Security & Fire Wall's

Anyone have suggestions for security for your notebooks?

I have Symantic Antivirus Corporate Edition on my notebook (IBM A30) and Zone Alarm Security Suite (but the free zone alarm firewall works great without all the features of the suite) and Spybot Search & Destroy.

which antivirus software is better? symantic or mcafee? i've heard that mcafee slows down your computer.

which firewall is better? Zone Alarm or AVG? there are some problems with Zone Alarm and Win XP being that it shuts down internet connectivity when left idle for so long.

What does everyone think of Spybot?

 

Symantec and McAfee are both enormous and bloated. They'll both slow down your computer, and be a bear to uninstall. I have heard good things about NOD32, in terms of running lightweight. I don't know about third party firewalls. You're probably fine with the built-in minimalist Windows firewall. (Does Win2k have a firewall?) I've had decent experiences with Kerio, though eventually I uninstalled it because of some conflict with some specific piece of software I was running. Apparently that conflict could have been ameliorated by using the paid version. It was just a toy for me though, so I uninstalled it instead of buying it.

I've heard lots of things about Spybot, so I don't really know what to think these days. It found spyware when I've used it in the past (on other people's computers ) There were things AdAware found that it missed, things Spybot found that AdAware missed, and stuff I found with HijackThis that both of those missed... yeah, I don't know.

Besides a decent hardware and/or software firewall, the biggest things you can do to keep viruses off your computer are behavioral. Don't browse the not-as-respectable websites with IE... Don't open email attachments ever, even from friends, unless you're expecting it and know what it is ahead of time... don't download and run programs that you aren't sure about... all the usual things.

 

Actually, Symantec Corporate edition is not a resource hog. So you could keep it and not notice any real decline in performance. The consumer editions of Symantec and McAfee are huge programs, resource hogs, and leave behind a lot of junk after removing.

A good AV program and a firewall, like ZoneAlarm, should work just fine. The occasional scan with a freebie like Adaware or Spybot will give you a little more peace of mind.

If you need to switch from the Symantec corporate, either Kasperskey Suite or the AVG suite would be perfect. They both include firewalls and both are highly regarded. Neither one is a resource hog.

On a laptop I prefer AVG's suite. On a desktop, I prefer Kasperskey. No real reason why, except AVG automatically detects different connections without any real user interaction. So you can switch from wired, to a domain, to a hotspot without any issues.