johnhook

essjay,

Everthing I've read seems to point to Zone Alarm and secondly Outpost as being the best software firewalls. From all the advice I've received from anti-malware user-to-user tech forums, NOD32 seems to be the best Anti-Virus software. I believe that Zone Alarm and NOD32 work well together.

Whatever you do, DO NO rely on the Windows XP or Vista built-in firewall as it's designed to basically block ports and addressed. A GOOD firewall will do all of that but actively scan for external attacks as well. The Norton product's firewalls did a good job of thwarting outside IP attacks - but this protection came at a great price; mainly drag on the system's resources and the inability to cleanly uninstall, re-install and upgrade. McAfee Internet Security products didn' have the same resource hogging and uninstall/re-install/upgrade issues as the Norton products and were decent with malware/virus detection/elimination, but weak in the Firewall attack department. After LOTS of research from folks who specialize in both AV/Malware and Firewall issues - I'm thinking that a combination of NOD32 for AV/Malware and Zone Alarm for firewall protection are the way to go. Avoid any mass-marketed (via TV ads) AV/Firewall programs that claim to fix ALL of your computer's problems. Avoid ANY product that is mass marketed via internet pop-up ads as well. Some of these products actually INFECT your PC will adware only to resolve it in an attempt to claim they're actually doing something productive.

- John

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