Free Anti-virus+firewall Vs. Norton/McAfee?

[laphanphon]

i like trend, but not free, though they may offer a trial period. you may be amazed what it will find after first scan. 30 + spywares, as opposed to free spybot, it think i was using at the time.

[Irish Alan]

Thanks LA... How much for a 1-year licence?

[laphanphon]

50 buck, for use on 3 computers, just got early renewal notice, 2 more yrs, for 57 bucks. have sales, depending where you are at, have thai rep/dealer. go to trend site, should have info. trend internet security,i think it is called.

1st time, way back bought in states, nice sale, then got vista, so needed vista friendly copy, which got in KK at IT CITY or data it, forget, 50 bucks, advertised vista friendly, vista approved, but at a time when vista was late coming out, and had to install via xp compatiblility function, then finally patched to use vista. nice, since can use on multiple computers, not sure if others offer that. on laptop and desktop, 1 left in case one harddrive crashes, which happened with an earlier version i was using on desktop, so just reinstalled.

[Irish Alan]

$50 is only €32 ... Kaspersky is €60 so a big improvement. Thanks again La.

[wazza]

IA

i use a free programme called Avast,

[BlueDragon]

Try using the new AVG free v8.0

[panick]

[Irish Alan]

My new notebook came with Norton Internet Security pre-installed. I am sufficiently impressed with it and it works quietly in the background with no irritating pop-ups asking me for permission to go to a particular site or load a particular application.

Today my trial period expired and I decided to purchase a 1-year renewal. I clicked through the options and as I was in Ireland when I registered I just went with that option but no it detected that I wasn't in Ireland and I couldn't move on. Okay sorry, I'm in Thailand... No! The system detected that I was in.................... Australia! In the drop down menu I only had a choice of Australian states and I need an Aussie postcode so I tried and tried and tried and eventually I Googled New South Wales postcodes and found one that was accepted by the Norton system.

I was very close to un-installing Norton and visiting a guy in the Complex tomorrow with some bogey anti-virus software.

I'm happy with the programme but why oh why do Symantec have to make it so difficult to renew? I just got my email with most of my Irish address but ending, Abbotsbury, NSW 2176, Australia.

[Fawn]

Norton is awful, it's too invasive for me. I had Kaspersky last year (OK) and AVG this year (again, OK). I won't go near Norton again.

[BobHelm]

I am also on AVG. Good program - for free but a full disk scan does take a long,long time on my LT (I imagine because it has a small memory).
I have an internet banking account with HSBC - I can load McAfee from my account for free, I guess through some deal HSBC have with them...

[rjj04]

Free firewall...it is called "Ubuntu" (and Firestarter if you really are paranoid) ... this is a crazy fascist loving thread. If you do not spend your days playing games, not sure why anybody would support a monopolistic tyrant... now with all the time I have saved in not worrying about a virus ... back to life

[Fawn]

I thought Ubuntu was a Linux based OS?

[Irish Alan]

Could it be Comodo free firewall?

[BobHelm]

I believe you are correct Fawn. Firestarter is also an open source firewall for Linux.
Maybe rjj04 is suggesting that it is better to use Linux free software than pay for Microsoft & then pay extra to protect your PC from the outside world because of the short comings of Microsoft...
On the other hand maybe he is encouraging everyone to do some serious dancing to Prodigy.
I think either is actually a good option

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[Fawn]

Never heard of Firestarter (the firewall not the tune). I'm using PC Tools Firewall Plus at the moment, a free download.

Edit: actually that comment above is quite boring. Who the hell cares what Firewall I use on my PC, I may as well tell you about my collection of Royal Albert bone china.

Get a life, sunshine.

[BobHelm]

Firestarter is unique to the Linux/Unix operating system (rather than Windows) Fawn, so I doubt if you would have had a reason to encounter it....

[Fawn]

I download a Linux OS from time to time and play with it/them on my P2 laptop. Ark Linux was the last one.

I really need to get out of the house, though.

[rjj04]

Yes, Bob understands. I just meant that Microsoft OS's have so many massive shortcomings that I just don't understand why more people do not try to move to a real OS. Sorry to harp on about it. Just remember the days
when I ran Windows, got a virus that wiped out my system... after that.. I wised up a bit I am an engineer, for 30+ years we have always used Unix in semiconductor engineering, so was hoping that the day would come when a Linux cut would work on a notebook easily, and that day has arrived with Ubuntu. Firestarter is a free (like most software for Linux) firewall for Linux systems. Don't really need it.... but what the heck it is free. Also have free virus scanners for linux as well, running in the background. In many years of Linux usage, never really seen a virus scanner catch a virus, because they just do not get into the system in the first place. ArkLinux... never heard of that one... actually I think if people in the Linux community would stop tinkering with soooooo many versions of Linux (not the kernel of course) and concentrate on one or two (such as Ubuntu), Microsoft and Apple would be blown away. Ooops sorry... dreaming again.

But, please give Ubuntu a try... I have installed it on a few different notebooks and although there are a few quirks sometimes to work out... it is very stable now I think. For instance, I bought a CAT CDMA modem at there office in town, and the technician there was amazed when I hooked it up (USB), and within seconds the device was recognized, enabled, and I was connected to the internet. Then I rebooted into XP (I have a small partition with XP on it), and tried the same thing. Hmmm, would not load the drivers correctly in XP, then rebooted, then finally after 10 minutes of trying(and another rebooting) to get the application that it needs to drive the modem going.. my goodness.. what a joke Then in XP, if you want to connect the modem you need the special CAT app running to "connect" and "disconnect safely" what a joke. It is a piece of hardware... the OS should control it.. should not need a special application for each piece of new hardware You can disconnect a USB device in Ubuntu any time without having to worry about not doing it "safely" hahaha crazy. It is only "unsafe" to Windows, because it is trash. Anyway, the technician at CAT was amazed how Ubuntu worked so seamlessly Even I hooked up my GPRS cellphone and it connected immediately.

You might want to just put a small Ubuntu partition on your system and try Ubuntu... if there is some problem... you can always reboot into XP/Vista.. whatever you are using. Just a thought. Only issue is with LILO or GRUB boot loaders.. but, should be okay I think.

[Fawn]

I tried putting Ubuntu on my P2 a couple of years ago but it wouldn't have it, laptop too old I s'pose.

[rjj04]

I see, I doubt if Vista can be installed on the P2 either? Probably the same situation.