The first line of defense is a trustworthy provider that offers a virus check & spam control on mail. But this will not stop all treats. Don’t go for the cheap solution when it comes to the provider. Compare before you pay. Providing is more than pure theoretical speed for a fair price. It’s also bandwidth, stability, security,... and don’t forget the extra’s like mail forwarding, url’s, hosting,...

As a second line of defense my home-network is protected by a trustworthy hardware firewall & router. Wireless is fine if you only allow the IP addresses of your own computers. Configure the router decently or you have an open gate in stead of a line of defense.

Third line of defense:

FIRST SOLUTION (free):

Free Antivirus: Free Avast Home (5/5)
Get the free version and do not forget to register online to get the license key. This software is very resources friendly and only needs very limited system requirements. Superb for any user, even for a heavy user like Nondisputandum.

Firewall: Zonelabs (5/5)
Perfect free software for inexperienced and experienced users. Zone Alarm is a good alternative for those who want to use this firewall in combination with a separate antivirus solution. Zonelabs also offers a payware suite with antivirus detection.

SECOND SOLUTION (pay):

Pandasoftware (4.5/5) (payware):
Yes,.. panda is payware, but one of the better solutions. I prefer the Platinum version for the less powerful computer. It has a very good FIREWALL and a really good ANTIVIRUS killer that is daily updated. Panda is stable and even on an older computer with little resources it runs smoothly in the background. When you get infected by a virus that Panda does not know yet, they guarantee a solution within the coming hours. These are no bogus words. Panda has been tested time & again. They also offer is a good local support. (Addresses)
If you want additional protection against spyware & stuff. Panda has it in a suite with Platinum.

And what about Apple? Does it need an antivirus? No,.. not for the Apple,... but yes,... to avoid spreading windows viruses. So I use ClamXav freeware on my Apple. A shell around open source fighter ClamAv.

Symantec (4.5/5) (payware):
Aka good old Norton. (Remember Norton Commander?)
Norton is in no way inferior to Pandasoftware. But Norton shows to use more resources than it’s opponent Panda for a similar job. So forget about running Norton on a low-end PC.
During the entire year 2004, I used Norton security suite on a beeped-up but stable P4 3.6 GHz HT running WinXP Pro-SE with 2 GB Ram on a 960 MHz over clocked Asus Mboard. I removed Norton ‘cos it slowed down the performance of the system, mostly while using Outlook. A pity ‘cos I really like the overall potency of the Symantec tools. Theoretically, Symantec offers the very best combination of security & maintenance tools available. What does not mean that there are no individually better (free) tools around.
Comments or feedback: mail nondisputandum.

Sophos (4.5/5) (payware)
Only for business customers. Antivirus and antispam.

AntiVir Personal (4/5)
The most resource friendly antivirus that works as well on demand as on access and contains a heuristic module to find a balance between false positive and false negative results. Runs on all Win95-up systems. It also searches for malwares & backdoors. Read more

Bitdefender (4/5)

Grisoft (4,5/5)
Superb freeware. Small, light on resources with regular automatic updates and e.mail scanning. There is a free and a pro version. The only difference is that the free version has a few non-critical features disabled and has no technical support.

Another option is Clamwin,... but i would use this for a second opinion,... not as a first scanner.

Compare prices. See the latest developments
Buy what you really need. Don’t underestimate those needs.

Remember the 3 lines of defense.

1. Choice of provider
    
2. Router with hardware firewall
    
3. Antivirus + software firewall
   
   Also:
   Get a spyware scanner
   At the time I stick to my collection of free stand-alone scanners.
   Anti Spyware page...
   
   Get a system cleaner
   At the time I stick to my collection of free stand-alone cleaners.
   Register & system cleaners...
   
   Also:
   Read the Basic Advice Pages

You indisputably NEED it!
If not an active hardware wall in your router than software on your pc. Or better, use both. If one has a flaw, and they have... the other will protect. I strongly advice not to use 2 software walls on one computer. That is asking for trouble.

Do not fully trust the Windows XP second edition firewall. It only blocks incoming traffic (Microsoft) and leaves outgoing traffic open.

Audit My PC (5/5)
Check if your firewall security needs more fine tuning.

Firewall Leak (4/5)
Choose between 15 tests.

Norton Security Scan (5/5)
Check if your computer is secured against Hackers, Windows Vulnerabilities and Trojan Horses.

Shield Up (4/5)
GRC.com Checks your internet connection security: port scanning and netBIOS implementation.

Sygate Firewall Scan (5/5)
A rapid test from the makers of Pest Patrol & Sygate Firewall. It should not find what services you are running, neither your computer name. Else, check your firewall settings.

See: Antispyware page

See: Basic Security Advice page

See: Antispyware page

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions & HTML offer the possibility do do more than read ASCII text,... but also allows worms to enter your system. Find more info on:
ms technet (4/5) (info)
securityfocus (4/5) (newsletter)

www.slipstick.com (4/5)

E-mail Security Test
(4.5/5)
Thinking that you are 100% safe against E-mail passing viruses? Try this battery of tests to find out... and just don’t be scared if having a virus and malware protection is simply not enough.
Among these is the Eicar test fake virus... so your antivirus should detect this fake virus.

