Build Your Own Free Security Suite

April 16th, 2009 → 7:29 pm @ Jonny

13


Danger Hard Hat

I often get asked which security products I would recommend. So… today I am blogging about my current favourite freeware firewall (easy for you to say) and antivirus products and why I have chosen them. This combination I believe is as good or better than any you can pay for.

Antivirus

There are 3 major antivirus products on the market (more alliteration incoming), Avira, Avast 4.8 and AVG 8.5. Of these I have chosen Avira 9. There are many reasons for this choice but I’ll explain hopefully in some Pro’s and Con’s:

Avira Pros

  • Excellent detection rates for malware (now with added spyware detection since version 9)
  • Relatively fast scanning
  • Low Impact on system resources
  • Few false positives
  • Clean interface (I personally dislike avast’s skinable interface)
  • Have used it to clean up lots of infected computers that had other av’s protecting them.

Avira Cons

  • Displays a nag screen to upgrade to paid version whenever the virus definitions are updated. This can be disabled – but this is probably against avira’s terms and conditions.
  • Doesn’t scan email’s (but email viruses would be caught by the main engine as soon as they are executed).

There are many who will say avg is better or avast but avira constantly appears at or near the top of av comparison tables and is recommended by those who clean computers (including myself).

Avira Free Version 9

AVG Free Version 8.5

Avast Free Version 4.8

AVG and Avast are almost as good depending on your personal preferences but for me the protection provided by Avira is worth putting up with the occasional nag screen.


Firewall

In this category there are again three alternatives. Online Armor, Comodo and PCtools.

My quick selection guide:

The three firewalls could be graded in terms of end user:

  • Computer beginner or the alert popup weary should choose: PCTools.
  • Relatively experienced who don’t mind the odd popup with more options: Online Armor.
  • Savvy users who like to monitor everything and really love alerts: Comodo.

    • My convoluted explanation of the above:

    For an advanced user who generally knows what most processes are and doesn’t mind a few questioning pop-ups then I would recommend Comodo. It’s defense+ module is an extremely effective H.I.P.S. (Host Intrusion Prevention System) that can identify suspicious activity on your computer. It isn’t that great for installing on most users PC’s though as it is just too inquisitive. Unless you know if you want to allow process A to execute process B then give it a miss.

    Online Armor by creatively named TallEmu is a great application that has great protection but seemed a little buggy on my system and sometimes crashed. Comodo also has had some compatibility issues and occasional reports of 100 % cpu usage but these seem to be mostly out of the way in the latest edition (version 3).

    This brings me onto my current favourite PCtools. PCtools is the least nagging of the firewalls I have looked at i.e. it doesn’t alert you to normal or safe applications yet gets very good test results from Matousec.  Ideal for sticking on a computer illiterate Dad’s PC.

    The tests that Matousec perform try to emulate malware attempting to shut down a firewall or bypass it in someway and are a good guide to how well a firewall performs overall. Some big names are included in these tests and don’t always fare very well but our three here are all better than average.

    Note: If you choose Comodo then at the moment it is not advisable to use their antivirus as it isn’t quite up to speed:- the whole suite is downloaded and you can select to install the firewall only.

    Note 2: If you install PCTools then you will also get an option to install Threatfire their behaviour based malware blocker. It is advisable to do so as it adds an unobtrusive layer of protection to your free security setup. Threatfire can also be downloaded and used without their firewall and is a great little second layer.

    For those who want an occasional second opinion on whether they have a clean computer then there are several online virus scanners the best being (in my opinion):


    Have you used any of these recently? Let me know your opinions in the comments.


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