Hi good old Soviet here,

I have been sifting around on the web, as my sons CA anti-virus is up for renewal, and I came across several links to freeware/ shareware for anti-virus, and also firewall.

He currently has Norton for his firewall, which I ditched some time ago as I found it to be more trouble than it was worth. Has any one out there tried this stuff out, and if so how do they rate it?

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=GB〈=en&lid=nav_za

http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=GB〈=en&lid=nav_za

Any honest opinions from the tech shed, would be warmly welcomed.

Soviet (launcher of Sputnik)

Zone Alarm is meant to be quite good mate, not used myself though but only heard good things about it.

Hi Moose,

Thanks for coming back. Zone alarm you say is supposed to be quite good, but can any of this stuff be trusted would you know.

You did say that you have never used it, but I never hear of any one that has said that it has failed them protection wise. I wonder if this then speaks for itself.

Do any of us really need to pay for anti-virus or firewalls if this stuff will give free protection for zilch?

Anybody else know anything about this stuff?

Soviet

Soviet, I don't pay for anti-virus etc, I errr, don't use any, but then I've never had anything go wrong, yet...

I used AVG anti-virus for years - was pretty good, only let a couple of things slip through (luckily without damage, or I was able to repair the damage pretty quickly).

But, there's so much nasty new stuff out there.

I now use Avast Pro - very very good - detects and stops everything (IIRC the free version does not stop spyware coming down surreptitiously and then creating havoc).

One way to gain almost complete immunity is to use cloning software like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image. These allow you to take a 'snapshot' of a drive of your choice = system drive, pretty obviously. If something then corrupts files on the drive these cloning software tools allow you to restore your system to how it was when you took the snapshot i.e. your system drive is totally overwritten - no virus spyware can survive this.

Hi Anonymouse,

I think you have summed it up by saying that there is so much nasty new stuff out

there, and it would be risking it. I have been hit by a virus in the past, that I couldn't get rid of with out wiping the hard drive and starting again. This was my own fault as I did not have any anti-virus at that time, just as Moose said above.

I recall that the thing left a message, each time that I tried to clear it. I.e. you have an excess of something ---------particles (can't recall the virus name) but please format the hard disk. May be this is familiar to some one out there, as I can't recall the name of the virus. Luckily I had backed up all the important stuff though.

I think that I will stick with the pay for versions, and may go for the Kasparov, or I think this is what is is called. Any way it is supposed to be a very good one.

Sounds something like the name of Kasparov, but I may not have this correct.

Soviet

Hi Anonymouse,

I think you have summed it up by saying that there is so much nasty new stuff out

there, and it would be risking it. I have been hit by a virus in the past, that I couldn't get rid of with out wiping the hard drive and starting again. This was my own fault as I did not have any anti-virus at that time, just as Moose said above.

Soviet

Kaspersky - yes, supposed to be good.

Do some reading up on Ghost and Acronis True Image though - they are absolute lifesavers.

I could totally screw up my system - yet have it back up and running perfectly in ten minutes.

Hi good old Soviet here,

I have been sifting around on the web, as my sons CA anti-virus is up for renewal, and I came across several links to freeware/ shareware for anti-virus, and also firewall.

He currently has Norton for his firewall, which I ditched some time ago as I found it to be more trouble than it was worth. Has any one out there tried this stuff out, and if so how do they rate it?

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=GB〈=en&lid=nav_za

http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=GB〈=en&lid=nav_za

Any honest opinions from the tech shed, would be warmly welcomed.

Soviet (launcher of Sputnik)

I would not use "Zone alarm" it takes over everything and causes problems, if you are using ZP then use its own, and for the antivirus I use Free AVG(never had any problems)

But what do you get for now't !!

Radiotwo

I would not use "Zone alarm" it takes over everything and causes problems, if you are using ZP then use its own, and for the antivirus I use Free AVG(never had any problems)

But what do you get for now't !!

Radiotwo

Yes, forgot about ZoneAlarm - I ditched it many moons ago as it caused soooo many problems.

Can't vouch for current versions though.

Avast antivirus works VERY well also use the firewall already on XP ....don't get problems any more

Kaspersky - yes, supposed to be good.

