Thanks to everyone for your thoughts....

 

Let me clarify my question:  assume you are giving advice to MSU students, or to people in MSU departments who do not have managed desktops, or, for that matter, to your friends and relatives.

 

What combination of anti-virus and anti-spyware would you suggest? 

 

Is there an anti-virus product on the market today that you think would be adequate both for its anti-virus features, and as a good-enough general purpose anti-spyware tool?

 

The primary focus of my query is prevention, not eradication, though of course that's important as well...

 

Thanks,

 

/rich

 

On 4/19/06, Erik Selke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

In my experience, NOD32 does a much better job of blocking spyware
before it is installed than SAV10.

We do nightly scans with Spybot S&D.  You can setup a scheduled task to
do this very easily.  The command line switches are all in the help
system.  If you pay for Ad-Aware SE Plus, you can do the same.  It makes
a world of difference.

Erik

Peter J Murray wrote:
> NOD32 picks up most spyware, as does SAV10.  With Firefox in use a lot
> here (it really makes a difference), we really don't have much of a
> spyware problem, but when we do, I use Ad-Aware and Spybot (with
> Ad-Aware, it's important to boot into safe mode and do a full system
> scan, it finds much more in full scan mode).  I've also found that a
> little bit of education (such as avoiding certain websites and not
> installing things) helps a lot.
>
> PM
>
> Richard Wiggins wrote:
>> Do any of you now regard any anti-virus products or suites as
>> sufficient for anti-spyware purposes?
>>
>> The most recent reading I have on what folks in NAG and on the Net say
>> is that you need a specialized anti-spyware tool (on Windows
>> computers) and that it's best to use two tools at once.
>>
>> Now the anti-virus vendors are offering anti-spyware components.
>> Would you still advise users of these updated products to use an
>> anti-spyware tool as well?
>>
>> I notice that Webroot's SpySweeper appears to be moving from a
>> freeware tool with for-pay enhanced version, to purely commercial.
>> What are you advising your users?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> /rich
>

--
Erik Selke
Information Technologist
Department of Sociology
316 Berkey Hall
Michigan State University
[log in to unmask]
(517) 353-1804