Author Topic: The Best Security Suites (2013/2014) (Read 40064 times)

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #25 on:** February 18, 2014, 03:05 PM »

I generally don't have much need for local firewall (or related features) on my home PCs. The firewall, along with antispam and privacy controls, are handled by my gateway for the entire network. So on the local machines I just run Bitdefender + the Windows built-in firewall and call it a day.
-40hz (February 18, 2014, 11:00 AM)

I've had a long history of ignoring/disabling the software firewall due to having IPv4's NAT at the border. But with IPv6 no longer affording one that option (there is no NAT in IPv6), I've started experimenting with the built-in Windows firewall - which is configurable via GP on a domain - and rather like it. I think it should get better mention as it's quite granular if/as needed and also allows the simpler just prompt me as/if needed option.

I do have plans to give BD a shot one of these days but haven't gotten to it yet.

superboyac · « **Reply #26 on:** February 18, 2014, 07:57 PM »

40hz, question:
Why did you go with Bitdefender AV over MSE?
-superboyac (February 17, 2014, 05:35 PM)

@SB - it's very light on its feet and the free edition protects better the MSE IMO. My GF had a few niggling things get through MSE a short time ago that didn't get spotted until her weekly MBAM scan. Happened about three times. Since I put the freebie Bitdefender on her PC MBAM comes up completely clean.

I like Bitdefender. It's been around forever and earns consistent high detection scores in tests. I especially like their small business and enterprise products. They've always worked well for me in a client setting. YMMV.

Note: I've used (at one time or another) AV solutions from:

Avast
AVG
Avira
Bitdefender
CA
ESET
F-Protect
Kapersky
McAfee
Norton
Symantec

Of the above, I would still consider using Kapersky. And possibly AVG since it seems to really be at home with Windows 8 (which is coming whether we want it or not). Even has a pretty 'Win8-look' to its dashboard. The clients I have that use AVG are happy with it, even if I think it's feature set is bulking up alarmingly with each new release. (Note. AVG's customer service can sometimes be a little hard to deal with - so keep good track of your license keys and customer ID in case you do need to talk to them.)

Most of the other products I thought were great at one time. Or at least I did until they mucked them up with feature bloat. I'll also +1 w/Mouser on ESET. Their NOD32 antivirus was one of the absolute best products available - until they broke it.

I generally don't have much need for local firewall (or related features) on my home PCs. The firewall, along with antispam and privacy controls, are handled by my gateway for the entire network. So on the local machines I just run Bitdefender + the Windows built-in firewall and call it a day. I also keep a copy of the free versions of SuperAntispyware and MBAM on each machine for additional on-demand checking - and a bootable Kapersky USB key and restoration images in case some mega-disaster ever strikes.

Outside of that, keeping Windows religiously updated, and my other software regularly updated (mostly ) constitutes my Windows security regimen.
(see attachment in previous post) "That's the way America does it! That's the way 40hz does it! And it's worked pretty well so far..."

------------------------------
UPDATE:

Note: one of my cronies just pointed me to this. It has info and links that allow you to legally obtain a fully functional "one-year trial" copy of AVG Internet Security 2014. Can't vouch for it since I didn't try to install it - but the download links on the webpage still appear (as of today 2/18/2014) to be working. A similar offer appeared on the Most i Want website recently. See it here.

AVG Internet Security 2014 Free Download with 1 Year Trial Serial Key

AVG Internet Security 2014 is normally priced at $54.99 for a 1 year 1 PC serial number/license key. And it comes with a 30 days trial version like other security software. If you don’t like the usual 30 days trial then here is an promotion offer to download a trial version of AVG Internet Security 2014 with an in-built serial key for 1 year (364 days) at no cost. It doesn’t say how long this offer will stay free, so get it while it last!

This free 1 year trial is actually intended for Huawei dongle users but it works for everyone lol. And in terms of features and protections, there are no differences between a trial and a paid license — you get all the same features, updates, and protection.

