Whats the best Anti Virus/Firewall software

[wraggster]

Domt matter if its free or pay but im after the best of each.

preferably ones that dont slow windows down.

[Mental2k]

I recommend kerio as a firewall, the version im running on the desktop works well, the version I have on the laptop took a bit more configuration (mainly to turn off where it monitors all computer activity) it can take a little while to set up (ie. going through and using everything thet you would normally open that connects to the net and giving it permission to talk out) but you'd ahve to do this with any firewall. Does not slow windows down, its quite good, saved me a number of times. Search on google for kerio personal firewall (i cant find a link to it on kerios site) and its free for home users.

As for AV, I'd say norton or kasperski, I use norton, and have had not trouble, it will slow down your start up time though, but as for in windows performance, once it has loaded initially on booting the computer it appears to be fine (slowed down the pc the first time i loaded the program, but not since in about a month). I used a trial version of kasperski once, and it caused my computer to crash. I have heard it said that it is better than NAV, but am not qualified to give a solid opinion on it. Both these are paid for AV programs.

[Mental2k]

might i also add my norton AV is part of norton system works, which comes with some other nifty programs, such as norton restore ( a bit like system restore in XP/ME) a file shredder (to absolutely delte stuff) and a program for restoring deleted files(that were not shredded) as well as a number of other little utilities.

[curt_grymala]

It's really a matter of personal preference. Norton and McAfee both work about as well as each other, but are very different programs. Personally, I find McAfee to be incredibly annoying, and absolutely can't stand having it installed on my laptop (it's required for use in our office, since my boss hates Norton). I have been with Norton on my personal computer for a long time, and it has never let me down (knock on wood). SystemWorks is truly worth the investment. Like Mental said, you not only get the anti-virus software, but you get a lot of other really nice utilities to use on your PC.

As far as firewalls go, I don't really have much to contribute here. I know that you should be able to get a pretty good deal on Norton Firewall bundled with Norton SystemWorks. I'm 99% certain, though, that there are some freeware firewalls out there that work just as well as the payware ones, but I couldn't tell you what they are. All I can tell you is that the one that comes with XP SP2 is a piece of crap.

Also - if you're using XP SP2 on your computer, you will need to find someone that knows what they're doing with it. XP SP2 has been known to pitch an absolute fit when you try to install Anti-Virus software. It disagrees with McAfee about 10% of the time, and disagrees with Norton about 50% of the time (maybe more). It doesn't like when a user installs Anti Virus software that didn't come with Windows, and it lets you know it.