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Whats the best firewall/virus scan software?
scaramoosh
Member Posts: 3,424
I used to use Norton but..
1. uses up wayyy tooo much memory for my liking
2. Slows down startup
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Don't click here...no2
Comments
For me, Zone Alarm and Kill Box, AVG is ok it's free and no monthly charges ranks high in some ratings of Anti-virus.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth - That question is less stupid but, you asked it in a profoundly stupid way.
McAfee
F-secure is the best one for viruses!
I am a network engineer by trade and here is my 2 cents on it (and this is what I practice as well both at home and work)
Windows firewall since service pack 2 does an outstanding job of protecting you, in most cases it ample protection and does not weigh down your system like many others do. It offers both application and port protection now and I have tested it for 6 months on a server that is on a wide open line. The server has yet to be compromised and just 2 weeks prior to me putting that server up I had a windows 2000 server box sitting on the exact same IP that I let be hacked to all high hell.
ZoneAlarm isn't worth it and can be had, its known for allowing hostile software to disable it. The only other firewall if you really have an issue with the innate one in windows would be BlackIce Defender.
It sounds to me like you have the Norton Internet Protection Suite? Its trash, get rid of it and get their straight up AV software. The AV product is light and works very well. I refuse to use McAffee, since Computer Associates bought them out they have gotten worse and worse with their product. I ONLY use Norton/Symantec. Now you are gonna get a bunch of people chime in that they use Panda or AVG or whatever other brand and it claims it found viruses that Norton has missed. I have never had Symantec or Norton miss a virus once it was accessed, or actively scanned. If you don't have your settings right and you never access the file ya its not going to report it til you do a full scan. We run the business version of Norton here at my work per my choice (Symantec Anti-Virus) and have it deployed from a central installation with remote management and centralized quarantine and we have not been hit with a virus here and had it infect anyone in several years now. So like I said, if your using the whole internet protection suite or multiple Norton products thats why its slowing you down.
Take that however you want but Norton is a very light app (the AV only software) in comparison to many and I have never had it fail me. I have 10 years experience in this, me making a bad call on an application that protects the network I administer means I am staying late that night (which usually makes me cranky). So I generally try not to make bad choices.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
computer consultant here.
I like antivirXP for antivirus, windows firewall for firewall, and Spybot for pretty much everything else.
Make regular backups of your data and keep your restore disks handy, and even in the worst case scenario you can be back up and running in a matter of 45 minutes.
Zone Alarm is great for people that care not to spend monthly bills protecting their computers. Basically, find the best software with the best scanner possible that's all you need. Then use pocket killbox to remove the threats one by one. It's for light virus removal tasks, if you're under a heavy attack best either use a payed virus removal tool or, just reformat the HD.
Sure ZA will not stop all viruses from hacking in but, it can stop a good many of them and identifies what's working on you pc. It's free so it's obviously not 100% guaranteed but, not even guaranteed ones will stop all attacks.
SP2 offers great protection but, I've heard rumors that they've got service packs all the way up to 5 in security protection.
ZA, AVG, Killbox, are the best free anti-virus tools around. If you have a bad trojan attack, I'd recommend the TDS-3 just to remove the majority of the junk.
You can also get the ewido suite trial version to remove a layer of bugs but, you must update and install many components, then boot in safemode scan clean and reboot in normal mode.
Hijackthis is good too.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth - That question is less stupid but, you asked it in a profoundly stupid way.