Anti-virus/firewall advise

loyalstokie

I am currently using McAfee livesafe which will shortly expire (I got a good deal with a half price laptop case). To renew my subscription is £60, so that won't be happening!

Therefore I need some advise on what to replace it with. I am now using windows 8.1. When I was using windows XP I used Avast anti-virus, zone-alarm firewall and Ad-aware. Are all or one of these still a good option or is there an alternative? How good is the 'standard' windows protection now?

Thanks for reading.

esuhl

Avast is still good as an anti-virus. I use also use the Comodo Free Firewall (with HIPS/Defense+ turned off).

I don't know anyone still using Ad-Aware. It seemed to "disappear", shortly followed by Spybot. You can still download them, but I think MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware and adwCleaner are much more effective.
https://www.malwarebytes.org/
https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/

SpywareBlaster is also handy. It blocks malicious websites using browser blacklists:
https://www.brightfort.com/spywareblaster.html

Also, "standard" Windows protection is better than in XP. There's more enforcement of user-level security, and 64-bit OSes have additional protection. But you can still install some pretty bad malware, so don't let up your guard! :-)

forgotmyname

McAfee is the first thing i remove from anyones computer, what utter junk.

Comodo FW and Avast AV. But these have got bloatware over the years..

I remember whem Comodo was the bees knees, small and light package that installed quickly and did one job of keeping nasties from sending data in and out. Not it wants to make the tea and cook dinner and........

I am old school and i want the FW to do one job and be as small and fast as it can and the same from an AV, check files and let me know if anythings suspicious.

Avast popped up today and told me 55% of its users think my Dlink software is suspicious??

esuhl

forgotmyname wrote: »

McAfee is the first thing i remove from anyones computer, what utter junk.

Comodo FW and Avast AV. But these have got bloatware over the years..

I remember whem Comodo was the bees knees, small and light package that installed quickly and did one job of keeping nasties from sending data in and out. Not it wants to make the tea and cook dinner and........

I am old school and i want the FW to do one job and be as small and fast as it can and the same from an AV, check files and let me know if anythings suspicious.

Avast popped up today and told me 55% of its users think my Dlink software is suspicious??

Yeah -- I turn off a lot of both Comodo and Avast's features.

I don't use that "user pooling" thingy that gave you that message in Avast, and HIPS/Defense+ has to be disabled to make Comodo even slightly useful.

Avast reports that Comodo is incompatible with it and must be uninstalled, but it's fine on my PC (although obviously I'm not using Avast's firewall or Comodo's anti-virus).

wongataa

loyalstokie wrote: »

I am currently using McAfee livesafe which will shortly expire (I got a good deal with a half prise laptop case). To renew my subscription is £60, so that won't be happening!

Therefore I need some advise on what to replace it with. I am now using windows 8.1. When I was using windows XP I used Avast anti-virus, zone-alarm firewall and Ad-aware. Are all or one of these still a good option or is there an alternative? How good is the 'standard' windows protection now?

Thanks for reading.

Use the built in Windows firewall. It is perfectly good. Use the built in Defender for anti-virus. It works perfectly well and is not intrusive. Cost for all this is nothing and the computer will likely run better.

The standard Windows protection has been fine for years. Zone-Alarm, McAfee, Norton are terrible and resource hogs.

loyalstokie

Thanks for the replies. I only decided to go with McAfee because of the deal I got.
I have actually got ad-aware installed, but not running at start-up. I detected some cookies on the first scan, but nothing since.
Zone alarm was goo when I first used in but seemed to go downhill, so not to keen on installing it.
How good is the built-in firewall compared to others?
I remember people going mad about how good AVG was not so long ago. I tried it and didn't like it, is it worth giving that another go?

DCFC79

For a firewall Windows version is perfectly fine.

For AV I use Microsofts version and have used Avast.

moneyman1295

why don't you try Avast free and Smadav. .it good.

pmartin86

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/john-mcafee-mcafee-antivirus-one-worst-products-planet-1516462

Robisere

I use Kaspersky Total Security 2016 and Malwarebytes Pro. There are no conflicts between them and they cover all eventualities. Kaspersky can be bought as 1, 3 or 5 device downloads. At the end of the first 12 month's licence, the upgrade and download process is simple and easy. Kaspersky is NOT a resource hog, that is a common misconception, although other Security suites may be.

Kaspersky has its own Firewall which is much more efficient than Windows, which I turn off. If you have a decent router, that also has a Firewall.

Windows Defender and/or 'Free' AV's are inadequate, I turned off WinDef as soon as I could.

loyalstokie

It looks like I will be going back to avast! (with some features disabled) I've never paid for an anti-virus and never had any problems, so have no intention of paying for it now.
I've never really go on with windows defender. I want an AV that allows me to scan any files I download.
Does anyone else know about Smadav?