Topic: Replacing Norton advice please

[silly billy]

I have just had my laptop brought back to me from pc world having had to have a new hard drive.I have now lost my norton 2007 as everything was wiped.
Could someone advise me as to how good zone alarm and avg are? I have them on my desktop and they are fine and am just wondering if they will be suitable for my less powerful laptop. Will they slow my lappie down? I am loathe to pay out yet again for Norton and having to keep paying for it year after year.

[Sinbad7]

Hi,

I like Avast, have that on my laptop and AVG on my PC.  Neither seem to slow them down except when AVG does a complete check on the hard drive.

Sinbad

[timiano]

Hi,

I like Avast, have that on my laptop and AVG on my PC.  Neither seem to slow them down except when AVG does a complete check on the hard drive.

Sinbad

2nd vote for Avast if you are looking for a freebie. Combine that with SUPERAntiSpyware and you're laughing!

[jmassane]

AVG does what it says on the tin, stops viruses and is free, I used it without problems when I used windows. Zone alarm's ok but a better free one in my opinion is commodo firewall. Of course you could just bite the bullet and switch away from windows altogether- that's what I did.

[Larkshall]

Luckily, I don't need it. My system is immune to any virus, I use Linux (Ubuntu) and a virus has no effect. Even I can't write to system files unless I enter the password.

[rentawreck]

I have moved over to Panda Internet Security 2007.   I got it for a low price on Ebay (about £2-50).

Be aware that it will not go on Vista but once installed on an XP computer you can upgrade to Panda 2008 for free.   This will then go on Vista and you get 3 licences with it too(it can be used on 3 computers).

If buying any kind of virus protection look not only at the price but see how many computer you can install it on as if you have additional machines i.e. spare laptop/kids machines etc, a multi user licence may be useful.

[sunner]

if you want a good firewall and its free i would down load Comodo Firewall Pro
on this test site they tested all the firewalls and it beat the payed ones and the free ones like Norton Internet Security 2008 , ZoneAlarm Pro , BitDefender Internet Security 2008

have a look at the test site

http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php

you can down load it from this site and all other free software like Anti-Spyware , Anti-Virus and fire walls

http://www.filehippo.com/

[glosterwomble]

AVG on my laptop, no probs at all (touch wood!!)  ;D

[euronerd]

I use AVG and like the way it doesn't slow the machine down like Norton did, but I recently got a nag screen saying that the free version will no longer be supported after the end of May. Has anybody else had this?

Geoff.

[daileg]

i downloaded some free spyware from google finds most things trackers and addware ext havent come across any trojans for a while cross fingers

[woppa30]

The next free version of AVG is out, V8. Still free and works fine. You can set it to do / not do a full scan every day. Persoanlly I don't.
For firewall I would sue the built in one with windows and a separate hardware firewall. That is if you are using broadband you should be using a router. This means...
For NTL / telewest / Virgin customers you have a router between your cable modem and your computer(s)
For anybody else you use an ADSL modem/Router combination. Most sold within the last few years are like this. If you are not sure the easy way to find out is to determine your internet settings. Strat ->run -> type cmd and hit return. A black bos should appear and then type
ipconfig /all

Look for "IP address" and its should be something like "192.168.etc.etc"

If its not then I would STRONGLY recommend you post back here with the first part of it NOT ALL OF THE ADDRESS (this will tell all the nasty people where you are without a proper firewall) and we can help sort you out with recommendations.
Hope this helps,
Woppa