-40hz (February 18, 2014, 11:00 AM)

Thanks!! I'm going to give it a shot, if it's good enough for 40, it's good enough for me! And that explanation gets saved to my notes.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #27 on:** February 18, 2014, 08:22 PM »

...
For the last week I've been trialing AVG internet security. I tried a dozen others but AVG was the one that I found least offensive. I might try outpost again, as I always liked Outpost, but right now AVG is doing pretty well by me.

I did not install the optional stuff like web browsing guards, identity guards, etc. -- and thankfully those are optional installs. Those seem too likely to cause problems and slowdowns to me.

AVG does *not* offer the kind of fine granularity control of the powerful firewalls like Eset and Outpost, but it does offer more control and transparency than some of the truly minimal ones. But my patience for micro-managing firewall access control rules has diminished over the years, so that's not bothering me as much as it would have in the past.

In terms of basic antivirus and firewall, i'm not unhappy with AVG, and the system performance and stability seem really excellent, which is my main concern these days.
-mouser (February 15, 2014, 06:41 PM)

Wow Mouser, you demigod of DC you, how does all this compare to the entry conspicuously absent from these ratings, aka MS Internet Essentials!?

Heh So if that's my "C" (3rd hand suggested) program, how are your A and B programs worth it and better?

mouser · « **Reply #28 on:** February 18, 2014, 08:50 PM »

40hz, thanks very much for the extended AVG license link -- that will come in very handy to extend my trial a bit!
If I stick with AVG I will be happy to purchase a full license (through Amazon.com which is a lot cheaper than official AVG page for some reason).

mwb1100 · « **Reply #29 on:** February 19, 2014, 01:57 AM »

There's been some positive statements about Bitdefender in this thread... I have an old, unused key for BitDefender AntiVirus Pro 2011 (3 PCs, 1 year). I have no idea how well it'll work today, but I think there's a decent chance that it will still work with a 2011 install (I can provide direct download links to the 2011 installer from bitdefender.com's servers). I have no idea how their upgrade policy works, but I suppose there's a small chance that you'd be able to get a 2011 install upgraded to 2014 for minimal charge or maybe even free.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in the key, just PM me (no promises provided about whether the key will be at all useful).

Innuendo · « **Reply #30 on:** February 19, 2014, 10:47 PM »

There's been some positive statements about Bitdefender in this thread... I have an old, unused key for BitDefender AntiVirus Pro 2011 (3 PCs, 1 year). I have no idea how well it'll work today, but I think there's a decent chance that it will still work with a 2011 install (I can provide direct download links to the 2011 installer from bitdefender.com's servers). I have no idea how their upgrade policy works, but I suppose there's a small chance that you'd be able to get a 2011 install upgraded to 2014 for minimal charge or maybe even free.
-mwb1100 (February 19, 2014, 01:57 AM)

Usually how keys for security software works is they are valid for a 1-year subscription that starts as soon as one uses the key & the key is not tied to any particular version. Theoretically, since the key has never been used, one could download the newest installer, plug in that key and be good to go.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #31 on:** February 19, 2014, 11:28 PM »

Usually how keys for security software works is...
-Innuendo (February 19, 2014, 10:47 PM)

If that's true in this case, then this is basically an offer for a free 3 PC-1 Year BitDefender AV Pro license. Still up for grabs.

Someone take me up on this - I hate paying for stuff that never gets used (even if I didn't pay all that much - it was a $10 deal).

Innuendo · « **Reply #32 on:** February 20, 2014, 10:11 PM »

If I didn't love Outpost so much I'd give it a try, but Outpost just does everything the way I want things to be done (for a change).

That reminds me, though...I think I have an used Eset AV key around here somewhere. It, too, was a $10 deal.

Curt · « **Reply #33 on:** February 21, 2014, 01:39 AM »

AVG Internet Security 2014 Free Download with 1 Year Trial Serial Key

This free 1 year trial is actually intended for Huawei dongle users but it works for everyone lol. And in terms of features and protections, there are no differences between a trial and a paid license — you get all the same features, updates, and protection.
-various (February 18, 2014, 07:57 PM)

There is also an AVG Antivirus Pro 2014 Free 1 Year Trial:
http://www.mostiwant...-key-license-number/
But of course Anti-virus is already included in the Internet Security suite.

