free internet security

[Nerfed]

So I'm watching my Norton Internet Security software count down til my subscription expires (soon) and I'm looking for alternatives. Friends tell me I'm over-paying for security by giving money to Symantec and there are cheaper and even free options available to me.

I've been told AVG has good anti-virus protection and Zone Alarm has a good firewall, both of which are free. I'm looking for additional opinions on the quality of them (my friends aren't much more computer savvy than I am, after all) or recommendations for something better.

So, any help?

[Quakester]

Those are both excellent choices! Avast! also offers good anti-virus protection. I don't know of a free firewall that compares to Zonealarm though.

[bpphantom]

I use Avast! for AV and just the Windows Firewall. If someone wants in, they're getting in. Zone Alarm is good, just cumbersome for my needs.

[Sebastian Kain]

I use AntiVir.

[bpphantom]

I use AntiVir.

Euro's!? You dirty foreigner!

:p:shinner: :chuckle:

[Joe Schmoe]

I use Avast! for AV and just the Windows Firewall. If someone wants in, they're getting in. Zone Alarm is good, just cumbersome for my needs.

If I'm doing the same stuff as Lolli, either I'm doing something horribly right, or Lolli is doing something horribly wrong. :lol:

[Nerfed]

Zone Alarm is good, just cumbersome for my needs.
Cumbersome how?

[Dr Jack Wolfe]

I like Avast, but I think it's cause it talks.

"Virus Database has been updated"

"Warning, virus detected "

Heh.

Also windows firewall, but I also have a pix on my cable connection.

[ThunderMace]

I use AntiVir as well, I think I turned on Sk to it. Works awesome and is Free.

[Kinetix]

I use AVG. All my friends either use AVG or Avast! Whichever UI you prefer, really.

[Murphy's Law]

I'm starting to wonder how much longer AVG will be free. I read that they were recently bought out by Symantec. Not sure if it's true or not, but if it is, AVG probably won't be around for much longer. I had the free 8.0 version, and recently it stopped working. Says my definitions are out of date, but when I run the updater, says there are no updates available :eyebrow:

I've been using Avira since then. Only thing annoying about them is there pop-up trying to get you buy the pro version, but you can get around that, see this site (http://www.tipsfor.us/2007/08/15/).