Which Anti Virus and Firewall (free of course)

[Beamish]

Just got a new laptop and was wondering which anti virus and Firewall would be best to download. The laptop is running vista and is a Dell 1545 Inspiron. Would you run Firefox over IExplorer? Any other good suggestions?

[cupasoop]

Would you run Firefox over IExplorer?

Every time.

Free anti virus here http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-v ... ee-edition

[Hankie]

For the cost of the OEM version you may as well get Kaspersky, I've got it on 6 machines here and it's good. Get for about 8quid:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... 64&subcat=

[Beamish]

Thanks for info but as per usual I start the laptop up and its full of Dells choices. Cant be assed going through the delete reinstall procedure but if I have any issues I will look at your options. Thanks again.

[andy c]

I agree with cupasoop avg every time
andy

[Frontslide]

Yes, AVG antivirus, Zone alarm firewall, firefox above ie AGV for head

[Kitch]

Personally, you don't need additional firewall software.

Windows firewall is very good, especially in Vista and you should always connect to the internet through a router with a hardware firewall. Sorted.

Adding extra stuff like Zone Alarm just increases your resource usage and slows everything down.

Same for antivirus. Yeah, AVG is ok, but shell out the money and get a top of the range professional edition of Norton or NOD32 or Kaspersky.

Best free version IMO is Avira AntiVir 9

Other recommendations:
Spybot Search and Destroy (Avira can do this too, but this is "best")
AdAware SE (Avira can do this too, but this is "best")
Firefox
Powertoys for Windows Tweak UI

[Beamish]

Well I binned the Dell uploaded poo and plumped for AVG, Commodo firewall and adware. thanks again for your knowledgeable answers.

[sirch345]

Well after being a fan and user of AVG's Anti-Virus for many years, I got fed up with AVG 8 being unable to update on so many occasions. So for the last few months after being recommended by quite a few in the know, I'm now an Avast convert. I must admit it is a little different to AVG, but it didn't take me very long to get the hang of it

Chris.

PS. Afaik XP firewall is not very good, as it only protects your computer one way, incoming. So if something nasty gets past the XP firewall it can send info back out undetected. A firewall like Zone Alarm protects your computer both ways, incoming and out going.

Vista firewall on the other hand is supposed to be good.

[mwad]

I too was going to suggest AVG

[firestarter1977]

firefox and antivir for me

[bikerpiker]

After problems with AVG updates im now using Avast anti-virus ,so far all good