[Flashorn]

Hey Everyone! I was searching for a new Spyware program this week and posted to get your views on the subject.Didn't get to many hits but Spirit came through(as usual).Then I thought,how do you people look for your information? Is it by way of other sites , search engines , contacts , Wiki or other methods.This information could help alot of us in finding quickly and efficiently the information required to make a good decision on what we need to know on the product in question.

As for me,I like GooGle to start and then Wiki and forums where the product is located.But most importantly the forum and advice that I get here on PCW.

All of those tricks that you people hide or keep as well garded secrets should be divulged.Don't be shy just give the good parts.


Flashorn.


Patience is life.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Flashorn. First, I have moved this Discussion out of the General TalkCommunity and into the Answer Line Community. Remember, the General Talk Community is not for questions.

I do not think people are hiding any tricks or secrets from you. To b honest, there really isn't any "tricks" at all. It could be as simple as trial and error. Now, personally, I do not allow any one person to influence what applications I should install or use. Before I am willing to provide any type of advice or suggestiions on an application, I better make sure I have used it myself.

That being said, I have a cache of about nine or ten applications that I use on a regular basis and two that I use in case of emergency. All of them I downloaded, installed, and tried for myself; without the assistance of others. If I find something that does not work for my needs, I remove it and find soimething that does.

Granted, what I end up keeping will ultimately be the more common application. However, there may be times when I would find an obscure application, like XoftSpy, that works for my needs. Again, I stress, my needs. If you find an application that may not fall into someone's idea of a good application but it works for you and does exactly what you need it to do, keep it. If you find that application is not performing as you expected or to your satisfaction, remove it and find something that does.

[kcihtred2]

ive done this research, and its been spybot for a number of years that has come out on top, but i combo that with lavasoft's ad-aware se personal and avast antivirus right now

[Flashorn]

Hey MPH! You see that's what I'm looking for. People with experience and knowlege on all kinds of programs and apps, to share their experiences so that the person making a request for information feels safe that the answers there getting are from people who have already gone through SIMILAR experiences. Also knowing how you guys and gals search and come to your conclusions can only help the newest members in generating a more efficient way of searching for themselves. I wasn't looking for a answer for myself but,trying to find out how you people come up with your answers. This would make for some very interesting reading and I'M sure some of us would probably emulate some of your tactics.OH! and the hidding the tricks thing well that was just a ploy.Obviously it worked!ThankYou very much MPH for sharing with us.

Flashorn.


Patience is life.

[mphenterprises]

LOL I knew it was a strategically placed tactic. :D I just didn't want you to worry if no one responded. LOL

Anyway, the best tactic or strategy is your own. Do your own investigation and come up with your own plan of attack. We all agree that a layered or tiered approached is better than using one application for everything. Free applications can sometimes out-perform paid applications.

Once you become familar with certain applications and find which ones are just garbage, then you can start to advise on those applications. However, just remember, do not try to force your opinions on others. Just make suggestions and let him or her make an educated decision on his or her own. :D

[Flashorn]

Hey Kcihtred2! Like I wrote to MPH I'm not looking for a answer for myself But rather how you came to the conclusion for Spybot.The way you researched it, where you went for your information, what sites you visited and so on. It"s the experience you got out of it and what you learned from researching it. That would be an invaluble comodity on this site. A sort of White Paper on how to access the information needed quickly and efficiently.Thank You for your quick reply.But if you could share with us how you got to your conclusion I would be most grateful.



Flashorn



Patience is life.

[Flashorn]

Hey MPH! GOOD ANSWER!!! Never get caught with your pants down or withought a good answer.But seriously MPH what I'm really looking for is HOW and WHERE you go looking for information. If you are knew to this game,WHERE do YOU"MPH" go looking for answers. This would greatly help the new guy or gal on the block get some kind of experience.You see AURORA answered my question in security a few hours aog by posting a link to a paper on PCW. Now she was familiar with that paper but how do we get that king of precious information out there.I hope I"m not hogging your time.

Flashorn.



Patience is life.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Flash. You are not hogging my time at all. That's just it. I do not have one specific place I turn for information. My process is unorthodox. Since I am a business owner, and since part of my business is to recommend to and install security applications for clients, I have to know what works and what doesn't. I need to know what applications hog resources and what applications require minimal effort. I also need to know which free applications out-perform paid applications.

