Internet security question

[Tamandra]

Ok, after some opinion/advice from those of you more knowledgable than me.

I currently have McAfee Security Suite or w/e it's called on my PC - it has firewall, virus protection, spamkiller (which is very hit and miss) and a privacy service.

I've been considering ditching it for some time so what I want to know is if I switched on the Windows Firewall (not using router firewall) and used the new MS Security Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/) would that do pretty much all that McAfee is currently doing?

What would be the risks of using the MS products and de-installing McAfee?

Bear in mind, I'm a fairly careful net user, the bulk of my surfing is on trusted sites and I'm very cautious when clicking links to any thing, to the point of googling some links before visiting the sites.

I'm on XP and currently using IE7 (though will upgrade to IE8 soon).

[Rick]

It's what I currently have isntalled on Dagazs machine. It seems to be as competant as McAfee. THen again, I never liked McAfee. I prefer AVG. The free version is installed on my notebook, Jerah's notebook, and one of my desktops.

My new Windows 7 machine currently has to 30 day trial edition of EST's Antivirus (http://www.eset.com/), which might be the first anti-virus I end up paying for in nearly 3 years. Though to be honest I'm currently considering AVG's Internet security 9 as well ( http://www.avg.com/us-en/224953). They have a new Virus engine that detects gaming and other heavy load activities and gets out of the way (Instead of running a scan smack in the middle of a raid and lagging you out).


I don't think you're going to lose anything my switching from McAfee.

[Raf]

I second Ricks recommends. I paid the subscription for AVG it was worth it.

McAfee is bloatware and sucks the life out of a system.

[dt167]

Well, now your going to get the paranoid security guy's viewpoint. IMO McAfee is teh suck, I have never really liked their products. It doesn't do a great job and uses lots of resources. I like Norton's products but typically they are corporate level. They do a decent job but still use quite a bit of resources. Not that familiar with Security Essentials from MS, but my evaluation is generally to not rely too heavily on MS products to provide security. Like Rick and Raf, I too like AVG products. Kaspersky and BitDefender are supposed to be pretty good products though I have never personally used them.

AVG, Nortons, Kaspersky, or BitDefender would be my recommendations. You want to make sure you have a good IPS-type application that can help detect application and script-level attacks via websites and other sources. Those are the main attack vectors against home users nowadays because of all the "Web 2.0" apps and active content on sites; even trusted sites can lead you to some bad mojo.

On another note, I would recommend moving away from IE because it is so targeted by attackers and is tied so heavily into the OS. At least you are on IE7, but I would recommend Firefox or Safari for additional protection.