Free Firewall + AntiVirus Protection

[ApplePearBerry]

What are some pretty good free firewall and antivirus protection programs out there?

I've tried both Comodo and McAfee; however, both seems to not like my Corel software that came with my laptop.

[Luke]

This is what was recommended to me. I've used it on my little HP mini and so far so good.

AVG Free - Download antivirus and antispyware software for Windows XP and Vista

[tburn]

my techie guy recommended AVAST for virus/spam
and ZONE ALARM for firewall.

he took off all the Norton bundle ($100/yr) and my system has been running so much faster now at start up/shut down!

any other tech-heads have an opinion on Avast or Zone Alarm?

I was not happy with Norton for past few years as it really slowed down my PC and the updates would not go thru for some reason - conflict with Mozilla? I never could get the updates to work.

[MadMonk]

my techie guy recommended AVAST for virus/spam
and ZONE ALARM for firewall.

he took off all the Norton bundle ($100/yr) and my system has been running so much faster now at start up/shut down!

any other tech-heads have an opinion on Avast or Zone Alarm?

I was not happy with Norton for past few years as it really slowed down my PC and the updates would not go thru for some reason - conflict with Mozilla? I never could get the updates to work.

I really like Avast. Zone Alarm is okay, if overly simple. I use Avast and Comodo on most of my PCs. I've used AVG in the past and have been happy, but with version 8, it really seemed to have a detrimental effect on the performance of my systems. I received a complementary copy of Sunbelt's Vipre antvirus and antispyware a couple weeks ago and have been pretty impressed by it so far. It's not free - $49.95/year, but that will cover all your PCs in your home (a home site license). I have four so it's a pretty decent deal. If you only have to cover one PC, it's $29.95.

Without question, stay away from the Symantec/Norton products. They are some of the worst resource hogs.

[Thunder]

I use Avast. I had used Zone Alarm, but I think a new version that was released a few years ago was quite buggy and interferred with YIM. I can't remember exactly what it did, but knew it was causing problem. Loved it, but stopped using it. Now, I'm using Avast. I had used AVG before, but I feel Avast offers more protection.

[ApplePearBerry]

Thanks all!