Can you recommend me a good firewall and antivirus..

culabula88

I currently have Mcafee security system installed , but the subscription is out so i wanted to get a new and good antivirus and firewall as i think that there is a virus on my pc and everytime i go on the internet , pc siezes up a bit.

cros13

CA Internet Security Suite

The Anti-Spam is pretty good, The firewall is one of the best of breed.
The Anti-Spyware is without a doubt the best on the market and the AV
is the same one I reccommend for my customers.

The licence is pretty good value thanks to the weak dollar and even
better in that it covers 3 individual system licences so you can cover your laptop too.

www.ca.com

cros13

More direct link:

http://shop.ca.com/software_products/protect_optimize.aspx

-annex-

Do you work for CA by any chance?
CA antivirus is not rated as one of the best programs by any reliable source and is not even tested by av-comparitives.com. In fact it's only used by 0.76% of the people polled over at WildersSecurity.

Generally I would stay away from security suites. They're easy to use and in an all in one package but stand alone apps will make things much more secure.

I personally would recommend NOD32 as an antivirus. It's ugly to look at but runs light and does the job better than anything else I've tried.
For a firewall you could try Comodo or Online Armor (both free), although if you're not worried about outbound protection or are behind a router with a hardware firewall Windows Firewall will do fine.

You can take a look at how the different antivirus programs perform using the links below:

On demand comparitive:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2007_08.php

Retrospective:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2007_11.php

CA Firewall also has zero anti-leak protection and is rated amongst the worst firewalls available:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php

culabula88

are any of those mentioned above / previously available free??

cros13

-annex-:

I dont work for CA.
The AV is the coperate eTrust AV. Not the best but quite good.
The Firewall is Zonealarm.
The Pestpatrol Anti-Spyware has the highest detection rates of any.
The Anti-Spam is pretty good, based on Open Source libraries with a UI added.

ActorSeeksJob

Yes they are

Get one of these, AVG/Nod32/Avast for anti-virus

Comodo for a firewall

Then you will have really great protection

-annex-

culabula88 wrote: »

are any of those mentioned above / previously available free??

Most antiviruses are available as a free trial for 30 days or so. The only totally free one that actually performs well would be AVG free.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/us/frt/0

cros13

I run a linux only shop but CA is what I've always put my stamp of approval on.
The situation may have changed in the windows security market.
It's been quite a while since i looked at much else i must admit.

carpediem

Have been running Avast (antivirus) for years www.avast.com and have never had a virus! The beauty is that it is free!

culabula88

i think ill use avg for the antivirus , but what would be the best firewall to work with it ( thats free )

Are all these free firewalls reliable or as reliable as mcafee and norton.

Is there any difference between avg free and avg pro?

-annex-

You can actually get AVG Pro right now for free:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055206216

Firewall wise there are many but Comodo or Online Armor Free seem to be the strongest and most user friendly and are head and shoulders above both McAfee and Norton.

dave878

Comodo (free) gets my vote....... forget Zone Alarm (free)
as its very limited

anybody using 3 "broadband" (like me) would be ok using windows firewall
but u should run netstat occasionally to check for rogue outbound connections which will indicate trojan activity.

if you observe an unfamiliar connection, just block the IP range with comodo
(u can't do this with Zone-Alarm free or windows firewall)
this does not remove the trojan from the system, but renders
it ineffective (i think)

AVG seems to be quite effective for virus detection.

as for spyware, i never get it (cos i'm very careful) but whenever i am asked to fix a friends PC
spyware search & destroy rarely completely eliminates it, so i usually reformat the HD and reinstall everything.

this is a lot of work but the benefits always go beyond spyware elimination.