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What's the best Antivirus, Firewall Software

Terra · 2004-03-28 15:07:51

What is the best antivirus software for detecting viruses but doesn't hog too much of the computers resources. I'm using norton and zonealarm as a firewall, but would like to change if there is anything better and hogs less resources.

28-03-2004 3:07pm

#1

Terra

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What is the best antivirus software for detecting viruses but doesn't hog too much of the computers resources.

I'm using norton and zonealarm as a firewall, but would like to change if there is anything better and hogs less resources.

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#2 28-03-2004 3:22pm

vibe666

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mcafee if you want to pay for it, or AVG if you don't.

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#3 28-03-2004 4:13pm

Terra

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How does avg compare to mcaffee or norton ?

I'm thinking about it since it is free and all. Is mcaffee much better then it ?

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#4 28-03-2004 5:33pm

Unexpected

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Norton is the best anti virus software u can get.

Zone Alarm is the best free firewall u can get.

I say leave it. Thats indestructable basically.

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#5 28-03-2004 5:50pm

MrPinK

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Even if McAfee and Norton were free, I'd still stick with AVG.

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#6 28-03-2004 7:12pm

Mutant_Fruit

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Zone alarm has been known to cause severe problems in certain configurations, especially with certain P2P apps (like DC++). To be honest, i tried it, but didn;t like it.
check out this thread for my views: HERE

I recommend AVG aswell, it does it's job, but to be honest i'm nt stupid enough to open suspicious attachments, and i always have my firewall running, so i havn't gotten a virus in the last few years.

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#7 28-03-2004 7:45pm

Terra

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Basicaly I have a 3ghz system with 512 megs of ram, and at the moment it's getting very very slow.

I want to reinstall my operating system but I when I reinstall it I want to try and set it up to be as fast as possible but still keeping the stability.

I have used zonealarm for a few years now, and I do find it quite good. Although sometimes it has cause problems, but that was mainly from viruses that targeted zonealarm.

Is there any other decent firewalls out there ?

Also I have been using firebird as my browser but i'm thinking of changing to Avant because it just too slow.

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#8 28-03-2004 8:56pm

Mutant_Fruit

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firefox is plenty fast for me.

And just a pointer for you, do not under any circumstances connect the internet without having a firewall installed first! You will get the blaster virus within 1 minute if you connect without a firewall. I learned that from experience.

Kerio is very lightweight on resources, and Anti-Virus Guard is also pretty lightweight. I especially recommend Kerio. (check my above post and link)

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#9 28-03-2004 11:46pm

Pacifico

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Ive been runing the norton Intenet Security 2004 package for a few months now.

Its really good. Similar spec to your pc (p4 2.66).

I'd recommend it anyway

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#10 29-03-2004 11:07am

raphaelS

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Originally posted by MrPinK
Even if McAfee and Norton were free, I'd still stick with AVG.

I am using AVG as well... but it looks like you can't get updated definitions anynore...!
free.grisoft.cz seems offline?

Raphael

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#11 29-03-2004 12:24pm

rom1

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> I am using AVG as well... but it looks like
> you can't get updated definitions anynore...!
> free.grisoft.cz seems offline?

I had the same problem. I did a manual update and it worked fine. Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon...

The instructions for the manual updates are here:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_updt6.php?lng=fe

Romain

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#12 29-03-2004 3:44pm

BadCharlie

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Dont winxp have a built in firewall ?
If so i how can i turn it on or set the security on it ?

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#13 29-03-2004 4:04pm

neokenzo

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Originally posted by BadCharlie
Dont winxp have a built in firewall ?
If so i how can i turn it on or set the security on it ?

WinXP firewall are crap!

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#14 29-03-2004 5:01pm

Mutant_Fruit

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neokenzo, when you call something crap, give reasons.

5 Reasons why the built in firewall is crap:

1) It defaults to the off position, giving people who were told that WinXP has a built in firewall a false sense of security
2) Its completely unconfigurable (as far as i can tell).
3) You can't make good rules using it, it really is crap in this respect.
4) There's no proper interface.
5) Do you really trust microsoft, who made the buggy hackable applications to give you a working firewall?

what i will admit is that using the built in firewall, i still get trustealth results when i do the "Shields Up" test from grisoft

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#15 29-03-2004 6:39pm

IronMan

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If you are having a problem updating AVG, then go to the AVG folder, open the url.ini file and paste in the following:
[SERVER_NAME]
1=free.grisoft.cz
2=ftp.grisoft.com
3=www.grisoft.com

[SERVER_URL]
1=http://free.grisoft.cz/softw/60/fe
2=ftp.grisoft.com/pub/softw/60/fe/
3=http://www.grisoft.com/softw/60/fe/
Actual URL=1

Granted I haven't used AVG in a few months, I took up the free offer from Microsoft, you get a free scanner and one year of free updates from Computer Associates eTrust EZ product. Updates almost every day, and has a relatively small footprint.
Take a look at the following to see how effective AVG really is:

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/products.xml?avg.xml

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#16 29-03-2004 8:41pm

vibe666

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i used to use tiny personal firewall when it was free, but switched to zonealarm and turning on the XP firewall (can't hurt, even if it does very little, it's still an extra layer of protection).

the AVG update server was down for a while, but its back again now btw.

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#17 03-04-2004 8:49pm

okee

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Ironman Thanks for the tip, AVG Update seems to work ok now

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