Windwos defender is an anti-spyware program only. No, it can't replace McAfee
programs as McAfee is superior (in my opinion) to it. Yes, you do need a
software firewall in XP. In fact, if you have service pack 2 install than you
already have one. But it is lame in so many ways i can't begin to describe.
Anti-Spyware:
Windows defender is a striped down version of another anit-spyware program
that was quite good in its original (pre-M$ purchase) form. As such, it is my
and thousands of others i'm sure, personal preference to not install this.
While it won't hurt you to do so, it may give you a false sense of security
as there are many other anti-spyware programs on the internet that are far
superior.
My personal choice in Spyware Terminator (
www.spywareterminator.com) -
ironically made by the same company that used ot have affiliates with spyware
makers. But it has since discontinued its associations with such shady
characters. Plus, its free. To my knowledge it is the only free anti-spyware
program that provides real-time monitoring (apart from Windows Defender of
course). All other programs have a demo period after which you must pay or
lose the real-time mointoring functionality. An example of this is
SuperAntispyware (which is otherwise a very good program) - although you can
still use the manual scans freely.
Note, the aforementioned programs are all anti-spyware apps and as such do
not include anti-virus capabilities (well actually, spyware terminator does
have the option to integrate an anit-virus app call ClamAV (made by the same
company) but it isn't very effective and their are much better choices out
there).
Firewall:
So far, the best free software firewall on the web is no longer ZoneAlarm
(sorry ZoneAlarm users, i couldn't help myself taking that cheap shot ^_~)
but is instead Comodo Firewall (
http://personalfirewall.comodo.com). This
firewall blows most other competition out of the water. Including the bloated
giants such as Norton and McAfee. Note, this firewall is not for the complete
PC lamen. I.e. It may confuse you if you are a complete novice as to how
programs connect to the web and how the various programs interact with one
another. That being said - the forums are extremely helpful so given month or
2 of experience and you should be ok.
note: if you have a hardware firewall built into your router than you most
likely will not need an additional software based one. But you will need to
be familiar with your routers configuration, settings and interface to
minimize confusion.
Anti-Virus:
This is where there is the most choice and it can be very confusing to
decide who to go with. Questions such as; Do i go free or paid? (and yes,
there are many free ones that are superior to many fee-based AV's, e.g. nod32
which, while the interface is horrendous, is one of the better ones (on par
if not better than Norton/McAfee)). How often to the signatures update? Are
there many false-positives? How taxing is it on your system resources
(processor usage and RAM)? and many others.
My personal favourite is an offering from Russian programers Kaspersky AV
(
www.kaspersky.com). Yes it costs money after the 1 month free trial but it
scores well in detection, updates, system performance, intergration (if you
office for example) but is let down in the interface a bit (still way better
than the Norton 2007 *shudder*).
Apart form all of this are various investigative utilities to monitor
start-up processes etc but they are ancillary and most likely beyond your
interest in the subject.
Moral of the story:
1. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. I hate using those all-in-one
suites. That being said, I don't worry about spam - actually i don't get any.
Go figure. The anti-spam modules in these all-in-one suites are usually
pretty good however the anti-spam components of Office Outlook is good enough
on its own in my opinion.
2. Decide for yourself: there are many online forums discussing security
apps that host users that have the exact same questions as you do and whilst
you will only ever receive subjective responses (which is unavoidable due to
humans being...well..humans). The resonses can sometimes yield new ideas,
program tips and advice of much better quality than my own. One good forum
is:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php. Thus don't expact to be happy
for a few weeks until you make up your mind own which setup is best for you.
Good luck!
P.S. If possible, test as many apps as you can until you settle on your
choices but do so on a sperate system. I.e. install XP on a spare hard drive
and play till your hearts content. Than just install the ones you like on
your main hard drive. The reason i suggest this is because of the nature of
secrurity apps. They tend to not un-install themselves properly (the most
notorious example is Norton *shudder*) resulting in a highly unstable system
when you do finally decide to go with your prefered setup. Alternatively you
can do this all on your main hard drive if you don't mind reformating and
re-installing everything when you've made your decision (a process that
requires a certain level of patience in itself).
