MS Antispyware, Firewall and AntiVirus

[Guest]

Greetings from Tasmania

I have notced MS's attempt at the antispyware market. Does this application
also have a virus scanning capability? If not, does anybody know if MS is
going to consider offering a similar product for virus protection?

I know that Win XP contains a firewall, but is really a very lite version.
Has anybody heard any news about MS offering a full service firewall?

I am trying to find alternatives to my symantec systemworks and internet
security suites. Symantec has now become ore trouble than it is worth.

What is the general consensus about the MS antispyware??

Cheers

 

[MSM1]

I can truly say that after quite a bit of educating myself, I have become
SPYWARE PROTECTED!!

First off, just when I began feeling sorry for me and my XP computer about
the Windows Firewall, I began to see alot out there on the Internet from
many other people who are not exactly fans of this new SP2 feature.

Granted, in a single year's time, I have tried just about every firewall out
there. In my experience, Outpost gave me the WORST trouble out of all!!
Outpost gave me the opportunity to see the dread Blue Screen repeatedly and
instead of protecting my PC, it completely crashed a 2.4 Gig machine with
640MB of RAM!!

Now, the best firewall for my PC to date is ZoneAlarm. www.zonealarm.com
It is VERY user friendly, provides complete stealthing capabilities, has
very efficient outbound program controls, and is free!!

Now, Norton, McAfee, Windows Firewall, and a select few others have landed
somewhere in a happy medium between Outpost and ZoneAlarm. If needed, I keep
the Windows Firewall on standby just in case my ZoneAlarm ever goes
belly-up.

As far as antispyware, I am currently running Microsoft's Antispyware Beta
and I am tickled pink!! The primary feature I like about it is all of the
"system watchdogs" that it uses for real-time protection.
It too it user friendly, and seems to be a very strong program.
I have added a few outside tweaks with it like third-party cookie control in
the Internet Options, but it works GREAT with the ZoneAlarm firewall.
Lastly, I have also experimented with a number of anti-virus programs and
the one I have found that works the best is AVG. www.grisoft.com.

AVG is not overly processor dependant, has excellent email scanning, and is
lightning quick for responses to any inbound viruses.
It works great with the Microsoft Antispyware AND the ZoneAlarm firewall.

Here's the scoop: it is my understanding that Microsoft will expire all
Betas come mid year. At this point, they will either continue the program
with purchase, kill it in the all together, or create a new package combined
with an anti-virus program. I am further understood that Microsoft did not
want to participate in the battlefield of anti-virus programs because of the
potential of bad publicity and harsh competition. Granted, I do not believe
this hype, but I confess that I most certainly will give a Microsoft program
a test run on my PC should they publish one.

MSM1

 

[Randy]

-----Original Message-----
Greetings from Tasmania

I have notced MS's attempt at the antispyware market. Does this application
also have a virus scanning capability? If not, does anybody know if MS is
going to consider offering a similar product for virus protection?

I know that Win XP contains a firewall, but is really a very lite version.
Has anybody heard any news about MS offering a full service firewall?

I am trying to find alternatives to my symantec systemworks and internet
security suites. Symantec has now become ore trouble than it is worth.

What is the general consensus about the MS antispyware??

Cheers


.
MSN Premium subscribers do have an opt for the McCaffey

personal firewall plus at no additional charge, it works
great for me

 

[Bill Sanderson]

They've clearly stated that the capabilities present in the beta we are
testing will be available without additional cost to licensed Windows
customers. So--regardless of what happens in terms of additional products
or combinations of products, these capabilities will be available, and there
won't be an additional charge for them.

 

[MSM1]

Bill,

As I mentioned, I am very happy with the MS Anti-spyware program.

My question is will Microsoft offer an anti-virus program in the future and
are there any current plans to continue the anti-spyware program after the
expiration date?

And, logic being in order, the program HAS to have full capabilities during
Beta because this way, Microsoft can weed out problems, field test it in the
real world from thousands of users like me, and stay afloat in the
protection department with all of the excellent products they offer.

Unfortunately, in addition to "natural" problems that occur, there are folks
out there who do not like Microsoft nor any of their products. To prove
this, I went to a local public library and used MS Word on a fee-per-use
Win98SE machnine.

I brought in a brand new floppy disk to save my document on and when I
returned the next day without the same floppy disk NEVER being used on any
other computer besides the one in the library, the library attendant scanned
the disk and found a virus. He immediately accused me of using the disk
elsewhere outside of the library. After convincing him that I hadn't used
any other system aside the library's, he had to choke on the fact that the
type of virus that was planted on my floppy was a "traditional" Microsoft
attack. In other words, who ever the hacker was wrote the virus strictly for
attatck against any MS product, and it had a field day in a large public
system.

Thanks!
MSM1

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I hope the library has improved it's protection of the public machines since
that experience.

The antispyware capabilities will continue to be available is what they've
said. They can't fold them into IE7, so it seems to me that there will
either be a standalone app, or, perhaps, a freebie version of their as yet
unnamed app that will have antivirus capabilities, and perhaps include this
technology as well.

I don't know what's going to happen--but they've made it clear that the
capabilities we are testing will continue to be available without additional
cost--and thats great, I think.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

No antivirus. Stay tuned later this year, though.
The Microsoft firewall can stop anything aimed at it from the outside. It
won't stop the trojans you've installed from talking out, though, although
it can optionally log that traffic.

 

[MSM1]

Well, thanks for the info.

Honestly, I have never had a problem with any Microsoft product. I really
don't know why Bill Gates had to take such a bad hit. Granted, he has the
power to create a technological trainwreck, but on the other hand, Nike had
their share of downfalls too.

All-in-all, I like MS products. I first started training with the original
MS-DOS 2.0. Not the PC-DOS from IBM.

I will be keeping a lookout on what Microsoft will do in the near future.

MSM1

 

[PhilP]

MS has a license to print money in the
Spyware/firewall/virus protection markets. It created a
browser with numerous vulnerabilities and I would be
surprised if it, at some point, doesn't SELL a depleting
resource to cure them. Nevertheless, I just through my
McAfee IPS 7 into the trash where it belongs and now turn
with a hopefull eye toward MS HQ to take pity on those of
us who love this old dog, even though it makes a mess of
everything.

 

[Tom R]

eTrust Antivirus offers a 1 year free version of their antivirus and
firewall
to all Microsoft customers.
http://home.ca.com/dr/v2/ec_main.en...lient=ComputerAssociates&sid=35715&CID=185351