What is your security setup?

[MidnightCowboy]

Kendall,
Yes, I had already seen the link you suggested, thankyou. These results are typical of what you will see from any higher end performer. What sets DSA apart though is its ability to work alongside other apps- bit like using SUPERAntispyware and Malwarebytes scanners consecutively. What one misses the other might find etc. Normally with mainline security applications it is neither advisable, or indeed possible in some cases, to use two of the same type together. GData works along these lines by combining scanning engines licensed from Avast and BitDefender (was Kaspersky last year) and while the results are good resource usage is much higher. As a resident protector on my machine (others will vary) CPU usage for DSA was av. 0.05% max 6% and memory av. 15mb. The only major conflicts I was able to find related to Panda and Outpost but these dated back to mid 2006 and I've not found anything to suggest that any recent applications will encounter instability if used with DSA. Hope this is of some use.

[MidnightCowboy]

Sorry Kendall - forgot to add that DSA is really nothing like Threatfire although I won't pretend that I understand all that much of what Threatfire does! I sometimes wonder if PC Tools know either as from the various forums it would seem to be overly agressive for the average users needs and likely to cause problems as a result. I've dabbled with Drive Sentry as an alternative too but dropped it because of high memory use and update problems. I hope to return to this at a later date when I get more time as Drive Sentry does adopt a truly new approach to the same problem and as the take-up numbers increase, then so will the reliability of their community advisorys.

[Sope]

Firewall:
I've used Comodo since v2 and have gradually progressed along with it up to v3 (inc defense+) - the HIPS certainly has added extra complexity and resource useage but I'm used to it now and appreciate the extra security it offers.
I've also tried Jetico in the past but found it awkward to use, with far to many cryptic warnings.

Antivirus:
Avast - for its comprehensive protection and ease of use (it's virtually install and forget)

AntiMalware:
SAS and MBAM as on-demand scanners.
Spybot S&D, just for it's immunisation feature.

Browser Protection:
Sandboxie - an outstanding security program!
I also use Opera as my main browser which I believe helps reduce my vulnerability.

AutoRun protection:
I've recently added protection against USB stick bourne viruses by disabling autorun and installing AutoRunGuard incorporating USBVirusScan
Ref: http://autorun.synthasite.com

This setup works well for my needs and keeps resource useage to an acceptable level (using XP SP3 with 1GB RAM)

[MidnightCowboy]

Liked your constructive analysis - would agree about Jetico - all that "attacker installs hook" business can be a turn off when other apps can do the same job with less confusion.
I think that Spybot is also good for the Teatimer feature if your firewall doesn't cover as much registry protection as Comodo and you're not using Arovax Shield. Would also chip in that the free Rising PC Doctor includes USB malware protection in addition to a real time trojan guard and lots of other features if anyone's interested.

[kendall]

Midnight, any known conflicts with using DSA with Avast? Would DSA with Avast be overkill?

[tony]

I did something very different, I use Mandriva Linux to resolve my computer protection. The amount of security I have on my Windows was taking up so much capacity in my computer it was amazing. Also the amount of time booting was rediculous. I have read so much on security on Linux I decided to go for it and funny enough enjoying the experience. There are many things I miss in Windows, but if I need them I have dual boot, so have the best of both worlds. Windows has the gloss and little extras that help you in your computing world, that is missing in Linux, but the security is much better. The only other way to go in Mac, as you only need a firewall, but that is far too expensive.

However, on my Windows all protection needs that I require to make my Windows safe is from here.

Tony

[MidnightCowboy]

You are so, so right in every detail. I looked into this some time ago because on my two main work machines I was spending more time attending to security issues than actually using the *** things for the purpose they were intended. I personally think that both Ubuntu and Mandriva are going a bit down the "Comodo" path by issuing releases stuffed full of extra features but at the cost of reliability, although you could probably boot Ubuntu from a piece of cardboard! I considered Fedora (Red Hat distro) and OPENsuse because if its YaST package management system but in the end settled for PCLinuxOS which never started life as a distro originally, but from a former Mandrake repository. No, I can't have Windowblinds, Rainmeter, Samurize etc. but at least every time I switch on it works and isn't full of malware. I do use a slightly personalized version of Firestarter with it, but thats all. I didn't fancy the idea of a dual boot so I keep my Windows on separate machines. The only real problem with Linux in general at the moment is that the Gnome desktop is getting a bit tired despite the improvements, and the later versions of KDE require much more in the way of graphics power to run and don't (for me anyway) make for a good user experience. With package management in general having improved enormously across many of the distros, if only they could get the desktops a bit more like Windows then I'm sure many more people would make the switch.

[MidnightCowboy]

Of course it's impossible to make an objective judgement without having all the facts but it would appear that for some Avast! 4.8 is causing a few more problems than 4.7 anyway, notably with downloads and internet speed in general. I don't know personally of any known conflicts with Avast! and DSA but because DSA is not a problem to get rid of (completely!) if you find it unsuitable why not try it with your own set up and see? Again, because of the way DSA works and its reasonable resource consumption I don't think that it would be either a drain or overkill.

[Anupam]

Midnightcowboy, I also found it strange, when orbit wasent able to resume the downloads. I wasent sure what was causing the problem, but i suspected NetVeda Firewall. So without probing more into the issue, i just uninstalled the firewall to see if that solved my problem. And it did.
And as i had uninstalled the NetVeda firewall, i thought i might now try different firewall. So i installed PC Tools Firewall. Somedays later, i may again install NetVeda, and probe the issue as to what the problem was. Maybe you are right about the rule.

Anyways, am new to firewalls, as i never used any... so i dont know much about them. Just thought of trying out firewalls, coz, i had been having trouble with messengers earlier. Everytime, i would use the yahoo messenger, or the msn messenger, i would get virus attack from the network, and so i had to uninstall them. I use Digsby and AMsn to access the messengers. So, i wanted to try out firewalls, to see if that blocked the virus attack. So far, its working with yahoo messenger installed. But also, i havent got any popups regarding any virus so far.
I havent installed the msn messenger yet.

About Avast, i am using latest version of Avast 4.8, and i never had any trouble regarding internet speed, or slow system.

[Anupam]

Peter, if you people dont consider yourself as experts, then i will consider myself as a beginner .

Kendall, thanks a lot for ur praise. Well, yes, i have some knowledge about the PC, and also willing to share and help, but frankly speaking, i dont think my skills and knowledge are to the level, that i can write reviews about softwares. I have interest in free softwares, and i try out the ones that i find useful or interesting. And according to my experience, i can share my view. But writing a review on softwares requires an expert eye, a thouroughness from all aspects as to which one is better, and here i find myself lacking in technical knowledge. I can just give my view from a user point of view, and that, i do in the comments. Maybe, some day, when i consider myself more knowledgeable, i will think about becoming a category editor. Or maybe, when i find an easy category to write on .

But surely, i would continue to give my views and share my experiences on the different softwares in the comments. Thanks a lot for the offer though, really appreciate it, and am honored.

Christoph, the moderator job looks fine to me, and being a part of the crowd appeals to me . So i can consider that . So what will be the responsibilities being a moderator of the forum?