antivirus and firewall

hey guys, I'm just about to uninstall AVG8 and am about to research for a new antivirus.
Can anyone recommend a good AV that is easy on system resources and a firewall thats
also easy on cpu/memory.

I'm currently using XP SP2 with a AMD64 3000 @ 2.0 mhz and 1.5G ram.

thx in advance for responding.

any reason ur removing AVG ?

i use AVG free edition and to be honest i find it better than Nod32 ,Norton etc ,its found stuff they have failed to find on more than 1 occasion.

if ur dead set against AVG then a know a lot of ppl speak highly of Kaspersky AV.

as for a firewall ,i cant really help ,i only use the built in FW and my routers FW,never really needed or wanted a software FW.

You definitely need a software firewall... your router's firewall won't stop dial-outs or program masquerading etc. Use Zone Alarm free edition to protect you from these kind of vulnerabilities... ZA is without a doubt one of the most widely used, tested and trusted free firewalls for Windows, so don't let other people recommend lesser products... and trust me, they will try.

AV software is a different kettle of fish... Some people swear by Norton (for example) others McAfee. When looking for good AV software, popular consensus should go a long way in helping you decide. When reading independent review sites etc, the names that consistently rise to the top of the pile for detection rates, accuracy and low system resources, are Nod32 and Kaspersky.

AVG comes highly recommended as a free AV, but is let down (compared to the above commercial apps) by higher false positive results than you would get elsewhere and slightly higher system overheads... If you don't want to spend money, stick with AVG, though, because it provides perfectly acceptable free AV protection

If you want to spend money on a commercial app... Kaspersky's probably the ranking contender at the moment (I use Nod32 so I can say that without being accused of bias).

I've been hearing and reading some good things recently about the Comodo Free Firewall, I've not tried it myself as I use ESET Security Suite personally, but Comodo is free and from what I've read, seems to be pretty good

I have a similar spec PC as yours. I used free AVG7 on all my (and friends) computers without any problems until I got a free upgrade to the basic AVG8. After this I had all sorts of problems including intermittent connection loss, firefox hanging for no reason, boot problems and programs failing to launch. All these problems disappeared when I uninstalled AVG. I now use Avast free antivirus and continue to use Sygate free firewall.

thx guys, the reason for the switch is the false positives I'm getting with AVG as Yourmercifulgod pointed out.

I'm currently using ClamAV which I am finding very unintrusive. I'll try your suggestions for the software firwall though.

thx

I paid for KIS7 for 3 machines. It's a bit obtrusive and I wouldn't recommend it unless you know what you're doing. Having said that I'm happy with it and have had no infections since I've had it. Neither has my 12 year old brat on his laptop and he's always downloading crap! Look for online coupons before you buy. I saved 33%.

@wildheart, ClamAV is known for it's poor detection and many security leaks.

Can't you tone down the 'heuristic scanning' a bit? That might reduce the number of false positives.

Personally, I use the free Avira AntiVir.

Comodo is certainly very good, as is Online Armour, but not the easiest to configure.

An extra alternative to use with ZoneAlarm is Sandboxie, not n AV solution but if you get used to it, much better for online protection than any AV.

If these are too difficult to use, then ZoneAlarm is good enough for almost everybody and if you dont like AVG then try AntiVir Personal 8.1.00.326

I use Comodo firewall pro. It's free and very secure. It's also find it to be one of the easiest to configure.

Hi All
Until recently I have been using AVG 7 free
found it to be great I then went to AVG 8
and like jiggiwiddit I am now losing connection
to my screen the PC is OK but the only way
to resume is to re-boot.
I have now uninstalled AVG 8 and I am considering
going to another A/V if necessary.
Has anybody found a way around
the prob I really like AVG

Cheers in advance

ive since dumped AVG8 and atm im using Avast Free ,so far it seems pretty good.

I can confirm, I've been using Comodo AntiVirus and Fire Wall Pro for about a year(both free), it's very light on system resources and very effective in it's job.

Before that I had AVG which seems really slow, then kaspersky-aol's ActiveVirusShield while it lasted. I gave kaspersky but I had big problems with it (possibly compatibility...).

But since Comodo everything has been running smoothly
If Avast proves to be not so good, give Comodo a try.