Which Anti-virus/Firewall??

[dangel]

I use a software firewall simply to stop stuff for dialling home without me knowing about it. It's not enough to rely on a one-way firewall in a router imho..

I'm currently using Lavasoft's firewall - it's small, neat and simple.

[Taz]

AVG Free Edition for the antivirus.
Wndows XP SP2 firewall + enable the firewall in your ADSL router and use NAT. Add MS Anti-spyware to this and you'll be fairly well protected.

[kidzer]

Rabs - aye, I do use firefox and used to just rely on my routers firewall + NOD32, but I tried Sygate and it doesnt seem to affect performance and probably does give me a little bit more security, so its all good

[Artic_Kid]

My Anti-virus program (Norton Internet Security) is slow. I go to run, say, my word-processor, and it stops to virus-check the word-processor program -- EVERY TIME!!! I don't need it. I need virus-checking on stuff coming from the Internet, and then occasionally a virus-scan on the entire hard-drive. But not a virus-check on every program every time I use it. It's slow. Any recommendations?

[csi_grissom]

NIS 2006, ad aware 6, spybot 1.4 wot more can i ask, does a solid reliable job on my network, dont get viruses, trojans, spyware or anything odd.
each to there own.

[Rabs]

NIS 2006, ad aware 6, spybot 1.4 wot more can i ask, does a solid reliable job on my network, dont get viruses, trojans, spyware or anything odd.
each to there own.

Its a commonly known fact that Norton Internet Security/McAfee are system hogs.

But as you said, each to there own.

[JPreston]

I like avast free anti-virus, but no-one else ever seems to

Still need a software firewall even if behind a router IMO, using zonealarm (free) at the minute but used to use sygate until it was discontinued. TBH, I think I'll switch back to sygate regardless, it seems to be easier to get at the advanced configuration options than in zonealarm (setting up my home network seemed sooo painful with zonealarm).

[Mikey]

My vote goes to Kaspersky AV (Personal Pro) Sygate Personal Firewall.

Both super fast, small footprint, etc. ..

[nvening]

I like and use F-secure internet security, does not seem to system hog and it does everything all in one, no configuration needed just how i like it, oh and its cheap, £30 a year in retail packaging.

[holy god of nil]

I use avast, very impressed by this, hardware firewall in the router, xps firewall and um...

...ms antispyware, lavasoft adaware and spybot s&d, enough antispyware d'ya think?

EDIT: plus of course my email is filtered for viruses and spam by bt on their servers, so i have never even recieved a virus email

[Billy1337]

NOD32 - Anti Virus

My Router has a hardware firewall and zonealarm on the machines even tho nothing will get past the router lol

[SpotMe]

I'm currently using Nortons Security Suite (it came on my notebook) but it does appear to be a system hog.

At startup, my notebook is running 51 processes and the page file is 350Mb (on a 1Gig physical RAM machine). My work PC in comparison starts up with 38 processes. Even while doing software development it is only running 47 processes!

... and I've had nothing but trouble with Norton's firewall. Currently, if it is enabled, I can't browse from IE or Firefox !?! Don't know how I broke it. To play Lan games it always ends up being turned off.

Back home in NZ, I never ran antivirus or a firewall. I had AV installed so I could scan incoming files if I thought there was a need but realtime scanning was definitely off. Also, our home network was wired and we knew all the PC's on it so...

Over here though I'm using wireless and my notebook gets used on more networks (and more notebooks visit our home network) so I do feel the need to have a software firewall around for those moments of paranoia

After reading this thread, I'll be removing Nortons tonight and installing something else. I just have to decide what!

[kempez]

Nod32 mate...no worry's

The either Sygate or Zone Alarm

[BlackDwarf]

I use AVG Free for AV.

As for firewalls... I have a Netgear DG834 doing NAT, going into a Smoothwall box, also NATting... So ain't nothing coming in/out of my network unless i want it ti

[EtheAv8r]

Norton suite is a HUGE resource hog as are many of the 'suites'.

The BEST AV is NOD32, if you have broadband with a hardware router/firewall (eg NetGear DG834 et al), then the built-in Windows XP SP2 is perfectly adequate, add free MS Defender for spyware, then with regular patching, from a fresh build you are going to be well protected.

NOD32 without any question.

[cotswoldcs]

I'd recommend AVG for home users

ZoneLabs Internet security is supposed to be an excellent all round package although I personally use Norton Antivirus.

Also worth checking if your ISP offers virus protection for additional email protection.

There have been a number of posts mentioning Microsoft AntiSpyware which has been removed by Microsoft and replaced by Windows Defender. I'd recommend Defender for everyone running Win2K/XP. Defender can be downloaded free from Microsoft's website.