What's the best combination of antivirus, antispyware & antiadware softwares?

Question

I am specifically concerned about backdoor viruses, trojan horses etc. Softwares MUST have real time protection. Please do not recommend AVG, Avast. Norton Internet Security 2007 wasn't able to detect a severe backdoor trojan in my system. It was a sasser worm which is very hard to identify & remove.

Thanks!!

Answer 1

the sasser worm requires a removal tool which many vendors have available
mcafee, kaspersky are good choices
zonealarm also has one

Answer 2

If you've already decided that AVG and Avast are not acceptable, why do you ask what is the best combination? You said you had a sasser worm. That is NOT a virus and antivirus won't find it and eliminate it. You obviously don't have anti-spyware and anti-adware, and what I recommend isn't apparently going to be good enough for you. You will get as many answers as there are opinions in this forum, and that's a lot. And viruses don't come in the back door, they come in because you click on something that is infected, or you open an infected email.

I am going to recommend what I have found to be the best combination: Avast antivirus, SpyBot, and Ad-Aware, all of them free, and 100% better than Norton or McAfee.

Thanks for asking.

Answer 3

Here's some ideas to "roll ya own" Internet Security Suite for free. Free is always the best.

1. For your Anti-Virus......(Always use only 1 A-V)

I like the AOL AntiVirusShield. Don't let the name AOL scare you. AntiVirusShield is made by Kaspersky which is one of top-rated anti-virus vendors in the world.

In recent tests, the most popular free anti-virus, AVG, was only able to detect about 82% of a very large sample of viruses. On the other hand, AntiVirusShield was able to detect better than 99% in the same test.
Full test results are here:
http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82&mnu=82

AntiVirusShield has excellent virus detection rates and is extremely light on using your computer resources.

Updates many times per day to detect new malware.

AVS detects spyware too!

Free to anyone, AOL member or not from:
http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?


2. For your Firewall..........(Always use only 1 firewall)

An excellent free firewall is Comodo Personal Firewall. It can pass firewall "leak tests" that even most of the "paid-for" firewalls cannot pass.

And Comodo has a great support forum. Where the CEO / President of the company might even himself answer your question! Check it out at:
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/


3. For your Anti-Adware and Anti-Spyware needs...............(use 2)

Pick and choose, 2 anti-spywares from the list below and alternate scanning with them on a regular basis. New spywares are created literally hourly, so no single anti-spyware can really detect all malware. Have at least 2 on hand and alternate scanning with each every few days or so. All are free. All can remove as well as detect.

Spybot Search and Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

Ewido:
http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

Adaware SE:
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

A-Squared:
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

SUPERAntiSpyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Windows Defender:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Unfortunately, many "paid for" anti-spyware products are in fact either of limited usefulness or downright scams. When in doubt, look at the list of rogue anti-spyware solutions listed here:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm


4. And to protect your computer from ever getting infected with spyware in the first place............ (use them both)

SpywareBlaster:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

SiteAdvisor:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Everything here is 100% free!!!!!!

Great luck!

Answer 4

I use the free ones - always have and they work fine.
That'll be AVG Antivirus
Adaware and Spybot for spyware
and zone alarm for firewall

Answer 5

no antivirus will guarante that your system remains intact.
New viruses are developed every day and antiVir Specialists strugle to search and destroy them.
The best antivirus are norton, McAfee , F-secure
But you have to pay a lot... :(

Answer 6

nod32 with spy sweeper and flilseclab firewall