Virus/Spyware/Spam Blockers

Adaware, Spybot, and Spyware blaster should not cause any problems, because they don't run in the background (unless you have tea-timer running in Spybot)

The reason for multiple programs?? Because not one program can catch and/or remove spyware-malware-adware, or viruses.

Different programs have different sources for spyware, and they have different detections.

But you can only run one Anti-Virus on your computer to avoid conflicts.

Just my 2¢

I agree its confusing but while I was waiting for this computer to arrive I purused the board for new users (even though I wasn't really new to computers, but going from Win 98 first ed to XP and hearing about spyware and other new threats I wanted to learn). There I found some very helpful tutorials that recommended these same anti spyware programs.

And of course as can be seen by some of the other posts, there are programs that masquerade as antispyware software that will actually install spyware. But the ones mentioned seem to be recommended by multiple sources and you don't have to pay for them. although several offer the option of making a donation.

Also recommended by multiple sources that I deem trustworthy is to use the Firefox web browser rather than IE.

Since switching to Firefox, I don't seem to get spyware. When I run Adaware, or the others they would previously find some spyware or adware. Now they don't.

But Spybot does seem to run in the background in that it has a feature to protect, not just scan for spyware or adware after the fact. It will alert me when I'm installing software, etc that something is making changes like to the registry. If it is the name of the program I'm installing I tell it to go ahead.

I covered the topic in this post:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_virus&message.id=47071#M47071

Good Luck!

P.S.
1. Spam is only a problem for those who advertise their e-mail address. Hence, get a second (free – Yahoo, Google) email account, and use it for general purposes.
2. You only need two simple things from your Internet Service provider: A) Physical wire/cable that will connect you to the Internet via their servers; B) E-mail settings: account name, password, incoming mail server, outgoing main server.

Ad aware and Spybot are both very good programs and provide good scans (and protection with teatimer) but it seems the best way to go is to get a good firewall. I use the latter And Zone alarm securtiy suite because it is amazing. Ive had my computer 7 months now and ive avioded almost 100 attacks on my pc. It also includes antivirus software in it and is very good. If you need a good antivirus i recommend macfee my brothers been using it for about 3 years an hasnt got a virus yet.

A firewall protects against some threats, but its different than anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Of course some programs have components that cover several of those areas like Norton Internet Security which has both anti virus and a firewall as well as other protective modules like anti spam, etc.

So its my understanding that we should have a firewall (and especially for those of us with broadband connections) as well as anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

And a word of caution. As I recently found out, I didn't think I had gotten any virus infections but after recently purchasing a HD with back up software and running the software, Norton found a virus during that process of backing up. Somehow it had gotten past the auto protect scanning that scans incoming email. I had felt pretty confident that I was protected and didn't have a clue that my system had gotten infected since I didn't see any signs of it. I hadn't run a full system scan since the end of November (it usually will start scanning on its own and I hadn't realized it had been that long).

So I still have to figure out just what to do about the virus. I think its cleared off my computer but I need to take care of the back up. And the back up is apparently compressed and so the anti-virus program can't repair those files. And I'm not sure just which email attachment was the one that was infected even.

I guess I should run one or more of the online virus scanners since some of them, including the one I got or variations of it can do things to disable your anti-virus protection.

As far as programs, I'd used Norton anti virus for years and liked it but I don't like the Internet security program. It gets messed up sometimes when I'm running live update (not the automatic virus updates, but the program updates) and has made changes to the firewall which have kept me from either connecting to the internet at all or from my email program connecting to the internet. And it took hours to figure out what had happened and what to do about it.

I'm not sure that we had answered all of your questions. You didn't say which internet security provider you have or what package they offer.

But to sort of summarize, you can and should use multiple anti-spyware programs as listed in the various replies.

You should also have 1 firewall that is turned on and one anti-virus program that is turned on.

Windows XP has a firewall but if you are running another program with a firewall such as Norton, then turn off the Windows XP firewall and use the Norton or other security package one.

As far as anti-spam programs Norton includes an anti-spam module in their Internet Security program. I didn't like it as it seemed to really slow down my email (and I'm on fast cable connection) and it also seemed to let a lot of spam through so I just turned that part of Norton off. My isp, cox cable has a wonderful spam blocker that really seems to work well. Norton's seems to work by the domain name (the part after the @ in the email address) but I would get the same spam message from 3 or 4 or more totally different addresses, including domain names so that didn't seem all that useful.

What your internet provider has may work well. You could probably try it out to see, and especially if its free, but if you have other programs, turn off the parts that cover anti-virus, and firewall in one or the other.

I have used Norton anti-virus for quite a few years and it worked well, but there are a lot of things I don't like about Norton Internet Security. I've had it mess up several times when I ran live update (to update the programs, not the anti-virus automatic weekly updates) where it made changes to the firewall and then I couldn't check email until I figured it out which took quite a few hours at least for me to find the answers. Although now that I remember what to do, it only took about 15-20 minutes or so to fix when it did it a couple days ago.

Also, I've heard that once Norton is installed, it can be difficult to remove it if you want to. Supposedly this is to keep hackers from removing it but it could be to discourage people to switch to other programs.

Look on the Dell website for anti-virus/spyware, etc and safe computing. They have some good recommendations and there are also other sources of info.

Try the new user forum. That is geared to new users and there was very helpful info there when I bought this machine and was switching from Win98 to XP and getting up to speed with all these kind of questions.

There are programs which help provide protection. There are also safe computing practices to be aware of such as being very careful of what you download online. Apparently a lot of stuff that is advertised as free can be a source of spyware. So before you go downloading a lot of cool sounding stuff, learn about what to watch out for, and do be skeptical.

And if you do go to web sites that want you to register, do read their privacy policies. Some of them give your name and email address out to others and before you know it you are getting email from a bunch of places you don't want. I don't know that it is technically spam, if the privacy policies say they may share your info. most of them give you a choice and you should read it carefully and decide whether you want to receive offers from them or others and check the boxes accordingly.

Our local newspaper's business section had an article some months ago about a list of lemon mutual funds. Since I work in the field, I was interested to see what they had to say so I went to the site. They required registration to get the list. Maybe I didn't read the privacy policy and maybe my guard was down since our newspaper had the referral to it. At any rate I now receive his emails plus those from about 5 or 8 other people that apparently came from that. And they are the kind with all these hot advice on investing and maybe some of them know what they are talking about, but some of them definately include a lot of baloney and hype to get you to get a paid subscription to their newsletter.

So be very careful about giving out your email info on line. And do not give out any personal info in response to emails purporting to be from your bank or credit card company or anyone else since legitimate requests would not come via email. Most of those are phishing for your info.

And maybe you are already of aware of these things, but did want to include them as they are parts of internet security that are very important.