Symantec says you should pay for your security! and I say....

[Guest]

[SiberLynx]

I think the article is negative against free solutions

You thought was right.

This is not true

True!  Cheers!

[Valentin N]

I have reread the text and you are right tech

Comodo's free Internet Security Premium has a firewall. But such features are usually limited to paid antivirus products.

It seems that they forgot D+ and the sandbox which are two important components.

Regards,
            Valentin N

[cavehomme]

[at]
Calm down, please. At the end of the day, it's only bloody software.

A great quote.  

Just reading through this thread whilst nursing a bad cold, and thinking why do some of my friends on here treat CIS as some kind of religion, or can't accept that Symantec and others produce good solutions?

I have been a user of Comodo for a few years now, but I am a realist, and have other work to do and I cannot be Melih's beta tester for ever     What i mean by that is in my experience, and opinion,  Comodo mostly prematurely releases production software that other more mature companies, as Nico put it, would avoid doing, or it would still be their alpha / beta versions for volunteer testers.

Also the various CIS databases are simply not comprehensive enough and in my experience I get far too many false positives or alerts for action. And certain parts, especially D+ continue to mis-function and not remember decisions, etc, etc.

For most home users, and small business users / professionals who do not have IT departments, they need their security software to work right "out of the box" with just a few simple questions and not a bunch of svchost.exe and other such OS related prompts, especially after having identified the local network as friendly and open to file and printer sharing.

I have on probably 2 occasions adviced Comodo / Melih to actually take a small team of people into real users homes and offices and experience the horrors of installation and the first few hours of CIS use. For IT professionals and amateur nerds it is a different story, but not for most others. And, yes I paid for Geekbuddy, but to sometimes wait and hang on for hours is no fun, and then finally they reset your carefully set-up config instead of improving it for you! Ouch 

For all these reasons and more, I have scaled back CIS to only using the excellent firewall, no D+ nor anything else enabled. I then installed MSE which is very competent and stable but turned off MSE behavioural and set option to only scan incoming files and downloads. I then paid real money for the superb Prevx to fill in all the other gaps. Even my oldest 7 year old single cpu 1.4Ghz laptop performs quicker with this set up rather than the full CIS!

I decided against using my copies of Norton, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes or any of the other myriad of free and paid softwares I have tried over the years, since for my situation, this is the best combo, for my situation, and my comfort zone, and I have no criticism of anyone choosing anything else to suit their needs.

So after all that, let's all be a bit more mature, including I respectfully suggest Melih, and not knock each other about and realise that people have the right to make their own choices and opinions on security software.  We should be highlighting the virtues of CIS rather than getting defensive and knocking Norton or others, even if they might play dirty games themselves and knock CIS or free software.

Peace man / woman    

[2cnts]

I say . . .

The user's level of sophistication (given that they have the last word) will determine whether they pay or use free stuff. I know my customer's very well and quickly surmise what level of interaction they can handle. But I rarely recommend purchasing either of THE BIG TWO. My presence alone rules out their using firewall software. I recommend (for average people) free plus either free or paid Malwarebytes.

I use COMODO on my machine but I'm always behind lots of hardware layers so I can't really tell how good it is . . . I think I'll poll for volunteers to test it out. 

[Verilee]

[at]cavehomme

yes, great post, and I 100% agree with you. I have no experience with Geekbuddy or your other issues, but the essence of what you are saying is exactly what I am also thinking.

My customers use what I recommend to them. And I do recommend various solutions, depending on the skill level of the customer, and/or the circumstances or needs.

For my skilled customers I recommend comodo, for those who really need speed I recommend Vipre, which is a quite cheap solution due to their home site licensing, but only with English interface, and for the beginners MSE if they want it free, or Avast or eScan if they are willing to pay and need a different interface language than English.

Every customer gets Malwarebytes free and Spybot S&D installed as additional on demand scanners, and to secure the PC against known malicious websites (that wonderful feature of Spybot to immunize).

