What are some good Antivirus programs and Firewalls?

[hiccupleftovers]

Basically my question is above. Of course it woud be preferred that it were as cheap as possible, but still be one that is strong and be able to hold itself on its own. The only other requirement that I have is that it have low memory usage. I want to get rid of Norton A/V and Firewall which are just huge memory users.

[nneace]

Umm ZoneAlarm is awsome in my opinion. Just installed Verizon DSL and would get about 15 unwanted programs, and nothing would keep those off my system. ZoneAlarm fixed it all and it has stayed fixed.

[Pure Apathy]

I use AVG antivirus. It is pretty good.

[HeadRusch]

For Antivirus there really isn't any reason to pay for it anymore, just go get AVG's free edition
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

[spoo]

AVG and ZA firewall.

I want to buy ZoneAlarm Security Suite but I am just to damn cheap for my own good.

[Strell]

If you have to go free, AVG or Avast are good antivirus. On the firewall end, ZoneAlarm and Kerio offer some nice features, and there are free (albeit somewhat crippled) versions of them as well.

If you want to add spyware protection, Adaware and microsoft Antispyware are great. I'd suggest Spybot as a good addition. You can also get two other programs that prevent stuff from being installed to begin with - Spywareblaster and Spyware gaurd. That'll pretty much eliminate spyware problems.

If you want to actually spend money, go to Best Buy this week and get Pc-Cillin Internet Secrutiy 2005. I did a lot of research on antivirus and firewall programs a few weeks ago and basically determined that Pc-Cillin is pretty much considered the best of the bunch. It also integrates it's AV and FW programs into one cohesive package, which means it works better than having programs by different companies handling each one of those problems on their own. Also, this week, you can get a $25 MIR on the software, and another $25 MIR *if* you can "prove" you owned a competing product to begin with. So if you can get your hands on a legitimate McAfee or Norton AV cd/manual (from your friends...cough cough, or someone on here), you can mail it in and get the second MIR. This then effectively makes Pc-Cillin free after rebates (except for the tax). It has great protection, auto updates, and apparently has one of the lowest memory/resource usages of such programs. So I'm switching over to it to see how it works out.

At the very least you can get good protection for $25. But it wouldn't be hard at all to snag the other MIR.

Also helps to get a router so you have a hardware firewall running as well.

Anyway, that's my advice. Hope it works out for you.

[RAMSTORIA]

i use zone alarm... UCD gives us free norton antivirus, so i use that

[hiccupleftovers]

I hear that AVG A/V is a great program, but how crippled is the free version if I am to transfer to it and work with it a little.

[shrike4242]

For a low-memory footprint firewall, Zonealarm is far and away my preference.

For anti-virus, I'd lean towards AVG's free version.

[HeadRusch]

AVG free isn't crippled as far as I understand it. I think you can even install it on multiple boxes on a home LAN, so long as its a personal use HOME lan and not a business..but I could be wrong on that one. Just check out the website and do a little RTFM'ing.

Look at it this way: Its free, so why NOT install it? :) If you choose to pay for McAFee or something, thats fine too. I bought McAFee 7 several years ago...they keep updating my virus signatures so, when that stops I'll find something else :)

[Saucy Jack]

I can see where many people say that Norton takes up a lot of memory, but if you do have lots of memory, it's a great product.

My setup:

Router
Norton Internet Security 2005 (Firewall, Anti-Spam, AntiVirus)
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
Firefox

Works perfectly. :)

[Moxio]

I have a combo of...

AVG Antivirus
Avast! Antivirus
ZoneAlarm firewall
Hardware firewall

And I have Tiny firewall but I don't use it much.

[shrike4242]

I can see where many people say that Norton takes up a lot of memory, but if you do have lots of memory, it's a great product.

My setup:

Router
Norton Internet Security 2005 (Firewall, Anti-Spam, AntiVirus)
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
Firefox

Works perfectly. :)

That might work, though your sig is broken.

[YeahRight13]

i use McFee Personal Firewall its really good

[Saucy Jack]

That might work, though your sig is broken.

What's broken about it? The animation? I can see it just fine.

