Best Internet Security Suite

Meatball · 22 Apr 2006 at 14:09

I have two hard drives in my computer, one XP Pro for games (no background tasks etc) and a recently added hard drive with the same XP Pro install on but that installation will be connected to the internet. What internet security packages would people recommend? I have always used Norton but I have realised what a resource hog it is so I would like to make a switch. I've been looking at ZoneAlarm internet security, what do people think of this?

Duke · 22 Apr 2006 at 14:15

I've never found a need for a seperate software firewall, I find the Windows SP2 firewall and the built in firewall in my router to do the job.

For AV I run NOD32

Meatball · 22 Apr 2006 at 14:20

Duke said:
I've never found a need for a seperate software firewall, I find the Windows SP2 firewall and the built in firewall in my router to do the job.

For AV I run NOD32

NOD32 keeps getting recommended but I still would like a dedicated firewall with it. Any seperate firewalls that are good or can NOD32 come in a suite?

Duke · 22 Apr 2006 at 14:34

Eset don't do a firewall program, so you will need to use one like Zonealarm or whichever is best at the moment.

Meatball · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:04

Duke said:
Eset don't do a firewall program, so you will need to use one like Zonealarm or whichever is best at the moment.

I like the look of NOD32 but I prefer the look of Zonealarm Internet Security Suite. Does anyone have personal experience with these? If I buy the Zonealarm suite from the US for $49.95 (£28) will it work in the UK?

Clarkey · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:04

windows firewall, avast, firefox, job done.

And why have seperate installs, it seems like an incredible waste of HD's, also the only good games are online anyway so what gives?

Rambaud · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:11

I have been using NOD32 and ZoneAlarm for a couple of years.

At the moment, I am testing Kaspersky Anti-Virus & Kaspersky Anti-Hacker which came "free" with System Mechanic 6 Professional.

hp7909 · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:28

Switched to Windows firewall & AVG pro, pc never been running happier. Run both Microsoft AntiSpyware and Lavasoft Ad-Aware regularly. AntiSpyware hardly finds anything while Ad-Aware seems to come up with less 'Tracking Cookie's, etc' than before when I had Zone Alarm. One thing though, is that I have a D-Link wireless router so that might also be helping

Meatball · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:31

Clarkey said:
windows firewall, avast, firefox, job done.

And why have seperate installs, it seems like an incredible waste of HD's, also the only good games are online anyway so what gives?

I don't play online games and I like my gamming pc to have no background tasks (I cut down the install with nlite and it has 15background tasks). I would just prefer to have it like that. People keep mentioning the windows firewall but doesn't that not filter outgoing traffic only incomming?

Aidoscuz · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:39

I use NOD32 and Sunbelt Kerio Firewall. It's a really nice combo - light on resources, unobtrusive and it hasn't let me down so far.

jamjar · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:54

-White-Knight- said:
NOD32 keeps getting recommended but I still would like a dedicated firewall with it. Any seperate firewalls that are good or can NOD32 come in a suite?

Nod 32 is great and Sygate Firrewall is great ,very low on memory useage ..

R@tman · 22 Apr 2006 at 15:59

Im gonna go with Zone Alarm Security suite been using it for a while now

was using norton sec suite before .

but Zone Alarm is a lot faster its been great .

Meatball · 22 Apr 2006 at 16:31

jamjar said:
Nod 32 is great and Sygate Firrewall is great ,very low on memory useage ..

I'll research into Sygate firewall, I do not really want to be spending over £40 for and Anti-Virus program and Firewall.

Indy500 · 22 Apr 2006 at 16:34

-White-Knight- said:
I'll research into Sygate firewall, I do not really want to be spending over £40 for and Anti-Virus program and Firewall.

The free version is just fine.

bledd · 22 Apr 2006 at 16:35

i use a hardware router, xpsp2 firewall and nod32

i don't really need nod32 on there tbh, but its good when other people use my pc and go looking for pron etc on the net!

MarcLister · 22 Apr 2006 at 16:58

Rambaud said:
I have been using NOD32 and ZoneAlarm

Same here, nod32 is brilliant. I don't notice it, I even have to check it has the latest antivirus definitions.

ZA Pro is also brilliant although I do hate it when it asks me if I want to allow a certain process to run in order to install a program. Not sure why it does that, I only want to use my firewall for the Internet and Internet enabled programs. There is probably some option somewhere to fix that.

On the whole I use nod32 and ZA Pro because I don't think that a combined solution exists that would be as good as nod32 and ZA Pro but combined into a suite.

hp7909 · 22 Apr 2006 at 17:04

bledd. said:
i don't really need nod32 on there tbh, but its good when other people use my pc and go looking for pron etc on the net!

don't doubt the abilities of an anitvirus program. other day went sticking my flash disk in some random pc only to come back to mine and find, in 2-mins or so, i'd picked up several virus which had infected well over 30 files on my flash disk :eek:

AJUK · 22 Apr 2006 at 17:33

ZA Iinternet Security Suite is very good and good value for money however, I think all you need is Win SP FW + a decent AV and then a decent AS.

I use Win XP firewall, Avast and Ewido Pro and have never had a virus, falied a firewall test, been hacked, had a slowdown or any security issues.

J1nxy · 22 Apr 2006 at 22:12

I tried a whole bunch of them and in the end went for Bullguard. Cost me about £13 all in fro the bay for a retail cd and key. if you want the supplier let me know.

For £13 I get basically the bitdefender AV, Sygate Firewall, Anti-Spam and 1GB of online backup, not bad for £1 a month. They also do a 60day trial so you get to see it before buying.

I liked the Kaspersky 6 suite, but at £40 it didn't seem worth it, Zonealarm is again nice but when they messed up my renewal and wouldn't help fix it I didn't feel like paying out for a new license again. Also tried McAfee, which has the worst management interface ever as it requires IE to be able to do its system updates and Symantec 12 which is not bad if a little unfriendly to system resoureces.

Just my thoughts.

Steve

Craig321 · 22 Apr 2006 at 22:18

-White-Knight- said:
I have two hard drives in my computer, one XP Pro for games (no background tasks etc) and a recently added hard drive with the same XP Pro install on but that installation will be connected to the internet. What internet security packages would people recommend? I have always used Norton but I have realised what a resource hog it is so I would like to make a switch. I've been looking at ZoneAlarm internet security, what do people think of this?

PC Cillin, excellent.