This is what I do. This practice has developed during the past years, and I am sure there are other possibilities out there that are even better or equal. But my customers and me feel comfortable with that. And none of them complains, because I set the frame in advance, and they know what they get.

None of them had an issue anymore since I changed the setup to either of the above mentioned.

I think bashing on other applications or solutions leads to nothing. In the end it's important, how a solution scores in practice.

Kind regards
Verilee

[cavehomme]

...for those who really need speed I recommend Vipre...

Verilee, that is informative. I have not heard of Vipre before, but then after just checking their site and some related sites it is interesting to note this company used to be Sunbelt and who had a pretty good reputation quite a few years ago.

One day I will take their trial on a spare PC and see how it goes. I am especially in need of a lightweight solution for my main business laptop of a Dell D400 which is now incredibly 7 years old and still going strong after installs of a new hard disk and max RAM. I also have Win 7 and Linux Mint notebooks but the Dell is so well integrated and I have invested in docking stations and great 4:3 monitors which would require an expensive total upgrade if I changed, and a lot of time in the migration since from experience the Microsoft auto migrations from XP to Win 7 have fouled up at least one installation when I tried and I had no option except full recovery as supplied by OEM. Also the Win 7 interface does not allow the same density / details of display / text as XP does, which is problematic for my apps and my personal productivity.

Anyway, perhaps it will be Vipre one day.

[Valentin N]

Hey Cavehomme.

I am especially in need of a lightweight solution for my main business laptop of a Dell D400 which is now incredibly 7 years old and still going strong after installs of a new hard disk and max RAM.

Have you tried CIS as a complete suit? I find CIS very light even for older pc. Have you also tried to tweak you dell by disabling services that aren't needed, some start up and have you tried to change the look of Win 7? 

I am sorry if this is 

Regards,
            Valentin N

[panic]

I am especially in need of a lightweight solution for my main business laptop of a Dell D400 which is now incredibly 7 years old and still going strong after installs of a new hard disk and max RAM.

Hi cavehomme,

Since this is your primary business machine and I assume continuity and constancy are the primary concerns, I can recommend a particular configuration, although it is not particularly security focussed. It is exceptionally lightweight and its prime focus is ensuring system availability.

1. Partition the hard drive so it has a second partition of around 10 GB (the exact figure of the second partition will become apparent shortly).
1a. The size of the secondary partition doesn't really matter as we will be resizing it later, just as long as it exists.
2. Install the Windows version of your choice onto the primary partition.
3. Install all your core business applications onto the primary partition.
4. Set up appropriate user accounts with appropriate access priveleges.
5. Attach an external USB powered hard drive to the PC.
6. Redirect "My Documents" (or whatever folder you use for user generated data storage) to the external hard drive.
7. Install a drive imaging application like Paragon Hard Drive Manager (HDM).
8. Run HDM and perform a partition image of the primary partition onto the external hard drive.
9. When the image has completed, use HDM to resize the secondary partition so it is larger than the size of the partition image created in step 8.
10. Copy the image file from the external hard drive to the secondary partition.
11. Image file on the external drive is now your system image backup. Image file on the secondary partition is the one that will be used if we need to reimage the system.
12. Config finished.

The advantages of this method are;
1. User generated data is segregated from the OS and the apps (where malware primarily strikes).
2. Appropriate user priveleges allow apps to be run, data to be generated and restricts system level access.
3. Image file stored on secondary partition means the system can be restored without relying on the older BIOS supporting booting from a USB external (which a lot of older BIOS' don't).
4. System can be restored to a "day 1" state in about 15 minutes (dependant upon the size of the image file and the speed of the unit).
5. External hard drive can be used as a backup source to DVD without having to pick and choose selected folders.
6. No security software installed to maximize performance throughput.

The only real caveat is that you must take your external hard drive wherever you take the laptop - not a real biggie.

Hope this helps,
Ewen :-)

[cavehomme]

Hey Cavehomme.

Have you tried CIS as a complete suit? I find CIS very light even for older pc. Have you also tried to tweak you dell by disabling services that aren't needed, some start up and have you tried to change the look of Win 7? 