[shrike4242]

What's broken about it? The animation? I can see it just fine.

Sorry, when I was looking at it at the earlier post, the animation wasn't working. Must've been a temporary fluke.

Working now for me.

[hiccupleftovers]

Has anybody around here used SmoothWall? Does anyone know how good/strong it is?

[hiccupleftovers]

Another question I have is how is Kerio Personal Firewall?

I keep reading it is also a good firewall and even better than Zonealarm. Really, to tell you the truth, I've used Zonealarm in the past and I really wasn't impressed with it and really disliked it' user interface. Has it improved? Surely it has since it's been at least a couple years now since I've used it.

Edit: I DL'd AVG Free and I'm really liking it so far. Seems pretty good and comprehensive. How often do they update it? I know that Norton would put out updates generally on Thursday with more crucial and critical updates being available almost right after the threat occured.

[Strell]

There are sites online that can test your connection for firewall, virus, spyware, and security holes. I don't know how greatly reliable they are, but there's quite a few of them and they all seem to be free. I've never used them myself but I suppose you could run several of them and see if anything repeatedly comes up.

If you google "online security test," a lot come up. Here's a few I found:

www.pcpitstop.com
www.auditmypc.com

Also there was one at Symantec's site, so it might be useful as well.

As for Kerio, it's great. The only "problem" is that if you put it in the learning mode - which gives you a much greater amount of control regarding what is allowed to have net access and not - can be annoying beacuse it will run *anytime* a "new" program connects to the net. This is good in that it ALWAYS wants your authorization, but "bad" in that it will get annoying. Like you'll update your antivirus and it will come up DO YOU WANT THIS TO HAPPEN. Of course you can set permanent rules - "always let this connect and have access," so once you use it for a few days and let it check all your programs, it will work exceptionally well. I think I stopped using it because the basic free version started to restrict my access to certain sites that the trial pro version didn't. Like, I think the basic version cripples itself in some ways that it will no longer remember "acceptable" sites and some other things, which meant that I coudln't get around some things without disabling the firewall altogether. This was super annoying, but at the least you can disable it quickly in the taskbar, so it's not a *huge* problem and most people probably won't run into it. I can't fully remember. It's a great firewall and I highly recommend it. As long as you have a basic idea of what programs you want to have access, it's easy to get around with. People get confused with stuff like INCOMING CONNECTION ALERT. The basic rule is that if you initiate a program and get a message, accept it. If it happens out of nowhere, decline it. That's the best basic rule.

Anyway, let us know if you need any more help.

[hiccupleftovers]

Some more questions, which would you guys recommend, Protowall or Peerguardian 2? Has anybody used either of these?

Edit: Oh yaeh, Kerio keeps sounding better and better the more I hear about it. If all it does is take you through a learning mode than that sounds sort of like what I had to do with Norton's Firewall

[hiccupleftovers]

Is there any particular/special way to configure Kerio? I just installed it and ran a bunch of internet programs through it and seems to be automatically configuring them with out my need for approval. Thanks again for all of the help and info guys.

[Strell]

If you don't have it set to advanced/learning mode, it will configure itself automatically.

I don't where you can change that, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

[hiccupleftovers]

Some more questions, which would you guys recommend, Protowall or Peerguardian 2? Has anybody used either of these?

Edit: Oh yaeh, Kerio keeps sounding better and better the more I hear about it. If all it does is take you through a learning mode than that sounds sort of like what I had to do with Norton's Firewall

Bumping up this thread to maybe get an answer for this question above and to know if anyone has ever used SmoothWall Firewall?

[Fire]

All good questions and I wouldn't mind knowing as well OP. Could someone please answer his questions.

[hiccupleftovers]

Bump, I've been using Kerio for sometime now and it seems to be alright, but I'm not too keen on it just yet. Has anyone used Blackice Defender/Firewall before? My friend says that it and Sygate Pro are the best firewalls that there are.

[Moxio]

Nothing beats a hardware firewall. If no option for that, I'd use ZA. It's easy to use and it gets the job done.

[mookiemeister]

I've been using ZoneAlarm for several years now after a friend recommended it. It's pretty easy to use.

