Avast free versus Norton IS

[James]

My Norton will soon run out. It is a suite with AV and firewall. Thinking about either renewing OR switching to Avast AV (free) and Windows firewall. Comments?

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[Mandrake]

Comments?

Paying for security software these days is crazy. Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast Free, AVG Free Edition etc are all good.

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[James]

Thanks, Mandrake. I suppose I'm overly sensitive about this since I'm forced to do a number of sensitive things online. I'm very interested in Avast. Have you used it and/or do you know what sort of hit it makes on your system?

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[Mandrake]

I've used it before and it's worked fine. It's not particularly resource intensive, but this is going back a number of years. Though all I use these days is Microsoft Security Essentials, since it's free and lightweight. I wouldn't worry too much about resource usage, provided you're running a reasonably modern PC with a muli-core CPU and plenty of ram there's really not to be concerned with in that department.

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[James]

Maybe MSE is the way to go. I'll check that out as well.

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[James]

Firewall? If memory serves, the Windows' firewall does not block outgoing programs. I'm using Windows 7. I do have a Netgear router and I know it has a good hardware firewall but I've been informed that I should also run a good software firewall as well. Is the Windows 7 firewall adequate or do others here use a free firewall (like the old Zone Alarm)?

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[iJohnE]

Richard, you may be interested in checking this out:
http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-sec ... sk3=comodo

I use it on all my computers now. And I have yet to have a problem with it. It does take a little bit of time to set up, but for a free program it's amazing.

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