It seems like most all of the major AntiVirus companies are throwing
in the kitchen sink on top of AntiVirus protection (Internet security,
instant message protection, phishing, firewalls, worms, trojan horses,
etc. etc. etc.).
So ignoring all of the "other" features which sometimes just bloat
your system up more and more (or increase the overall price), any
options or polls out there about the ESSENTIALS--just AntiVirus? Some
of the ones I've found include Norton, McAfee, Trend PC-Cillin, EZ
AntiVirus, Kaspersky, Panda, nod32).
Is basic AntiVirus enough including router & XP firewall and weekly
spyware scans?
It is getting harder and harder to find just AntiVirus software. Or
am I missing something here?
You won't find any antivirus that just detects viruses. Viruses are
not as prevalent nowdays as Trojans, worms and RATS. Competitive
pressures and practical realities goad the antivirus producers into
selling antiMALWARE products, not really antiVIRUS products. Viruses
are just one kind of malicious code in circulation. Whether you
realize it or not, antiMALWARE is what you really want and need.
And the really good ones may bog down your machine. The solution
to that is to learn enough that you don't need realtime protection.
You start with the easiest internet app which is POP3 email. There's
absolutely no need, if you know what you're doing and use a decent
email app (Mozilla email, Thunderbird, Pegasus), to have a realtime
scanner running when you download and read your email. Simply delete
all unsolicited attackments. That's all there is to it. Next, is to
use a sane text-only newsreader such as Agent or Free Agent. No need
at all to have a realtime av running if you have your head screwed on
and pay attention to the warning that pops up when you click on a
executeable in a binary newsgroup. Even browsing isn't a problem if
you use a Gecko browser such as Mozilla, Firefox or K-Meleon. Use
IE 6 only for Windows Updates and some rare trustworthy sites
that may not render correctly using Gecko browsers.
Having rid yourself of the need for realtime av, you then have several
nice FREE choices of good on-demand scanners without unnecessary bloat
and frills. Bit Defender Free Edition has come a long way. Trend's
Sysclean is good. There are free on-demand scanners based on the
powerful KAV scan engine that don't offer clean/delete such as
Antidote and MicroWorld's MWAV. You won't need clean/delete
anyway since you will have become a "safe hexer" who never takes
any hits of any kind.
Spybot and AdAware are two good and free on-demand scanners
to add to your arsenal. Use them once in awhile as well to prove
to yourself that "safe hex" works, and that they never find anything
except harmless tracking cookies to delete.
Begin your glorious money, bloat, resource and grief saving journey
here and be happy
:
http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html
Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg