what programs can i get rid of out of these?

[mr. nails]

ok, i'm not sure yet and figured i'd ask to get some input from u guys. i currently have installed:

1. avg
2. peer guardian
3. ad-aware pro
4. ad-watch
5. ccleaner

i recently acquired zone alarm pro and internet security and wanted to see what progs i need and which i didn't. zone alarm does what peer guardian does and it has an anti-virus prog with it. it's supposed to get rid of spyware also, which is what ad-aware does. i guess ad-watch just blocks cookies, idk. i use ccleaner for all my cookie cleaning (amoungst other things) and i like that prog so i'll keep that one anyway.

i guess what i'm trying to figure out is which progs i've listed are better so i don't need all these installed on the pc. i'm sure u can have all of these, but if one prog does all or is better than the other what for, right? i've never used zone alarm so i don't really know if it's good.

maybe all i need is avg and zone alarm pro without the zone alarm anti-virus? your thoughts?

edit: ad-watch is also a pop-up blocker. i use firefox now, so that's probably not needed.

[Chewie]

Out of those, I'd suggest uninstaliing... Zone Alarm.
I thought Peerguardian blocked access to known IPs of anti-p2p groups etc. ZA doesn't do that, it's just a brightly coloured firewall with a popup blocker and antivirus.

Honestly, pop off to http://www.kaspersky.com and download KIS6 and see what you're missing. Then you can dump AVG (which isn't any good anyway IMO) and disable Adwatch.

[mr. nails]

ad-watch is not needed becuz of what? i'm asking. firefox?

[Chewie]

Kaspersky Internet Security has inbuilt ad and popup blocking so if you used that you wouldn't need adwatch running.
If you're using ccleaner on a regular basis to delete cookies, I wouldn't worry about blocking them.

[Appzalien]

Since you can only have one anti-virus, I would search for some reviews on ZA's Anti-Virus effectiveness, especially compaired to what you have now before I decided which to keep. As for the other apps, redundancy is a good thing when it comes to spyware so keep them all. If you use a bittorent client it would be best to keep Peergurdian as ZA is not meant as a replacement for it.

[Delorean]

I used to have peergurdian but i noticed it slowing down my connection greatly so i decided to replace it with ZA pro. I have no problem with it.
Also instead of ad-aware i heard Spy-doc is better so i downloaded a trial to check it out. Seems good enough for me.
AVG really is not that good, switching to NOD 32 or Kaspersky would be better.

[tthoma]

I would suggest Norman antivirus and Webroot Spy sweeper. they are the best.

[Chewie]

I would suggest Norman antivirus and Webroot Spy sweeper. they are the best.
And you can back this up with detailed analysis?

Thought not.

[clocker]

I would suggest Norman antivirus and Webroot Spy sweeper. they are the best.
And you can back this up with detailed analysis?

Thought not.
Jeebus, I really hate SpySweeper.
So many of my customer's PCs run it (we are, after all, within spitting distance of their Boulder HQ)- I cringe when I see the unexplained hourglass at startup cause I just know that...yup!, there it is!...it's coming, the SpySweeper splash screen.
Hell, most of these people have nothing to worry about anyway.

Their machines are so slow that malware gets bored and goes away on it's own.

[zapjb]

Yup I hate ss also.

I also think pestpatrol is a pos.

But most people love'em

[SHRUDE]

Depending on how you connect to the internet , would depend on what you use for protection , dial up is a different stry to ADSL.

I use ADSL and going to assume you do as well.

If you have a NAT enabled router , IMHO , you dont need a software firewall and least of all you certainly dont need Zone Alarm POS.

this is what i have running , and i havent had a problem since.

NOD32 AV - with Constrictions and Advanced heuristics. Auto updates more than 3 x a day.
(i used to use Norton for many years , never again , and dont even consider AVG)

on full time active scanning i have"
Spyware Blocker - (prevents known spyware from even ENTERING your system) Auto Updates 1x a week.
Windows Defender - Good Alerts on compromising registry and BHO attempts - Auto updates .. approx 4 x week.
Spyware Doctor Good alerts and software scanner)

Peer Guardian for Azureus.
Safe Peer for Azureus.

Manual Scanners
AdAware - Good deep scanner - Auto Updates 1x week
SpyBot - gets some AdAware Misses - manual update - once a fortnight.

keeps me happy..

[mr. nails]

why do so many ppl down avg? i first had mcafee and that was trash. then i went to nortan and just didn't like it. also, had norton when i had a shit pc and it was a resource hog and then i couldn't get it to update for shit. maybe that's why.. anyway, then i went to avg which i'm still using. avg has never let me down. from what i can tell it has stopped all virus' from getting onto my pc. and when i've opened up some bs i've downloaded and it DID contain some trojans avg has caught it from the get go. personnally i've never had a prob.

i'll get back with u chewie about that pm if i decide to go kaspersky. thank u!

i have heard plenty of good things about nod32 though. btw, i'm on cable and thx for all the input. still doing my research. appreciate it guys.

[{I}{K}{E}]

only use peer guardian if you download stuff using public bittorrent trackers or p2p programs (emule/bearshare etc..)

[limesqueezer]

Ad-aware i wouldn't use, i always had troubles with it, it corrupted my drivers for sound & i couldn't burn & besides that it always freezed on some spyware i had. Its one of those programs that lives on its reputation like norton, boath suck. Some ppl even say than Ad-Aware has spyware itself.
Peer Guardian slows down and i don't think it helps on anything, i had like 20% of my speed on p2p with it when connecting to lots of servers.
Zone Alarm is good product, it has spyware+antivirus+firewall build inside (but depends what type of ZA) and does not slowdown, it works on all leading sharing programs with no problems. But i would recommend u use some other anti-spyware program besides zone alram also, spybot maybe, its free.
AVG is just not my thing, i had some problems with sharing and i just never used it too long to tell something good or very bad about it.
Why would u need ccleaner or pop-up blocker, the only thing i know that doesn't stop pop-ups is IE ;P

[Chewie]

Ad-aware i wouldn't use, i always had troubles with it, it corrupted my drivers for sound & i couldn't burn & besides that it always freezed on some spyware i had. Its one of those programs that lives on its reputation like norton, boath suck. Some ppl even say than Ad-Aware has spyware itself...Where on earth do you hear this crap?


...Why would u need ccleaner or pop-up blocker, the only thing i know that doesn't stop pop-ups is IE ;PMy IE doesn't popup anything unless I OK it.

[limesqueezer]

Well here its mentioned that ad-aware has spyware:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=276463
http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a55952/pc-tt.htm

Your Internet Explorer blocks pop-ups ? (i really need your special version of IE ;P)

[mr. nails]

i've been using ad-aware for quite some time now and i've never seen it add spyware to my pc. never. also, i've tried spybot search and destroy and i can honestly say after running "the newest version" of ad-aware spybot doesn't find anything that ad-aware doesn't. so, i dont' see the hype.

[mr. nails]

Why would u need ccleaner or pop-up blocker, the only thing i know that doesn't stop pop-ups is IE ;P

i don't need a pop-up blocker anymore. lol, i haven't did maintainence on my progs on this pc for awhile. i just started going thru them to see if there are better ones and/or updates for them. maybe just get rid of them all together, but for the ones i currently have i can say my pc is running fine with no virus', no spyware, or whatever else problems. i just like to have the most current shit... that is when i have time to do this.

anyway, as for ccleaner. i love that prog. not only does it clean out unwanted cookies it also fixes broken dll and other reg files. that may not really matter, but i like watching it do it. i also use ccleaner to clean out my klmcp after a new install of said prog. seems to work. either way, i like it.

tonite, hopefully i'll have some time to install and use this zone alarm business. i'll give it a go. haven't really acquired enough info from u guys as to rather it's good or not, but enough ppl do use it i guess for me to give it a go. i'll prob just use it's firewall and spyware blocker and leave the antivirus cleaning to my avg.

my avg is the free ver and i've never had any probs with it. never. it auto-updates everything for me all the time and if new virus defs cum out i can redl it to the newest version with no probs and i'm back in the game. that kaspersky does this as well? i've never even heard of this kaspersky. but u guys seem to use it so maybe it has it's benefits. thx.

[dodgy368]

why do so many ppl down avg? i first had mcafee and that was trash. then i went to nortan and just didn't like it. also, had norton when i had a shit pc and it was a resource hog and then i couldn't get it to update for shit. maybe that's why.. anyway, then i went to avg which i'm still using. avg has never let me down. from what i can tell it has stopped all virus' from getting onto my pc. and when i've opened up some bs i've downloaded and it DID contain some trojans avg has caught it from the get go. personnally i've never had a prob.

i'll get back with u chewie about that pm if i decide to go kaspersky. thank u!

i have heard plenty of good things about nod32 though. btw, i'm on cable and thx for all the input. still doing my research. appreciate it guys.

avg is popular cos it's free and quite a good a/v.

But, if you want a brilliant a/v then Kaspersky Personal(not pro) is the best, NOD32 is right up there as well.