Giampy · « **Reply #34 on:** February 21, 2014, 03:55 AM »

The best security suites is the one that controls even the Kernel.
I am referring to Windows XP. I was told that Windows XP will be unprotected against Kernel attacks after April, I mean after its end of support.
Is there any program that controls even the Kernel?

tomos · « **Reply #35 on:** February 21, 2014, 04:41 AM »

The best security suites is the one that controls even the Kernel.
I am referring to Windows XP. I was told that Windows XP will be unprotected against Kernel attacks after April, I mean after its end of support.
Is there any program that controls even the Kernel?
-Giampy (February 21, 2014, 03:55 AM)

See this thread Continuing with XP - in particular app's post:
https://www.donation....msg348626#msg348626

Innuendo · « **Reply #36 on:** February 21, 2014, 07:27 AM »

The best security suites is the one that controls even the Kernel.
I am referring to Windows XP. I was told that Windows XP will be unprotected against Kernel attacks after April, I mean after its end of support.
Is there any program that controls even the Kernel?
-Giampy (February 21, 2014, 03:55 AM)

Windows XP was first released in 2001. Why stay with a 12-year old OS? When XP just came out if someone asked you advice on how to stay with Windows 95, what would you tell them? And there was only a 6 year span between those OSes!

Modernize, please. You don't have to go whole hog and upgrade to Windows 8.x, but at least move to Windows 7. If you have half-way decent specs in your PC with a decent graphics card you'll enjoy better performance than you did with XP. Once Microsoft officially drops support, you're going to start seeing your favorite programs dropping support as well & some will release new versions that won't even be able to install on XP any longer.

But to stay on the topic of this thread, which is security, even with the latest patches Windows XP is not as secure as the OSes that have come after it.

Shades · « **Reply #37 on:** February 22, 2014, 11:42 AM »

There is an application called Zolt. Run XP with this application and see how it works out for you.

What it does is simple, it runs a service and adds an icon in the tray for easy enabling/disabling. As long as it is disabled, your computer will work normally. However, when enabled no-one is allowed to write to (any of) your hard disk(s) anymore. In essence, it turns a hard disk into a CD-ROM. The latest version of it that I could still find, was back in 2002(!) and it is still in my archive, so if you really want it I could PM it to you. For some reason, attaching it to this post seems impossible.

Try this software and be amazed about the type of sites you can visit without any chance of infection. At the time I tried it, I just had my 5 Mbit connection and a fresh XP installation. In those days it was bad in the Netherlands, the first time you would go on the net and immediately let your ant-virus software update itself, you would already infected by a(t least one) virus before that update was finished.

But with this software enabled not one virus was able to infect my system. To me this software looks like it disables write access at the Windows kernel level. I do remember though that 3 to 6 months after I downloaded this, I wanted to see if there were updates. The website of the creator just stated that he received a note from Microsoft, to stop development and distribution of the software immediately. Even (freeware) download sites didn't have links anymore.

This software comes with costs, though. Depending on how much software is installed in your XP installation that requires write access, your screen will be filled with Windows message boxes mentioning that: 'Application <insert name here> couldn't write to <insert folder here>.' in the best case scenario to application failures in the worst.

So only consider using this if you have no other option left than to keep running XP after the expiration date and don't mind clicking away Windows messages during the time this software is activated.

Or if you have a VM or clunker with XP you don't mind sacrificing, you might want to try it...or find out what makes it tick...or whatever.

Best see this as a last resort. The only serious consideration you should have in your mind is how to be able to upgrade to either a newer version of Windows or Linux. Please, give XP it's hard-earned and well-deserved rest.

dr_andus · « **Reply #38 on:** February 23, 2014, 05:04 PM »

But I also knew each of those machines was properly set-up and updated - and was "squeaky clean" system-wise before I installed BitDefender so somebody else's mileage could well vary.

