I am using Win XP, and it comes with a firewall, which I have never really done anything with. A friend got a virus, even though he had Norton on his system, and later was told that a firewall would have helped him. I heard that if you are using free anti-virus, that it is better to use the free Zonealarm firewall then the WinXP firewall.
Hmmmm....I am NOT, I repeat NOT a techy in any sense of the word. A friend who is gifted in tech repair installed AVG's free antivirus for us, but we still use the Windows firewall. He also installed Malwarebytes and Spybot...and a few other things, but I can't remember them all.
Well, my husband and I are both pretty computer saavy. He is a programmer and I am a web designer. We live on our computers (when I am not hsing...lol)...we have 4 of them. I would NOT recommend Norton or Mcaffee. They are both HORRIBLE and have "back doors" that are known to be vulnerable to attacks. Someone who knows what they are doing must uninstall those for you. They make it to where they are VERY difficult to get off of your computer. We use AVG. There is a free version that is great! highly recommended!
I also don't like Mcafee or Norton. Waste of money, in my opinion. Firewall- I've tried a few. I have Commodo (Comodo?) Antivirus on my machine right now which is ok.. but just ok. Sure it catches EVERYTHING, but it's a pain to set right, and if you are downloading something, it will ask about EVERY SINGLE stinking file. I also love Spybot Search&Destroy, and have the teatimer set for that.. more than commodo (I think I actually have commodo turned off currently). AVG I've tried. It's great for some stuff, but slowed me waaaaaay down. And this computer doesn't need MORE slowing down, believe me. I like having a group of programs to run manually on a weekly basis as well. Some people would stone me for saying that.. but I just don't believe ONE program can cover everything out there. Again, love the spybot, use Malbyte's Antimalware when I run into the occasional issue. (Love that program, a great one to have on hand). Just be aware that multiple spyware programs can and do pick each other up as a problem, so scan the results carefully before quar. or deleting.
I have used the Zonealarm Firewall for a long time now. I do think it works great with anti-virus, and I think that it makes my computer more secure.
I used AVG Free... until it sent me to an update site and I downloaded a virus because of the "update". I was NOT impressed when I had to wipe my hard drive clean and lost ALL of my schoolwork on it. Then I downloaded Microsoft Essentials and Norton 360 and had no problems with it (other than the Norton only being a trial). When we changed internet providers last week, our package comes with online protection so I downloaded it (and had to remove the other two). Talk about slow my internet down completely (slower than dial up I'm sure) so I deleted that which came with our package and went out and bought McAfee. I spent FOREVER looking at what programs were available and I felt that McAfee was the best one for what I need. I still run my windows firewall and I believe Windows defender runs in the background as well (I have a laptop with Windows Vista on it)
Don't waste your time, effort or even money on McAfee I had to wipe my computer clean last night after it caused a software corruption of some sort. Loaded McAfee again this morning and started having problems again so I deleted it off my computer. Not a happy camper abut it... lost EVERY BIT of school work I had been working on because i didn't have it all backed up onto my jump drive (who would have thought this would happen). Live and learn has been my motto of the day
