Activity for August 15

Review - Opera for Windows
10.10 Build 1778 Beta (Sep 13, 2009)

I've never been fan of the Opera browser. The application itself was excellent, light and fairly easy to use. My biggest problem was the rendering didn't work for websites that I used. That was a hugggge glaring flaw and I never bothered to use the application.

Now we're at Opera 10, and after a reading a few positive reviews on the internet saying "Hey this is actually pretty good stuff" I gave it another go. Now historically i've always tried Opera on every major release to see if rendering has improved, and Opera 10 is the first release where they have it nearly perfect.

Opera 10 is successful in not only being a great application but being a sturdy and dependable browsing experience. All my websites work perfectly on it, the built in email application is fantastic. The GUI is snappy and well thought out. When you add in extras like closed tab restore, a built in torrent client...it becomes a powerhouse of an application.

5 Stars, excellent piece of software. For those who have written Opera off as I did, do yourself a favor and give it another shot.
Review - Spybot - Search & Destroy
1.6.2.46 (Feb 12, 2009)

I think Spybot has recieved a high rating from a lot of users here simply because of their nostalgia for what the product USED to be like. Simply put, this software doesn't detect malware very well, it has an outdated GUI and nothing has been done to advance it forward.

It's solid, stable and the immunization is nice, but Spywareblaster specifies in immunization and does it better. Teatimer is nice, but there are many HIPs programs, behavior analysis programs that cover a larger basis.

Each part of Spybot is done better for free by another company, and if you step back, there's really no reason to have the program taking up space on your machine.
Review - Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro (32-bit)
2009 (6.5.2509.366.0663) (Jan 9, 2009)

This firewall runs along Norton Antivirus 2009 for me, and I just recently purchased the lifetime license of Outpost so i'm going to have it for a long time.

I'm currently running it with the antispyware not installed, and the content filtering not installed. I have an advanced firewall without the extra features. Normally I would recommend you install the extra features because they are fantastic, but since i'm running Norton, there simply wasn't a need.

However in my tests of Outpost, it didn't stealth my ports even in stealth mode (No big deal), It was however successful in detecting every leaktest sample I threw at it. The antispyware component did a wonderful job of cleaning up my infected virtual machine. In fact it was one of the few cleaners to do a thorough job without crashing.

Conclusion: It works as advertised. I wont even dock it for not stealthing some ports. Only paranoid people get worked up over port stealthing. Firewall works great, you can block advertisements, block malicous websites and keep your PC's traffic under your watchful eye. It's Antispyware will shield from the creepy nasties and it does it well.

Just make sure you pair it with an Antivirus program like AVG, Avast or Antivir.
Review - PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition
5.0.1.1 (Jan 9, 2009)

I've always loved how PC Tools gave away security tools for free when it didn't have to. Of course they promote their other products in the free versions, but they provide so many types of free products you can practically build your own suite. Between PC Tools Antivirus FREE, Spyware Doctor STARTER EDITION, PC Tools Firewall FREE and Threatfire FREE edition...you have all your bases covered on one company alone.

As you should...

PC Tools Antivirus didn't catch too many trojan samples I threw at it, and it seems to do only as advertised which is catch viruses. This means you can't expect PC Tools Antivirus to catch the latest form of mutant malware like Vundo, you would have to leave that to Spyware Doctor or some other form of Malware fighting tool.

The poor detection is really the only ouch for me. Since I enjoy having my computer run as lightly as possible, I can only stand to have one program on my PC for malware cleaning and I expect the program to do both. Paid programs like Norton, McAfee do this, and free programs like AVG and Avast all incorporate rootkit, adware and spyware detection to their engines.

With free programs being so advanced, why use PC Tools Antivirus? I'll leave the answer up to you, but I can't get it any less than 3 Stars for being free and easy to use. Minus 2 stars for the lacky of extensive features to keep the user safe.

If you download this, please pair it up with Spyware Doctor Starter Edition.

http://www.download.com/...00-8022_4-10704508.html
Review - AVG Anti-Virus Free
8.0.176a1400 (Dec 4, 2008)

burfadel, while I agree that Avast is also a great choice for a free antivirus, I would argue that Avast actually feels just as heavy as AVG. And i'll even give AVG credit for sprucing up it's interface

Obviously there are some excellent paid choices like Nod32 and Kaspersky that may be more aggressive with malicious software. But if you're just browsin' the web and playing games and not using your computer for heavy work or banking then you might just be alright with AVG, Avast or Antivir. Anybody who depends fully on the well being of their PC should consider some top ranking paid solutions.
Comment - Beta This! Symantec tests new security software for Android
8.0.176a1400 (Aug 15, 2011 - 12:43 AM)

how does one "find their way" around definitions? That doesn't even make any sense moron. Also what point are you making? Hackers find their way around security restrictions? Good one. Now back to the topic hand: The Pulse Updates from Norton happen to be a great feature of the PC security software, and Norton as a whole has definitely revived it's image to me. If the mobile security app is of similar quality, I will seriously look into investing the money to protect my Android phone. For now, I don't think I'm concerned with android security enough to consider a dedicated security app.
Comment - Browser blowout: Which is fastest, most standards compliant [benchmarks]?
8.0.176a1400 (Jul 22, 2011 - 10:14 PM)

These numbers really shouldn't sway one person one way or another. With updates these benchmarks are constantly changing. Just stick with what you're comfortable with. I personally have them all just to try them out when updates release.
Comment - Windows 8: The death of malware? The death of anti-malware?
8.0.176a1400 (Jul 22, 2011 - 3:05 PM)

What a BS statement. You overlook so many different things in that argument. Nevermind the fact that botnet creators would never consider a linux botnet considering the single digit marketshare, but complaining about a source code in an OS that has made massive strides in security is silly. Windows 7 in it's default state is highly resistant to infection, between UAC, IE9, Windows Defender, the optional inclusion of MSE and a consistent patches every tuesday make Windows reliable and secure. You talk about Windows 7 popups, but besides installing poorly written apps, UAC is rarely called on and that simply leaves your browser's warning and the action center which does more to stabilize a system and draw attention to problems than anything else. A normal installation draws few popups once you begin using it. You're just spewing bunk and gloating about an operating system that has years to go before it will be considered consumer friendly with real driver support, font support, flash support or anything support.
Comment - Mac Guard assails teen girl's computer
8.0.176a1400 (May 31, 2011 - 10:11 AM)

amen
Comment - Mac Guard assails teen girl's computer
8.0.176a1400 (May 30, 2011 - 7:42 PM)

Many publications and companies have called trojan's viruses and vice versa. Based on your logic companies like Norton should be rebranding their products since the amount of true 'viruses' in the wild today are slim to none. Malware today = virus and that's just how it is. Lets not get so emotional about it.