Vigilant Redux: My Favorite Products

My post about protecting your Windows-based PC from Internet Trash (hey, another 'IT' phrase) was written with a deliberate technical bent, but Chris Marsden's comment brought to my attention that I neither recommended any products nor was my explanation of NAT routers particularly sufficient. I felt that a follow-up post on what products I like and use was in order, so here it is.

NOTE to Brian Glass: Yes, Linux would be best protection, but we all know that the evil Microsoft still has this world by the short hairs. However, as soon as I download the Fedora 4 distro and load it on another LPAR, I'll write a geeked-out post on the penguin, just for you. :)

Firewall: Any NAT Router (aka Broadband Router)
NAT is an acronym for Network Address Translation. The basic concept is that it takes your public IP address issued by your ISP, translates it to a private IP address range so that no casual hacker can directly access your PC. For a really good and in-depth explanation of how a NAT router operates as a firewall, check out Episode 3 of the Security Now! podcast [mp3 or transcript].

Currently, I use the Buffalo Wireless Cable/DSL Router. The one I have is an older 54 Mbps model, but it looks exactly the same. I like this model, because when I bought it 2 years ago, it was the best looking (white and no ugly antennas), it had the best wireless range of the pre-Cisco Linksys and Netgear routers, and for a company who also competed on the Enterprise level, their consumer products were comparably priced.

Antivirus: NOD32 by ESET
Prior to 2003, I used Norton Antivirus because it was decent. Since then, Norton Antivirus and the absolutely horrid Internet Security Suite have earned both of my thumbs down. McAfee's in the same boat. Because they try to do everything in one product, it bogs down the computer and until the built-in outbound firewall is "trained", you spend a lot of time telling it how to treat every little piece of unique traffic and you don't even know if what you're telling it is correct. NOT user-friendly and unnecessarily cumbersome.

NOD32 is a terrific antivirus program, nothing more and nothing less. It's very lightweight, costs $40 per year and downloads new updates daily. Conversely, I've waited up to 4 days for a Norton update.

Spyware: Spybot Search & Destroy
I used to use Lavasoft Ad-Aware and it still is a decent spyware/adware/malware remover, however not my first choice anymore. I prefer Spybot Search & Destroy that can be freely downloaded from www.safer-networking.org (not .com). Both Spybot and Ad-Aware remove annoying and malicious spyware and you have to periodically (weekly) download updates of newly discovered threats. The advantage of Spybot is that it has an immunize feature that places a list of known spyware website addresses into your Internet Explorer so that it will automatically block any attempt from those sites that attempt to infiltrate your system. Still, it's not perfect and it requires diligence in running regular scans and regular updates.

If you're looking for a "set it and forget it" spyware solution, I've heard that Spy Sweeper is good, but it costs $30 per year and I haven't had any experience with it. As for Microsoft's Antispyware program, I've found that it breaks some programs and doesn't come close to catching all spyware objects.

I hope this helps some of you and, as always, feel free to throw in your 2 cents and add to the conversation.