you might want to consider AVG which has both free and paid versions available.

Thanks. I have seen AVG's free version and was not overly impressed. Have you tried that compared to other suites? cnet has a pretty high ranking on zonealarm but it is the serious issues of no pop ups or interuptions.

Surely there must be some other recommendations. We all use them, and now there are even more features than before such as encryption, id theft protection etc.

Windows Live OneCare has received some good reviews, but I have no experience with it. Worth a look if you're into all-in-one protection packages.

Personally I wouldn't touch one of those Suite packages. They're bloated and take too many liberties with your system. They're often worse than the stuff they're supposedly protecting you against.

I prefer to use individual software that does its specific job well. One software handles AV, another spyware scanning, another monitors my registry for changes, another acts as a firewall...you get the picture. It may be a little more work to get all that to work together, but in the end I feel I have a bit more control over my system.

bill thanks as always for your thoughtful response.

I had not really considered choosing a different piece of software to monitor the different aspects of security.

I have read that zonealarms firewalls are among the best? Who would you recommend for virus protection, registry protection etc?

AVG 7.1 will no longer be freeware after 15th January 2007..

Been using Webroot's SpySweeper, it's very good and saved my bacon big time. If you go for it be sure you're getting the anti-virus add-on at signup total cost $35.

I use a corporate copy of NAV which works really well and is extremely unintrussive

I use just the built in windows firewall and am quite happy with it. I purchased zonealarm a few years ago and was very happy but then had tons of trouble with an upgrade and conflicts with other software, they didn't help when I contacted them so I ditched it and would probably run with no firewall than go back.

just my experience and there are many more members with good experiences so I am the minority but was it ever a bad stint.

I then use adaware for spyware removal and spywareblaster for spyware blocking

this setup runs on my personal machines but was tried and tested in a corporate environment. 30 plus users, all skill levels and surfing habits and we had no problems.

as bill said, full suites are garbage

AVG 7.1 will no longer be freeware after 15th January 2007..

Discontinued. AVG Free 7.1 version will be discontinued on 15th of Jan 2007. That's because version 7.5 is out.

i should also mention spybot search&destroy for spyware.
make sure you get it from a trusted source if you don't know the web site - there are lots of "imitators".

Thanks all. The reason I have been using Suites - mainly NIS was because I went with a company rather than a product. A little like I use Microsoft Office thinking it better to get the bundle rather than look at each component separately.

I did have SpyBot installed until I upgraded NIS 06 to 07 and it advises to uninstall spybot as there is a conflict!

While I am researching the different components of Internet Security I have installed the trial version of zonealarm suite 6.5 which I have to say I am very impressed with after spending years with Symantec/Norton. I have though heard some bad reports about their integrated AV and customer service (as mentioned above) but they are switching their AV to Kapersky in 7.0 which I have heard good things about.

It does though address to some extent my main gripe with NIS 2007 and that is the constant email virus alert popups. You still get them in ZA but it opens one window which you can leave minimized and it does not bother you again.

Anyway it is just a trial for now. Strangely I would have always thought that there was more risk of conflict between different Security components (bits from different companies) than buying the suite. It does seem though from reading above comments that choosing the best component in its field rather than buying a Suite is the way to go.

[edited by: Visit_Thailand at 1:03 am (utc) on Dec. 4, 2006]

always better when each tool does it's job well and you have to find many tools than to have 1 tool that does many jobs and none of them well

jack of all trades, master of none

Very true jatar_k although I had enough problems choosing a Suite (i.e one product) choosing the best of many could take me a while.

I guess that is why suites are so popular, a bit like microwaves.

understood

but if you are looking for something 'unintrusive' then a suite is not the answer.

If you find a suite that works for you then even better, I have just never had any luck.

I'm also grumpy about software ;)

Who would you recommend for virus protection, registry protection etc?

My favorite setup:

Firewall: The Windows firewall. Why? I use hardware firewalls on my networks, so the software doesn't really need to be all that powerful.

AV: NOD32. Works the best for me and integrates well with Outlook.

Spyware/Adware: Combination of Windows Defender, Spybot-S&D, & Ad-Aware. Why? There is no single best spyware detector. They all pick up some things better than others. I run them all. They compliment each other.

Registry checker: RegistryProt (free) Will alert you whenever a key is added or changed, and then give the option of accepting the key change, reverting back to the original key setting, or deleting the key.

Startup monitor: StartupMonitor (free) software to check when something adds a startup program

Spyware/Adware: Combination of Windows Defender, Spybot-S&D, & Ad-Aware. Why? There is no single best spyware detector. They all pick up some things better than others. I run them all. They compliment each other.

this is absolutely true - there is almost no overlap between what adaware finds and what spybot finds.
i'll check out WD as well...