matthijs wrote:Hi seodevhead, thanks for your input. On what do you base your recommendations? Experience working with them, test results? I didn't see Zone Alarm in the test results on
http://www.av-comparatives.org/
This is based on my own experience with them and subsequent research. I used to run McAfee and Norton for YEARS, and simply assumed that since they never reported viruses or spyware, that they were doing their job. Boy was I wrong.
I kept noticing over the years that my Windows machines would get slower and slower as time went on. I would just chock it up to the fact that it was normal operation for Windows to slow down like that, or it was on account of old hardware, bad registry, etc. While these things do have an effect... I have since learned that in reality, Windows is actually a fairly decent OS once you prevent malware from taking root.
I have had my share of viruses and spyware, even though I classify my self as EXTREMELY ANAL and selective about where I go on the internet. Even to the point where I will pretty much shy away from most major community-driven (I think there is another term I'm forgetting at the moment) websites like MySpace (never go here), FlickR, YouTube, etc. With the exception of MySpace (probably virus heaven), I will agree that it is a bit overboard, but thats just how careful I have become since seeing how clean a system can stay by not picking up malware. I also do not allow any HTML or attachments in my emails unless you have been specifically whitelisted by me. All emails are converted to ASCII only.
I've been victim to some nasty viruses throughout the years, regardless of my fanatical carefulness. I guess it could just be bad luck, but I am assuming that's the price you now pay for running Windows. You can take all the preventative measures possible, and you will never be safe, this much I have learned.
Most of the serious viruses I have had were Trojan in nature, be it PWstealers (password), full out keyloggers and backdoors. To me, these are the worst, because they tend not to make much fuss with the system, but open up your world to others. I have also had Windows Media Player buffer overrun viruses. I was on one of the most popular video sharing websites (before everything was converted to flash like youtube) and played a video embedded in the page and got the virus. It almost crippled my machine. I ended up having to flatten and rebuild. I've also had a Dialer that would attempt to dial out to 'pay-for' phone numbers non-stop, but luckily I had no phone line connected.
I want to make it really clear here that, of all these viruses I've had, NOT ONE was picked up with Norton AntiVirus. Not one was picked up with AdAware (used to be the most popular). Not one was picked up with AVG, and not one was picked up with McAfee. All but one were picked up by Spyware Doctor, and the dialer was picked up by Spybot S&D (why I recommend still using this as well). One was detected by ZASS as well as Spyware Doctor, but that was after I had gotten rid of Norton, so I can't compare that instance to Norton.
I used to make it standard practice to run Norton first before all my other scanners, just to see if Norton would indeed not pickup anything that may later be found in other scanners. The results were pretty pathetic. It didn't take long for me to realize how incompetent Norton was compared to the more niche-specific scanners out there like Spyware Doctor. Not to mention Norton was a hog on just about everything, and for what?
What drives me nuts is when I have gotten a virus and later go out to dinner with a friend or colleague and tell them I had picked up a virus from somewhere earlier that day. And they laugh at me and tell me, "man... you must be going to some bad sites or porn... I've never had a single virus in my life". And when I ask them what AV/Spyware software they use (I can guess it right 99% of the time)... the answer is always the same...
"I use Norton. It has worked really really well. I haven't had any viruses, my system comes up clean every scan."
I politely nod my head but on the inside I am telling myself how ignorant and clueless my friend is about malware. And then a couple months down the line they tell me about how their OS won't boot up anymore and how they think it is bad memory or hard drive, all while I'm laughing inside saying, "shoulda gotten SD and ZASS".