Virus Protection and Firewall

[joelm3103]

I've used Comodo in the past and I would say it's a really nice firewall for free. Only reason I don't really like 3rd-party firewalls is because of all the pop-ups they tend to send you to make sure everything is okie. Right now I'm sticking to Windows Firewall though lol.

 

[Arbiter]

So would Webroot Antivirus + Windows Firewall be enough protection for internet browsing on protected site and playing PC games?

 

[joelm3103]

Never used Webroot AV so I got no idea how it's detection rate and stuff are, but for an AV you can check out MSE. It's really simple and small. Also yes, it would be enough to browse the internet and play games. To me, I kinda view use of specific firewall software or high quality security a kinda waste of time unless you got like important stuff on your PC.

 

[Stevo808]

I used to like webroot until i notice it would bog down many systems if not up to par, as for comodo you can run it in training mode. So when you run all of your most important software / games it wont bug you next time when its on safe mode. For AV i like to use avira, light program and runs great with comodo. MSE is a great AV as well, only down side is their slow full system scan.

 

[Arbiter]

What is the difference between the free versions and paid versions of this kind of software?

 

[KSoD]

The paid version offers more tools. Each varies by the type of software so checking their site would be the best comparison.

Honestly such tools are not really needed anymore. With the firewall built into Win7 now you have the ability to do everything that these free versions do. You can easily set it up to block programs from having access to the internet along with allow port forward right through the firewall for other apps. Which is the main benefit of 3rd party firewalls. The only real bonus is that they have a detection tool that will notify you if something is trying to access the internet and you can allow it or stop it. There are 3rd party plugins that can do this using the built in firewall as well.

So really a 3rd party firewall is just extra processes running that is eating up resources for no real reason anymore.

 

[Arbiter]

I believe it. When I use Webroot to scan for viruses, occasionally It'll only find 1 or 2 malicious files.