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After months of searching and trying out combinations.   I believe I have settled with a security combination for my Windows XP machine (DEP is on).

1.  ESET NOD32 Antivirus – This is my all-time favorite antivirus, and my all-time favorite security program for my PC (also tested Avast, AntiVir, Kaspersky, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norton)

2.  WinPatrol Free – This lightweight HIPS is one of best out there, I’ve tried others like Comodo D+, Spyware Terminator, Private Firewall, EqSecure, Online Armor, ZoneAlarm Pro, Jetico and Malware Defender.  Yet WinPatrol still comes out on top.

3.  Prevx SafeOnline (Facebook Edition) should be on anyone’s computers, especially since it’s browser protection module is really powerful.  I actually installed this on three other PC’s I’m currently managing.

4.  Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, installed as another malware on-demand scanner, this is one of the best in catching rogue AV/AMs so I’m sticking with this.

5.  Vba32 AntiRootkit BETA, just in case any rootkit nasties get in my PC.

6.  Secunia PSI, just to scan for software vulnerabilities within my machine

7.  As for my Firewall, I’m using Windows Firewall, and I just configured my IPsec settings so that it would block ICMP Pings.

I’m currently behind a NAT Router with SPI enabled.  I’m using OpenDNS as my preferred DNS service.

Changed Comodo Internet Security 4.1.x with ZoneAlarm Pro 9.3.x. Back in the past, pre-Checkpoint days, I loved ZoneAlarm, as it was the most effective piece of security software (at least the suite) in the early 2000s. Anyway, I’ll be trying out this firewall again.

Went back to my stable setup.

1. ESET NOD32 Antivirus – Still one of the best, if not the best, realtime antivirus applications out there
2. Comodo Internet Security (Firewall, Defense+) – Comodo now loves me, probably due to the lessenend popups, I’m still testing out Sandboxing since it’s still quite new to CIS. And not to mention that in general Sandboxing/virtualization is quite in its early stages.
3. Hitman Pro – Cloud multivendor on-demand malware scanner.
4. Trusteer Rapport – For banking safety, but I actually don’t do banking on this computer, in fact, I have never done online banking. I only use this to “protect” some sites like my web mail, my blog and etc.
5. Secunia PSI – for my system-wide security audit every once in a while

With my current setup, though it may seem that I’m using up more RAM/Virtual memory, there seems to be no system impact overall. Everything stays light and my system is still very responsive.  I’m behind a router, still using OpenDNS, cleaning crap with CCleaner and liking Firefox.

All my security programs listed on the right are FREE and right now all of them are running on my machine. Seems like they’re all compatible though I’ve turned off a feature or two on some security programs)

1. Avira AntiVir Personal, currently being used as the real-time anti-virus engine
2. Comodo Firewall, didn’t bother to install Defense+ and Sandbox, but installed the Firewall
3. Hitman Pro, installed as a “second-opinion” malware on-demand scanner
4. Malware Defender HIPS, disabled the Network Protection, all other options are running for this HIPS program
5. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, installed as another malware on-demand scanner
6. PeerBlock IP Filter, my IP blocker, especially when I use uTorrent, currently blocking Spy sites, .edu list and Anti-P2P organizations
7. Prevx SafeOnline, for banking safety, also as a second layer as HIPS and malware scanner
8. Secunia PSI, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
9. Vba32 AntiRootkit, me being paranoid, and I’m also using the BETA version for this.

Not to mention that I use Firefox for browsing, using CCleaner for cleaning (I don’t know if this helps security) and set OpenDNS for my DNS.

Best regards,
ER

Added WinPatrol and Online-Armor to my Security software, removed Comodo.

Comodo tends to get chatty — too many user-notifications for my own taste. This may be a nice feature, but for me, the notifications that require user intervention don’t come with detailed the information that I need. Basically, I’m guessing most of the time, fortunately, I didn’t find anything weird running on my computer.

