best firewall/anti-virus program to use?

D

Dahz

Gawd
Joined
Mar 28, 2002
Messages
530
currently i have norton internet securitues 2006. but its getting close to the end of its subscription, and im wondering, what else is out there that i should look into for my firewall and anti-virus needs?

whats are people suggesting these days?
 
Great, another one.

Best Anti-virus: NOD 32
Best Free Anti-Virus: AVG Free Edition
 
I use:

Antivirus
NOD32
Firewall
Comodo (free)
Spyware / Adware
Webroot Spysweeper
Search&Destroy (free)
Defender (free)
Ad-Aware (free)
Spywareblaster (free)

I have a hardware firewall which is why I use a free software firewall to supplement it. If you haven't got a hardware firewall I would recommend ZoneAlarm Pro

NOD32 is excellent and has such a small (and dainty) footprint.
 
NOD32.

I just Vista's built in firewall, I'm behind a router so it's more than enough.
 
NOD32 antivirus

I used to use Kerio firewall on XP, but I am just using vista's firewall right now.
 
If using Vista... The built-in firewall is about as good as it gets.

If using XP SP2, the firewall is decent for most users. I personally used it and it served my purposes.


I am currently using NOD32, but AVG I think works just as well.

I've always used AVG and am giving NOD32 another shot. Quite honestly, I think they both work just as well. NOD32 does update a bit more often (2x day instead of 1x)
 
Are you guys saying you would trust an MS Vista firewall without a hardware firewall?
 
Why do you ask that? You aren't directly plugged in to the internet are you?

But yes, Vista's Firewall is pretty darn good. A hardware firewall would just stop some of the crap before it makes Vista have to block it at least.
 
zacdl said:
Why do you ask that?
Click to expand...
It's just that most of the stuff written up on the net about the Vista firewall is mostly negative. I also understand that nearly everything is heavily biased against all that is Microsoft.

So I guess I was asking your views as you are the people that use it every day.

Anyway, ignore this as I don't want to be guilty of hijacking a thread. When I get round to my new build with Vista I'll probably start a thread to debate this in detail.
 
cozumel said:
It's just that most of the stuff written up on the net about the Vista firewall is mostly negative. I also understand that nearly everything is heavily biased against all that is Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Read something other than The Inquirer ;)

I don't know what you have been reading, but Vista's built-in firewall works great. Filters both inbound and outbound traffic now.
 
zacdl said:
Read something other than The Inquirer ;)

I don't know what you have been reading, but Vista's built-in firewall works great. Filters both inbound and outbound traffic now.
Click to expand...

However -

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0106.mspx said:
The default behavior of the new Windows Firewall is to:

• Block all incoming traffic unless it is solicited or it matches a configured rule.

• Allow all outgoing traffic unless it matches a configured rule.
Click to expand...

You can configure this yourself to make the outgoing traffic be blocked by default, but this doesn't result in the little popup notifications, so can take some doing to tweak to your liking. Vista does at least have a nice GUI for getting at the more advanced features of the firewall.

Alternatively, you can make some of that configuration nastiness easier using something like http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/index.html.
 
cozumel said:
I use:

Antivirus
NOD32
Firewall
Comodo (free)
Spyware / Adware
Webroot Spysweeper
Search&Destroy (free)
Defender (free)
Ad-Aware (free)
Spywareblaster (free)

I have a hardware firewall which is why I use a free software firewall to supplement it. If you haven't got a hardware firewall I would recommend ZoneAlarm Pro

NOD32 is excellent and has such a small (and dainty) footprint.
Click to expand...
That's pretty tight security.
Compared to me...

Antivirus:
none
Firewall:
none
Anti-spyware:
Spybot S&D
OS:
Windows 2000 with no updates since last year.

Magically, online virus scanners and such consistently turn up zero results. Seems like some people get attacked more than others.
 
puffcap said:
That's pretty tight security.
Compared to me...

Antivirus:
none
Firewall:
none
Anti-spyware:
Spybot S&D
OS:
Windows 2000 with no updates since last year.

Magically, online virus scanners and such consistently turn up zero results. Seems like some people get attacked more than others.
Click to expand...

Really, you dont want to go there, at least on these forums
 
actually, I'm not using Vista's firewall anymore. Eset's new product (Eset Smart Security) includes NOD32, anti spam, and a pretty good firewall :) It's currently in beta. I like it so far.
 
ChingChang said:
actually, I'm not using Vista's firewall anymore. Eset's new product (Eset Smart Security) includes NOD32, anti spam, and a pretty good firewall :) It's currently in beta. I like it so far.
Click to expand...

It does look nice so far...of course, I can't actually try it since it isn't meant for 64-bit Windows, yet :)
 
AV: NOD32
Firewall: Vista (honestly it's not enough but I have a hardware firewall and I'm on a network so I'm set)
Anti-Spyware: Ad-Aware SE Pro, SuperAntiSpyware, Spybot S&D, Windows Defender

I think I'm in pretty good standing, and just for the record NOD32 is a fantastic program and there is a completely legal crack (all it does is change some registry values) of it currently although I do recommend buying programs that you love.
 
Wow - it definitely seems that NOD32 wins hands down in the AV market. I've been using it for about 6 months now. I for one am soooo happy my Norton subscription expired!!! :D

@ zacdl: Re Vista firewall - you misunderstood me. I was saying that although nearly all the stuff I read about it on the net was negative, I take it with a pinch of salt due to constant MS bashing that goes on. I just wanted to know what you lot thought. The positive feedback from you all will help me for when I upgrade to Vista (and new rig etc)
 
could we just sticky this thread or something? there needs to be a security sticky becuase the question will always be asked, in a million threads, not saying this thread is sticky worthy at all but you know what I mean
 
HopePoisoned said:
could we just sticky this thread or something? there needs to be a security sticky becuase the question will always be asked, in a million threads, not saying this thread is sticky worthy at all but you know what I mean
Click to expand...

Its a great idea, we need to express our opinions in a poll or something for both antivirus and firewall, free and paid :D
 
Yeah we need someone to write a nice long guide to A/V, all about the UP TO DATE A/V programs and malware removal and firewalls and security in Vista.
 
I'm going to say Windows OneCare but some might call me biased. ;)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
A/V:NOD32
Firewall: None
Router:IPCop

I am the only person on my subnet and IPCop + Copfilter does more than a good enough job of keeping everything out. It is just easier to block everything at the single point of entry and leaving everything wide open internally. If anyone else uses my network, they get stuck on a different subnet that is 100% blocked from sending anything to my trusted zone.
 
can NOD32 be set to exclude a process and its activities from the realtime scanning? for example, in AntiVir, i can set hl2.exe in the exclusion list and any file accessed by it will not be scanned. i tried the NOD32 demo and i found an option to set files or folders to be excluded from being scanned but nothing like the option in AntiVir.
 
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