I am sorry if this is 

Regards,
            Valentin N

VAlentin, thanks for the suggestions, I have done them all and I am an experienced user. Pls also ref my comment re CIS earlier this month Jan 19th I think. Basically through masses of trial and error I finally have an optimum security set up for this particular laptop.

[cavehomme]

Hey Cavehomme.

Have you tried CIS as a complete suit? I find CIS very light even for older pc. Have you also tried to tweak you dell by disabling services that aren't needed, some start up and have you tried to change the look of Win 7? 

I am sorry if this is 

Regards,
            Valentin N

Just to add, yes i reverted to the basic Win 7 display which is similar to XP but not near enough in several ways. Yes, XP can be improved upon, but Win 7 current GUI options are not adequate in my view.

[cavehomme]

Hi cavehomme,

Since this is your primary business machine and I assume continuity and constancy are the primary concerns, I can recommend a particular configuration, although it is not particularly security focussed. It is exceptionally lightweight and its prime focus is ensuring system availability...........

Thanks Ewan.

I already have a partitioned hard disk with OS and apps on C but with all docs / data on the partition drive D, but I like your suggstion of keeping an image of C on the disk.

Coincidentally I have just ordered a new hard disk as a precaution after having seen one or two SMART values drop slightly below limit. Your suggestion is making me think that I will in fact have 3 partitions, so the original C and D plus E for an image of C.  Then D will of course continue to be backed up externally each day anyway.

As for not running any AV, well I would run at least a daily on demand scan, but I also feel that I have a responsibility not to inadertantly pass on malware to anyone else if it did get onto my system, and which is one of the reasons that even on the linux machine I have an AV installed which for all intents and purposes is actually mainly scanning for windows malware not linux, since hardly any of that currently exists, and there are many security gates on linux compared to Win, at least XP.

Thanks.

[panic]

Coincidentally I have just ordered a new hard disk as a precaution after having seen one or two SMART values drop slightly below limit. Your suggestion is making me think that I will in fact have 3 partitions, so the original C and D plus E for an image of C.  Then D will of course continue to be backed up externally each day anyway.

There is one BIG drawback to your plan of a third partition. Think of when you have a catastrophic failure of the physical hard drive. You now have your OS, your apps, your data and your image file all up that well known creek with a paddle.

Whenever possible segregate your user generated data onto a separate physical disk from your OS and apps. OS and apps can be reinstalled - user generated data cannot.

I would still strongly recommend an external drive for data storage and backup copy of system image.

Ewen :-)

[cavehomme]

There is one BIG drawback to your plan of a third partition. Think of when you have a catastrophic failure of the physical hard drive. You now have your OS, your apps, your data and your image file all up that well known creek with a paddle.

Whenever possible segregate your user generated data onto a separate physical disk from your OS and apps. OS and apps can be reinstalled - user generated data cannot.

I would still strongly recommend an external drive for data storage and backup copy of system image.

Ewen :-)

Sorry, what I meant is that as per your suggestion there would ALSO be an image of C on an external drive as well as on E. Then E is immediately available and external is backup. Then on another external drive there is a backup of data on D.  What do you think ?

[Valentin N]

VAlentin, thanks for the suggestions, I have done them all and I am an experienced user. Pls also ref my comment re CIS earlier this month Jan 19th I think. Basically through masses of trial and error I finally have an optimum security set up for this particular laptop.

Here is a website that will help you to "tune up" you windows 7.

Regards,
            Valentin N

[Justin L.]

Just bought a new notebook from Bestbuy the other day (specs shown in my sig) and HP was kind enough to bundle a nice little flyer from Symantec, it said:

"Free security software won't cost you an arm and a leg. Just maybe your identity".

With a message like that of course it will scare unknowing buyers into purchasing their terrible security software, they are certainly doing an excellent job at marketing FUD. I wonder if maybe in the future we can see some PC vendors bundling the freeware version of Comodo internet security on new pcs...

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