AV & Firewall?

[AnthraX]

Well, my subscription of Nortan Internet Security is just about over. (Yes, I know Nortan sucks, but I got it for free.) So anyway, I was planning on getting Zone Alarm and AVG.

My questions are:

1) Would it be worth upgrading to Zone Alarm Pro?
2) Would it be worth upgrading to AVG Pro?
3) Should I possibly get any other Firewall and AV software along side these? If so, what should I get?

Money isn't too much of a problem. Please don't say don't get something just because it costs money.

 

[KSoD]

For an Antivirus i would suggest NOD32. It is above and beyond the best Av out there. Firewalls ZoneAlarm is good but it will block some actions for you. It wouldnt allow me to see animated gifs on website and some sites that depended seriously on thumbnails were also affected.

 

[Trotter]

Firewalls ZoneAlarm is good but it will block some actions for you. It wouldnt allow me to see animated gifs on website and some sites that depended seriously on thumbnails were also affected.

You have to set its controls to allow them. I know, as I completely uninstalled Firefox (profiles and all) in an attempt to get the gifs and all to work. Turned out that the Ad Blocking control was too high. It has to be set to 'Off' for the gifs and animations to work.

If you are looking for a good package, check out Computer Associates. They ahve had some problems with their corporate packages, but their home packages are great.

Since you have Norton, you can get in on a special rebate promotion from CA. Here's a link:
http://store.digitalriver.com/DRHM/Storefront/Company/caconsum/staticContent/promotionsUS.html

If you want to try it out instead of jumping straight in, check here:
http://store.digitalriver.com/DRHM/...iteID=caconsum&Locale=en_US&categoryID=653700
I heartily recommend getting eTrust ezArmor, which is their AV and firewall together.

Their anti-spyware program, Pest Patrol, ain't all that. Go with Microsoft AntiSpyware (it's free), AdAware (it's free), and Spybot (it's free). Using all three of these will pretty much keep your computer clean if you scan regularly, update often, and clean your caches often.

Oh, I have and use ezArmor myself. Have for the past two years.

 

[Seiken]

The only software firewall I use is the one in XP...

Why keep installing more unnecessary software to do absolutely nothing when you got your own router acting as a firewall itself. I've always read that a hardware firewall > any software firewall because there are always ways around the software.

If you have a good router/firewall and got the XP firewall enabled, I see any additional software as overkill IMO.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as Antivirus goes, I'm not too familiar with the differences between the free and pro versions of that particular antivirus software but it's a no brainer to get protected by any means. Personally I didn't like AVG. I use CA's EZ Antivirus and it works for me. It's a lot smaller than Norton and McAfee and much faster and not a resource hog.

 

[KSoD]

It is still godd to use a hardware and software firewall. You are correct that you can get around a software firewall buit you can also get around a hardware one as well. As for the XP Firewall it doesnt do jack compared to a real firewall software. They beefed it up a bit with the Vista Beta but it still isnt anywhere as good as a true software firewall.
I use a Linksys Router/firewall and a software firewall. The onyl reason is because it is better to be safe than sorry. If they figure out how to get around the hardware firewall at least i am somewhat safe behind my software firewall until i can change the settings on my hardware firewall.
As far as the difference between free and Pro it is simple. you get more options and more control with the Pro versions. More option sot do what you want and have the software do as you will. Free is just a basic scanner and the Active scans dont give nearly enough protection as they should.
As i have mentioned NOD32 is the best. It costs $39 and it uses dang near no resources at all. It has the best protection and will stop most virus attacks, including from web pages that try to download them to you comp. I have only used NOD32 for the better part of a month and already i have found up to 10 viruses that were not detected by any other scanner and it has stopped about 20 web sites from trying to force download them.

 

[Oscillator]

Zone Alarm Pro comes with integrated Spyware Guard, aswell as settings for Expert Rules, you can go one further with Zone Alarm Security Suite which includes integrated Anti-Virus with automatic up-dates. I don't know what they are like though.

AVG is not worth up-grading in my opinion. The free one does exactly the same job. You get extra features that are rarely used and you probably already have the capability of preforming these tasks with another program on your computer.

 

[AnthraX]

Well, I had heard about NOD32, and I'm probably going to end up getting that.

But, I'd like to know your opinions on Symantec AV? (And no it isn't Nortan.) I can get that for free from a family member. But I wanna know if it is good, and what the difference between the Nortan AV and the Symantec AV is. Is Symantec for businesses and Nortan for home & office? That's my only guess really.

Also, any other ideas for AV besides AVG, NOD32 and Nortan/Symantec? (Don't say McAfee )

 

[EricB]

like Makaveli213 said

nod32 and a good software firewall plus a hardware firewall. hardware firewall are generally configure and you damn near have to be a rockett scientist to properly configure it, even then, outbound connection can go through.

when (if) you install zonealarm don't use the ad and cookie stopping part (I forget what it is called). use adaware's adwatch or yahoo anti spy pop up blocker for that.

I have nvidia firewall (it is hardware and software combined). it is by far the best firewall that I have ever use. it has a couple of bugs to be work out (for some strange reason it block out all of musicmatch website for some reason), but it is bulletproof

 

[Cunjo]

Hey there! I would recommend Avast! Antivirus. It is free for personal use, and by and far the most friendly, effective, and efficient antivirus program I have ever used (better than Norton in my experience - I have not yet tried NOD32, so I can't compare them there). For a firewall, I would recommend Kerio Personal Firewall. It is better than ZA Free Edition, less-intrusive than ZA Pro edition (which while probably one of the most secure software firewalls out there, tends to cause a lot of networking and web browsing problems). The only real improvements the paid version of KPF offers over the free, is some web filtering that is unnecessary if you use Firefox instead of IE.