When I started building my cache of security applications, I essentially downloaded/bought and installed as many applications I could find doing a search on Google, Download.com, Yahoo, etc. I did not even think about sites such as PCWorld until mid this year. Granted, once I started here at PCWorld, I was enlightened to many other applications. However, I did not allow public opinion to dictate what I had to evaluate for myself. Trust me, there are some obscure applications out there. I then started my trial and error process. Which combination of applications would provide me, and my clients, with the best security for their money. If it turned out that the free applications were better, I would offer them. Depending on my client's computer specifications and their budget, I configured their security accordingly.

During this process, I picked out the applications that I felt would best secure my personal computers. This is where I came up with my tiered approach. I have been using a tiered approached for about a year and a half and I have not had one major issue. I have tweeked it over this time but I believe I have the best security protection for my needs.

[LincolnSpector]

I use a number of techniques for finding software. I read reviews, both in PC World and its competitors. I talk to people. I read forums. I often find myself looking for little, unknown programs that do specific jobs. For these I go to various download sites, grab several programs that sound promising, and try them all hoping to find one I can use (and recommend to my readers).

One big problem with doing this is that every Windows program you install has the potential of messing up your system. I'm not just talking about malware, but overly-aggressive installation programs and ineffectual uninstall programs (somehow those two always go together). Because I review software for a living, I have a second computer to test it on, but I realize that's not a practical option for most people.

Security software has its own problems. I can judge their user interfaces, speed, and so on, but I don't have the setup needed to safely test how well they actually protect you. I depend on tests done by professional labs (unassociated with the companies selling the products, of course) for this.

Lincoln

[Flashorn]

Hey ! ThankYou Both for taking the time out of your busy schedules.But you see the hammer didn't quite hit the nail on the head. This is what I'm looking for: NAMES of the sites you use, NAMES of the forums you visit,I would appreciate you asking your friends.As MANY sites,company's,forums as possible.I want (is this to much) to make this a REFERENCE PAGE so everyone can access this information in order to make our lives a little easier.This Internet thing is a scary place for alot of people and unless we start making this place a enjoyable experience WE "the internet community" are not going to attract more people we will simply lose more. I for one know that my mother at age 77 would love to experience the world of computers but,affraid because I can't be there all the time.

SO what do you say,will you help?

Flashorn.


Patience is life.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Flashorn. Unfortunately, the information I provided is just about all the insight I can give at this point. As I mentioned, my methods are unorthodox. I highly doubt that my techniques would transfer over to others very fluidly.

I would be interested to see what others have to say. I am sure Spirit will make an entrance shortly. If I don't see him in here relatively soon, I will send him a Private Message so that he can shed a bit more light on this request for you.

[jbking]

The thing is that there are more than a few different areas for people to hit in a sense...

While PC World and C|Net are fine for general information some may want something more specific and so sites like Anandtech.com, Tom's Hardware, Extremetech.com, and VR-Zone are a few more specialized sites in a sense. This is without getting into other things like say the ASP.Net forums I read as part of my learning as a Web Developer. There are also some blogs that some people may use to follow some things, e.g. some people really like to follow AMD or Intel and follow some blogs from folks who watch those companies.

I do admire the goal of making this a reference page though I do think in a way it may be hard for some people to grasp all the technical bits on the first run through in some cases, e.g. how easy would it be for a newbie to change the hard drive in their PC?

I would point out that the second Tuesday of every month is known as "Patch Tuesday" and tends to be when Microsoft releases a few patches for their operating systems. I'm not sure of sites for researching Linux development though Slashdot.org is a common site mentioned for looking at some technology news. For humor on this stuff there is the"Worse than Failure" site as well as "The Onion" that I enjoy reading.

Regards,

JB

[Flashorn]

Hey MPH!Yeah those secrets again !!!Yes I would also like to hear from Spirit,In fact I would like to hear from evryone (well the ones that read this anyway).I know this could become a heavy undertaking but, if enough people join us here we might have a shot at putting some good information together.It wont be easy but maybe if could get a LITTLE bit of help from the people at the magazine in organizing the different sections like : the best sites , the safest sites , a download site , a news site ,ect... Keep in mind that this would be for novices and maybe intermediates.That's why I NEED YOUR HELP,meaning everyone here.I think by having so many different levels hobbiest and professionals on this forum that it just might BE possible to put some sort of information page that would become a Wiki for our community.Well it's pretty big but I'm up for it if I get help.And Rome wasn't built in a day.

Thanks MPH!

Flashorn.

