Question: Firewall and AntiVirus, what one?

Hi,
I was wandering what you think is a good firewall and antivirus program be it free or a subscription like McAfee

I used to have McAfee on my old computer but the subscription ran out and was thinking that there may be a better one that is less intensive on power.

What do you suggest?

Kapersky if you want software based

If you are asking which firewall to choose, better stick to the built in one, unless you know exactly what you are doing, in which case you would not have asked at all.

I prefer Antivir from Avira, the personal edition is free and has a high find rate according to the tests.
AVG is also quite good, but only the subscription version has a good find rate.
All others seem to be a bit too bloated.

So is hardware based alot better?
What do you need to buy if you want a hardware based firewall and antivirus?, is it expensive?

go buy panda antivirus with firewall. it's very good

Luu said:

So is hardware based alot better?
What do you need to buy if you want a hardware based firewall and antivirus?, is it expensive?

Click to expand...

XP and Vista have the firewall built-in and that is enough for 99% of all users.
Most DSL routers have also a firewall built-in.
All that makes a system quite secure, but surely not absolutely as there is no way in hell to have a system connected to the net and have it absolutely secure.
The only secure "computer" is an abacus locked into Fort Knox

So unless you really know what you are doing and also know all thr RFCs inside out, you will surely not need any additional firewall except the one that came with your OS.

Antivirus
- avira antivir (won 1st place on free antivirus leak test)
- AVG (also very good ..especially fast antivirus)

Firewall
- online armor (same as avira - 1st place on tests)
- comodo firewall (also very good and most popular free firewall)

Nothing beats a hardware firewall since that's a different machine than your own. Put it this way: the intruder has reached your system already if you just use a software firewall.

Despite that a regular internet user like you and me won't need a hardware firewall as that would probably cost more (on the short or long run) than what's actually tried to kept safe.

So I'm one of many who have a software solution running. I use Kerio as a firewall and Avira as virus protection.

The version of Kerio is actually quite old but it works like a charm and offers quite a lot of options and I couldn't find anything yet which I couldn't configure somehow.

Avira is free and seems to be nice on resources. The downside though is that it takes some time to find updates (can take up to several minutes) and the scan stops at findings (I wish it would continue and give me a report at the end just like Kaspersky does). Currently I have to ignore all findings and check the logs manually once it finishes (if I notice that it has finished... ).

I used ZoneAlarm for a while though then I read that it can be worked around rather easily compared to others. Windows' built-in firewall is way too lame and doesn't have any options. I personally hate it and a lot of people I know hate it, too. Most of them have technical skills though so we kind of expect more options (and we don't trust Microsoft that much ). But ok, for low tech-skill folks it might be something to go with.

As for the anti-virus I had Kaspersky for a while though I noticed that the auto-update stopped to work at one point and there's noticable hickup every day at midnight (even running just Winamp alone along with Kaspersky caused outage of sound). Then I read somewhere that Kaspersky is little bit greedy as far as resources are concerned which turned my experience into a general impression.

Not too long ago there was a thread here on EF from somebody who tried to get rid of it. Btw, I haven't heard of anyone who succeeded to completely get rid of Norton without reinstalling the entire Windows from ground up.

I use zonealarm free for a firewall (I know its not the best) and avast home edition as its free as well.

If I was paying I'd go for nod32 for antivirus but stay well away from Norton and Symantec.

endermigne said:

I used ZoneAlarm for a while though then I read that it can be worked around rather easily compared to others. Windows' built-in firewall is way too lame and doesn't have any options. I personally hate it and a lot of people I know hate it, too. Most of them have technical skills though so we kind of expect more options (and we don't trust Microsoft that much ). But ok, for low tech-skill folks it might be something to go with.

Click to expand...

Actually you can do with the windows firewall as much as you can do with any other.
And I would not trust anything, no matter who made it.
Feeling secure is the first sign of being hacked already.

There are lots of mixed reviews about but the 4 i've thought about so far are:
Kaspersy
Panda
BitDefender
Security Shield

I want a security package that is good at detecting things but not power hungry
Please post what you think about these?

Thanks

Luu said:

There are lots of mixed reviews about but the 4 i've thought about so far are:
Kaspersy
Panda
BitDefender
Security Shield

I want a security package that is good at detecting things but not power hungry
Please post what you think about these?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Simply if you are not on freebie run and dont have the means apptitude for a physical firewall ...go a software based firewall, spyware and antivirus in one such as Zone alarm Internet security suite or Kapersky Internet Security.

I have no faith in the Windows firewall at all....very very hackable..
Other antivirus such as AvG and Avast require you to be vigilant re updates.

Addintionaly add...
Spyware, welll you cant go past Spyware Doctor...its a great tool as long a your windows is legitimate and all updates are installed.

Regards

GL

I use Avast, it's free comes with a 14 month license, and all you have to do afterwards is reenter your details for another 14 months.

ZoneAlarm firewall and AVG antivir works for me.