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3 out of 4 people found this review helpful
2 stars
Version: IncrediMail Xe 5.8 build 3718
"Generates it's own SPAM via IncrediMail products :("
Pros: Fun - However . . . even with the paid Premium version, IncrediMail insist on Spamming its own customers with advertisements of products produced for, or by IncrediMail . . . A real pain in the @$$ :(
Cons: Applications like IncrediMail, which ?call back home? every four hours to download IncrediMail?s own form of SPAM (advertisements) via a call to 206.82.140.163:80 can be stopped in their tracks with COMODO Firewall 3.0.
Summary: Symantec A/V v10.x Bites the Dust and McAfee Internet Security Suite Sucks!
Nathaniel A. Ray III, MCSE
I have been a devotee of Symantec products from the beginning, dating back to the early 80?s. I remember when the A/V was flying under the Norton banner (with Norton himself pictured on the box), changing to the Symantec banner, and now back to Norton with an anonymous lady.
Recently, while surfing my favorite porn sites, Symantec catastrophically failed me. You really don?t know how well your security applications work until your system is challenged. Needless to say, a malicious package was delivered via the web that contained multiple threats that exploited vulnerabilities in my security suite. My Security Suite included Symantec A/V v10.x and Ad-Aware SE Pro. The package delivered was not only malicious, but extremely aggressive. Ad-Aware tried to block the registry changes, but after endless attempts it was obvious this persistent malicious code was not going to be denied. Symantec detected two Trojans and eradicated them after what appeared to be an eternity. Malicious files were written to the hard drive, and attempts to run Microsoft Update was redirected to them. Meanwhile, an endless parade of porn sites was being displayed as I tried to run Ad-Aware to clean up this mess.
You probably have already guessed the results. After disconnecting the network interface, the barrage of web pages stopped, but I could not run Ad-Aware.
Desperately, I decided to power down, and restart . . . Bad move. Registry changes were made by the malicious code, and I had lost complete control of my machine. After trying everything in my toolbox, it was time to move on with a reformatted disk and a fresh install. Fortunately, I back up my data, so this was no big deal. In the past, I have found this solution far more effective and less time consuming.
Lesson learned: My Security Suite was Reactive, and I needed to update to a Proactive Solution.
My research started close to home. My ISP offers a free subscription to McAfee?s Internet Security Suite. After talking with a cousin who uses it, I decided to give it a try. In less than an hour I installed it, and uninstalled it. McAfee Internet Security Suite is blotted, slow, and resource intensive. The same was found to be true of the current Norton product. My search lead to reviews at CNET (download.com) and PCMag (pcmag.com/) where I found reader ratings far more useful than the editor?s rating. By the way, PCMag?s reviews are much more in-depth than those at CNET.
In addition to an Anti-Virus solution, I was looking for a firewall to replace the anemic native firewall associated with Windows XP. I tested Avira AntiVir Personal ? Free Antivirus 8.1.0.326, AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0.138, Avast Home Edition 4.8.1229.80723, Online Armor 2.1.0.131, and Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.25.378. Read the reviews, download, and test for yourself.
In my opinion the best-of-the-breed was combining Avast Home Edition 4.8 with the awesome power of the Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0. These two products are like Batman and Robin, a dynamic duo. You decide which one is Batman ?
Note: Avast Home Edition 4.8 includes a light firewall which must be disabled via a custom setup, along with the Microsoft Exchange plug-in if you are only using Internet Mail (POP3/SMTP).
Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0 is a powerful firewall that is easy to setup and use by a novice with reading skills, but has the ability to satisfy the pro via fine tuning. Applications like IncrediMail, which ?call back home? every four hours to download IncrediMail?s own form of SPAM (advertisements) via a call to 206.82.140.163:80 can be stopped in their tracks.
Avast Home Editon 4.8 is an exceptional proactive Anti-Virus program offering protection before it becomes a problem, monitoring mail and Internet connections.
These are two programs that I would gladly pay for, but alas, they are totally FREE. They don?t even contain Nagware, and are Vista compatible ?
My Security Suite is now a proactive collection of software consisting of Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0 (personalfirewall.comodo.com/), Avast Home Edition 4.8 (avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html), Ad-Aware SE Pro, and McAfee SiteAdvisor (download.com/McAfee-SiteAdvisor-for-Internet-Explorer/3000-2144_4-10508464.html?tag=lst-2&cdlPid=10784842).
Hope this information helps someone . . .
Nathaniel A. Ray III, MCSE
Updated on Aug 1, 2008Today's PC security must be layered to protect against the onslaught of the multitude, and variety of malware that could take a system down. There is one other program that needs consideration to round out a Proactive Security Suite.
Take a look a ThreatFire 3.5 (pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2301045,00.asp). It doesn't use traditional virus signatures to identify a threat, but looks at the behavior of a program, or process. On a suspect machine my grandson uses, it found threats that other programs missed.
Did I also mention that in front of my home network is a Netgear WPN824 RangeMax Wireless Router, using an SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) Firewall.
Note: It's best to have all security programs installed before adding Comodo Firewall Pro. If the Comodo Firewall is already installed, either put Comodo in TRAINING mode, or use the Installation Mode feature to install new programs.
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