What would be the best Antivirus and Firewall Package

Best ?
Well that is odviously very subjective.
For me Best is Free as long as it's secure and minimul load.
I use Avast and windows firewall and regularly sweep with Ad Aware SE, Spybot S&S and Ewido.
I have runs these for most of the year and have had no issues at all with any of them.
I play BF2 religously and sim race with my team and it's all good. No conflicts or heavy resource usage interfering with my excellent pings or general gaming.
Updates are handled manually by myself and i find the interfaces all easy to work around.
I am happy to recommend the above.
 
Conrad11 said:
Does it not actually run in the background, or do you mean that it uses very little resources?

Also do you think that its nessarcery to run Windows Defender or things like Adware SE in the background, if you have programs like NOD32 and ZoneAlarm running?

Thanks...
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Only run one real-time scanner at any one time (ie: NOD32), adding any others can impede performance and security. Spywareblaster uses no resources because it has no scanner, you simply update it and then "enable all protection" and it puts in a load of registry fixes that stop most spyware running. Great little program.
 
Richdog said:
lol it doesn't really need changing, just leave it at default and disable ThreatSense.
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Once installed make sure the settings for the scanning are changed, as some of the boxes arn't ticked. (i.e. archives, run-time packers, email files, alternate NFTS streams, and advanced heuristics). :)
 
Richdog said:
Only run one real-time scanner at any one time (ie: NOD32), adding any others can impede performance and security. Spywareblaster uses no resources because it has no scanner, you simply update it and then "enable all protection" and it puts in a load of registry fixes that stop most spyware running. Great little program.
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Sounds Like a great program, already installed, updated and protection switched on. Great if it uses no resources
 
Firegod said:
Once installed make sure the settings for the scanning are changed, as some of the boxes arn't ticked. (i.e. archives, run-time packers, email files, alternate NFTS streams, and advanced heuristics). :)
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Is that only if you are running a manual scan yes?
 
Richdog said:
I'm using it now, I have no idea what the other poster is tlaking about when he says its "slow to boot"... my computer takes no longer than it ever did. use your initiative and see for yourself rather than taking others words for it. If you don't like it you can just uninstall it. ;)
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Yes my one is slow to boot. But perhaps that's because I'm not using the free one and am using a paid version which has a fuller set of capabilities. Although it doesn't hog resources, bootup is hindered slightly with this application.
 
Hi there,

I am using the free version and personally I think its great, it doesn't slow startup at all and it hardly uses any resources.

It's great and I would recommend it to anyone.

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I get NOD32 using around 17,000K - 18,000K Men usage, is that about right?

Thanks...




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[EDIT]]

I have just found out that Windows Defender uses resources even when I disable it. What software do you recommend I use that has the same functions as Windows Denfender but doesn't run in the background (or you can make it so). I just want something which i can load-up...update...run and close and there would be nothing running in the background before and after.

What would be the best (free) software for this? I will only want to be using one! - I have heard good things about Adware SE
 
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Those memory usage values are correct.

Personally I use a combination of Adaware and Spybot. Both work well and can be frequently updated to ensure best PC protection.
 
Hi there guys, a quick question (and not meaning to hijack the thread) why is Norton rubbish? I have one installed on my laptop from pc world and it seems (im a novice) to work fine to me.
It has alerted me to several reppelled attacks and stuff, anyway why aint you guys recommending it?
 
Hi there,

Norton is extremly bloated and has a lot of things which are usless and rubbish.

It is not as good at virus protection, it takes ages to boot....and the list goes on.

Together my Firewall (Zone Alarm) and AV (NOD32) use: 40,000K of mem usage which isn't bad at all. I wonder how much McAfee uses?

Thanks....
 
Conrad11 said:
Norton is extremly bloated and has a lot of things which are usless and rubbish.

It is not as good at virus protection,

it takes ages to boot....

and the list goes on.
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1 - Such as?

2 - Why?

3 - How long is ages?

4 - Such as?
 
dmpoole said:
1 - Such as?

2 - Why?

3 - How long is ages?

4 - Such as?
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1.I haven't used norton for a long time but i remember it used a lot of services to run.

2.It doesn't pick up or detect as many virus/trojans...etc.

3.Well i couldnt really give you a meaure, but Norton was the thing that loaded last. Now I dont even know that NOD32 and ZA are loading...its instantaneous.

4.I cant recall - im sure others will be able to tell you
 
Norton's AutoProtect was pretty heavy. Everytime I downloaded a file off Usenet, the download would just pause for several seconds after each file then resume the next. Also it starts up so slowly, stacks another 10 seconds on boot time.

Yes it does have it's LiveUpdate facility but the application would be slow and unresponsive. Click an item in the menu and it would pause. But that's my experience of it. I've used their 2003, 2005, 2006 versions and it's made my system sluggish.
 
So if you had to choose one Spyware Cleaner, what would it be guys, preferably a free one. I don't want real time protection just one that i can scan every week.
 
dmpoole said:
1 - Such as?

2 - Why?

3 - How long is ages?

4 - Such as?
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1 - Norton is a large memory and CPU usage hog both thile idle and while scanning.

2 - It misses a LOT of things when it scans, i've lost count of the clients we have had who have defected from Norton (latest version) to our AV solution (Panda) and all of a sudden found keyloggers, trojans and viruses that they never even knew were there. Norton had completely ignored them. It is known in the AV industry as being a poor performer, the reason it's so popular is because people who don't know better buy it from PC WORLD, and it tends to come bundled with a LOT of PC's. People just trust the name... unfortunately.

3 - Ages in PC terms is very relative, an extra couple of minutes to start the computer and "let it settle" is a long time to most heavy PC users.

4 - Crappy technical support.

Conrad11 said:
So if you had to choose one Spyware Cleaner, what would it be guys, preferably a free one. I don't want real time protection just one that i can scan every week.
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All I use is Adaware SE and Spywareblaster. :)
 
Hi there,

Well I have heard good things about: Adaware, SpyBot S&D and Windows Defender.

I don't like the fact that Windows Defender perminantly is using resources so thats out of the question.

So its between SpyBot S&D and Adaware. I am already using Spyware Blaster.

Thanks...


[Edit:]

Need to get Iver Athlon to update his sticky thread at the top.
 
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Conrad11 said:
Hi there,

Well I have heard good things about: Adaware, SpyBot S&D and Windows Defender.

I don't like the fact that Windows Defender perminantly is using resources so thats out of the question.

So its between SpyBot S&D and Adaware. I am already using Spyware Blaster.

Thanks...
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Mate you're starting to repeat yourself a lot now... i've already told you what I think and so have others. NOD32, SPywareBlaster and Adaware is fine... ;)
 
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