Guest MECX Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Hey -- ive just reinstalled windows XP and am wondering what firewall/antivirus people would recomend?? ive got norton antivirus and firewall but in my opinion the firewall was poor and the antivirus used loads of system resourses did not like corel draw and scanning large emails. any suggestions? :roll: EDIT:-added poll--wondering how many people actually have these? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vector Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 I use AVG antvirus, it's free :) http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_downl.htm?s...ca857b2469#FREE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest James Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 i run with norton at work and use corel alot. i never have any problems mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MECX Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 it says it cant be installed in any network enviroment--so i assume its no good with internal traffic, is very good for a free program tho--how does it work on xp? any ad banners etc? i was looking for sumthin better than norton to be honest--ill pay the price. well not to much lol :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MECX Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 what verison of corel? im on 10. and is your norton running in its active mode? when im using it photopaint and draw crash (well just close) when saving big files as JPG's and importing large files. seemed to be ok when i switched norton off although it could be a combination of things>?>?> does anybody run a firewall here? im behind a router so do i need one really>? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Not really...but you can never be too careful. If you really want to run a firewall, download the (free) personal edition of Zonealarm (www.zonelabs.com). Straight up, clear and easy to use, and as good as any fully commercial firewall out there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gorskar Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Yup, it works very well. For a slightly more configurable (and still free) option you could try tiny personal firewall, which is what I'm using at the moment. For antivirus I've got Norton AV 2002 (which was offered free from my adsl provider) Unless you are with pipex or someone with a similar offer you'd probably have to pay for it though. Try the free alternative someone posted above... So you can be cheap like me, yet still well protected on the internet :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MECX Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 so are the free ones just as good as the ones you pay for then? and does anyone know if my router and its port blocking is good enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr_Protozoa Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 I'm running Norten System Works 2003 Pro, i'm happy with the antivirus, never had any problems with it. As for firewalls.... I tried Nortons one, it shagged my PC up it's arse! Which resulted in a format to fix it. Also tried zonealarm, but I doesn't like my ICS connection too much. I think I'll give 'tiny' a go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest siu99spj Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Personally I use Norton Antivirus 2003 (Part of systemWorks as Mr Protozoa). Also tried Norton Firewall but had way too many problems. Switched to SyGate Personal Firewall and haven't had a problem since. Its a clever little program and asks everytime a program tries to access the web. For those which regularly access the web, you can set to be allowed without asking. It also monitors files and if they change, and then try to access the web again, it asks again, just in case a program gets Trojan'ed or something. However, I'm unsure how SyGate will work on your network (Which you seemed to say you have). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest James Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 there are a number of people here at work that run personal fire walls but because we are behind a work router the it guy here says we dont need one and those guys are just being paranoid. i suppose the only reason why you would want one of there if you had some seriously private stuff that people did not want to see or destroy with a virus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest awarner [MVP] Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 I use norton for both with no problems...yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest siu99spj Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 I must admit I'm quite partial to a Norton setup (Well who wouldn't, my Dad's friends with Peter Norton!!! :shock: ). Maybe, when I rebuild my system (So in need of an upgrade. Its 3 years old now, an aging Athlon 1100 and GeForce 2 :cry: ), I'll actually spend some time setting up Norton properly. Before the upgrade though, I need a serious cash injection (Looking at about £2K in total, and thats an overestimate!). I'll just have to keep saving little by little. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Will Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 My 'umble opinions of firewalls. * Any firewall is better than no firewall * Unless you don't take time to set it up and configure it properly * Or you click 'accept' without reading / understanding the message * Firewalls are not 'foolproof'. * XP's firewall is basic but effective. * visit Grc's "shields up!" on a regular basis, and do the probes !! And so: * use a firewall YOU understand, or that is recommended by someone you trust. * Check the setup regularly. * Always be suspicious of ports over 2000, if you don't recognise the port number, do a quick 'google', if you don't find it there, disable it (making a note of the details of course) and see if things stop working. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest madu Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 I used http://www.kaspersky.com/>Kaspersky Labs Antivirus for a long long time. The Russians know what they do. But at one point my machine couldn't handle it anymore and it became more of a handbrake to the system than any help. I have not used it for about a year now. Switched to NortonAV and NortonFW and think that AV is slow and either I'm lucky or got a crippled installation - have not had ANY virus alerts so far (well, maybe 3). It is dead slow on email checks. Too slow! Kaspersky is a good option, but it costs money. It updates every day(!) and generally is good. Have not checked it for a while now... Have a go, I used to love it, maybe you will too. Re: Firewalls. Norton seems to do the job, and I DO believe having a firewall installed is of vital importance, especially for BroadBand users. Looking for a better Firewall. But I am no good with understanding how exactly it works and how to properly tune it. My Norton one is more/less default setup.. Re NORTON. I never believed in Norton+Windows. Norton Utils were tops for DOS, but then Win version came out and I can only remember having problems with it or not having anything coz it wouldn't work. BUT I am quite happy with both AV & FW (2003) from them and think it is the best solution for hassle free setup and use for rich/clever users coz it aint free. I go now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest b1uepower Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 what about Zonealarm you can get it free from download.com thats what i use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chris b.a.r.f. Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Not really...but you can never be too careful. Â If you really want to run a firewall, download the (free) personal edition of Zonealarm (www.zonelabs.com). Straight up, clear and easy to use, and as good as any fully commercial firewall out there... Sorry mono, have to disagree with you here - ZA is a very basic and more or less non-configurable firewall. It's simply not versatile enough for my needs. Steve Gibson's delight for ZA has always been a little suspicious, as he never seems to appraise any other firewall software in the process. Also I hate all that "Your system is under attack!" stuff that ZA comes up with - instead of Sygate's "application blocked - click for more info". ZA's "alarms" only serve to unnerve inexperienced users, as does Steve Gibson's website. Too much scaremongering, not enough impartial information. Having tried _all_ the various software firewalls I've come to the conclusion that there are two which outstrip the competition by miles: 1. Sygate personal firewall - excellent, it's ultra-flexible and the possibility to make tailor-made rules is superb. Not especially user friendly though. 2. Kerio (formerly Tiny) - a little more user friendly but nearly as powerful as Sygate. My 2 cents, gleaned from a *lot* of testing :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MECX Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 ive got norton 2002 firewall and dont like it at all--norton 2002 antivirus isnt much better in my opinion--im a bit dubious about the freeware apps as well although many people here use zonealarm i might give it a try. anybody heard about or used BlackIce firewall? a friend recomended it. :roll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chris b.a.r.f. Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 MECX: blackice is another good one, but it costs and is certainly no better than Sygate in my experience. Give Sygate or Kerio a try and see what you think. I have NIS2002 installed on my kids' PC and it's great there - stops 'em surfing dodgy sites and stuff. On my PC? Not a chance, I'd have to wade through a million different menus/screens to connfigure it as precisely as I want. And then it still wouldn't be perfect. ZoneAlarm works, but there are some flaws which I just can't live with - one being the fact that the TrueVector engine is both a system hog and difficult for legit apps to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MECX Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 cheers man ill see if i can get sygate and give that a try. what antivirus do you use? im thinkin of kapersky(is that how you spell it) that madu suggested--read some good reviews about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chris b.a.r.f. Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 I'm actually using NAV2002 - and I'm reasonably happy with it. An antivirus package is only as good as the signature updates that are released for it and the regularity of those releases - it's here that Norton is better than some of the free scanners, AVG which davidrm's already mentioned and AntiVir - can be found at www.hbedv.com; I've used both of these and both were OK but updates sometimes took a week or so to appear whereas NAV's were there same/next day as a virus alarm was released. Kaspersky has a very good rep. I've only tried the trial version but they're also very good re. updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ricmoo2003 Posted May 17, 2003 Report Share Posted May 17, 2003 I have a 2meg ADSL a server & 2 PC's. I use the standard BT Router, that goes into a Sonicwall Tele3 Firewall with built in virus protection, then on the server i have Norton Antivirus Corporate edition, on the clients i have norton Corporate Client & Norton Antivirus 2003 Pro & the XP firewall is turned on....! Am I paranoid? Yet still i get about 5 attacks a day, that the sonicwall reports to me. IMHO you can never be too careful when it comes to PC security, also make sure all your PC are up to date with latest patches etc...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chris b.a.r.f. Posted May 17, 2003 Report Share Posted May 17, 2003 ricmoo2003: "Attacks"? That's just what your firewall calls them, I suspect. Portscans, NetBIOS queries, multiple ICMP, etc. etc. Most of these are harmless, or at the very most a preamble to a real "attack". Of course you still get "attacks" despite all your preventative security measures - they will keep coming whatever you have installed..... You are too paranoid, but it's also understandable as there's so much bullshit circulating re. security. Hope the following will help folks cut through this crap and see things a little more clearly. If your router supports NAT (as most do nowadays) then that's basically all the protection you need, although you can look forward to *hours* setting up your NAT-tables, port forwarding and so on. Worth it though. It's sometimes useful to have a software firewall in any case, just so you know what's happening, but with a properly configured router/hardware firewall such as your setup a software firewall is unnecessary and, occasionally, counterproductive. Similarly, a single virus scanner is generally enough - by all means have two *different* scanners installed on your system, but not two Norton scanners - as you have - which use the same basic engine/sigs anyway (see: www.sarc.com for a little more info). Use Norton and another firm's scanner, and only have one of them set to autoscan/memory resident; the "other" scanner can be used to secondary-scan downloaded files/email and so-on. Different firms' engines are better at detecting different types of virus and, likewise, some have better heuristic detection than others. Your setup is undoubtedly safe, but it's just not worth the cost in system overheads - and we're talking one hell of a lot of processor power/RAM to keep two virus scanners memory resident and actively scanning all the time. Having said all this, one of the safest (and cheapest) ways to be safe on the net is to buy a cruddy old 386/486, stick Linux on it and use that as your firewall - put Apache on it and you have a nifty, well protected FTP server as well :) I'm speaking here as a bloke who's had a great deal of experience of corporate security, not just a know-it-all tosser, so cut me a bit of slack if I sound a right snobby git - it's not the intention :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MECX Posted May 17, 2003 Report Share Posted May 17, 2003 Thanks for all your help chris(and others)---ended up with blackice firewall and norton 2003 antivirus--is much better than 2002. im glad i did it as well ifound 2 virus and 8 infected files.. virus were Win32.pifi win32.handy or sumthin like that the blackice firewall comes up with loads of port scan attempts on strange ports and even i denial of service attack---made me remember i was DMZ hosting on the router (doh) im happy now :) :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WillEastbury Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 so are the free ones just as good as the ones you pay for then? and does anyone know if my router and its port blocking is good enough? Home ------- Firewall : Kerio Personal Firewall (Free) Anti-Virus : AntiVir Personal Edition (Free) AntiVir Personal Edition (Free) Work ------ Firewall (Internet Route1) : Cisco PIX Firewall (Internet Route2 / Wireless) : SonicWALL Pro 100 Firewall (Wireless Clients) : Windows XP Built-in Internet Connection Firewall Anti Virus : McAfee VirusScan These all seem cool in use and work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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