[damayor521]

My HDD with XP crashed so now I'm thinking about biting the bullet and going with a Vista install .. since I get it free from school. The one thing that prevented me from moving to Vista in the first place was the lack of compatibility software at the time. So I thought about asking fellow Head-Fiers who have been running Vista for some time.

I want a good firewall and anti-virus solution. They don't care if the firewall or AV is in a suite or just separate programs. I have been looking at NOD32 as an antivirus solution but I haven't come up with a pretty good firewall.

Any of you guys have some firewall/antivirus recommendations I can check out? Thanks.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

I've been running Vista and XP (at separate frames of time), and for a year or so I have never used a 3rd-party firewall or virus-scanner for either one. They just slow you down even more, and are darn overrated. Honestly, if you don't visit obviously shady sites or go to bad **** sites, you'll be good to go.

Also, in Vista, IIRC it rearranges the startup folders in different places every time you restart/shut down, so if a virus ever was to hit, it will most likely be crippled, rather than Vista itself being crippled.

But if you insist, type "AVG free" (without the quotes) into Google and you'll find a very nice anti-virus scanner that is updated daily; all of it is free.

 

[BradJudy]

Try Avira for AV - it's free (pops an ad when it updates, can pay for no ads), but more importantly, it's had good reviews for both detection and speed, plus is has a smaller memory footprint than many others.

NOD32 also has an excellent reputation, it just isn't free.

For firewall, Vista has a new advanced firewall configuration option that you should try out first before you decide if you want something else.

 

[Rob N]

Norton Security 2007 (or Norton 360 which has some not very useful tuneup features and a back up facility) has had some good reviews and uses less system, resources than previous versions.

The biggest pain with Vista is still the lack of compatibility with older software.

 

[fabool]

There's not too many firewalls to choose from for Vista yet (especially if you're planning a 64bit installation). I'm using the latest beta (ver. 3) of Comodo which works with Vista (64bit included). It's a bit of a hassle to setup compared to previous firewalls I've used (Outpost, Sygate), but works quite well and supposedly is the number one in certain leaktests. Best bit is that it's completely free. For the beta you will need to register to the Comodo forums to find the download link.

From previous experiences I came to the conclusion that NOD32 and Kaspersky are the 'better' Antivirus solutions on the market. I believe they should both work with Vista (at least Kaspersky does).

I'm not going to get into that "Is a software firewall needed"-stuff. Personally I always use one, but that's just my way.

 

[damayor521]

Thanks for some recommendations. Even though my router is my primary firewall, I like to use a software firewall as another layer of security. Plus I like to see what programs are accessing the Internet at the same time. I do, on occasion, surf "other" websites for research purposes. So another layer wouldn't hurt.

I don't mind paying for software as long as I get my money's worth. I'm leaning towards Kapersky or even the ESET Smart Security Suite Beta.

 

[iggee85]

Quote:

I've been running Vista and XP (at separate frames of time), and for a year or so I have never used a 3rd-party firewall or virus-scanner for either one. They just slow you down even more, and are darn overrated. Honestly, if you don't visit obviously shady sites or go to bad **** sites, you'll be good to go.

If you access e-mail in Windows, I would highly recommend getting an AV, for the sole purpose of protecting yourself (and others) from family/friends who unknowingly e-mail you infected files.

 

[Redo]

Vista firewall + router's firewall as the firewall solution

NOD32 as the AV solution