Which Anti-virus/Firewall do you use?

By sophiesboy Posted November 5, 2006 19:28:54

I was curious to find out which anti-virus/firewall programs people liked and used.

Over time I have tried a couple of different programs, and never been extremeley happy with them for various reasons.

I used Symantec/Norton for a while, and it had a tendency to crash my machine every time an update came out, requiring reverification with the company, unloading/reloading the program, etc.

At the moment I am using the McAfee Security Center Suite, and while it works reasonably well, it manages to chew up about 137MB of RAM according to the Processes window in the Task Manager. For a system that has a typical resting usage of about 350 to 400MB that seems like an awful lot to me.

A friend of mine recommended switching to the Grisoft AVG antivirus/firewall, which he said uses far less memory and catches quite a bit more than McAfee. I downloaded a free version and ran it once. It managed to detect three Trojans which McAfee had missed over months of use.

So the question is, for those of us who are just competent enough to unwittingly destroy our machines, but not so competent that we can delve into the minutiae of these programs, what would your recommendation be?

Ideally this would be a single source of programs designed to work together (the biggest selling point for the McAfee suite in my case), not a multi-sourced collection that may or may not work together depending on my ability to dig in and tweak drivers/settings/codes.

I await the collective wisdom with anticipation.

0 Karma 146 Replies 52 Referrals

On my Windows partition I use AVG, Zone Alarm, Spybot S&D, and Adaware.

I just got rid of Norton the other day and switched to AVG. It's quite nice, so I'm satisfied. Definitely has less processes running and marginal ram use. I also use Spybot and AdAware.

As for firewall, just the Windows firewall along with whatever my Linksys router might have going.

Paid...ZoneAlarm Pro and Bit Defender 10

Free [on other machines] ... Zone Alarm and Avast!

When I want to destroy a computer I load NAV2003 ....easier than a bucket of water while running...

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I agree with MasonM on AVG and Zone Alarm. I've been using them for three or four years now with no problems. Both programs have advanced versions that you can pay for but just about everything you read indicates the free versions get the job done. Security suites do look like they should do a better job but again I've seen some comparisons that show the stand alone programs usually do a better job. Alot has to do what you feel comfortable with. You didn't ask about spyware programs but they are just as important to have. MasonM pointed out two good ones, Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware. There are others available and I wouldn't ignore Windows Defender. Another one to look at is Spyware Blaster. Where the other ones help you get the 'Bad Boys' off your computer Spyware Blaster is meant to stop them from getting on in the first place. Here's one more piece of advise, find a reliable and safe source for software downloads, the one I use is Major Geeks. They have reviews and links for freeware, shareware and paidware (if that's a word). I haven't had any problems yet is using their site. The other thing about freeware is the money you save, which you can spend here on subscriptions! Hope this was of some help.

I'm using Trend Micro's PC-Cillin. It's a whole security "suite" so I can manage both my AV and Firewall with one control panel. I have used it for a while and have never had a problem.

Anti-Virus = Avast Home Edition.
Firewall = Outpost Firewall Pro (has built-in spyware protection)

Trend Micro's PC-Cillin.

same

AVG Anti-Virus + Firewall

Anti-Virus = Avast
Firewall = Sygate

Computer Associates AV 12 month trial

I love the combo I have running. Never had a problem (unless I did something stupid).

Antivirus: AVG Free version
Firewall: Sygate Personal Firewal (free)
Spybot Search & Destroy (free)
Ad-Aware (free)

Anti-Virus/Spyware/Adware/: Norton... I know, just been too lazy to get anything else

Firewall... well lets see There is ZoneAlarm(I know a Checkpoint product), Sunscreen and Checkpoint. As for hardware firewalls, lets see, there is the Juniper 5GT and a Lucent brick, plus a few other items lying around just for fun!

Yes, they are all currently up and running, mostly as a lab environment though.

AVG Free/ Zone Alarm Pro/Spybot/AdAware/Windows Defender

I am running Windows OneCare Live (beta 1.5) - which is free for 180 days, and then is priced at $49.95 for a 3 computer license (although you can find it on sale for around $29.99).

I like it because it has competent firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware all in one, which combined with the anti-phishing filter in IE7 and the Outlook spam filters - works quite well.

The biggest plus is that I now have only 31 processes running with XP loaded, which is down from 37 processes when I was running Norton Internet Security 2006.

Although Microsoft is new to the security market, they have a good package if you are an average home user who wants some measure of security. Their network of security databases is quite extensive, and is always updating.

IMO - the OneCare Live package is worth a shot for those who are fed up with bloated suites which seem to need a large amount of background processes to run in real-time.

Trend Micro PCcillin. It only uses about 30-40MB of RAM on my computer, and I haven't had any problems.

Trend Micro Client/Server Security Agent at the office (bit of a pain to set up, but now it's Hands Free)
Recently started using Avast! at home.

Question for those who know.....
If I have a hardware firewall in my router at home do I need a software version also?
If so...why?

All of you ppl suck...
Use da best software combo ever...
ZoneAlarm Pro [easy to crack]
Eset NOD 32 [easily 'almost crackable']
State-of-the-art Software...
you'll never miss a virus or an intrusion with these...!!!
Trust me...

Holla Back...
Dawson...

Panda Platinum (firewall + av)
Ad-Aware
Spy Sweeper
+
RegMechanic

Trend Micro PCcillin - Internet Security 14 on one PC. I can never keep on the name changes that they do.
VCOM SystemSuite 7 Professional on the other.

Question for those who know.....
If I have a hardware firewall in my router at home do I need a software version also?
If so...why?

It's optional but, to monitor what programs are trying to phone home in such a way or whats incoming and outgoing.

All of you ppl suck...

realy.., wait untile your cracks' get down....

Trust me...

I never trust a stranger...

All of you ppl suck...
Use da best software combo ever...
ZoneAlarm Pro [easy to crack]
Eset NOD 32 [easily 'almost crackable']

Let's see here.

One can legally use any number of the free versions available, or use an illegally cracked version?

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Interesting.

Out of all the posts do far, mine is the only one that mentions McAfee. That tells me something.

I neglected to mention that I do run Ad-Aware and Spybot (although the goal I assume is one day not to need all these separate programs).

In any case, I have a bunch of names to check and programs to evaluate. With a little luck I will be able to ditch McAfee and reclaim some of my memory sometime soon.

Thanks to everyone who responded. All of it was quite helpful indeed.

I am running Windows OneCare Live (beta 1.5) - which is free for 180 days, and then is priced at $49.95 for a 3 computer license (although you can find it on sale for around $29.99).

Corky - Why would you want to use and/or pay for software from MS to fix or defend thier buggy OS? That's like me paying Dell to run a software patch when in fact it was Dell's fault that the patch was needed.

sophiesboy - I use Mcafee only because it's free to Comcast customers.

Holla Back...

All of you ppl suck...

aawww....aren't you sweet