Recommended Anti-virus?

[GazL_Neon]

I couldn't find anything in any other thread (or maybe I wasn't look hard enough) that could help me with this, so I might as well post.

What I need is some sort of firewall/anti-virus software that doesn't cause the "infamous error 51" (like McAffee, which I previously had) or interupts fullscreen mode every time ANYTHING happens (like Avast!). I was just wondering what you guys are using or if you had any ideas on what I should try.

(Yeah, I know there's an option in Avast! that has it detect fullscreen mode before displaying alerts. The only problem is that it doesn't f**king work. -__-)

[VioletSkye]

AVG free version is still a decent free antivirus program. And for a firewall, ZoneAlarm works great and also has a free version.

[GazL_Neon]

Thanks for the suggestions. ^_^ But ZoneAlarm only seems to have a 15-day trial available for free. I'm looking for somethign a little more permanent. (Unless it's the single worst trial ever, like WinRAR and all you get it a small message saying it's over which you just ignore anyways. ^_^; )

[metatime]

There is a free version of ZoneAlarm. If you have common internet sense then all you really need is the anti-virus and anti-spyware software. ZoneAlarm blocks too many unnecessary ports but if you get viruses a lot by going to unreliable websites, then I'll suggest a firewall.

[KojiroAK]

On 2006-11-06 12:11, metatime wrote:
There is a free version of ZoneAlarm. If you have common internet sense then all you really need is the anti-virus and anti-spyware software. ZoneAlarm blocks too many unnecessary ports but if you get viruses a lot by going to unreliable websites, then I'll suggest a firewall.

Sorry but ... what?

1. Each firewall shall block first anything.
2. Zonealarm doesn't block at Ports it blocks at programms.

So even if you allow a program to connect to internet the port wouldn't be open for other programs.

3. Firewalls shall also block connections from outside.

So you should install the firewall before you connect your PC to Internet unless you use winXP SP2 wich has already an inbuilt Firewall.

At least at Win products it is this way.
As far as i know some Linux OS blocks primary each connection from outside. But i'm not a linux user so this i can only say from what i have heard.

[KojiroAK]

[quote]On 2006-11-07 09:40, KojiroAK wrote:

On 2006-11-06 12:11, metatime wrote:
There is a free version of ZoneAlarm. If you have common internet sense then all you really need is the anti-virus and anti-spyware software. ZoneAlarm blocks too many unnecessary ports but if you get viruses a lot by going to unreliable websites, then I'll suggest a firewall.

Sorry but ... what?

1. Each firewall shall block first anything.
2. Zonealarm doesn't block at Ports it blocks at programms.

So even if you allow a program to connect to internet the port wouldn't be open for other programs.

3. Firewalls shall also block connections from outside.

So you should install the firewall before you connect your PC to Internet unless you use winXP SP2 wich has already an inbuilt Firewall.

At least at Win products it is this way.
As far as i know some Linux OS blocks primary each connection from outside. But i'm not a linux user so this i can only say from what i have heard.

For Homeuse there is also a free version of Avira antivir

[metatime]

There are many different types of firewalls, there are hardware based firewalls, software based firewalls, proxy firewalls, and they can do a numerus amount of things like blocking specific range of IP address, ports, ports + ip address, specific programs, MAC addresses.

What he wants is a software based firewalls and in my opinion ZoneAlarm does not have the characteristics of a good firewall. Hard to use, blocking specifically needed programs, etc. Unless the average users knows how to configure a firewall, I suggest upgrading to windows XP SP2 and using that firewall. If you don't have windows XP, I highly suggest upgrading to that OS.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: metatime on 2006-11-07 13:52 ]</font>