ZA security suite

[dafink]

I've always gone with Norton as my anti-virus/firewall protection. After reading some reviews about the newest offerings and seeing how close both were rated, I wanted to try Zone Alarm.

Got a free trial of both but I really liked ZA. From what i've read, since they switched from Computer Associates to Karpovsky, their anti-virus has gotten much better.

I think i'm going to sign up for ZA but wasn't sure which plan was the best. They offer a 1yr for $39.95 or a 2yr for $74.90. With Norton it was always just the 1yr that came with the product since a 2yr was just as expensive.

I've never used a retail version of ZA though, is it basically the same as any other security product or safer to continue using with a longer plan?

Kinda seems like just a cost question but ZA really seemed to have a better, faster and more efficient product this yr.

[Budfred]

I used ZA firewall until I bought the Pro version... Their support is worse that Symantecs and they are almost as hard on system resources... I will not recommend any suite, but if I did, it would not be ZA or Norton...

[dafink]

What would you recommend getting?

Don't care as much about ads and spam as i've got Ad-Aware, Spyware Blaster and Search and Destroy that I run one after the other to get rid of everything.

It's more the anti-virus and firewall protection I want, even if it means getting separate programs for whatever would be the best from both.

[Budfred]

I use NOD32 and Kerio... I happen to have paid versions of both, but Kerio has a free version... Any of the free antivirus programs would be okay... Avast seems to be favored by a number of people here and AVG or AntiVir are also decent options... If you want to pay for one, I would say NOD32 or Kapersky...

Outpost, Comodo and even the free ZA are decent firewalls and all available free... If you are on a business computer, you need to get the pay versions, but otherwise you can create your own lean security suite for free...

[dafink]

It's a personal pc but me and a friend will be building new ones in a few months I think, definitely by the end of the yr.

Was gonna either get free programs till I got the new build up and running or get something now and then just transfer the account over

[Budfred]

If I was going to set one up right now with free programs, I would go with Avast and Kerio, in addition to a few others like FireFox with NoScripts and SpywareBlaster...

[dafink]

So what's with ZA, Norton, etc?

Just a system hog or better programs out there? Everything does try to be a entire suite nowadays, do too much instead of the few things it did real well.

From what I had read though ZA did a pretty good job this yr. Used to have their free firewall program and liked it.

I installed AVG on my dad's pc. It's a Dell so it came with a 1yr sub but that's long since expired.

Wouldn't mind getting a firewall or some kinda protection on that. He works for UBS and always accesses their secure site but he has a randomly generated securid for that so I think they've taken enough steps.

[Budfred]

Norton and ZA are both adequate suites... They are also both resource hogs and ZA has some of the worst tech/customer support I have encountered anywhere... Norton is somewhat better in that regard... I just prefer to maintain security without paying a major penalty on the speed of my system and I prefer knowing that I can get good support if needed... Fortunately, I haven't really needed help on NOD32 or Kerio...

When I installed ZA Pro, I had been using the free version... It promptly broke my system and I ended up having to download another copy to get things working again... I found out how to deal with it without any substantial help from ZA...

If you decide to uninstall Norton, you will see one of the reasons that many people hate it... It is very difficult to remove completely...

If your father has security set up by his company, he may not be able or well advised to install other programs for security... It is important to have only one of each type of program running in resident mode...

[jlreich]

If you decide to uninstall Norton, use their Norton uninstall tool (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039).

[dafink]

So I ended up going all free and so far i'm liking it. Wanted to get ZA since I havn't really had any problems and I liked the program....but if there's free ones that are just as good then who am I to argue.

Got Comodo which so far I like. Pretty smart and adaptive for a free program.

Downloaded Avast as well which I like but haven't had to really test it yet, which in this case is a good thing.

I do like the boot up scanner feature though. It found files to delete that Spybot and Ad-Aware missed completely.

So along with Ad-Aware, Spybot and Spyware Blaster....any other suggestions on programs I should get or would you say i'm pretty well covered?

[Budfred]

That depends on how you use the internet... If you are careful, that is an effective set of tools... If you are more risky, you could use a number of other tools... If you are using IE to browse, I suggest IE-Spyads... If you get a lot of SPAM, MailWasher or some other antiSPAM tool would be good... If you are really careless, there is nothing that will effectively protect you...

[dafink]

LOL ain't that the truth.

Mostly I use Firefox 2.0....although there's still a few sites and programs that use IE so then I have to.

What's MailWasher? Yahoo has a pretty good spam filter but the occasional email still gets through.

[Budfred]

MailWasher is a SPAM filter that lets you see text versions of your emails before you download them fully onto your computer... You can mark some "friend" and some "banned" so that it parses them into categories that are easy to sort... I have used it for a long time and find it quite helpful, but it takes a more active role than most people prefer...

[dafink]

Ahhh so that'd be more for Outlook or other pc-based mail programs.

Probably wouldn't need that since it's all held on Yahoo's servers.

As for when I was talking about my dad's pc....UBS didn't install special software. The programs that run load up only when he logs into UBS's site to check stocks, news, client's accounts, etc.

Probably will put a firewall program on it because he doesn't have one.

[Budfred]

Actually, MailWasher works for web based mail as well, but you have to pay for it to get that...