What Security

Hi all,
Just got my Aspire One loaded up with XP & all drivers in & working, just wondering what security programs your all using & should I be installing one type in particular also I'm going to install MS Office 2007 is this recommended?

Thanks
Colin

 

I'm using Norman AV. Office07 runs great =)

 

The best consumer security product (virus, malware, firewall suite with the lowest PC resource use) bar none is Norton Internet Security 2009 (check the major credible reviewers) - it's slick, fast, elegant and effortless - but it costs. You get 3 licenses, and my Acer One is using one of them.

On netbooks, resource use is important, especially if you're using big applications like Office. On my old 866mhz Dell with 512k RAM I'm happy with the protection and resource footprints of free Avira virus/malware, and ZoneAlarm (firewall) and Microsoft's Windows Defender (malware). I also use FireFox browser as default, with NoScript extension, although the latest IE8 browser is pretty good now. (Others have their own druthers. I haven't been hurt by an infection since the early 1990s.)

(If you install Avira, there is a little trick to disable the irritating advertisement screen when it updates.)

 

www.avast.com

Have been using it for years. 0 cost.

 

I don't use any security feature besides my hardware firewall on my router. It's truely $0. It doesnt even require internet bandwidth to download.

 

Could not agree less with Norton, way to many people have dumped it. And works is even worse, do some research before you jump there is a myriad of finer products out there several of the free wares do a better job. I will not even post what I run though I have learned building and using these crap boxes since 1972 what does and what doesn't, I took the time to post a few links you need to be your own judge but you will notice Norton does not make the top of any of the lists! Take the time read it is a pain cleaning these damn things when they go south!

http://ezinearticles.com/?Antivirus-Rat ... &id=768646
http://www.pcworld.com/article/124475/t ... tware.html
http://www.consumersearch.com/antivirus ... re/reviews
http://www.2009softwarereviews.net/Defa ... comparison
http://www.topantivirus.net/
http://www.geekwithlaptop.com/top-10-an ... s-software
http://reviews.officedepot.com/2563/180547/category.htm
http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-securi ... 46574.html

 

Here's the current PC World ranking:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/158157/t ... ction.html

Here's PC Magazine:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2333448,00.asp

Above I specified "credible" reviews. People are rightly grumpy about past versions of Norton. It began improving in 2007 and is now the best, especially for relatively low powered systems. These things change year by year. What I look for in comments here is personal experience with real products, not typical internet venom.

Update: more from PC World with a little known and inexpensive suite getting its best score - this is the summary chart but there are detailed reviews of each contender:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/165616/t ... _2009.html

 

If you're still in school or work in a large company, get norton corporate antivirus instead. Much better than norton antivirus.

 

Microsoft's new Security Essentials out today for free - no longer beta;

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-App ... re-146944/

I'd be waiting for some competitive reviews on effectiveness and resource hogging. It looks like the obvious comparison would be Avira. I'm still inclined to look for a good Xmas sale on renewing NIS2010.