Searching after the perfect antivirus & firewall bundle...

Hey,

Panda Platinum versions 8 and 9 gave me some trouble (didn't go active when windows starts) so I'm searching for the perfect, most recommended bundle of antivirus and firewall software.
I really prefer that both will be in the same program (like in Panda) and not seperate programs but recommend whatever's best....

Thanks in advance,
Nir.

 

There are two other good Internet Security Suites that I know of.

Norton Internet Security 2005 which is a firewall, antivirus, and a spam filter.

McAfee Internet Security Suite which is a firewall, antivirus, spam filter, and many other features.

Out of these I would probably choose McAfee since there detection rate is very good againest viruses, worms etc. But this is my opinion

controlmind

 

You won't find many here that are fond of either one of those packages. Both are bloated, resource hungry software suites.

For Anti-Virus I recommend either one of these:
Avast! Home Edition 4.6.665
AVG Free Edition 7.323

For Firewall I recommen either one of these:
Sygate Personal Firewall Free 5.6.2808
ZoneAlarm Free 5.5.094.000

I am running AVAST! and Sygate; and have been very pleased with the performance of both applications.

Using detection rate as the benchmark for anti-virus scanner performance, IMO is highly overrated. I test AV software against sites that are know for distributing virus; Norton and McAfee have failed to detect the virus every time. OTH AVG and AVAST have not failed to detect the virus each and every time.

 

Those are good free antiviruses/firewall suggestions by Shadow_Puter_Dude. But if you want all around protection choose one of the internet suites that i suggested, or get a paid av like Kaspersky or NOD32 which are both very good av's and they dont take up much resources when running. And get one of those free firewalls too.

Not true. On many forums i have been on, there has been fans of norton and mcafee. The resource hungry depends on also the persons current computer setup. It runs fine on some other peoples computer while some people seen it take up lots of resources, like on mine.

No av detects every virus, and worm in the wild.

controlmind

 

Thank you for your recommendations!

I have tried using Avast! and Sygate a few days ago for a couple of days and didn't like the idea it was seperated... I was used to have it all in one package with Panda for a long time...

How is Trend Micro "Pc-Cillin" for an internet security solution?

Nir.

 

I have used Trend Micro Internet Security and wasnt very impressed by it. Its antivirus is good just that its firewall is not. There spyware scanner isnt that great either since the last time i used it.

controlmind

 

So you're recommending Mcafee to me? I'm a bit afraid installing Norton, and I just wish I could use Panda (!!) cause I loved it so much, but the newer versions just don't work well on my computer and I don't know how to make it work.....

Nir.

 

I use the Norton solution for Firewall+AV. It is resource hungry, yes.

Would I use it again. Well I would want to check out other products first. I have the 2003 version of these products and those were the last versions that were ok in my opinion.

I installed NIS2004 on my mother's pc (not a high spec rebuild but with XP1000, 256Mb ram). Prior to the Norton install everything was working nice and reasonably quick. After the install there was a noticeable slow down in performance.

Norton is also a [censored] to uninstall completely so think twice about what to get.

All the best

 

Im not recommending anything just giving you some ideas. If your problem with panda is concerning the firewall vist here

If that doesnt help have you tried contacting them by email and stating your problem? there email: [B]info.usa@pandasoftware.com[/B]

There are removal tools that get rid of norton completly.

controlmind

 

I personally use ZoneAlarm Pro v5.?? as firewall, it is much stronger than its past versions and is more user friendly now. It can still be a problem with blocking things behind your back and is often the cause of cirtain things "not happening" because it does much more than block inbound pings and attacks, it also works internally and can stop windows components from internal traffic (ip 127.0.0.1) but with carefull setting up and monitoring it will blend in and work extremely well and i havent experienced a single crash with it yet. Norton on the otherhand (i use norton antivirus) is very resorce hungry and has about 6 services associated with it in admin tools - services. it is very easy to stop Norton from the services console, once done it can be uninstalled and then delete all its folders and all should be well, however it is a very good antivirus, Mcarfe is also among the top antivirus software. At the end it is your choice. if you have a good router they have firewall built in ( a routers firewall is Hardware and is MUCH better than any software firewall ) and you would not need a software firewall. To avoid conflicts if you do use any firewall software or hardware, remember to disable the windows in built firewall, as it is inferior and not needed with a professional firewall running.

 

I have used both Symantec/Norton and McAfee in corporate and home solutions, for many years. They are resource hungry applications period.

Both AV solutions are 'Market Leading' applications they should detect the viruses from the sites I test them against, it is a plain simple fact they don't, and never have. I expect much better performance out of both.

I have never been a fan of 'Internet Security Suites', with a little bit of testing, you can find an AV+Firewall combination that will beat these software suites every time.

 

My problem is not that simple... I'll try to explain it: After installing the application (including the firewall) I restart the computer as I'm asked for, but then, when the computer starts again, I can't see the Panda in my taskbar. When I open the application manually, everything is disabled. After enabling it, the automatic protection feature is then enabled too, but after doing a restart again, everything comes back to the same situation: No automatic protection when windows starts, no panda in the taskbar and everything is disabled when starting the program manually.

I've tried doing an installation repair – didn't help either.

I sent their tech support an email and got no reply yet. Tried sending it again today, hope to get an answer soon...

There's another strange thing I've noticed: When I open the "msconfig" program ("Run" -> typing "msconfig") and going to the startup tab I see two programs that relate to Panda called "Inicio" and "APVXDWIN", both are marked with V's. When I unmark them I'm asked to restart but when I do restart, nothing changes! They are still marked with V's... Is that related maybe?

Thanks again in advance,
Nir.

 

Most of the suites have strengths and weaknesses. At least one recent review has commented that PC-cillin Internet Security 2005's firewall and anti-spyware components are not the strongest around -- but that was OK by me because I'm using a router that provides a hardware firewall and I'm using Spybot S&D for spyware protection. So PC-cillin's weaknesses aren't much of an issue for me.

PC-cillin has been getting good reviews -- sometimes leading the pack even after acknowledging the weaknesses in some components. What the reviews don't tell you much about is the quality of tech support. While I like PC-cillin, Trend Micro's tech support is about as good as Symantec's -- i.e., it's awful. Half the time the techies don't read the question, then ask for info you've already provided or provide a response that's irrelevant. It doesn't do much to build faith in the accuracy of any response they do provide.

 

Nice Post

I'm Happy user of Avast & Sygate, add AdAware SE & SpywareBlaster.

Why Buy when there are such good one's that are free that do as good as job if not better and use less resourses.
Dont Waste Your Money, unless ya want too!

 

You know, I just tested Zone Alarm and the Windows Firewall, with the much trusted "shields up" site, and both reported ALL ports as steallthed. Interesting to say windows is free with the OS and Zone Alarm costs. Ok the functionality isnt the same but the windows security dialogue box still popped up asking if i wanted to allow "Command and Conquer updater" to have internet access, just as zone alarm would. interesting eh ?