Windows What Internet Security Do You Recommend?

I was just wondering what internet security everyone recommends?

I have been using AVG for AntiVirus and Spyware, and ZoneAlarm for my firewall (as well as my router's uber crap firewall).


Is this setup ok?

The new version of ZA is crashing all the time, so i am mainly looking for an alternative for this, but any alternatives for AVG are welcome.

I have heard NOD32 is a good AV program, so i will look into trying that.

Is a seperate solution for Adware, Spyware etc preferred? Currently i use AVG Anti-Spyware.


This is all for WinXP, I'm not going to upgrade to Vista for a while yet, so want this to be a reliable install until i do, probably in about a year.


Can you give me Positive+ and Negative- point about the programs you recommend? Or at least why they are better than what i currently use?


Thanks.
gerard.

 

stick with avg

Windows firewall works fine for me, on all the computers in the house.

Zone Alarm used to be good, till one of their updates started to give problems.
I didn't know what firewall to use, so I enabled the windows one.

 

On my XP Pro setups I use AVG Free edition with Windows Firewall and Windows Defender. I've not encountered any spyware/virus/malware/bloatware/poobear at all.

On Vista (Ultimate 64) I've resorted to Avast! as there isn't (or wasn't) a 64-bit version of AVG Free. Again, Windows Firewall and Defender.

My experiences of ZoneAlarm were horrible and I consider it to be on par with Norton.

 

The best anti - viri and -spyware = common sense...

 

Common sense
Firefox
No-script extension
Backups

Sorted

 

What RTT said + AVG Free + Hardware firewall.

Never had a problem. Period.

 

hardware firewalls For the Win!!!

and QFT for Krikkit+RTT's statements

 

Thanks guys, as has been said above, I shall stick with AVG for my AV and Antispy.

I have been using Windows Firewall all day since about 12 noon, after ZoneAlarm had crashed 4 times in as many hours. So far Windows own firewall seems ok to me

Lazlow: I hate nortons bloated, resource sucking programs and always thought ZoneAlarm was good, however recently it has been getting less stable with more recent releases, i wouldnt put it as bad as norton however.

Glider: Common sense unfortunately isnt so common, I'm careful myself about where i browse what i download etc, whereas unfortunately some of my friends and family arnt - a few days ago i had a few people stay over and after they had gone i did AV/AS scans and found 30+ virii and 100+ Spyware threats , suffice to say I also found loads of "ahem" material downloaded too.

Bluephoenix: What does QFT mean?

I always thought Windows Firewall wasn't very good?
An added bonus i've noticed is that downloads seem to be quicker with Win Firewall

 

Quite F****** true.

you'll mostly hear me and DougEdey as the perpetrators of that expression.


if you can afford it, get a hardware firewall. they require a little bit of knowledge to set up, but nothing you can't find somewhere (or from someone) on here; and since they give complete automatic denial, they are very difficult to get past.

 

For adware and spyware, Lavasoft's Ad-Aware has never let me down.

 

I didn't do nuffink!

Routers are an inexpensive hardware firewall solution.

 

Sorry doug, probably just my memory being faulty (research paper writing is not condusive to a functioning brain)

 

I think the free version of ZoneAlarm has the same limitation. ZoneAlarm (free) had a bug in its Host file protection not turning off a few revisions ago, but it wfm no problem. I have SPI hardware firewall but find ZoneAlarm more user-friendly in asking permission whenever a new program tries to go online. Belt and braces.

The second use seems far more common now. "I agree". Firehed is the main user here, I think.