Looking for the best antivirus and firewalls

hopefully my clients consider me lovingly also as their tech guy. yes, i am always searching the web for the best prices for everything. the zonealarm suites i just brought are a bit expensive so my markup wont be much at all but if it protect my clients then as long as i make a buck or two then i'll be happy.

i use sygate free personal firewal quite a bit and its a good product. its easy to install and it works. they also like the easy way of back tracing when someone attempts to attack their machines.

 

Best anti virus and security SW...

Interesting to note that none have mentioned that Zonealarm now have a complete suite that deals with both firewall and antivrus functions.

Has anyone used this?

I am using Norton for anti-virus, ZonealarmPro for general web protection as well as AdAware for mailware and similar items. In addition, I found PC Doctor useful in some cases, especially in preventing cookies (...).

PestControl terminal is also of use (sometimes) in detecting unwanted 'visitors'...

I am yet to find a single suite that does it all.
Any comments on this?

 

Looking for the best in antivirus and firewalls

Actually, I did mention the Zone Alarm antivirus with firewall in the "BTW" section of my first post in this thread. Right now it is probably my "second choice" out of all the solutions mentioned.
One thing I forgot to mention--when I was speaking with their customer service rep on the phone he mentioned that since I was already a Zone Alarm Pro user, instead of paying for a totally new product (since Zone Alarm Pro has to be uninstalled before installing Zone Alarm antivirus, which includes the firewall), I could go to the "Update License" page and choose Zone Alarm Antivirus at a substantial savings.

Dave H

 

Shmuel

i also mentioned the za products and will be testing them as soon as they arrive along with ez.

actually za has 2 products here one is the zonealarm + antivirus and the other is the security suite. they are different. the suite offers a lot more protection.

personally i will go off norton when my subscription expires this fall and switch all to probably the za suite seeing as i currently use za's firewall. still is a good idea to periodically use some form of on-line scan like panda or trendmicro just to make sure nothing slipped by.

 

I'll add my 2¢ worth.

I have been using Avast for over a year now and am very happy with it. New updates to both the virus definitions and the program itself are automatic - so I don't even have to think about it. The only time I am aware of it is when the updates are done you are told so by a little blue box that apprears for about 5 secs and then disappears. I see the box at least every 2-3 days sometimes more frequently. I highly recommend it.

Avast link

For a firewall I use Zone Alarm Pro and had considered using their combo with anti-virus but I'll stick with Avast.

Since someone said that the firewall in eTrust EZ Armor was Zone Alarm, I wonder if Zone Alarm's anti-virus is the the same as the one in eTrust EZ Armor.

One last comment, I swore off Norton several years age when I started having regular problems with their live update.

 

Hi,

I use Trend from the beginning that I use a PC, I have it running on several PC’s from people I make a PC system for and use now version 2005 on 5 PC’s. 2 with Wi-Fi. All direct to the internet. In 2005 there is Virus/Spyware/Firewall/Spam/Wi-Fi, detection, cleaning, deletion, all in the same program, easy to use and never had problems on one off the PC’s!
Further I use MS Antispyware,Adaware and Spybot, but the find nothing the most off the scans.
See http://reviews.cnet.com/Trend_Micro...rity_2005/4505-3667_7-31162897-2.html?tag=top

With regards >*< TOM >*<

 

I'm not sure about this breakdown in Trend, Dave, but nothing broke down in my wife's updates nor in my own. We've been using Trend Micro for almost a year now... without a single hitch... without a single virus... without anyone hacking through the firewall... and daily updates (sometimes two and three within a 24 hour period). BUT... different strokes for different folks. Go with what you're comfortable with and recognize that NO software program is 100% perfect. So.. .I wish you well and hope you find something with which you'll be comfortable.

 

Trend...

I went to the link Tom Emmelot posted and looked at what the users there had to say; there were some there that had been hit by that update, along with some other very unhappy campers.
I'm glad you've had good luck with them, and wish you continued success!

Dave H

 

Not a problem. BUT I have to tell you... I also checked out the link and the user reviews and by and large, the users that claimed it was a worthless piece of junk were inarticulate and provided little to no substance. I'd give far more weight to the official C/Net Reviewers report than the users' opinions.

Anyway, good luck finding something that fits your needs.

 

I have to give the edge to AVG.

I've yet to have a problem with, and it stopped 2 virus attacks before they could cause any problems on my machine.

As a comparison, I did the Trend online House Call and came out clean.

