Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Whats the best to use, iv been using MS security essentials, it uses minimal processor and RAM, and does the job nicely.

I had norton before and it was a nightmare, my dual core PC with 4gb RAM was slowed down to a crawl!

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I use MSE too and the Windows 7 firewall. Works well and doesn't hog the dual core processor and 3GB memory.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Private firewall and Avira free here.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

If Avast wasn't screwing up I'd be using that + Comodo Firewall, currently using Windows Firewall + M$ Security Essentials!

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

MSE has not been doing well in detection tests, WHICH magazine run tests and MSE scored quite low. Avira did well but I can not stand the nags. Currently using Avast with no issue at all Windows firewall with advanced settings and firewall in router

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Using Avast here and Comodo firewall with no issues.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Eset's Nod 32 and Comodo firewall.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I use avg as it's the only one out of all the ones i've tested that actually picks up and warns you about dodgy websites.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Nod 32 warns me about dodgy sites.It even denies access to them..;)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

thats not always a good thing. There are false positives with all AV's

I use a sandbox or virtual machine if I am in any way unsure so no damage can be done to my machine in any case

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Avast with Windows 7 firewall +router FW

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Every time i've tried nod32 it has NEVER warned me about or blocked any sites that avg has. Come to think of it, it has never warned me or blocked any sites for me period.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I'd rather be cautious than caught out.That's the whole point of having an AV.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I do not get caught out though. I have an AV but it isnt always right. All tests on AV's show their are false positives . I have the knowledge and knowhow to judge for myself the risks and then I also have the software that makes it safe to try. Avast 6 for example comes with a sandbox feature


Also AV's are not 100% either and malware often sneaks past as seen in various threads with the fake antivirus scans. Please do not think you are totally safe just because you have an antivirus installed

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

had no problems with norton speeds since their overhaul in 2009.
it now scores very high at dennislabs, av-comparatives.org and quite a few others

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

dennis labs are biased towards their advertisers thats why I trust WHICH because its subscription only with no advertises to please

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

i trust av-comparatives.org cos they arent subscription or ad based.

norton won in 2009 and came joint in 2010.
but i guess norton still has the tag that it slows your comp down and is made by the devil.

surprised at this forum and its narrowmindedness....
http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.p...360_version_5/

worst AV I ever tried was AVG free.
spent 4 years cleaning up PCs at a computer shop and saw the home consumers choices every day. not business, home consumers.

tried trend micro PC Cillin for a year, it was very good
tried bitdefender
tried all the old versions of norton
tried Nod32
pretty much used all of them at some point.

never ever thought I'd be championing a symantec product, but its now very very light on resources.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Yeah but it still costs money. I have perfectly good results with my precautions and they cost me nothing

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

oh no, something that costs money for peace of mind!!!

i suppose you must work for free too....

giving stuff away for free is a marketing tool as part of a business model.
but whatever, I'm just a salesman, I know nothing.....

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Well I can not remember the last time I had a virus . I am quite experienced with computers you know . I do know what I am doing. My mind is at peace ta very much

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

me too....but since i started working as a salesman, my opinion is moot.
am just a shark wanting commission

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I'm currently using MSE plus Win 7's firewall, behind a router with NAT & SPI.

I used to use Kaspersky, but ditched it when I switched to Win 7 as KIS had issues with it at the time. I'd assume that it works perfectly with Win 7 now of course, but my licence has long since expired & I haven't felt the need to re-buy.

I also use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, plus perform periodic scans with Trend HouseCall & other online scanners.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

had a free kaspersky 3 license from the rep at work. worked fine on my PC, on the GF's laptop it randomly stopped auto updating and even after a reinstall wouldnt update.

currently trying out Trend Micro titanium max, again free years worth from their rep.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

The most important aspect of security is the user

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I use Zone Alarm extreme security which is a paid for sub security programme, mine also warns about dodgy sites also if you are downloading files it opens them in a virtual window and and lets you know if they are safe to download to your computer after checking them for viruses/spyware, the firewall works very well.

I would recommend it to anybody earlier versions i found to slow the computer whilst scanning,but the current version is lightweight on resources and picks up viruses brilliantly.:)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

IE 8 and 9 both have smart screen protection built in you just need to switch it on. This is the same as what AVG does both relies on reports being put in about the dodgy sites so it no one has been there and reported it before then you are still liable to infection or whatever

Smart screen does not give you a tick of course like AVG does it only warns you when you try to access a dadgy site. I for one do not need to see a tick all I need is a warning when needed. Of course this is no help to FF users or other browsers but FF does have its own version automatically enabled also

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

As does Opera..

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I have no problem with avast & i have windows 7.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I use Kaspersky Internet Security and have for years. IMHO, and in that of many review sites, it's the best going. (here comes the flack!)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I used MSE on my old laptop without any issues but I'm currently using Norton Internet Security 2011 as my new laptop came with a free 12 months sub, seems to do the job fine :)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Just dumped Kaspersky 2011 big issues with Windows Vista 64bit & Windows 7 64bit desktop & windows downloads.Blue screen, no start ups, no shut downs ect....... Works ok with my laptop with standard Vista. Running Bit Torrent for two days no problems so far.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Neither can I.;)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Another vote for NOD32 here, light on resources, few false positives, picks up the test viri I have at my disposal(through my work), blocks access to websites it thinks are dodgy.

Firewall is a combination of a linksys router running DD-WRT and the one built into Windows 7.

Websites are browsed with firefox with the noscript addon.

Users are their own worst enemy, the times i've cleaned a machine up for someone only to be contacted very shortly after with words to the effect of "application x no longer works, i've downloaded it again, that got it working, but now my PC is slow again", or in other words, Application X stopped working because it relied on spyware/malware which I removed, only for the user to re-install. When advised of this user will say something along the lines of "I can't live without application X, i'll just have to live with the PC being slow". It's at this point I distance myself from said user.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

yeah but you dont do half the stuff I do ;)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

It is.. However, it's worth remembering that some free AVs are as good as or better than the paid ones. Avast (for instance) frequently scores highly..

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I have a 24 year old son who uses this PC..;)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

I use Norton Internet Security 2011 but I don't rely on it as the primary defence, neither would I any other AV program/security suite ..paid or free. Reading the forums of the various products reveals that they all have their failure rates and false positive figures.

The other layers I use are Sandboxie as the primary security program, ClearCloud DNS and WOT for Chrome (NIS includes its own site rating function for Firefox that works inside the sandbox).

This all seems to keep me safe in a quiet no bother sort of way.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Just throwing in my tuppence worth.

Any AV is only as good as it's last update. For any new nasty malware there is a period between it's release upon the world and your AV Provider finding out about it, and including detection in their next update. SO for heaven's sake practice Safe Hex and use the old MK-I Noggin from GreyMatter Enterprises and dont click those dodgy links.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

:tu:

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

got my sandbox and virtual machine so I can if I want ;)

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

The chances of infection can be cut down that way but a danger is that dodgy links may not always appear dodgy.

Re: Best Anti Virus and Firewall?
 

Or that normally un dodgy links/sites can become compromised and suddenly become dodgy (can happen to the best of em) ;)

Av`s are a reative technology, the malware authors are allways one step ahead. Allthough getting malware is easy if you go looking, it`s not something that is as prevalent as it was say when XP was young. UAC allthough not primarily designed as a security tool is an excellant addition in helping system level malware from being installed. Again back to the don`t just click OK to everything scenario!