On 2009-06-30 10:02 LVTravel wrote:[color=blue]
>
>
> "Eustace" <emfril******.com> wrote in message
> news:#Wo0kGV#JHA.3544@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...[color=green]
>> I just uninstalled the McAffee Security Center that came with my
>> laptop and installed AVG antivirus instead. Is there anything else I
>> need to do to complete the basic protection of my system?
>>
>> emf
>>[/color]
>
>
> AVG free is a fairly good antivirus program and should suffice with your
> browsing as long as you practice "safe-surfing." No antivirus program
> will protect you if you do not practice safe-surfing. There are a lot
> of people who also like Avast. In it's earlier versions, I had issues
> with updating on two of my 5 computers and so dumped it for AVG which
> ran without problems.[/color]

I use(d) AVG with my Win 98 machine. Then with my Win XP laptop I
decided to keep McAffee, though now I think I shouldn't have. I also use
Firefox which is considered safer for browsing.
[color=blue]
> You need to ensure that your Vista firewall is functioning. It, again
> will normally be enough to protect from the hacker's attempts to
> infiltrate your system.[/color]

It is functioning. In my Win 98 machine I used ZoneAlarm, but now I do
not need it; that's a plus for XP, Vista.
[color=blue]
> There are free firewalls available to replace
> the Vista one if you decide to go that route.
> I use Zone Alarm from CheckPoint software:
> [url]http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm[/url]
> on all my systems as it is free and it does a good job of blocking
> outsiders. The only issue I have is the occasional failure of the
> program to remember approved use of the intra or internet by some of my
> programs.
>
> You also need to occasionally run mal-ware checkers. I use Spybot
> search and destroy, Malware bytes and Ad-aware which can all be
> downloaded and installed from these sites:
>
> [url]http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html[/url]
> [url]http://www.malwarebytes.org/[/url]
> [url]http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php[/url][/color]

I'll get ad-aware, as in my earlier machines, for an occasional
check-up. It rarely caught anything but cookies. Except at some point in
the beginning when something was redialing when I got disconnected. Than
I got directions and checked the machine with 2-3 different programs to
make sure it is clean.
[color=blue]
> There are others out there but again, be careful what you get and where
> you get it from.
>
> I heartily agree that you need to uninstall McAfee as it, as well as
> Norton's programs, are resource hogs. I have always had issues with
> McAfee not finding malware that even AVG found.[/color]

I should have uninstalled McAfee from my Win XP machine too. I didn't
out of inertia and maybe curiosity with that map you were getting to see
from where they were trying to infiltrate, though I opened it only a
couple of times in the beginning... And I did realized it was slowing
down the system when it was scanning.

Thanks,

emf

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