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Do I need another anti-virus/malware program or am I paranoid?

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Lightening:
I use bit defender but it's far to sensitive and will block access to everything unless you set it to permit all. Same problem with the Firewall.  My computer tells me the bit defender firewall is up, but bitdefender says it's not.  Maybe microsoft has another firewall program preloaded. (I have windows XP).  Nonetheless, Bitdefender does a good job of blocking viruses.  Over the years I always maintained another anti-virus/malware program.  Last year it was SpyNuker but I was not overly impressed.  While I tried Prevx2 on the trial verson as written up and offered on DonationCoder, but by the time I got around to it the discount had expired.  I sent an e-mail to Prevx requesting the discount post-expiration and they simply replied NO - which is their right ofcourse.    So my question is, do I need another anti-virus/malware program or is bitdefender sufficient?

f0dder:
I've got bad experience with BitDefender - insane amount of crashes on win9x machines, and regular BSODs on HyperThreading capable machines running XP, problems with auto-update not being able to restart BitDefender after update, problems with not being able to shut down machines cleanly, etc...

It's antivirus capabilities seemed okay for regular purposes, but I'm not going to touch it again, ever - Kaspersky or NOD32 all the way from now on.

Windows XP has a built-in firewall since service pack 2, and you don't really need anything beyond that. If you're at the point where you need outgoing firewalling, you already have something bad on your system, and it's basically game over (yeah okay, if you're paranoid outgoing firewall means you can monitor apps... and either have the headache of setting up rules yourself, or have default rules that means security problems).

The XP firewall is fine enough for blocking you against incoming crap from the LAN, your NATing router will handle nasty stuff from the internet, whether you want KAV or NOD32 installed depends on your surfing habits, and besides that... well, SpyBot S&D if you use Internet Explorer.

Lashiec:
I'd throw AVG Anti-Spyware in the mix for defense against spyware and trojans. Its realtime scanner is lightweight and non intrusive, and it has a free version, which only does on-demand scanning, but it's quite enough if you don't want to shell out some money.

You might want to try ESET Smart Security once it's out. So far, it looks great, and at least in the antivirus section, you'll have outstanding protection. Its firewall also seems to be quite lightweight, both in resources and in popups flashing. For the rest, what f0dder said.

You can't be paranoid enough, though. I'm still researching why my computer tried to send a email to a Polish ISP (caught by avast) while I don't have any email account set up. Scanners are saying everything is clean, but who knows :-\

EDIT: Rewrote the first paragraph

iphigenie:
Bitdefender gets really good scores in malware/virus detection, but the firewall is pretty simple. Now if you have a decent packet filter on your modem/router then I think it is enough, as it will detect things like programs connecting outwards or changes to configs and the like.

If you dont have a decent packet filter at the entrance of your network, it might be better to turn the bitdefender firewall off and pick a dedicated firewall tool.

Chessnia:
Avast antivirus for me. The home (FREE!) version. More than 10 million people can't be wrong! :)
People keep saying that you shouldn't go freeware with antivirus, but I've been using avast for more than 2 years and haven't had a single problem!
Software is automatically updated everyday.

Their website: http://www.avast.com

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