|
As mentioned earlier in the thread. I use Symantec Corporate A/V. It has worked flawlessly for years. Updates are handled automatically, downloaded once a week from Symantec's site.
I don't use "active" spyware/malware software. Such things almost always get into the PC via security holes in Windows and IE. I keep Windows fully patched via Automatic Updates, and I don't use IE for normal browsing. I vastly prefer Firefox, not only for security, but because it's a far more powerful and extensible browser.
I have Ad Aware and Spybot S&D, and run them occasionally. All they ever find are "tracking" cookies, which are a nuisance, not a threat.
In the grim humor department, I downloaded and installed beta 1 of IE 8, which is supposed to be Microsoft's big "web standards support" update, the way IE 7 was supposed to plug the security holes. Two days later, I got my first Critical Update patching a security flaw in IE 8...
Installing IE 8 also breaks visiting Windows Update. You must check the box in IE 8 that specifies "Emulate IE 7", then restart the browser to successfully use IE 8 on Windows Update. I was truly bemused by that.
I could almost get away with not running A/V software at all. The majority of the stuff A/V solutions protect against are delivered in email as attachments. I use GMail as my primary account, and don't use the POP delivery option: I prefer the web interface. The mail gets delivered to GMail, and attachments all stay on Google's servers unless I choose to download them. I know who they are from and what they are before I do.
I keep Symantec A/V around for the occasional piece of garbage that tends to show up in binary newsgroups, and for the occasional infected website that tries to inject something, even in Firefox. (I'm not sure how, since I run the NoScript extension that turns off scripting unless the site is on a whitelist, but since Symantec catches it, I haven't been motivated to investigate.)
______
Dennis
|