Doggy Tease replied:

Hmmm, same boat as you,,,,waiting with interest for replies.

meow.

rick.

ZUKSCOOTERX90(QLD-MEMBER) replied:

G'evening Rocky,i run Zone Alarms & have for 3 yrs i think, it works well for me & is recomended by banks, corporations,& the Gov to i think.You can down load it from there site on the pc.I get bugger all spam or junk mail except from friends & rellies,cheer's Bob.

Gramps (NSW) replied:

Rock Crawler,

I run 3 freebies - Zone Alarm, Ad-Aware and Spybot and get zip, zero, zilch, nada spam at all. Zone Alarm always on and I periodically run Ad-Aware and Spybot.

Mike Harding replied:

Nothing - I kid you not - and has been that way for years - since bullitin boards

Member - Ian S (NT) replied:

Hi Rockcrawler,

In another life I had a computer business in Brisbane and was an ISP. I personally refused to sell Nortons at about the time XP came in. I changed to Trend Micro that has firewall software, spam control as well as anti-virus. Virus's changed a few years back from using email as a carrier to attacking the computer directly, hence a sudden interest in firewall software. It can be purchased online at www.trendmicro.com The other really good program is spybot that protecs against the odd things legitimate programs change on your system and report out to a remote server or location. Free from www.spybot.com

I haven't any interest or anything to gain in either companies but recommend from my experience with them.

Lastly contact your ISP and ask them if they have an anti-virus filter on their email server, if not consider changing. I know it is a pain letting everbody know the new one but in the long run it important not to persist with an indequate service.

My opinion and personal experience only
regards
Ian@Mt Dare

Member - Peter R (QLD) replied:

I use Spyware Doctor which costs but it has been very good at speeding up my computer by getting rid of the various intruders.
It came with big wraps and initially it deleted just under 200 intruders where adaware used to pick up about 6 each time I used it.

Also use Zone Alarm for firewall, AVG free edition for Anti Virus and have Spam filtered by bigpond which charge a small amount each month.

Since I signed up for the spam filter I have had no problems with spam.

Pedro

cipher replied:

Hi,

i use AVG free Anti virus which includes an anti spam filter, works a treat....

;-)

justin

Des Lexic replied:

I have been Kaspersky anti virus programme which has lots of other spam stoppers in it and I've never had a problem with it.
Member Blaze runs a computer shop here and I purchased it through him.
It's good value and I've had it for about 4 years now with annual renewals.

Member No 1 replied:

have used Vet for 9 yrs and never had a virus that was able to get past Vet.

Use ZoneAlarm for port blockages

Use NoAdware for spyware.

Rockycrawler...i get maybe 2 or 3 unwanted messages a day and I am thinking about changing address...the new address will only be sent to those in my address book...i dont think its going to be too much of a problem?...why do u say its not an option

Steve63 replied:

Hi Rock Crawler,
I use Vet (full purchased version) and BlackIce firewall (full version) plus various other anti-spam tools. This firewall is not for beginers so would not really recommend it. It is very effective if set up correctly. That is a big if and it's standard out of the box setup is very poor. Vet is pretty good and seems to have a lot less issues with development environments. I have also used Trend and it is not bad either. If you are using ADSL or cable and leave your PC on then a hardware firewall is also a good option. Personally, I would not use ADSL without a good hardware fire wall. BlackIce reports about 20 - 150 hits every hour by port scanners. IMO you are completely insane if you do not use at least a basic firewall and anti virus software if you do internet banking.

A lot of your problems may not have been of your own doing. Others with your email address may be infected. Alternately, if you have a habit of dropping your bussiness cards in bowls at bars, resturants and night clubs, stop doing it. A lot of these end up as lists for sale on the internet. One person I work with had half a dozen of his cards dropped in these things in the USA and five years latter he is still getting emails and sms's offering services of a dubious nature. While the volume has dropped it was originally hundreds per day.

Steve

Rokkitt replied:

Hi,

I use a package called "Tiny Personal Firewall" as it is a free package - at least the old one was anyway - you need to find an older version; try Tiny
I also use Ad aware which is also freely available at: Ad-Aware - a great deal of people run a second package to ensure all threats are detected, another spyware remover is SPYBOT; although I only run Ad-Aware and I do not have any problems.
Junk email can be handled easily with rules within your mail application...eg: mail from someone@somewhere.com.au goes straight to the "Recycle Bin" - these rules can set up on subjects etc......
And I have a purchased copy of AVG anti virus - AVG; A two year licence only costs US$38:95
This array of software keeps my home Windows XP based machines going.....

Bear in mind Windows XP with SP2 does have a one way firewall included.

At work we still use Ad-Aware and AVG but our firewall is located within the ADSL router - Which is very common these days.

Regards
Rod

Busy Bee replied:

I've been using Nortons, Spybot, Adaware updated regularly, and Kerio Personal Firewall. All free bar Nortons. A good Brisbane-based site for fair dinkum info on computer related stuff including security is rayshaw.com.au. He will have links to the above, also a free updateable virus checker instead of Norton.
But spam can get through all this. If you have Outlook, Google for the free SpamBayes program. It installs on Outlook. First you train the program by treating it to a folder or two of "good" email (your inbox and sent items). Then a folder of spam which you have been collecting in a separtate folder. Wait till you have a fair bit - 20 or so.
Then spambayes filters your mail and sends suspected spam to a Junk Mail folder, and stuff it is not sure about to a Suspect folder. You can check all folders, spam which gets to your inbox you hit with a Delete as Spam button, good mail treated as spam gets the Restore button, and you decide for what's in the Suspect folder.
And the program is learning all the time.
Added to this, if you are on the dreaded BigPond a recent newsletter invited users to install a SpamMatters button which lets you send a copy of spam to them so they can work on stopping it at its source.
So my spam gets a double hit before I finally delete it. Actually I am still adding it to my SPAM folder so I can retrain SpamBayes when I upgrade my operating system and reinstall everything - when I pluck up enough courage to bite the bullet.

Rock Crawler replied:

thanks for all the replies , ill start with the spyware and keep the nortons till it runs out and I also started blocking the unwanted mail. a pain but hope it helps