I am writing this as I am for the first time building my own security suite, currently I have NIS 2006 but the subscription has ended. I am have read what NIS 2007, ZA, Trend, AVG will do to my computer. They will either slow them down to a halt or don’t provide a strong package for all areas, such as firewall, antispam, anti-virus…etc… So far I have decided on two parts of my personalized suite. For anti virus I am going to use Avast!. For Firewall I am going to use comodo Firewall. That’s as far as I have gotten. I am not sure if those cover enough bases. Do they provide a strong enough spyware or do I need to get one, such as comodo BOClean. Do I need an encryption package to run with these? Basically I want to make sure I have my bases covered. Thanks in advance for your replies!
Welcome to the forum. 
A simple search on this forum will bring up many hits on that subject.
Here are just two:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=28395.msg231949#msg231949
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=29448.msg242143#msg242143
Thanks. I am still new to this so I have a question that might sound dumb. People list 1 anti-virus, which I understand you never want to have more than 1 running. But then they list 7 Anti-Spyware, and example being WinPatrol and SpywareTerminator. Are they running both of these at the same time or are the just giving a list of spywares to choose from?
Thanks
One firewall and One resident Anti virus.
Most anti spy ware programs aren’t resident and therefore don’t use additional system resources.
Those that are resident, should be chosen with care. They don’t however usually conflict.
I’m right now running several on my system.
Winpatrol Plus
Prevx 2.0
ProSecurity
Windows Defender
These are all resident programs (Probably a little overkill)
I also have several non resident malware programs that I run once in a great while. ;D
I also have ClamWin Anti virus on my system which is a non resident AV
The key is in the choice of applications most of those anti-spyware applications will be on-demand, only running when you run a scan. However, seven is way over the top and you will spend more time keeping their detection signatures up to date than you do browsing (a slight exaggeration).
What every you do only have one resident, on-access anti-spyware in much the same way you should only have one resident on-access anti-virus program.
More isn’t necessarily better if they conflict. I would say one resident with one on-demand as a back-up scanner. You could also use an on-line scanner to confirm, established connection to the on-line scanner of your choice and just before you do the scan, pause Standard Shield, enable after completion.
Here is my set up: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=28395.msg232329#msg232329
I think it will answer all your questions.
You can consider browsers like Firefox & Opera as security programs as they do have defenses. I prefer Opera as it doesn’t have the “memory leakage” problem that Firefox does & is faster. I added DR. Web Link checker to Opera.
Windows Defender & Spyware Terminator are the only free real-time on access anti-spyware products. Using WD my on-demand scanners would sometimes find infections. Switching to ST my on-demand scanners don’t find any infections.
Results dictate my choices. You will find my choices to be lite on resources (RAM & CPU cycles) & efficient.
WOW thanks for all the information. I currently have this setup:
AV - Avast AV ;D
Firewall - Comodo Firewall Pro
Malware - Comodo BOClean
Spyware - Spyware Terminator
With the spyware though, I am kinda skeptical of terminator from what I have read about it’s shakey past involved with the adware company. I have been reading as much as my eye’s can take and every spyware review has someone saying this XXX program sucks, use YYY. Then I read the YYY review and it says, this program sucks, use XXX. I can’t take it. I was hoping to get some better feedback here now instead. I am tossed between Spybot, Spy Terminator, AVG Anti-Spyware and PC Tools Spyware. Anyone have any feedback as to which they would recommend. I am nervous of Terminator already so that one might be out for me.
Thanks
EDIT I don’t mind if I have to spend a little cash on a good spyware. I just want to make sure I have a good one in place.
Hi Dudits :
First off, recommendations should ONLY be made AFTER the SPECIFIC
Name of your Operating System is KNOWN, which you have NOT done
at this point .
As far as antiSPYWARE/antiTROJAN programs, I prefer to use the one(s)
recommended by Malware-fighting Experts on THEIR Support Forums;
they seem to favor the FREE ver of SUPERAntiSpyware from
www.superantispyware.com AND/OR AVG AntiSpyware, most easily
downloaded from www.ewido.net . It is from these Experts came the
info of Spyware Terminator's Shady Past; the younger generation
seems to care little of the Track Record of the Authors of programs !?
Sorry about not giving that info.
I am using Windows XP Pro SP2
I am trying out the AVG Anti-Spyware at work right now which uses the same operating system as mine at home. Seems to work well enough. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have 2 different spyware programs on the system like stated above. One for real-time and the other would be on-demand. For my real-time I would probably buy one of them and use the trial version of the other as the on-demand. It seems like SuperAntiSpyware would be the better on-demand after reading what the trial and purchased come with. Either way, purchased or not, I can still receive updates. With the AVG, I can only get updates until the trial period is over. If you think I have this backwards or have a better suggestion, please don’t hesitate to let me know 
Thanks for the help everyone. So far I am loving this avast virus scan. Glad there are people out there that will help fight the idiots that make virus’s and not for greed like the major retail companies have become. Plus it doesn’t hog my resources which I love!
have you thought of a host file and spywareblaster ie-spyads (i use zoned-out for ie-spyads) thay doint use nothing from your computer thay just block bad stuff http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/restricted.htm and avg antispyware turns to a free version after the trial is over and you stell get updates