Antispyware Options?

Wigwam

Senior member
Dec 26, 2002
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okay currently on my system i am running:
ZA Pro 5.5 Security suite [AV disabled]
NAV 2006
MS Antispyware - this replaced the tea-time resident scanner for Spybot S&D as well as Ad-Watch with Ad-aware pro for realtime scanning.
Browser = FF

PC Pro reader also got a free subscription for 6 months to Spyware Doctor so i run that every so often [found a key logger all the above missed ] but don't run its memory resident scanner as it very resource hungry.

Wanted to upgrade by Firewall but ZA 6 is carp and causing lotsum problems but what i can see on their forums [many users going back to 5.5]; Agnitum Outpost 3 is out with added Anti-Spyware protection....

So:
as well as NAV06, which of the raft of anti-spyware doo-daas would you consider the best combo/product to use as the memory resident component?
 

dunkster

Golden Member
Nov 13, 1999
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I spent a lot of time and trials and dollars investigating firewalls, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-trojan and combos (firewall+AV).

One of the problems encountered was difficulty/uncertainty in setting up some of the highly-praised apps. Also, with multiple apps tweaked for 'maximum protection', the constant prompts get pretty annoying. Constant updates of multiple apps is also annoying. I came to the conclusion that 'maximum protection' with most-favored security apps really required skills and knowledge that I lacked.

I purchased licenses for both Spyware Doctor and SpySweeper, but I removed both in favor of Microsoft AntiSpyware. I found AdAware and Spybot redundant.

Of the stand-alone AVs, I really liked NOD32.

I'm pleased with current setup:
- Trend Micro IS2006 Firewall+PC-cillin AV combo.
- MSAS anti-spyware.
- Tweaked IE privacy and security settings.
- SpywareBlaster.

Trend Micro IS2006 is much improved over IS2005 (excellent outbound-connection-attempt monitoring for apps), though resident-processes memory burden is a bit high.

Hope this helps!
 

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,944
475
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If you're using FF and are careful about the websites you visit, do you really need a TSR spyware program running in the background?

I honestly don't think so, and I don't. For me, using Firefox and running Adaware, Spybot, Antispyware, and SpywareBlaster manually work great. I rarely ever find anything other than a few stray MRU's and it's been this way for months. I check for updates every few days, especially for SpywareBlaster and Spybot immunization databases.
 

dunkster

Golden Member
Nov 13, 1999
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I agree with BlueWeasel.

My only startup/resident security app is IS2006 firewall+AV.

I check for MSAS and SpywareBlaster updates fairly frequently, and do an MSAS scan manually a couple of times every week.