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Anti-virus software - Which one?!?!?!?!?

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Manicminer:
I have a 3 year old AMD Athlon XP 2400+ ,512MB DDR.
Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2.

I have Windows Firewall turned off, and have the McAffee one running instead, and Norton 2005 for Virus protection. For home use I don't notice them running at all.
 However, for professional use I'm sure they would become very obvious and would slow the system down no end, as would a smaller processor.

I run IE and OE with absoloutly no ill effect.

johnniep:
i have found that panda anti virus works well and it hasnt let anything througha dn the part i like about it is that it has lots of little facts and stuff about how many its bocked etc etc,
i use msn explorer but it doesnt hurt wen you do use explorer.
cheers
j.p

datalas:
personally I wouldn't recommend running internet explorer just at present.  Now there are a plethora of arguments about whether IE is targetted more because of it's popularity or because of a whole host of other reasons.  To be honest it's all an utterly moot point,  at present there are more known, and frequently used exploits against both Internet Explorer and Outlook and I would avoid using them if possible until that changes.  (a new version of Internet Explorer is expected early 2006 and rumours persist that it is being written as a web browser rather than a remote password server ;) )

If you are required, obliged, or otherwise prefer to usethese sorts of things might I recommend that you do invest in a good AV program, take a look at technologies such as chilton preview and invest (or otherwise) in a good firewall.  

The one built into XP SP2 isn't too bad although I am not overly impressed with it,  I personally don't rate "personal" firewalls mcuh to be honest and have had some concerns with the little DSL NAT boxes in the past.  For reasons of morality I can't suggest which firewall I would recommend ;)  but there are several other, dedicated firewalls which are regularly updated.

Regular updates are *vitally* important.  This is not just "bug fixing" and a case of "it should have been done right the first time", I only wish it was.  There is a battle between security companies and the hacker / criminal fraternity at the moment and an ever increasing array of complex and innovative attacks are constantly bombarding computers, if your machine hasn't been updated recently (this goes for the little black flashy light boxes too) it will be suseptible to something.

My biggest concern is that Viruses, Exploits, Trojans and most things of that ilk are highly visible because the notoriety of being a "l337 hax0r init!" is the ultimate goal.  However, if this changes and someone decides to produce an exploit with no visible effect....

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