favorite anti virus program/firewall

[Apologist]

I use Norton, Zone Alarm, and I have a rouder.

Triple protection. Never had a problem.

If you have a good router then Zone Alarm is a waste of time to have installed. Prove it to yourself: Go to this web page and use the 'ShieldsUp' test with your Zone Alarm on, and then try it again with it off.
http://grc.com/default.htm

If your router is doing it's job then you will see no difference in security with Zone Alarm running.

 

[SirKenin]

You guys have to think of what you have that the hacker wants.

If you have that much of interest to national security, there's no router or firewall in the world that's going to help you.

If you install trojans by accident, that's rough, but preventable.

What hackers want is always on, high-speed connections. They need the connection/IP's. If you don't have that, they generally aren't interested.

 

[SirKenin]

because I was being hit constantly on my dial up connection and that was when I was only online for maybe 2 hours a day at most

Most hits are merely a port scanner or something. They are looking for open ports/trojans. Those scans happen all the time, whether you have a router or not. Not all hits are malicious either.

Nothing will become of them unless you have an open port that they can access.

 

[soul flayer]

BlackIce is one of the best firewalls out there. and as for anti virus, AVG is great too and its free. although blackice aint free (unless u use a ten finger discount on the computer like i did ) it is a good program if u aint using a router with a built in firewall.

 

[SirKenin]

Blackice has some major security flaws that they fail to remedy, even though they are well aware of what they are.

 

[Apologist]

Most hits are merely a port scanner or something. They are looking for open ports/trojans. Those scans happen all the time, whether you have a router or not. Not all hits are malicious either.

Nothing will become of them unless you have an open port that they can access.

Which is exactly why I have a router on my cable modem connection.
They can scan ports all they want, but if all my ports are in stealth mode they will not see them and will look elsewhere.

 

[Valkyr]

Norton Internet Security is easy to use, has a pop-up blocker and an advertisement killer, and includes Norton Antivirus. Most importantly in this day and age, Norton Internet Security protects against spyware and automated attacks using javascript, activeX, email attachments, macros, etc. I reccommend it for both newbies and advanced computer users.

 

[SlowRoasted]

norton

 

[Apologist]

Norton is not as good as people make it out to be and it is very intrusive into your OS. I used it for three or four years so I know firsthand.
My son had the Spybot worm virus and Norton's, TrendMicro, and Panda AV all missed it, but the free software I had installed from AVG found it.

 

[doofus125]

Still, I will have to swear by Norton Internet Security and Norton Systemworks.......When you have so many systems to deal with you don't have the time to worry about playing with freeware and working all the bugs out.......I have Liveupdate setup to download the virus def's once a week and every 2 weeks I run a full liveupdate to get the program updates......I have used NIS and NSW as long as I can remember and never had a problem with them.....

 

[S Walch]

Norton AV 2k3 and Norton Personal Firewall 2k3 - no complaints here - not had a virus for over a year since we had them installed

 

[SirKenin]

Which is exactly why I have a router on my cable modem connection.
They can scan ports all they want, but if all my ports are in stealth mode they will not see them and will look elsewhere.

Exactly. Me too. I use the Linksys befsr41 ser2 and have been very satisfied with it.

 

[minkoilboy]

I use AVG anti-cirus. It is free from www.grisoft.com and works very well. I have been using it for almost 2 years. Also, www.crocodeals.com has a link to other free anti-virus and other UNBELIEVABLE deals on other computer related stuff.

 

[Les Grands Pieds]

The following 2 programs are extrememly good for making your system secure:

Mac OS 10

Mac OS 10 Server

That's my 2 cents!

 

[rwl]

I use Norton Ainti virus and recommend using a hardware Firewall as many have mentioned.

I've had nothing but luck with the Norton products for personal use.

Even on a corporate level they've been great until recently. For some reason the live scan on the exchange servers keeps hosing them up. Something with Nortons DLL's. Nortons currently working on the issue though.