I hope this question has not been asked a thousand times before. My ‘free’ online security package has expired, what is the best and free anti-virus software, firewall and spy wear around? And is there one that will do everything?

Cheers

It's been asked pretty often. Search GD using the search function at the top of the page, and you'll get plenty of answers.

Short answers: nothing does it all. Avast and AVG are common freeware AV tools. Many of us swear by Spybot and AdAware for spyware protection. And ZoneAlarm is a common firewall. There are others... and more...

Start there and see what happens.

I second everything what Bungleau said.

<font color=skyblue>Nothing more to say or do than to join the fan base that supports Bungleau's post. </font>

The search function works now?

Have you tried it this millennium?

;) <<< Mandatory humor / sarcasm smiley

[ 12-30-2006, 10:56 AM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

<font color =8fbc8f>Anti-V, if you have a job with a good employer, access your corpaorate website, and download their employee version of Symantec Norton Anti-V. If not, then your stuck with the others as posted above.

Firewall: What do you want to do?
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
Test your setup first. Do not be alarmed at this site, it is safe, and allows you the knowledge of what others know about you. Use the "ShieldsUp" and test your setup. If you are running "Full Stealth, and have no open ports" then you are inbound protected. Enough for most people. However, if you wander over to the "LeakTest", this will show you if your outbound can either contain or not contain malware from you. ~What does that mean? If you have a malware attack, and you are a clone to the attacker, you will provide outbound source WITHOUT your knowledge. This is WHERE the false sense of security is laid on the line. Both free and Paid versions of Zonealarm pass, So does the heavy Norton!

In a nutshell!
1. Just inbound protect from the outside?
A. If you have a modern high speed connection, with a suppled cable/DSL modem you are protected.
B. Dial up? Then the Windows XP provided firewall will protect you from the outside.

2. Do you really want to control your firewall, and what happens both from within, and outside of your PC?
A. Then you need a two way firewall. The Zonealarm free version is adequate for the home/common user. The pay for Pro is the shiznick!
B. There are others listed above, however, Symantec is a "heavy" firewall, but, will provide you with a plethora of options and settings.

"Caution" A two way firewall must be set to "LEARN" your habits. Therefore, it is imperative that you DO NOT set it for automatic. You want to know what is going out, and you want to control it, if not, why bother?

"Caution" A two way firewall 'MAY' break a connection from an establsihed resource. Example being...A router attached to your high speed modem. The router needs to 'establish a inbound and outbound connection with "ALL" PCs attached to it. If not, you may notice a slight degradation in traffic, and you may lose the router location in your "Connections" view. However, most of the lighter two way firewalls allow for this to be configured 'easily' enough, others are not as forgiving.

To add the final product to your personal arsenal, you need to head over to M$ and download and use their 'Windows Defender'.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

Combine all of the above, and you can consider yourself protected from most common attacks. However, Linux.........</font>

Hehe, Gotta say, that I agree with Felix's post entirely, and I give him a big thumbs up for not mentioning Linux :D (it would be fine too, but I can see an argument starting [img]smile.gif[/img] )

But I would have to say I disagree with Windows defender, that thing is useless :(

<font color=8fbc8f>Really? Please do expound!
I use this on the spousal units Dell, and to 'me', it's better than others. What am I missing?</font>

Best place to learn about security matters is at
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php

The free firewall of the moment is Comodo. I would really recommend paying for NOD32 AV.