a fresh start

[crazykid48x]

ok im starting fresh. I just got through completly erasing my hardrive cause of viruses and spyware. Can anyone suggest the best antivirus and/or firewall that I can use too keep my computer 100% clean.

 

[narafa]

Well, there is not anti-virus and/or firewall that will keep your computer clean. There will always be pitfalls.

Mcafee is a great combo, it's an anti virus and the professional version comes with a firewall. Sygate personal firewall is a great one too, and it's FREE

 

[Grimulus]

I like Norton Systemworks. *shrugs* The only protection stuff it has is anti-virus but it comes with some decent utilities. Just make sure you have spybot and and ad-aware along with your anit-virus and you'll be fine.

 

[Byteman]

Viruses: Which ever one you use, keep it up to date. I like Nod32, Norton & McAfee are very good at what they do, but also take up more system resources .

Spyware: Download and install SpywareBlaster (free), update it and let it protect you. This is a good anti-activex/site protector and uses no resources. Also you will want to download another program like Microsoft Anti-Spyware, it's a real-time scanner and does very well, (and it's free).

Firewalls: I personally don't like software based firewalls. I use the router based on my linksys dsl router, it a statefull packet inspection fw, and the router runs NAT/DHCP. Most attacks from the Internet that use various ports won't get through, and seeing as how it's router based, I have no intrusive fw software screwing up things on my computer. It's up to you,... if you must have a sofware based fw, I've use Outpost Free before which did ok for software based... the default windows fw is really basic.

 

[Tha Killa]

Norton is my favorite
As long as you keep updating your definitions and stuff every week, you'll be find with it.