-40hz (February 13, 2014, 02:46 PM)

A couple of months ago I stopped using AVG 2014 because it just stopped working properly (it just would not carry out some commands, such as scan individual files from the context menu) and I was also miffed about AVG for some other reasons.

I switched to Avast!, which has been running well on my system (Win7, 64-bit, Intel i7, 8GB RAM), but I wasn't too happy about their personal data collection practice (though they are upfront about it). So I tried BitDefender after seeing this thread, but it didn't work out for me. It slowed down my system noticeably, though I don't have any direct evidence to prove how it did so. I presumed that it was running some scans in the background. But even when I suspended the scans that I could find, the system was still slow. Also, at one point the main BitDefender panel disappeared and I lost the controls to the scans etc.

After uninstalling it and re-installing Avast! things seem to be back to normal. So, yes, my mileage varied, though it's a bit of a mystery to me what exactly was going on.

40hz · « **Reply #39 on:** February 23, 2014, 06:50 PM »

After uninstalling it and re-installing Avast! things seem to be back to normal. So, yes, my mileage varied, though it's a bit of a mystery to me what exactly was going on.
-dr_andus (February 23, 2014, 05:04 PM)

Yes indeed. Similar things have happened to me as well. Can't really say "why" or "what" that much these days. All most of us can really say is what works for us this week.

Sad state of affairs, but there you have it.

$:-\$

x16wda · « **Reply #40 on:** February 23, 2014, 07:06 PM »

Interesting reading. I tried installing the free BD and it didn't seem to have any controls at all (like for "leave this folder alone!"). Avast! seems fine so far, but I seem to be missing some embedded videos (such as this post).

x16wda · « **Reply #41 on:** March 01, 2014, 03:04 PM »

^Just to correct the record, I can't blame Avast! for this. I finally had time to work on this and uninstalled Avast! and still had the problem. Eventually tracked it down to a Flash update - v12.0 apparently doesn't like to display embedded YouTube videos in Chrome. Backed it off to 11.7 and it crashes on the first use but is OK thereafter; I may bump it up to 11.9 and see if that's any better.

mouser · « **Reply #42 on:** March 01, 2014, 03:13 PM »

And an update on my part:

Since switching from ESet to AVG several weeks ago, my system has felt noticeably faster, with no return of the application-hangs that prompted me to finally switch away from ESet in the first place.

Attronarch · « **Reply #43 on:** March 01, 2014, 05:19 PM »

Unfortunately, my adventure with AVG 2014 was of short life. After 2 weeks of everything functioning correctly, I suddenly started getting BSODs (Win 8.1 x64). Culprit was AVG 2014, and everything has been normal since I removed it. Pity, I liked the AV and firewall.

dr_andus · « **Reply #44 on:** March 01, 2014, 06:27 PM »

Unfortunately, my adventure with AVG 2014 was of short life. After 2 weeks of everything functioning correctly, I suddenly started getting BSODs (Win 8.1 x64). Culprit was AVG 2014, and everything has been normal since I removed it. Pity, I liked the AV and firewall.
-Attronarch (March 01, 2014, 05:19 PM)

I'd used AVG for possibly 10 years, and it was only AVG 2014 that stopped working properly. So something must have gone awry with this latest incarnation.

tomos · « **Reply #45 on:** April 22, 2014, 08:38 AM »

Stiftung Warentest have tested security suites:
https://www.test.de/...rangriffe-4684917-0/
(German language; pay to view article)

I hope it's okay to post a summary here (?)

Spoiler

They tested by adding a harddrive full of new malware/virus** to each system. Almost no info given about testing of firewalls.
Marks given (very good/ good/ so-so/ poor/ crap) for:

Protection:
Real-time protection
Scanning
Reaction time taken to respond to new threats
Firewall
------
Handling (help/ease-of-use/installation/etc.)
------
Resources used:
Speed
Resources used
________________
Focusing on the Protection section, best at the top (all of these tested 'good' with G-Data well ahead of the posse):

