In article <kYKdnesY1OdjYpfanZ2dnUVZ_hOdnZ2d.DeleteThis@comcast.com>,
Bill_NOSPAM.DeleteThis@comcast.net says...
>
> Thank you for your reply. I've got the Symantec Security Suite. I
> defragged my disk this weekend and that made a difference. I used one of
> the disk performance benchmark programs someone recommended here, and my HDD
> appears to be running about where it should be (never fast enough...). It
> takes about a minute and a half for my computer to be ready to use after I
> press the start button. I'm not sure how much of that is due to Symantec.
> What do you prefer to use rather than Symantec?
>
> -Bill
>
I use the Sygate Personal Firewall Pro - nice, sweet, SLIM, moderately
powerful. Unfortunately Sygate have been bought up and shut down by Symantec (I
have a very good idea why - a better program that doesn't lock the user into a
never-ending spiral of renewals and updates; with a FREE version available) --
but you should be able to track down a download site somewhere. The non-pro
version is/was totally free to use, for the pro version you might need to find
a key generator these days. Also, it won't work with Vista.
Alternatively you could try Sunbelt Kerio firewall which is also very
good (the old predecessor-Kerio Firewall used to be very slim as well; haven't
tried the Sunbelt version yet) it is a commercial proposition, but I think they
have a 30 day trial. I may switch to that if I ever install the Vista Ultimate
I have sitting on the shelf here.
Both of these are more geared towards computer literate users rather than
sheeple like the Symantec stuff that doesn't tell you half of what it does, and
loads umpteen services that have no visible function other than making sure
that you don't violate Symantec's DRM in any way. Several competent people have
found the 'security suite' can be about as hard to remove as a clever trojan.
Very highly rated is the Comodo firewall, which is also a free solution,
but some people (including me) encounter the odd random blue screen of death
with it, which makes it a no-no for me.
I rely on Grisoft's free AVG antivirus solution, Avira is also recommended by
many powerusers and sysadmins I talk to. As a Firefox and Pegasus Mail and
Gravity user I have a lot fewer concerns about malware turning up on my
harddrive through browser/email exploits than Outlook/MSIE users ought to have
I run a couple of adware/spyware/trojan removers over my computer every 2 years
or so, and they never turn anything up except for alexa (that is actually a
part of Windows indexing/searching) and a few suspect cookies. See absolutely
no need to run any such on a _continuous_ basis.
cheers, -Peter
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