Metropol

I've heard some good reports about the free anti-virus protection from "Avast". But have also heard that ZoneLab's free ZoneAlarm Firewall could clash with it?
I have Windows XP on a broadband connection.
Does anyone know if I could experience any problems with this latest combination please?
Thanks.
Malc.

you may want to contact zone labs directly about this - i've had a search through the newsgroups and a few tech websites and they all flag up problems with this combination.

i guess if you really take your security seriously it's probably a better deal all round to purchase an integrated solution like the mcafee or norton internet security suites.

I use Avast antivirus and Kerio Personal Firewall (both free), and there doesn't appear to be any problems with this combination.

Dr Lobster* wrote:i guess if you really take your security seriously it's probably a better deal all round to purchase an integrated solution like the mcafee or norton internet security suites.

IMO, Norton or Mcafee "home" versions of their antivirus and firewalls/suites are the worst thing you could put on your machine. They're horribly bloated and rather clingy to your system. I'd recommend you steer clear to be honest.

i conceed they do perhaps consume more memory than they should but the most recent versions of mcafee and norton have impressed me and i vowed to steer clear of them a while back. they seem to uninstall easier and the interface is a lot clearer. it's deployed as standard accoss some of our laptops and we don't have any issues with it so from this experience i can only recommend either products if only out of simplicity and technical support quality.

I use Sygate and AVG. At the moment mind I'm on my new PC so all I have is the SP2 firewall.

Oh, Sygate has been bought by Symantec and their firewall has been discontinued. How nice. tsk.

Thanks for all your advice. It looks as though it is probably not worth me investing another £40/50 in MacAfee. Maybe I will try one of your free combinations you list above.