Antivirus & Firewall For A Lame Laptop

sare^baw's · 24 Aug 2010 at 15:44

hi guys i have a low spec laptop with a 1.3g celeron and 256mb ram, its running xp, im going to tweak it as much as possible, but what anti virus and firewall should i use that wont slow the laptop down, i dont mind if its free or one you buy.

is windows xp firewall suitable, the laptop wont be used for storing anything important and will be used for mainly internet browsing, playing music and movies.

i have eset security for my main pc but i dont think that will be best suited to this laptop.

cheers

jbloggs · 24 Aug 2010 at 15:55

is windows xp firewall suitable

I would think so, especially if you have SP3 installed and you are behind the hardware firewall of a router...

For antivirus, probably Microsoft Security Essentials would use the least system resources, also have a look Here

theheyes · 24 Aug 2010 at 16:01

Personally, if you really are just using it to browse and play back music and movies you already have, I would just make a standard user account and stick with that. Make sure Windows and stuff like Flash player is patched up to date and you'll be good to go.

If you'd prefer to have some AV then try MSE as suggested above.

sare^baw's · 24 Aug 2010 at 16:46

jbloggs said:
I would think so, especially if you have SP3 installed and you are behind the hardware firewall of a router...

For antivirus, probably Microsoft Security Essentials would use the least system resources, also have a look Here

yeah i have sp3 installed, its a fresh install and all security updates are installed too. the router has a firewall too. thanks for the links mate i have installed mse willl how i get on using that, big thanks

theheyes said:
Personally, if you really are just using it to browse and play back music and movies you already have, I would just make a standard user account and stick with that. Make sure Windows and stuff like Flash player is patched up to date and you'll be good to go.

If you'd prefer to have some AV then try MSE as suggested above.

yeah all the files it will be playing will be stuff i downloaded using my main pc. why should i use a standard user account and not an admin account does it make a difference to security? windows is up to date ill get the latest flash installed, big thanks mate

Pho · 24 Aug 2010 at 17:56

If your router has a firewall I'd save some memory and disable windows firewall. Infact, for a low specced laptop like that I wouldn't even bother with a virus scanner either if you're only watching things from your main PC (which can virus-scan them itsself) and don't make a habbit of clicking on dodgy links on websites.

By running in a standard user account if you were to download a virus it would only be able to access your local profile, and not kill the entire laptop.

You'll probably be able to pick up some memory for cheap off an auction site to boost it up a lot.

sare^baw's · 25 Aug 2010 at 11:22

Pho said:
If your router has a firewall I'd save some memory and disable windows firewall. Infact, for a low specced laptop like that I wouldn't even bother with a virus scanner either if you're only watching things from your main PC (which can virus-scan them itsself) and don't make a habbit of clicking on dodgy links on websites.

By running in a standard user account if you were to download a virus it would only be able to access your local profile, and not kill the entire laptop.

You'll probably be able to pick up some memory for cheap off an auction site to boost it up a lot.

oks i have disabled the windows firewall, i have had to remove the mse anyway it was slowing the system down, so ill leave a virus scanner off for now. Wont be on dodgy websites either, its mainly for the kids so i have installed that k9 software to block dosgy sites and stop them from going on youtube and social networking sites lol.

ill try and get a hold of some memory and upgrade it.

cheers

Xez · 25 Aug 2010 at 18:08

Recently installed MSE on my mums laptop which is a sempron 3000 with 512mb and it ran like a dag once installed. Avast and Avira were fine!

sare^baw's · 25 Aug 2010 at 21:42

Xez said:
Recently installed MSE on my mums laptop which is a sempron 3000 with 512mb and it ran like a dag once installed. Avast and Avira were fine!

thanks ill give them a try, i have is well tweaked now and its way more snappier than before, cheers.