Patience is life.

[Flashorn]

Hey jbking! It's nice to see that this is generating some interest.Thank You for responding.You see! you have named (9) sites or companies withought even thinking about it. Now if you start thinking just about the sites YOU know of, then, I'm well on my way.All you have to do is categorise them.You are a WEB DEVELOPER,well then talk about the sites and forums that you visite.This I'm sure will open up new places for people to visite.If everyone that reads this thread does the same thing,imagine how many new places there would be for everyone to visite.And in the process we would become aware of those unknown sites and forums and companies.I hope I'm not asking to much.Again Thank You for your interest.


Flashorn.


Patience is life.

[jbking]

Ok, here's an attempt at categorizing about a dozen or so sites I visit regularly:

General information on electronics:



C|Net / Crave(Which is run by C|Net though with more of a gadget view)



PC World



More geared towards computers and generally gaming:



Extremetech.com



Anandtech.com / DailyTech.com



Tom's Hardware / TGDaily.com



VR-Zone.com



Industry News:



AMD Zone



Theinquirer.net (Tends to have some articles that turn out to be rumors)



Slashdot.org



Software Development sites I follow:



MSDN



CodeZone



SourceForge,net



Calgary .Net Users Group (This is local to me so I tend to keep an eye on upcoming presentations from time to time)



For looking into games there is gamespot.com that I like that has reviews, previews, etc.



Then there are some blogs I follow:



ScottGu's Blog



Rahul Sood's Blog



Joel on Software



Scientia's Blog



Jean-Paul Boodhoo



ASP.Net Team blogs



IIS.Net



Worse Than Failure



I also tend to look at Technology news from Yahoo! and Google that sometimes has interesting things I find. There is also the RSS feeds on the sites above that I have on my iGoogle page so that I can find things easily as well as have a one place to start looking at things.


JB

Edited to add this link that some may find useful:
Best Sites from PC Mag

[Flashorn]

Hey jbking!Thank You very much for the time and effort you put in this list.I will shortly write mine in.I guess this idea didn't generate as much interest as I hoped.But I will keep on updating from time to time and hopefully will grow with time.OH! by the way, I am one of your neighbours.Just a few hours down the highway in OTTAWA.Again Thank You for your time and interest.If you should come across any other sites that is in your line of work or play please feel free to edit this page.

Flashorn.

Patience is life.

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi Flash :

I primarily base my Recommendations on the Advise of certified, Volunteer malware-fighters based

on several Support Forums; originally it was the former Lavasoft Ad-Aware Support Forums, but they

"disbanded" to other forums. These Forums have "Preliminary" Cleaning Instructions before they want

to analyse a HijackThis Log for serious malware; what the majority recommend is what I recommend,

so one could say one of my main basis is "Contacts" .

For example, see : forums.maddoktor2.com/index.php?showtopic=9590 .

For other than antivirus, antispyware and firewall recommendations, I rely on the very knowledgable

people on the Wilders Security Forums, primarily their "other antimalware software" Forum . These

people say "Tests" done on antispyware programs are of no value since the Results would probably

change the next day using different "samples", which is why I discount "Ratings" done by PC

oriented magazines, etc .

[Flashorn]

Hey SpiritWind! Thank You very much for sharing.We can always count on you for advice not to mention the links you so kindly provide us.If there are other areas of interest to you, you could also write in those places in here as I am attempting to gather as many places as possible for people to visite. I am in the process of putting my list togerther so I to can share.Again Spirit. Thank You so much.;-)


Flashorn.

Patience is life.



PS. If you could ask other members of the forum to donate a few of their favorite sites,that would be just great.Thanks.

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi Flash :



When it comes to "researching" antiSPYWARE/antiTROJAN programs, I recommend EVERYONE

start by visiting Expert Eric Howes, currently the Director of Research of Sunbelt Software, the Makers

of Counterspy, site at http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogueanti-spyware.htm] . Most of the site is


about what to AVOID ; however, he says : "


Users are advised to rely on the short list of [Trustworthy Anti-Spyware Products with deserved reputations for quality performance. "

[Flashorn]

Hey SpirtWind! Thank You for the links you have again provided me with.Actually these links will benefit me.As you know I am almost ready to buy a subsciption for a AntiSpyware program.But with so many web sites to visite I am having a hard time focusing on preparing my own list to share.So I"m off to see the last links you posted for us. Thank You SpiritWind.;-)

Flashorn.

Patience is life.