a marketing ploy to
exaggerated the dangers. Then again, I may just be naive, but the other
programs don't update anywhere near as often.

Thanks for your advice.

Ray

External Since: Feb 21, 2010 Posts: 2

On Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:56:59 -0500, Ray K
wrote:

>I've collected a bunch of free (or almost free) programs for preventing
>malware from entering a computer and detecting any already present:
>AdAware, AVG, Avast, Avira, SpyBoy, Malwarebytes, SUPERAntiSpyware. I'm
>sure there are lots of others that I don't know about.
>
>Any suggestions for program combinations that will prevent most of the
>bad stuff from ever getting into my computer? I'm looking for
>thoroughness, compatible with each other, and minimal slowdown of
>incoming material of all sorts (mainly email, photos, videos, music).
>XP, SP3, OS.
>
>(I know this kind of question often triggers flame wars, but I hope this
>doesn't happen here.)
>
>One of the things I didn't like about AVG (or was it Avast?) was that it
>was daily downloading huge update files, make the computer sluggish
>while the d/l was in progress. I find it hard to believe that there are
>that many new threats every day. I suspect it is a marketing ploy to
>exaggerated the dangers. Then again, I may just be naive, but the other
>programs don't update anywhere near as often.
>
>Thanks for your advice.
>
>Ray

While not FREE I wanted to make mention (concerning your remark about
Avast large-sized daily updates) that Norton 2010 AV and NIS utilize
"Pulse Update" technology and it works as you might think from the name
used. On my NIS 2010 installation I get these pulse updates every few
minutes which take a couple seconds at most each update to keep one's
Norton security product fully updated. I like that approach very much.
Not only is it resource conservative but unlike those AV products that
do scheduled 'daily updates' you are not left vulnerable to new threats
waiting for tomorrow's 'daily update'