Whatever you choose - IT IS NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I run Windows Defender, Spybot SnD, Ad-Aware SE, and AVG Free, and update their definitions religiously. I still spent 2 hours this morning cleaning up a trojan that infected my PC system. Seems my wife visited a web site that hosts Indian soap operas for free. The damn thing infected my system while she was watching the videos online.

I was in class last night till 10 pm, so do not know what exactly she was doing. But I beleive she was running FireFox, but it still was not enough. The videos are encoded in WMP, and sometimes Firefox opens Internet Explorer to play them - I beleive that is when the infection occured. I am not sure whether a explorer window opens, or explorer plays the WMP file in the background through Firefox.

The infection caused all keyboard and mouse inputs to go hay wire - I could not go to the start menu to select programs, nor in windows explorer, nor type any kind of searches in Google in Firefox - everything I would type would be backwards, or I could not select a single shortcut or file. I figured out that the only time the problem cropped up was when I tried to do something that used Java. Fortunately I got another computer (A MACBOOK!!!). Went online and did a search on how to fix the situation while AVG churned to see if there was any infection on the PC.

AVG identified the Trojan - ByteVerify http://java.com/en/download/help/cache_virus.xml . But AVG could not remove the offending files, nor would the tip given on the site above solve the problem. Finally ended up completely removing Java and re-installing it. I use Sun's Java, not the MS bundled VM applet.

I am so sick and tired of the swiss cheese that is Windows security. Sure, people can blame the user, and my wife is partially to blame. But this was not the first time she visited the site, nor the first time she viewed videos from there. And I trained her well enough so that she does not download and run unknown files off the web. This infection came solely through the internet explorer browser.

For me the following has given me a completely virus/spyware/adware free computing enviroment. (no pop-ups)

1. Clean install of OS (slipstreamed SP2) Turn ON the firewall.
2. Update the OS and TURN ON AUTO UPDATES!
3. AVG (Free)
4. Microsoft Defender (Free)
5. Install CCleaner (Free) and have it run everytime you boot.....it will kill cookies and temp files.
6. Turn off System restore....malware can hide in its cache.

All of it is free and all of it is either a one time setting or automatic going foward.

Some pitfalls people make are running multiple ant-spyware, antivirus, or firewall programs.....like having more than one condom on:) Anyhow its overkill in most cases and can cause problems.

I also think that Anti-virus software could almost be removed these days. There has not been a real virus outbreak in years....and with most major ISP's protecting you with their Anti-virus software and the increased use of webmail I have been tempted to not install Anti-virus software.

Lastely I dont pop my mail down anymore....I use either my hotmail account online or Exchange Webmail. This helps kill a popular delivery method for crap.

boot from a knoppix cd when you want to surf pron -

The safest computer is one that isnt turned on or have anything plugged into it :)

None of the above. Slows down system too much. Run as user, don't download crap, use common sense.

AV/spyware are reactive technologies that belong with idiot users.

It's funny when I read about even knowledgable computer people getting attacked without knowing it. I've only ever gotten one real (non-cookie) virus/spyware in 5+ years of having an always on broadband connection and it was entirely my own fault for running a .exe which I shouldn't have. It took about 15 minutes of google searching to find a way to remove it.

Until only 6 months ago I didn't run any kind of firewall or antivirus all the time in the background. Now I run ZoneAlarm. I occasionally, maybe once a month, scanned for viruses and the only thing ever found were cookies. Maybe having a wired NAT router is what let me get away with this, if so I'd say it's the best form of 'anti-virus/spyware firewall' out there considering I did nothing more in setting it up than the average Joe would. Aside from not doing dodgy things like warez, P2P and so on which are known to be festering virus pools.

In increasing order of desperation:

NAT
Secure net proxy
Linux
Opera
iptables
tripwire
chkrootkit

All internal auth and servicing is done via Kerberos and SASL LDAP, so even someone on my LAN ould have trouble sniffing anything interesting.

On windows, I usually find that ZoneAlarm, AVG and Spybot do an adequate job.

AVG virus protection and love it , Spybot and adaware for spyware
All programs work great and keep my system snappy

For everyone:

Avast! Antivirus Free (I've used AVG before, but find Avast! has some features I really like, especially its startup scan option. Also, last I knew the free version of AVG started limiting AV updates to once-per-day) And for those that have said Norton of McAfee for AV, you're not only paying money, but you're paying in far higher CPU/RAM usage than you are with Avast! which has been a far better product for me in the past few years (IMO, last good Norton AV product was 2004).

Windows Defender -only free product with memory-resident scanner that I know of.

Spybot Search and Destroy - Especially useful for its Immunize feature that blocks known sources of malware in the hosts file, but also a reasonable free scanner.

AdAware SE - Also a good freeware tool for the average user.

ZoneAlarm - For a user running a non-XP box, adding a firewall can be a great help. I use the free version of ZoneAlarm, and then disable the application protection (I know this doesn't solve an infected box sending out crap, but users are only confused if ZA keeps asking if SVCHOST.EXE or other files should be able to access the Internet).

Tools for advanced users only:

Hijack This! - Great scanner for all startup objects, including BHO's.

SysInternals Rootkit Revealer -Also good for checking deep into the operating system. Can find nasties that other programs cannot.

Finally, I keep a BartPE CD around. BartPE can help you create a bootable Windows XP CD, and with the right plugins, you can disinfect systems, diagnose bad hard disks, and perform all sorts of repairs. I use McAfee's Stinger plug-in, one for AdAware SE, and a few others.

I've been using Norton AV for years, and when it's installed correctly, I do not have any weird slowdown issues with it whatsoever.

I further notice that when I look at the test results at: http://www.av-comparatives.org, there are 2 AV programs that meet the following criteria:

- excellent on-demand dialer detection
- 10/10 polymorphic virus detection (don't know what that is, can't be good)
- Advanced + certification level
- very high detection %

So I'll stick with Norton AV (not Systemworks, which I've found to be useless).

Oh, and don't forget your Ad-Aware.

I've been using AntiVir for years and I'm very happy with it. Take a look at this excellent site: http://www.av-comparatives.org/ It gives you very good comparatives between both free and commercial anti-viruses.

AVG just sits there watching things,scans files if you want,updates its self smoothly almost every day.....its a great AV system for the home user.One of the best free programs out there Id say.

AVG Professional verison and Search and Destroy work well for my needs.

AVG has done well.

For spyware and such I just control my cookies: 1st party on prompt and 3rd on block. I receive no spyware.

btw I don't correspond by email except for news.

avast! works well and is free for non-commercial use:)

and unlike norton or mcaffe, they arent traitors (running to the eu in order to make windows vista insecure so they can sell more copies of their crappy products, id call purposefully weaking the infrastructure of america for profit during a time of war a very treasonous act)