Does SATA III to USB 3.0 cable slow down a SSD significantly?

barman58 · Jan 21, 2022

I use Bitdefender Pro - It's very comprehensive, ( some say too comprehensive :wink:

) but it's been top of the comparisons sites for some time now or in the top few at least

The free version is also high in the lists, and has a fair amount of tuning options to suit the user's needs

Dch48 · Jan 21, 2022

TheMystic said:
Which ones in the market satisfy these criteria?

I have a simple strategy. Most programs I install do not need internet for core functionality. So I block internet access to most apps through Windows Firewall. It is usually apps from Google, Microsoft, Apple, and a handful of highly reputed apps that are allowed internet access on my system. And that too only if the apps rely on internet for core functionality.

I don't mind having un-updated apps as long as they function correctly. I do manually update them once a month or so. I keep my OS up-to-date all the time. All my browsers are configured with maximum security and also kept up-to-date.

Every single program I download is first uploaded to VirusTotal and would be installed only if 100% clean.

I have never had any malware infections on my system.

I don't do those things and have never been infected. I have never blocked anything with the firewall and only scan things on rare occasions. I do that with Defender and/or Malwarebytes. In my 22 years online, my protection programs have only caught 10 or so attempted infections and stopped them all. The one time I did get infected was like 20 years ago when this other guy and I were both chatting with a young woman and he wanted me out of the picture. He sent me the Navidad virus in an email. That virus had a delayed trigger set to go off at midnight on Christmas Eve. I did a scan with Norton about 8 hours before midnight and it detected it and removed it. How it got in I don't know unless the Norton definitions did not have it when it first arrived. On a side note, believe it or not, the girl was later revealed to be Drew Barrymore.

TheMystic · Jan 22, 2022

Dch48 said:
I don't do those things and have never been infected.

That's okay as long as you have your own way of keeping your system secure.

Dch48 said:
I have never blocked anything with the firewall and only scan things on rare occasions. I do that with Defender and/or Malwarebytes. In my 22 years online, my protection programs have only caught 10 or so attempted infections and stopped them all. The one time I did get infected was like 20 years ago when this other guy and I were both chatting with a young woman and he wanted me out of the picture. He sent me the Navidad virus in an email. That virus had a delayed trigger set to go off at midnight on Christmas Eve. I did a scan with Norton about 8 hours before midnight and it detected it and removed it. How it got in I don't know unless the Norton definitions did not have it when it first arrived.

I too have always had a full internet security suite for a very long time. That includes Kaspersky, Norton and BitDefender, with Malwarebytes always as a secondary on-demand scanner. Over such a long period, I have had these pick up something once in a while, and surprisingly it has often been files that escaped detection on several earlier scans. That made me think if these products are indeed as good as they claim to be.

I stopped believing product reviews on the internet because it became clear that those with bigger pockets ended up being recommended by such reviews.

Given my own usage and experience, I decided I can live without these products. At the time I made this decision, I still had 2 years of license left on my BitDefender Internet Security suite. No regrets now. I have been using my system for well over 3 years now using just Microsoft Defender and Windows Firewall. There is nothing to indicate that my system has any kind of malware, so I guess it has been a correct decision.