Course I know anything can happen in the real world of the internet...........But AVG has done the job for me.

 

Norton is great UNTIL...

you try reinstalling. Upgraded to XP and nothing they can recommend will allow it to reinstall. A friend also suffered this way. Avoid it if possible and go for F-prot.

Anyone out there know how to get Norton Internet Security 2005 to reinstall?!!

Simon

 

Hi Splat.......Welcome to the forum!

I don't have anything to help you with, but I've had my experiences (Bad) with Norton products.

I try to stay away from their stuff.

 

XP Upgrade

If I remember correctly, Norton products are supposed to be uninstalled before upgrading the operating system, then reinstalled. At this point (and I'm open to being wrong) I think your choices are these:

1)Spend the money for a support call to Symantec, or

2) Back up all your data, and do the XP upgrade as a clean format drive/install (this requires having an original Windows installation disk--a "recovery" disk will not work) then reinstall your applications and put your data back.

If all you have is a recovery disk, there is one more choice. Back up all your data, then run the recovery disk and allow it to format the drive. Do the XP upgrade. Install your applications and put your data back.

I wish you good luck!

Dave H

 

Hi
Does anyone know anything about avast?
This is free I guess??

Avast

Geri

 

Xp Upgrade and Norton, part 34!

Thanks Dave and James...I got NIS 2005 to reinstall at last, after its initial virus scan, perhaps because I ran sfc as well as all the symantec removal downloads a couple of times. Or maybe the wind just changed direction?...

Got the whole way through the up-date process as well.
So saved a restore point and left it overnight to do a full system scan. Whaddya know, in the morning it was sat there frozen at 23:09, hard disc light on looking at INFO2 in RECYCLED (And what is this file anyway?).
This was what it did when I was trying to reinstall NIS three times.
Maybe it's just an XP lockup rather than anything to do with NIS???

Either way, I checked and the event.vwr didn't show anything at all!
Any ideas anyone?

 

Nis 2005

When I Googled INFO2, there was a response from McAfee identifying it as part of a trojan, and two responses from Norton identifying it as adware. Norton has a specific removal tool for this.
Also, you may have to follow their (very onerous) directions for manually uninstalling NIS before reinstalling. I have found in the past that even following thier directions to a "T" does not result in a total uninstall!
Good luck!

Dave H

Once you are done uninstalling everything, be sure your Windows Temp folder is empty, and empty the recycle bin before starting your reinstall (be sure you reboot in between, too)

 

NIS and INFO2

Thanks Dave. I did follow the onerous symantec instructions (why on earth don't they just have a decent 'uninstall' option on the disc like most people?!), and removed temp files and emptied the recycle bin as you suggested....

Have just followed up the leads for INFO2 and this site:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1161844,00.asp says it's a hidden file of original location details for deleted files. Not sure it's related to anything but I'll leave hal running a virusscan overnight again and see what happens.

Simon

 

Solutions...

I installed eTrust Antivirus (the 30 day trial version) and we'll see how she does! I like that it has an option whereyou set when it checks for and downloads virus definition updates. I set mine to once a day, but am curious how other users of this product have theirs set. Since I am new to this product, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Dave H

 

Congratulations Dave H. Hope it does as well for you as it has me. I have mine set to auto-update every 24 hrs. If I'm not online when that 24th hour comes along, it will update as soon as I connect again, and resume the normal previous schedule, which might mean another auto-update (at least a check for one) an hour later, or whenever that pre-determined 24th hour comes along.

Just curious.....what type of connection do you have and how long do the updates take?

BTW, I'm very happy to see this thread contain such a variety of information and choices, and remain friendly too.

 

eTrust and Updates

Ok, I'm going to date myself--I can't see "South Bend" without thinking about Studebakers. I still have a top-of-the-line 4-door sedan (President Classic--that's not a claim, it's the actual model name!) my parents bought new in 1956!
I have Comcast cable and the updating, including downloading, seemed to take about 2 to 3 minutes? (I add a question mark because I'm a little googely-eyed from doing a fresh install of all my software, 10,000 reboots and all...)
I don't know if it makes any difference, but I changed my Signature Update Options from "repeat every 1 day" to "repeat every 24 hours "--how it works for you is what I'm looking for. BTW, if some real "baddie" comes along, do they throw another update out there before the time is up?
I also like how easy it is to shut down when I'm offline and doing software installs, instead of the fight I've been used to (and a CCapp that stayed running no matter what you did).

Dave H