What anti-V, Anti-SW and FW do you use? is it any good? has it ever let you down?

Anti V
Norton Antivirus - very easy to use and update but I'd check out the free ones too - some are meant to be pretty good

Anti Spyware
I use Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy. Also, CounterSpy sometimes.

Firewall
My router has an excellent buit in firewall so I don't bother with a software firewall, but I usually go for Zonealarm Pro (they also do a free one which is cool).

All seems to work ok, not had (as far as I know) any unwanted intrusions for some time.

Other basics:
- scrap Internet Explorer and use Firefox instead.
- turn off the preview pane on your Outlook inbox or use something like Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Outlook.
- Make sure you have all windows updates installed, including using the latest service pack.

I use Panda Platinum for everything, including net nanny.
I have real problems using flash sites with Firefox, so I still have IE on the PC, just not set as default.

I'd try re-installing Firefox (latest version is 1.3) and then re-installing the Flash plugin - I don't have any problems with Flash.

I keep IE on the PC because it's a right pain to remove and there are a few sites that won't work for Firefox. There's a handy Firefox plugin that shows a context menu item "view this page in IE".

Thanks for that
I just wondered as we have had probs with our computer (we thought we might of had the Blaster worm virus?!)

( basically it wouldnt maintain an internet connection for more than a minute before cutting off, plus the dvd drive died) we tried restoring it to factory settings or whatever its called which failed (it needed to use the dead D drive) which meant we couldnt boot it up at all.

So £75, a new dvd drive and a bit of tickling at the computer shop later we have a computer which needs some kind of antiv on it. Interestingly the modem still doesnt connect up for longer than 30secs even after reinstalling windows etc so we think the modems erm "hadit" So weve got a new one of them....talk about buying a new computer bit by bit lol

We were running Norton but as its been activated may not let us reactivate it so desperately need reliable antiv etc.

We have got a spyware remover on disk

we are a bit flumoxed by the windows xp firewall/ norton firewall issue as they clash dont they?

we've put on service pack 2 too.

Also if we have had a nasty virus on the other comp, will we be at risk of re-infection when we download the files we saved to disk? I have hundreds of photos etc which i saved onto cd rom the other day..HELP!!

Your helps appreciated xx

Windows XP Firewall should be able to detect a third party firewall installed and give you the option to turn it off. Norton's support site should be able to tell you that though.
I've used the Norton Personal Firewall and think it's fine, pretty equivalent to Zonealarm.

You won't get a virus from picture files so don't worry about that - if you saved and .exe or .dll files to the disk just get Norton to scan them before you run them.

AVG anti virus - rates highy in trade mags and is free aslo free updates. Often found on trade mag cds/dvds

Firewall - Zonealarm - also free

Spy ware - loads online Adaware etc - often come free on trade mags

cheers bubba!!

Most of the files i have saved are either jpeg, gif, word or excel documents

I'd scan all your word and excel docs before opening them...

try www.trojanscan.com to scan your pc. This one does need IE as it uses ActivX - a handy way of scanning any windows pc without installing anything.

I use Suse Linux 9.2 and Firefox

8)

paul said:

I use Suse Linux 9.2 and Firefox

8)

Click to expand...

I'd love to but wife 1.0 and kids 2.0 would just kick up too much trouble. Do you use ThunderBird for your email as well?

Dave H said:

paul said:

I use Suse Linux 9.2 and Firefox

8)

Click to expand...

I'd love to but wife 1.0 and kids 2.0 would just kick up too much trouble. Do you use ThunderBird for your email as well?

Click to expand...

No - I use KMail.