G Data internet security 2014 [all 'good' with scanner best @ 'very good'; bottom of list in resource usage though :-(]
Bitdefender "New Edition" [very good real-time; poor firewall]
Eset Smart Security [does best on resource usage]
F-Secure Internet Security 2014 [poor reaction time to new threats]
Kapersky 2014 [very good real-time; so-so firewall, so the AV must be pretty good!]
BullGuard [best firewall - virus protection not so good]
Avira Suite 2014 [very fast; good 'handling']

Overall score were (best to top)

G Data internet security 2014
Avira Suite 2014
Eset Smart Security
F-Secure Internet Security 2014
AVG
Avast
Kapersky 2014
Bitdefender
BullGuard

They test a couple of free AV's as well - MS Essentials does poorly; Avira/Avast/AVG all 'good'.

** my translations in italics

tomos · « **Reply #46 on:** April 22, 2014, 09:03 AM »

Stiftung Warentest have tested security suites:
https://www.test.de/...rangriffe-4684917-0/
(German language; pay to view article)
-tomos (April 22, 2014, 08:38 AM)

(Note that all were tested on Windows 7)

I get the impression that the pcmag tests were more in-depth. I can understand that a more in-depth test could find e.g. G-Data Internet (S'Warentest's winner) not so good after all - but I find the reverse hard to understand:
Norton & McAfee score heavily and get editor's recommendations from PCMag. Stiftung Warentest has them at 11th and 12th places in their list of thirteen, with: 'good' real-time protection and scanning, but with very poor response time to new threats, and OK (Norton) to poor (McAfee) firewall scores. (FWIW, both do very poorly as well in terms of help and interface.)

$:-\$

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #47 on:** April 22, 2014, 10:21 AM »

Windows XP was first released in 2001. Why stay with a 12-year old OS? When XP just came out if someone asked you advice on how to stay with Windows 95, what would you tell them? And there was only a 6 year span between those OSes!

Modernize, please. You don't have to go whole hog and upgrade to Windows 8.x, but at least move to Windows 7. If you have half-way decent specs in your PC with a decent graphics card you'll enjoy better performance than you did with XP. Once Microsoft officially drops support, you're going to start seeing your favorite programs dropping support as well & some will release new versions that won't even be able to install on XP any longer.

But to stay on the topic of this thread, which is security, even with the latest patches Windows XP is not as secure as the OSes that have come after it.
-Innuendo (February 21, 2014, 07:27 AM)

But here we are. There are millions of us who can't yet afford the time, software, and potential hardware risks of upgrading. My project machine from 2006 *might* be able to run Win7, but it's a long shot push.

Meanwhile MS seems to be saying they're copying Apple and not supporting an OS more than about 3 editions back so depending how they count, Win7 is already one step old.

I am holding on hard for Win9 to (re)define the landscape, to give us some desperately needed context to all of this. After all, Win7 was Vista's escape route, and a new CEO is at MS, he probably needed to shove 8.1 out the door, but I am hoping at the engineering level he makes Win9 the new OS to jump to.

Cloq · « **Reply #48 on:** April 22, 2014, 09:26 PM »

AVG!? - Heh surely you jest!?

No thanks. Long story short, they recommended white listing windows folder and signing all apps so that their heuristics wouldn't tag/kill/quarantine false positives.

The kicker.. their heuristics db/engine would "forget" that files xyz were safe and on later updates would tag/kill/quarantine files that were submitted to their engineers (they assured wouldn't get tagged by future updates). 5 Years of that BS was enough (stuck on contract).

AVG - Consumer version and enterprise version.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #49 on:** April 22, 2014, 09:40 PM »

AVG!? - Heh surely you jest!?

No thanks. Long story short, they recommended white listing windows folder and signing all apps so that their heuristics wouldn't tag/kill/quarantine false positives.

The kicker.. their heuristics db/engine would "forget" that files xyz were safe and on later updates would tag/kill/quarantine files that were submitted to their engineers (they assured wouldn't get tagged by future updates). 5 Years of that BS was enough (stuck on contract).

AVG - Consumer version and enterprise version.
-Cloq (April 22, 2014, 09:26 PM)

Naw, I wasn't going to go with AVG - something else. I'm still not sure yet.