Windows 7 What do you think of antivirus comparison sites?

[stueycaster]

I was checking out some antivirus comparison sites when I found that my beloved Eset Smart Security has been surpassed by several others lately. Of course this freaked me out. However after some more research it looks like some others catch malware a little better at the expense of slowing down their operating system somewhat. I've decided not to change just yet but I was wondering what yall think of this. Would you choose absolute security over low system overhead or vice versa?

 

[Joe S]

Which sites I haven't had much luck finding any. Most reviews are pretty limited and lame,
Joe

 

[stueycaster]

Here are a few. There are some more.

Link Removed - Invalid URL
Link Removed
Best Reviews of Internet Security Products

 

[Joe S]

I'll have to check them out later on.
Joe

 

[Joe S]

Did you ever look at Matousec Results and comments - www.matousec.com firewall tests? I run Avast Free AV, Comodo Firewall only, Webroot Spysweeper and use a Hosts file. I periodically run Malwarebytes free too. Once In Dec I got one of those phony AV things there was a new bunch then. I admit to checking out adult sites don't use Facebook,Twitter or any of that. In all honesty I've had more warnings searching out computer sites than any others.
Joe

 

[fjgold]

I'm presently using Avast! Pro 5.0 having switched from AVG last year after a program upgrade (AVG) left me with a bad taste.
I'm loving Avast! Pro 5.0 it's a big improvement over the previous version of Avast!.
One thing lacking in AVG and Avast! 4.x was an easy way to get programs to scan incoming mail for my Gmail accounts in Thunderbird.

Avast! 5.0 makes it easy by alerting the user that it cannot scan incoming mail for any account that uses ssl\tls encryption like Gmail.
It tells the user to disable ssl\tls, easily done in account settings.
Avast! then takes over providing it's own encryption thus allowing scanning incoming emails.

Avast! is a low overhead program and works quite well.
It is highly configurable.

I also use Sandboxie (paid version with a lifetime license) and have configured all my browsers and email clients to run under the supervision of Sandboxie.
In fact any program that accesses the internet is sandboxed.

Between Avast! realtime protection and Sandboxie I'm pretty well protected.

The review sites can maybe help a user choose a security solution but aren't substitute for actually trying
the various products on the users machine.
Thankfully many of the best products have free versions available.
Avast! does and it doesn't skimp on protection.
Sandboxie is also available in a free version, the big difference between the paid version and the free is the free
version doesn't offer the user the ability to force a program to run sandboxed.
You have to manually configure a program to run sandboxed.
You also get a nag screen everytime you boot up after a month of use.

The license is 29 euros and is a lifetime license for home use on an unlimited number of machines owned by the user.

 

[Joe S]

I quit AVG quite a while ago because of problems and snotty attitude in their forum. The only annoyance I have with Avast is it is not easy to disable when you need to. It does cause problems installing VMware tools in guests. I found Matousec about a year and notice Zone Alarm doesn't do well even the paid version. I dumped that years ago when it got bloated and was a pain to network.
Joe

 

[fjgold]

Actually I've found Avast to be quite easy to disable when needed.
Simply right slick the tray icon and select "avast! shields control".
The options offered include "disable for 10 minutes" all the way to "disable permanently".
This with version 5.

AVG got too bloated as well and I stopped using Zone Alarm (I only had the firewall) when I realized that
my NAT router was a more effective hardware firewall.
I don't use any software firewall.

 

[Joe S]

Depending what you are doing sometimes you need to turn off self defense mode too. If you look in Task Manager there are still Avast services running. The VMware seems to be a bit finicky when upgrading tools in guest Vista is the most troublesome one.
Joe

 

[fjgold]

Settings>troubleshooting>self defense module.

 

[stueycaster]

I've decided to ignore those test sites and stick with my current security setup. I haven't had any malware for 4 or 5 years now. I guess it's doing ok. Thanks guys.