Currently I'm using the AVG free a-virus and the free Zone
Alarm Firewall.

Considering an upgrade to the AVG pro with firewall for about $60 aus for a 2yr license.

Zone Alarm have sent me an email today with their anti-virus and firewall on special for $20 us.

Has anyone had experience with either of these systems?

If so what do you think?

Well you could just buy a Mac and live a carefree life.....or......

Zone Alarm is excellent, no real need to upgrade it. Bit of a bityatch to start with till it settles down and you realise just how much crap is passing in and our of your PC unknown to you.

Definately install ZA before hooking up to the net via Broadband on XP.
Norton Anti is all good, as is McAffee. For most folks this combo will work tres well.

A cheap Dlink Router between you and your modem is a good idea too.

Run Adaware once a month - it's free

Get a 'start up manager' off Cnet.com - turn off all the sh*t that want's to boot when your 'puter starts up - like Office Updates - that is a massive rsource hog and slows things down. Make sure you know what software/spyware is loading when you start, this will make for happy webbing.

Keep away from Kazzaa - it's full of crap

Use Filetopia instead - better class of pirate (arrrggghhh)

BACK UP STUFF THAT IS IMPORTANT TODAY - else you'll be :cry when the enevitable happens.

....'puter not running as well as it once did, things taking ages to load or close....chances are that without a decent firewall, you 'puter has a secret life....

I just had problems with AVG updating so i went onto their site. they no longer allow the free edition only liscenced versions! Which explains why it won't update! Bastards!

VET antivirus is good, i go to the sketchy spots on the net, and have clicked on a few downloads that said "warning contains virus" nothing got through, it scans your mail for risks aswell $100 for first year, then $40 each year on

Boozer, Id check that, its still free mate..

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 

i use that, works well for me.

Yea I too use the Grisoft and did a update 2 minutes ago work fine.
I also use Microsofts free spyware software and Adware spyware as well and the free zone alarm all works great.

Marc

Macs are not immune to threats, sorry. Any computer is at risk regardless of what OS or hardware you are using (unless it is locked up in a cabinet with the power off ) I use Norton internet securty + anti-virus. Works fine, not too intrusive as its pretty easy to set the firewall rules. Also I use Opera to browse rather than IE which takes care of popups. Kazaa is pretty rubbish these days, but when I did use it I used Kazaa Lite which was a reverse engineered version which had the spyware removed from the installer.

Panda is great, http://www.panda.com,  cheap too, no worries since swapped from trend micro which was shit house..

Andy

i use nortons anti-virus with zonealarm on one comp and norton internet security on my main one as well as a router

i use nortons in virius and firewall and get updates till 2025

I have a Mac. I scan once per week with ClamAV just to make sure I have no PC critters, and use the inbuilt firewall to protect against the usual suspects, such as openssh attacks.

There are no in the wild worms, trojans or virii in the 10 year history of the NeXT/MacOS platform. Of course, as all software has bugs it's not invulnerable, so I'll keep my ear to the ground, but normal PC malware simply don't affect me. It's a lovely experience and well worth trying if you're sick of the daily grind. I use Safari to avoid spyware.

My PC uses XP's firewall - it's adequate for the vast overwhelming users. I like the Microsoft anti-spyware, and I use McAfee 8.0 for my anti-virus needs. I use Firefox as my browser, but I will change to IE 7 when it's released.

Andrew

I rate the Microsoft anti spyware as well.. Easy to install.. Not resource hungry and updates without your input

make sure you clean out Zone Alarm BEFORE installing Panda - Panda is not cute - and will clash and argue with ZA to the point it will halt everything - I know this as my brother in law came over and 'helped' my PC. Needed to download something he sez, not sure on what planet some people are at times.

So after 2 years of perfect PC running, the thing fell over and sulked. Shame they don't offer an anti-dumb relative option.

i use macos with clam once a week as vanderaj does... just to be courteous to my fellow windows users so i dont pass on anything inadvertantly nasty that they may have passed on to me...

having had much experience with my fellow windows users computers, i would reccomend AVG and bitdefender (both have very good free editions) which can run side by side and can usually pick up most nasties between them. zone alarm is good but is annoying for the first week while you set it up. also run adaware often and spybot search and destroy at least once a fortnight.
i havent had to resort to any other programs, except for one time, when i installed panda to pick up a very new and obscure virus, which i then deleted, only to find that 3 anti-virii caused the computer to have a koniption...*rolls eyes*

anyhoo, ive had avg, bitdefender, adaware, spybot and zone alarm running on my friends computers for many months now and therefore i dont get called up so much to come fix their machines!!

I use ZoneAlarm Pro with Anti-Virus.
Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy take care of adware and spyware.

avg still has the free option
zonealarm is still my personal fav for firewalls

nortons-UGGGHHH
its system hungry,i wont let it on my systems at all,its a major resource hog

it used to be good but no i like my system to run not clag...