Antivirus and firewall advice

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:01 am

I should be getting a new BB ISP soon and I guess I’ll be getting back into online gaming again soon so I need to update my protection software. I'll be getting a ADSL USB Router to help the software firewall.

Has anyone had any experience with NOD32? Is it good at its job or would I be better off with McAfee 10?

I’ve can get a copy of Zone Alarm Suite or could I do better?

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:05 am

Sygate personal Firewall is getting good reviews when I ask around for a new firewall.

I'm on Kerio personal Firewall right now and it's great. However I've been told it will soon be discontinued. Not sure if this bothers me or not, because with a firewall I dont really care about having the most current version, as long as it works

Zonealarm I've had problems with... high CPU usage with high traffic, odd problems with demanging programs (Bitorrent clients and games). I wouldn't recommend Zonealarm.

On the router side of things, if you can go with a network-attached router rather than a USB solution that would be better I think. USB modems/routers use some system resources to operate and are sort of unnatural. The only reason they exist as USB devices is to make setup easier for users with low technical knowledge, aside from that I dont see any advantage to USB-based networking equipment over traditional network attached devices.

Post by **4days** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:10 am

adsl router/hub/firewall instead of that usb doofer and a copy of avgfree.

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:15 am

Cheers, I'l have to see what BT can send me or look at buying one

Post by **SOAPboy** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:23 am

Antivirus
Panda
or
Trend

Post by **4days** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:31 am

panda?

must be a different product. the only anti-virus app i've seen called panda is a terrible resource-hog.

Post by **PhoeniX** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:41 am

I'd get a propper router (i.e. connected to your PC via a network cable, with built in firewall) then you won't need a software bsaed one (unless you're really paranoid).

For the virus software I use Avast http://www.avast.com/ it's free, however the professional version is much better if you want to get it.

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:46 am

Oh the router BT send is the two rj45 port version

Post by **SOAPboy** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:52 am

4days wrote:panda?

must be a different product. the only anti-virus app i've seen called panda is a terrible resource-hog.

Well, i personally never run 24/7 AV anyways, so its only running when im scanning, and its a damn good AV for finding and killing virii..

and i never thought it was to bad on resources.. tho im not running a old 4 year old computer either

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:55 am

Doombrain wrote:Oh the router BT send is the two rj45 port version

Sorted.

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:57 am

innit

Post by **4days** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:11 pm

SOAPboy wrote:Well, i personally never run 24/7 AV anyways, so its only running when im scanning, and its a damn good AV for finding and killing virii..

and i never thought it was to bad on resources.. tho im not running a old 4 year old computer either

might look at it again then. i only ever think of computer stuff in terms of sorting out other peoples machines, so 9 times out of 10 i'd ask them to leave their anti-virus running all the time.

Post by **MKJ** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:24 pm

the plural conjugation of the -us suffix is -i.
therefore
viri

fag

Post by **chopov** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:01 pm

I have Sygate Personal Firewall and BitDefender as anti virus prog. Running for a good year without any problems.

Post by **Giraffe }{unter** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:42 pm

External hardware or NAT firewalls (ie. Linksys Routers) are more user friendly than software firewalls. Also use no resources.

Symantec's new scan engine detects and protects against spyware now as well and does a damn good job at it. If you can get your hands on SAV 10 corporate edition you will not be disappointed.

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:56 pm

Giraffe }{unter wrote:External hardware or NAT firewalls (ie. Linksys Routers) are more user friendly than software firewalls. Also use no resources.

More user friendly? I don't agree. Configuring port forwarding on a network attached router is no simple task for joe average.

Comparitively, being asked 'do you want this application to be allowed to access the internet?' is pretty straight forwards.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:06 pm

no, not as user friendly as software firewalls, but there are very few instances where you need to forward ports anyway. agreed, it's not for your average shmuck, but really, since you need to change the password and possibly set up wep, port forwarding is much easier than the latter.

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:11 pm

uPnP is making things better, but with the increase in internet-aware applications, port forwarding is a really common occurance without uPnP.

Almost every multiplayer game and P2P program require ports to be mapped one way or another.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:36 pm

p2p yes. i've never had to configure netgear or linksys routers for online play for any multiplayer game unless i was hosting though.

Post by **Giraffe }{unter** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:44 pm

Foo wrote:
Giraffe }{unter wrote:External hardware or NAT firewalls (ie. Linksys Routers) are more user friendly than software firewalls. Also use no resources.
More user friendly? I don't agree. Configuring port forwarding on a network attached router is no simple task for joe average.

Comparitively, being asked 'do you want this application to be allowed to access the internet?' is pretty straight forwards.

I'm just going by all the calls we get for morans who install firewall software, those with routers never call, they also just user their computers for standard web browsing and VPN.

Port forwarding on most new routers is cake, the section is even labeled apps and gaming. Software firewalls tend to spark paranoia and setup allot of false positives.

Lastly we're talking about Db here he's not your average PC moron, he seems to have some experience here

and if he's gaming I am sure he would appreciate all his resources going towards the games not monitoring all the incoming and outgoing packets