Microsoft and eTrust EZ Armor teamed up to offer free antivirus and firewall protection. This might be an alternative if you really are a Microsoft mouse... You won’t see me using this. Microsoft is no charity. Besides,... they just incorporated a 50% working firewall in SP2,... and now this...
The eTrust website ( )
Microsoft Partner Pack ( )
The itch is the 12 months free subscription,... and than it’s paytime.
And the antivirus is not an antivirus,.. it recognizes patterns,.. not virusses...

Prevx Home: (evaluating):
Virus (and spyware) prevention on the fly by monitoring the memory, file and registry activity to avoid a zero day attack. It avoids hackers running exploit code on your computer. It also checks during install additional security setting.
<tomasito> It is a little tedious to get registered, have to give your E-mail and then respond to their E-mail, and the first couple of days there were a lot of alerts as various programs started up.  It's a little slow when you first turn on the PC, but after all the startup programs are running you won't notice it. Prevx-Home prevents anything from installing, uses no virus database, and suggests you check for program updates periodically. </tomasito>
Download.com review.
Nondisputandum says:
I would not install this along with Spybot’s Teatimer or Scotty the watchdog as both monitor the registry. They simply DO NOT work together well.

If you can identify an infected file:

Send it to Virus Total (5/5)
They promptly check any individual file with 11 major antivirus tools. It than offers an overview of the results found by the virus scanners. Remind that it takes the time to flush the file through your internet connection. It does not clean the file but only diagnoses.

If you cannot identify or remove an assumed virus:

Download Mc Afee Stinger (5/5 for a second rapid scan). A small stand-alone utility that detects and removes the latest viruses. It is not a  substitute for a full antivirus protection, but rather a tool to assist when dealing with an infected system. Stinger utilizes  next generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally  signed DAT files, and scan performance optimizations.

If it did not find anything:

I see 3 possible explanations:

• You don’t have an infected computer.
• It is an older virus that Stinger no longer recognizes.
• It is a brand new virus that is not yet detectable.

If you still think that there is a virus in your system, use
Clamwin Free Antivirus (5/5 for a second thorough scan) This is a free open source passive virusscanner that uses the Clan AntiVirus Engine. It is a great tool for a second scan and can be installed with any other virus scanner as long as you don’t run ‘em both at the same time. It can be set to update automatically, weekly, dayly and even hourly. It it kept up to date by many freelancers. Obviously... When you use it as a second scanner, you might choose not to install the Integration with Windows and the Integration with Outlook components to avoid conflicts with your primary scanner, though on Nondisputandums machine, it runs smoothly alongside the primary scanner. But do choose the option to install a desktop icon ;-), might come in handy. Once installed, you can select a drive, folder or file to be scanned.

More virus detection:

Scan online with Panda: (4/5)
(Only Internet Explorer)
Besides IE,.. you need to give an active mailadress and allow ActiveX control. And you better deactiviate your actual viruscontrol during the online scan.

Kaspersky (4/5) (Files up to 1 MB)

Bitdefender (4/5) (Online scan)

RAV (4/5) (Online scan)

Trend Micro (4/5) (Online scan)

Virus entry points (4/5) (Panda)

Types of viruses (4/5) (Panda)

Transmission & camouflage (4/5) (Panda)

Trend Encyclopedia (4/5)

Vmyths (4/5)

Wildlist (4.5/5)

Spohos Virus List (4/5)

www.eicar.org (4/5) provides you with a fake - harmless - virus that should easily be detected by your up-to-date scanner.

Stay informed about the latest virusses & security menaces.

ITsafe.gov.uk (5/5)
The government of the United Kingdom has taken its fight against online viruses to the front lines with a new Web site called ITsafe, designed to send rapid security alerts to home and small-business computer users. The free service will be run by the National Infrastructure Security Coordination Center (NISCC). Along with alerts, it offers advice on protecting personal data on both home and work computers.

Sign up for the ITsafe News, the bulletin AND the bulletin Alerts. NOT the TEXT messages, unless you live in the UK.

• ITsafe bulletins
• ITsafe Advisories
• NISCC
   

I got a Skype...
Asking for help after a system totally locked-up as soon as Windows had loaded. My first reaction was: Hey, that’s what Windows is for,.. . but than I got explained by my correspondent that she installed a new antivirus... what was a good idea after her outdated antivirus software had not been updated for ages. She choose free Avast.

What went wrong?
She did not de-install the antivirus that was still running on her system. So, both antivirus killers were constantly under friendly fire. Now the same advice goes for installing a new software firewall and some other resident tools.

Elementary:
It seems obvious but when you choose a new antivirus or firewall, first go to safe modus (continue to press F8 during startup), than remove the old antivirus first and fully clean up your system and registry before you install a new antivirus of firewall. And make a system recovery point before you install new software.
(Carl)

The moral of this story:
57 infected files were removed after the first scan with Avast. So,... don’t think that you are more or less safe with an outdated antivirus killer,.. you are not! And don’t wait to get a fully updated scanner,.. do it NOW!