I used to dislike Online-Armor, but know I’m a full-fledged convert. During its installation, it has this wizard, called the Safety Check wizard, that finds all the bits and pieces of your OS and installed programs, and I believe it automatically configures some firewall/HIPS rules on applications it recognizes. For programs it didn’t recognize as safe, it has created a list and it would ask if you would allow or block them. Now, OA has learned most of the installed applications inside the computer, and if you do an update or do some system changes it would give you a notification — telling you that this xxxx program has changed and such. I love the way this firewall presents its notifications, as it is clear and very informative.

I also added WinPatrol to serve as another security layer from Online-Armor’s HIPS capability. This 1MB program is very light on resources while its checking on the behavior of your system in real-time! It has lots of options that checks everything inside your computer. This one is a must have.

Added links for security software, just a few months ago, I only used NOD32 as my main security solution. Since I’m behind a router, I felt quite secure with just using the default Windows XP firewall. For some reason, I’ve become anal with my computer’s security, maybe because I do sometimes connect directly to the Internet using SmartBRO, but it’s probably because I’m now fathering a child — I’m a bit paranoid. So as NOD32 Antivirus as my main security option, I’ve built a security “supporting cast” around it — and since I’m not planning on paying for another security software, I’ve only chosen the free to use ones.

First up, is the Comodo Internet Security, I didn’t install its anti-virus component for obvious reasons, so I just chose the Firewall with the optimal Defense+ option. I chose this program because I’ve already used this before and am quite familiar with it, it has generally good reviews on popular tech websites and it sweeps the floor on the Matousec proactive security website. I am quite pleased with its performance and amazed with its compatibility with my anti-virus. I didn’t experience any slowdowns or hiccups on my Acer laptop.

Next is the open source PeerBlock. I’ve always been intrigued by it, by its features and capabilities most of. So I decided to give it a shot and “wow” it’s quite a powerful program in an almost 2MB container. It blocks a whole range of IPs from malicious sites, spyware, advertising servers and probably even known botnets! This program probably adds another layer to Comodo’s already formidable Firewall solution.

In addition to minimizing my “Paranoia”, I searched for easy to use anti-rootkit programs. I know that my NOD32 subscription and Comodo Firewall with Defense+ would help catch those rootkit nasties, but I want to add another level of protection just in case these two programs fail. Then I found Vba32 AntiRootkit, seems to be a solid anti-rootkit solution. I found a link online that compares 10 anti-rootkit programs, and this got a Gold award. (I also have Sophos Anti-Rootkit and RootKitRevealer as backup)

Finally, I’ve added Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware as an on-demand scanner for other nasties that were missed by the above security software.

Overall, I am very pleased with the security of my personal laptop. I barely noticed any degradation in performance. Hopefully this covers all the bases for now, and for additional information regarding this, you may follow the links on the right side of this page. Or if you don’t like doing that you may always use Google (or your favorite search engine), they’re just there waiting to be uncovered.

I’ll be posting some links for a personal comprehensive list for video playback. I’m also not a fan of software with embedded codecs/filters like VLC media player. It’s quite a heavy download (~17MB), and its codecs are stand-alone hence they can’t be updated. One very good thing about VLC though, it almost plays anything and everything without much need for customization or calibration of the software.

However, being a geek at heart, I’d rather tinker, tweak and just plain play with my own software. I think I’m an avid MPC fan, however, I had some problems with it during playback, sometimes it just crashes on my old computer. I eventually migrated to MPC-HC, which to my surprise, is quite stable. I also installed the AC3Filter on my system, because from memory I knew I needed it. Initially (and up until yesterday), I used the DivX codec for .avi/.mp4 playback, but eventually I switched to Xvid. It was a love/hate relationship on my first few videos, but after tweaking it a bit (ie. played with some settings on MPC-HC), I made it work. I also used CoreAVC (you have to buy this!) with the Haali Media Splitter for HD playback, since it’s really efficient! As backup, I still have the DivX installer and FFmpeg, just in case my settings fail me.

Without counting my backup video playback software, my total filesize download (excluding site navigation and google search) is just 9.5 MB. And on the plus side, I also had fun tweaking the software I’ve installed.

Cheers!