What would be the best Antivirus and Firewall Package

dmpoole said:
And theres the rub - "a few years ago".
Old Nortons were awful and very buggy and I stayed away and chose alternatives.



I can say the same for my mate Ian who runs NOD32, my workmate John who runs Zone Alarm Security Suite and my boss Graham who uses Zone Alarm.
At least once a month they're bringing me printouts of problems because their sons have been visiting sites they shouldn't and their Security Suites have picked nothing up.
And I'm not saying that Norton would pick them up either.
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By a few years ago, I mean 2003. Not that long ago? My mate who I mentioned is running the latest version however, still as poor as the last imo though. Except it looks more flashy obviously. ;)

I know none are 100%... but Norton is no where near the top of the list. I could never recommend it.
 
A little infor on Zone Alarm Free (For those that care)

As soon as you use a program which uses the internet the resource usage goes up to around 50,000K+ of Mem Usage, and even when you quit the program it stays at that amount. I assume that is quite resource consuming but I wouldn't know.
 
ElRazur said:
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?
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You'll find out soon enough. When i first got a computer i had norton. It's a bit like having a big weight tied to your ankles while trying to walk.

When I replaced it with a better firewall / AV, my computer all of a sudden was much faster.

Norton is one of the most famous resource hogs there is unfortunately.
 
I've tried many over the years and the best free solutions are:

Avast for the Anti Virus (better than AVG and Antivir, plus has a brilliant user customized interface with selectable skins).

Commodo Firewall (I'm still using the older 2.4 with XP it works so well, but 3.0 is available for Vista with a built in HIPS - Host Intrusion Prevention Systems - a defence+)

Those two really offer more than adequate protection. Them two products combined with a browser like Firefox with NoScript and CS Lite (Cookie Safe Lite) extensions pretty much has you covered.

The most important thing however is the actual user. Someone who clicks everything without thinking is pretty hard to protect 100% regardless of the software. A deep thinker who plans how they use their PC can probably get away with no extras other than a virus checker.
 
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spirits247 said:
I've tried many over the years and the best free solutions are:

Avast for the Anti Virus (better than AVG and Antivir, plus has a brilliant user customized interface with selectable skins).
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I'd happily argue that Antivir is the best freeware AV. This is backed up by evidence - check out av comparatives. And if resource usage and speed are your next argument - check out the link on this page.
 
From what I've read the latest version of Norton is supposed to be quite good, the designers have decided to address all the issues and complaints of the last few releases and supposedly rewritten it so it's streamlined and no longer a resource hog. Not tried ot tested it myself just reporting what I've read.
 
Ratbag said:
I'd happily argue that Antivir is the best freeware AV. This is backed up by evidence - check out av comparatives. And if resource usage and speed are your next argument - check out the link on this page.
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I agree with you in some regards. I actually install Antivir on many user systems as it's such a light and easy to configure solution - plus it works very well and has a proven detection system. People who just need a simple but solid solution can't go wrong with Antivir. It loads up fast and it just works really well. No bells or whistles - just clear and straight forward virus protection, a bit like the old AVG versions (7 and below).

Personally, I don't like its popup banner every time it updates, but understand as it's a free solution. It also takes a long time to update too - the free update server is slow at times. Other things the free version lacks are email and webpage scanners.

Avast 4.8 has all of these and more, plus boot time scan capabilities so it can do a full in depth scan before the operating system even loads up! It also creates a virus recovery database while your computer is idle of all your system's key files - the ones that usually get infected - so it can recover better from an attack.

The thing that really swings it for me though are all the customizable skins. Love it. I also much prefer the settings format and scanner popup options of how to take actions when a virus is found.

So much is personal preference though. I used to use AVG, but thought version 8 was horrible. I hate the new interface and the webscanner added a huge delay to my browser as it contacted an online database for approval of links and objects, which is unacceptable.
 
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Avira/Kaspersky still top imo

Nod32 even when set on max does very little almost lets the nasty bugs in if anything.

I will proberly use Kaspersky/Malwarebytes + Comodo or windows firewall in my next setup.
 
Avira AntiVir Premium is still only £12.95 - absolute bargain at that price compared to the likes of Norton, etc.

It's fast, light, has one of the best detection rates and is easy to configure and use.

I like Online Armor or Comodo for firewalls.
 
I've tried most of the free stuff, but have never found anything which offers as good a combination of protection and speed as the good paid solutions. I've had NOD32 and Kaspersky, both of which are top-notch. I'd probably give Kaspersky the edge on detection, where NOD32 is almost as good and very light on resources. But as has been said, the best security software really is common sense. Takes no resources and free updates for life :)
 
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