Antivirus software question
 

What's the best out there? I've been looking at Kaspersky, ZoneAlarm, and BitDefender. The reviews I've read in magazines say they're all good, but then I go on Amazon and the customer reviews range from really good to really bad, e.g. system slow-downs, tons of pop-ups/warnings, and crashing. I have DSL with a wireless modem hooked up to my PC. Is it enough just have a solid antivirus and firewall? Or is it better to get one of the suites that gives you everything? Right now I have a free version of McAfee AV, the Windows firewall that comes with XP, and the free version of LavaSoft Ad-Adware.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware is good, run it once a week or so and make sure that you keep it updated.

I use Avast free anti virus (www.avast.com). I used to swear by Norton, but I like Avast's program better, and it hasn't failed me yet (been using it for a few years).

- Justin

My company adopted a redundant system because of the nature of our business - we use Norton for the Anti-virus, and ZoneAlarm for the personal firewall, messenger scanner, etc. ZoneAlarm has done me proud on a few occasions, however there is a noticable slow down on the system as the software looks for updates, scans the PC, messenger connections (like AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) and other behind the scenes protective activities.

What you have to ask yourself is - what is more important, your PC booting 20 seconds faster and fewer annoying pop up messages about blocked hacking attempts, or knowing your PC is protected everytime you turn it on?

I consider myself a patient person who uses the internet with confidence. ;)

The best way to do it is a hardware router / firewall and then get a good piece of software anti-virus. Unfortunately anti-virus' are prone to be system hogs as it is the nature of what they do. They are constantly scanning. If you want you can fiddle with their options so they scan less, but then you would be compromising the safety of your computer. I don't even think that answered your question but that was my $.02

I agree 100%.

Start with a hardware firewall and then go from there. I have found that SpyBot S&D's system monitor is lightwieght enough to not be a PITA, and it also alerts you when registry changes are made so you can deny them if it's a spyware attack. My bitch is that most antivirus-antiadware programs just (attempt to) fix a problem after it already happens. By then you could have overwritten DLL's and such that can't be undone without reinstalling your OS. S&D's monitor is really awesome in that it stops stuff from becoming a problem beforehand while still being OK hanging around in memory.

i recommend the following software solutions:
norman antivirus - 100% less of a system hog than Mcafee, norton, and many others.
pc cillin - definately a really good one, i haven't used it much but i heard it's very quick, silent, and gets the job done without being a system hog.

Do any of the manufacturers make a wireless modem & router with firewall? The only ones I've seen are just wireless routers. I would need one that can accept the DSL line and then send the signal to the other PC in my house. Could I just hook a hardware firewall up to the current wireless modem & router I have?

I would know
 

AVG anti-virus, avg anti-spyware, adawareSE, Spybot, ccleaner, windows cleanup, hijackthis (be careful removing stuff). I've been removing viruses and spyware before spyware even had a name.

I highly recommend those tools as well and keep them updated. SpyBot i recommend but as I have learned, as inside itself it's own spyware.

i just renewed my norton subscription yesterday, it came with my new pc when i bought it with a free trial

AVG- its free and works great, Zone Alarm is great too. Norton AV as a stand alone is ok, but its been knock out by viruses on my system in the past. Dont get the Norton System works package it crash my new computer (Norton Go Back) after that I went with AVG and no problem since.

Funny if you do not renew NAV or Macafee products they mess up your computer.

Yea....I literally spent hours getting my mother-in-law's PC back to normal operating status after their NAV subscription ran out. Everytime you tried to do anything 3 warnings would pop up telling you that your computer was at risk and that your subscriptions were out of date.

What a mess.

- Justin

Norton and McAfee are both total garbage. Not only does it dramatically slow down your computer, it doesen't even provide good protection. Oh and if you want to get rid of norton, download the norton removal tool, symnrt

I use both Macafee and Spysweeper and haven't had a problem, but I welcome any suggestions on ways to improve.

less pr0n = less viruses/spyware

You have problems, the Mcafee just can't find any, typical

ive been using no antivirus software for the past couple of years...no problems. firefox and common sense

im with ryan on this one, a hardware firewall is 100x better then a software one and it frees up so much resources which can be used for your antivirus system. my motherboard has a hardware nvidia firewall integrated into it. i actually dont use an AV program anymore, i always used to use norton but got to annoyed trying to constantly crack it :lol: and its such a resource hog. McAfee is just plain annoying, their suite came with my dads dell and its sooo friggen annoying. i used kaspersky for a lil while and i didnt like it that much, it was kind of a resource hog and was as configurable.

one good all in one program that i found (not actually an all in one program, but one that incorporates a lot of programs) is called hitman pro. its a program that will automatically run between 4 and 8 ad-ware programs, between 1 and 3 free AV programs and misc other things to free up clutter on your computer. the best thing is the program itself is free. the only ads you get are for the external programs themselves. i highly recommend it.

i dont think they make that, but you could check out linksys' , belkin or netgears websites. i think your best solution would be to get a wireless router with a 4 port switch (they usually have the firewall integrated) and then piggy back a modem