Do some reading up on Ghost and Acronis True Image though - they are absolute lifesavers.

I could totally screw up my system - yet have it back up and running perfectly in ten minutes.

Hi, and thanks to all.

Kaspersky was the name, that I have been hearing of. I think that I will try this one, as it seems to be the safest option for my sons laptop.

I will definitely read up on Ghost and Acronis as per Anonymouse suggestion, as it does sound a very good thing, and also for restore of machine function.

Soviet:thumbup:

I'm using Avast! free anti-virus at the moment, not as irritating as AVG when it updates.

I also recommend you stay away from Zone Alarm.

I'm using Avast! free anti-virus at the moment, not as irritating as AVG when it updates.

I also recommend you stay away from Zone Alarm.

Hi Gillywibble,

Several people including you are warning of Zone alarm, and thank you as I will not use this one. May be I will try Avast instead of buy Kaspersky.

Thank you for your help.

Soviet.

Anyone who has had a bad experience with Zonealarm probably caught one of the very few problem updates. I've been using it for years now coupled with AVG Free and a combination of Spybot and Ad-Aware for the other meanies, and I don't know many people in the trade who don't use it on their home machine. I'd always say that if you're going to run a regular thorough virus or spyware check, do it in safemode - this is something that isn't generally considered, but gives you the best chance of detection and disinfection.

The only issue I had with Zonealarm was when I opted to do an upgrade install rather than a clean one about 8 revisions back and it failed to allow access to an essential system process. There are lots of great instructions for fully removing all traces of a previous install before updating and these work a treat. When I started to use it I tried every trick I knew to breach it (ingress and egress) and it knocked them all back (including some that expensive kit like BlackIce Defender fell prey to) so I wouldn't be without it now. As with anything, it's knowing how to set it up that guaranteed success.. simply blocking everything you don't understand will stop your internet access working, and rightly so.

Norton and Symantec products have caused me endless issues though as they'll frequently nail your machine when one of their components fail. They patch into all sorts of things they have no right to (many of which are related to their pestering upgrade reminders) and they have zero tolerance of many other security products - try installing the BT homehub connection kit (which has Norton components in it) when you already have a good antivirus and see what happens. This alone has accounted for 5 failed PCs coming my way in the last couple of months.

Hi Anonymouse,

I think you have summed it up by saying that there is so much nasty new stuff out

there, and it would be risking it. I have been hit by a virus in the past, that I couldn't get rid of with out wiping the hard drive and starting again. This was my own fault as I did not have any anti-virus at that time, just as Moose said above.

I recall that the thing left a message, each time that I tried to clear it. I.e. you have an excess of something ---------particles (can't recall the virus name) but please format the hard disk. May be this is familiar to some one out there, as I can't recall the name of the virus. Luckily I had backed up all the important stuff though.

I think that I will stick with the pay for versions, and may go for the Kasparov, or I think this is what is is called. Any way it is supposed to be a very good one.

Sounds something like the name of Kasparov, but I may not have this correct.

Soviet

Hi,

I was just eating my late meal, and I have now recalled what this one was. It was OMRICON.

I booted up one day to be presented with a black screen, with small white script in the middle which said, 'You seen to have an excess of Omricon particles, format your hard drive'. I tried every method that I was knowing to get this to go, but ended up doing as it said.

I am going back to three years ago, but has any one had this, or is knowing of this virus?

Soviet:thumbup:

Anyone who has had a bad experience with Zonealarm probably caught one of the very few problem updates. I've been using it for years now coupled with AVG Free and a combination of Spybot and Ad-Aware for the other meanies, and I don't know many people in the trade who don't use it on their home machine. I'd always say that if you're going to run a regular thorough virus or spyware check, do it in safemode - this is something that isn't generally considered, but gives you the best chance of detection and disinfection.

The only issue I had with Zonealarm was when I opted to do an upgrade install rather than a clean one about 8 revisions back and it failed to allow access to an essential system process. There are lots of great instructions for fully removing all traces of a previous install before updating and these work a treat. When I started to use it I tried every trick I knew to breach it (ingress and egress) and it knocked them all back (including some that expensive kit like BlackIce Defender fell prey to) so I wouldn't be without it now. As with anything, it's knowing how to set it up that guaranteed success.. simply blocking everything you don't understand will stop your internet access working, and rightly so.