ZA Pro?:noes: ZA Free Edition? :D All you need from ZoneAlarm is the firewall which rivals any other firewall out there(unless someone knows diferrent?), plus it's free.

Spy/Adware? Spybot and AdAware, won't hurt to use both.;)

IP Blocker? PeerGuardian. but it may slow you down a bit and is not foolproof, it only blocks "known" bad ip's.(personally I don't bother, been at this for years and not one warning, YET! lol)

A nice little prog you might want to add is HiJackThis(hjt), finds browser hijackers and other little nasties, you need to do your homework with this one but it'll be worth it.

All of these use very little system resources, much less than an "all-in-one" in my experience(don't know why though).

Anyway, that's what I use and recommend apart from PG, never ever had a virus or Trojan get through with this setup, give it a try if you want.

Just my tuppence worth.:P

[mr. nails]

w0w, using this zone alarm business and it sux. slows down boot up, slows down my pc, can't use irc with it enabled, slows down file transfer with messenger, has game mode but that shit don't work either. so, all-in-all it's a pretty shitty prog.

[limesqueezer]

w0w, using this zone alarm business and it sux. slows down boot up, slows down my pc, can't use irc with it enabled, slows down file transfer with messenger, has game mode but that shit don't work either. so, all-in-all it's a pretty shitty prog.

Zone Alarm was voted for best firewall, the most complete firewall, soo i would like to know. What Zone Alarm version ? And did u allow the programs ? And what do u think is better than Zone Alram than, what do u use ?

[Chewie]

Well here its mentioned that ad-aware has spyware:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=276463
http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a55952/pc-tt.htm

Your Internet Explorer blocks pop-ups ? (i really need your special version of IE ;P)
Your first link takes us to a page that's 3 years old:
Subject: Re: uninstalling two porn sites and getting rid of a pop up window box
From: kingdanimus-ga on 16 Nov 2003 12:28 PST
I would suggest Spy-Bot over Ad-Aware. It is more thorough and more
frequently updated. Lavasofts Ad-Aware has spyware in its own program
(can be seen after running Spy-Bot).
...and your second is part of "Grandma'a Faith" website (!). Also on the site is the web top 100 from 2004 and PSP tips.

That said, these two people may be the only ones in the world to have noticed the nasty underhanded way that AdAware installs things without telling us so having today clean installed Win XP-64, I took the opportunity to check out these claims.
I installed SPybot, updated and scanned the system. Then I deleted the three cookies it found.
Next I installed AdAware and updated defs and re-scanned with Spybot to see what's up. Nothing's up.

The problem with believing everything you read on the internet is that at least half of it is bullshit.
You need a trusted source before making accusations and Grandma Fath & one usenet post cannot be trusted.

Regarding IE6 and no popups:
Tools|Pop-up blocker|Pop-up blocker settings...|Filter Level:High: block all pop-ups (CTRL to override).
Add FST and Google to the list of allowed sites.
That's all I did.

[limesqueezer]

They cleared it with spybot, don't know how, but spybot doesn't find any spyware in ad-ware anymore, that doesn't matter anyway, i didn't want it to go as deep as u on this specific thing. I didn't just say ad-aware has spyware, i said it with a reason, only because i had to reinstall windows after i used it which u just ignored.
IE doesn't block pop-ups and is easier to attack than firefox and i do think people have a reason to use firefox. Not everybody here thinks as u do, soo u could just respect my oppinion and not always jump into little unimportant things, i do respect everybody elses comments. Well u can use ad-aware if u like, i reather use free firefox & spybot. But its not the only thing i use ;)

[mr. nails]

i can say back in the day when both progs (ad-aware & spybot) first came out both detected more crap on ur hdd than they do now. i'm thinking that those progs were programed to think other certain things were spyware when in fact weren't. maybe each prog would just detect other things that weren't spyware just to rival the other and then ppl would say, "hey, said prog detects more shit. i'm sticking with this one." idk. anyway...

the za "pro" version i'm using (and still am right now. still experimenting with it) is 6.5.722.000. yes, i did allow EVERYTHING that i'm aware of to do what it's got to do and manually allowed it if zap didn't pick up on it. i've never used a hardware firewall and the only other firewall i've ever used is the windows built in version. never really cared and still don't. i sometimes just get into the mood and play around with progs. all i'm saying is that so far i'm not impressed with what zap does for "me". it seems more trouble than what it's worth. i'm new to zone alarm and there is a possibility that i may be doing something wrong. that's why i'm still using it, but after probably another week if it's still performing as it is now it's cummin' off the hdd.