[hiccupleftovers]

Nothing beats a hardware firewall. If no option for that, I'd use ZA. It's easy to use and it gets the job done.

Do you know of any hardware firewalls that you would recommend? Also, exactly what is a hardware firewall? I keep hearing the term in my searches on network security and have only started hearing of these recently. I'm not the most astute in computers, but I can hold my own and no more than a lot of people but aren't very sure what these are. I have an inkling as to what they are and how they do it, but aren't sure.

[mookiemeister]

For Antivirus there really isn't any reason to pay for it anymore, just go get AVG's free edition
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

I followed your link and didn't see any free version available for download. Can I just download normal version without paying for it?

[Moxio]

I followed your link and didn't see any free version available for download. Can I just download normal version without paying for it?

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php

[hiccupleftovers]

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php

That's the one I'm using and it's pretty good. It hasn't come across anything yet, but I've been really liking it, especially the daily updates. Also, what's a hardware firewall while I"m at it.

[Moxio]

That's the one I'm using and it's pretty good. It hasn't come across anything yet, but I've been really liking it, especially the daily updates. Also, what's a hardware firewall while I"m at it.

Hardware firewalls are just as the name implies- a firewall built into external hardware. For example, a router (A, B, or G) or a printer server most likely has firewall port blockings built into it.

[snotknocker]

I use AVG, Spysweeper and Secretmaker and have never had a problem. Check out secretmaker it's free and has a great bunch of features including a browser cleaner and privacy protector

[Moxio]

Sygate is a great firewall.

[erehwon]

I also use Sygate. Does anyone here use NOD32 anti-virus? I've heard that's very good.

[hiccupleftovers]

I also use Sygate. Does anyone here use NOD32 anti-virus? I've heard that's very good.

I tried out NOD32 and loved it. It's probably the best and easiest AV I've ever used. Too bad I didn't want to pay for it afterward. Just to keep this thread updated, I recently bought ZoneAlarm Firewall and have been really liking it. Couldn't hurt that I got it for free too. I've been just using the A/V that came bundled with it, which seems alright.

[CappyCobra]

Some more questions, which would you guys recommend, Protowall or Peerguardian 2? Has anybody used either of these?

Edit: Oh yaeh, Kerio keeps sounding better and better the more I hear about it. If all it does is take you through a learning mode than that sounds sort of like what I had to do with Norton's Firewall
Protowall 2.0 by far. PeerGuardian is a resource hog. Kinda a pain to install (You have to be in safe mode). Once you have it installed though, its a godsend.

[hiccupleftovers]

Protowall 2.0 by far. PeerGuardian is a resource hog. Kinda a pain to install (You have to be in safe mode). Once you have it installed though, its a godsend.

Actually, I have never seen PeerGuardian 2 go above 1,500 k in resources. Never had any trouble installing it either. Simple click, go through the installation, and it was over. It's great and blocks all of those nasty IPs. Only thing I don't like about it is, is that in recent weeks (last 2-3 to be exact) there have been almost no updates for it.

On the otherhand, Protowall 2.0 was a bitch to install and took me a lot of searches to come up with a reason why it wasn't working. The tutorial/help/FAQ on bluetack's website isn't worth shit IMO, and was more confusing then helpful. I've used Blocklist manager with it and, though it blocks much more IPS, it seems to actually block too many IPs and I can never figure out how to have it just block the bad ones. I mean, it blocks Google for pete's sake and I've seen it use more memory than PG2 did. I've disable nearly all of the lists that I get from Blocklist Manager and it still blocks common sites like Google, etc. It basically cripples my internet. I've tried to export the lists to PG2 with it, but I can never seem to get it to work as PG2 always stays with the same number of IPs.

[erehwon]

Have any of you guys heard of IPcop (http://$$$$$$$$$$$$/djkww) or smoothwall firewalls? My linux instructor says that IPcop is pretty good. He has it installed on an old, extra PC he had lying around. The link I gave takes you to its distrowatch page. IPcop is a complete Linux Distribution whose sole purpose is to protect the networks it is installed on.