Norton and Symantec products have caused me endless issues though as they'll frequently nail your machine when one of their components fail. They patch into all sorts of things they have no right to (many of which are related to their pestering upgrade reminders) and they have zero tolerance of many other security products - try installing the BT homehub connection kit (which has Norton components in it) when you already have a good antivirus and see what happens. This alone has accounted for 5 failed PCs coming my way in the last couple of months.

Hi, Thanks, Interphase,

That sounds like a very good tip to run a virus or spyware check in safe mode. It is one that I would not have heard about. You seem to be Ok with Zone alarm, and with others in your trade. I use spybot also. I run the BT home hub also, and I have found that Norton is very bad on my sons laptop, and kept blocking things and going to things that it shouldn't as you say. It would always nobble Mozilla Firefox, no matter how many times that I would tell it. My sons laptop came with Norton full works on it, but I have taken off the anti-virus and replaced with CA. This is now itself ready for resubscribing.

I do not like Norton also, and I do not know much of Symantic, but I am taking you word for this also.

Thank you, this was very interesting.

Soviet:thumbup: :thumbup:

Norton Ghost 2003 was brill (about the only 'recent' software of Norton / Symantec that is) - but will not work with SATA drives - later versions (9 and upwards) are very much bloatware which is why I switched to Acronis TrueImage (had tried before but was slightly buggy - is now rock solid and works with SATA).

Just to mention that different progs do different things, so might be better having more than one prog since anti-virus isn't necessarily antispyware. For example, SpywareGuard is intended to stop spyware getting on, whereas Spybot expects to identify things that you can clean out after the event. There's an HBO (browser hijacker) preventer also.

Anti virus progs are all well respected, but there'll always be someone who found there was something "it" didn't catch. Trouble is that they all seem fine if you don't get a problem, so hard to say if the prog caught something or you just weren't targeted anyway. There are comparative reviews, but of limited use given that new viruses arrive every day.

Re firewalls, if your computer has a built-in one, you can add another one (one, not two).

As others said, some programs seem to "sit well" with what else you have and other progs seem to play havoc, vying with each other or are just not happy with your system; or they are resource hogs (thinking Norton here). No easy answer to that, aside from trial and error methinks., but just my personal views.

Mo

I am using AVG, Comodo firewal and CounterSpy (not free but cheap) antispyware... no problem, they do not hog resources...sweet

Hi,

I have used ZoneAlarm (free version) for years and have never had any issues once setup correctly. Unlike Interphase I use the upgrade option. I believe that a product made by the leading Firewall producers (Checkpoint) should be good whether it is their free version or not. I have worked for nearly 3 years supporting Checkpoint firewalls (hardware) and know how they are well respected.

I also use Avast for Anti virus after many years of using AVG. I also use Spyware terminator both free.

Whilst they may not be better than some paid for products I feel safe with what I use

Most of the free ones such as AVG, Zonealarm, Sygate (SPF), Spyware blaster, Spyware guard, Spyware S&D dont currenty work with Vista however they will be releasing versions soon (or may have recently)

i have avast on all my machines, never had a problem with it, yes my old laptop is starting to suffer from memory and speed issues but can cope easily with it. as for firewall I have a hardwall firewall so no need for memory hungry firewall programs like zonealarm.

Just as an addition - my take on using multiple software firewalls is that it may not necessarily be worth it (I'm thinking of the windows one in conjunction with a third party one here). It uses extra processing power and lowers your throughput slightly (tiny margins each, but still). It also raises the possibility of software being blocked incorrectly or interfered with, or even the very slim chance that the firewalls will interact badly and actually create a risk. Many people with broadband and have a router will generally find it has a built in SPI firewall anyway to add an extra level of oomph

I've been using it for years now coupled with AVG Free and a combination of Spybot and Ad-Aware for the other meanies.

Would agree there,

Been using this combination of four for years and absolutely no problems.

Avast antivirus works VERY well also use the firewall already on XP ....don't get problems any more

:iagree:

Used it for over 2 years on several machines - ScoobyChris suggested it and I'm glad I never paid my Norton renewal.