Hello to everybody, specially all of you with computing security concerns!!
I hope this info will show you another way to protect your PC and a clearer aproach to securing a Windows based computers.
Inspired in Pavel’s Forum Policy, I compiled a small list of security tools that just work very well partnering with avast!. These tools are the ones that I use everyday because their power, stability, effectiveness and low resource impact:
Tiny PersonalFirewall Pro - but the Standard version is as good as this one.
I found this to be the very best firewall out there, better than Agnitum, ZA, Kerio, etc. Kaspersky’s Anti-Hacker is very good too but it is incompatible with avast! so bye bye Dr. Zivago. Moreover, alongside traditional features found in common firewalls this one let you keep an eye on every application, DLL, etc. you run so you have a multi-layered protection that covers lot of vector entry points of infections.
Spybot Search & Destroy’s resident module TeaTimer - protects registry, startup folder and IE from being hijacked, etc. This one is rather heavy -about 10mb in memory and 0-2% cpu cycles- but it does an excellent job. There’s a fully functional free version but of course donations are welcomed.
ProcessGuard Full - A must have. This application cover your system with a thin -and I mean a very thick- layer of protection warning you each time you run an unknown or changed application, prevent processes to kill other processes or modify them, install services, global hooks (this is what keyloggers are based on), etc. As I said earlier a must have, and best of all it uses minimun memory and even less resources - this is a pearl beatifully crafted like avast! of course ;D ;D ;D There’s a free basic version.
At this time I’m not using any anti-spam tool but I think I will turn to Spamnhilator, an excellent free anti-spam software.
Last but no least -Yesss, I allways wanted to say that!!- please give a try to another MUST have “AMUST 1-Defender” - I came on this one short time ago after reading an article posted by Vlk I think (or it was DavidR) about DropMyRights, an utility that let you run your applications -specially IE and Outlook/OE- with limited user rights instead admin rights, thus blocking lot of spyware/malware you can catch when surfing the net or reading an infected email. Altough DropMyRights is a command-line based application that works with at least every piece of software you can find, 1-Defender is more graphical oriented with and atractive GUI that makes protecting IE and Outlook a snap, you should really try it and better of all IT’S FREE.
Please note that the only glitch I found in this software is the link to IE it creates when installed, you must change that icon that in fact takes you to the setup screen for the one named “AMUST 1-Defense” inside program folder in the Start menu.
Well, as it was said on lot of post here and there choosing one or another software security package like firewalls or antivirus -or cars, TVs, dogs, beers, girls, surfboards, etc.- is a taste matter BUT I found for me the combination of those programs very reliable, and when I say reliable I mean stability, speed, low resources consumption, effectiveness, configurability, adaptability to user taste and not the other way… I think of course avast! have all of that great advantages and that’s why I prefer it over full packages.
Two final notes:
Before I decide stay with the applications I mentioned above I tried a lot of software packages like Bitdefender Security Suite 9, Kaspersky Internet Security 6, Norman Internet Security, NOD32 (only antivirus), F-Secure and AntiVir some of wich are better than others but I disagree with them in some aspects like awfull GUI (BitDefender) or lot of resources consumption (F-Secure, Norman, BitDefender); Kaspersky is an excellent choice but I think this new breed they offspring in their labs needs still a little polish. And yes, buying three separate applications as I proposed may be a bit more expensive, but think about it for a second and put in the balance the lot of resources you save! When you install one of that competitors packages they can be very good ones but you need a Cray-B to just run the notepad, and I don’t talked yet about Panda, Symantec (Norton), Trend Micro or worst of all McAfee wich I recomend you stay away from them because they will convert your new P4 in an old XT ;D ;D ;D ;D
Finally, I see a lot of people -like my fine neighbor Tech- recommend Ewido to complement avast!, a thing with I totally disagree just because that anti-trojan alongside Microsoft’s [anti-spyware] Wndows Defender or Sunbelt’s CounterSpy, to name few, are system cycles and memory munchers because they inspect everytime -like paranoics- all the possible entry vector points thus wasting a lot -and please keep this in mind, A LOT- of precious computing resources, just like the Windows Media Player, but that’s another discussion 
Anyway, it’s a matter of taste 
One more thing! It was very helpfull be assisted by the WordReference.com website when writing this post, a good online resource to translate lot of words and basic sentences !!
By the way, if I make a mistake on what was exposed here and you notice it SHUT UP… no, of course not, really Please feel free to correct me and contribute to help with security tips, all comments are welcomed.
Be safe.
