Which is best for virus protection and what's difference between AV and a firewall

Reluctant_spender

tr3mor - have you tried microsofts Antispyware - free at the moment and it is updated on a regular basis. The only other one is a malware/trojan scanner - a free one is a squared - http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ it scans for a whole host of nasties. There is also a pay for version.

Malestrom

JimArnold wrote:

Persoanlly I choose to buy Norton Anti virus, use windows Xp builtin firewall and use SPYBOT free anti spyware

I wouldn't recommend XP's built in firewall as it doesn't block outgoing requests, only incoming. If you were to become infected with a virus then the first you would know of it is when your AV scan picks it up. By then it may already be too late. A decent free firewall such as ZoneAlarm or Sygate Personal Firewall will ask for permission when any process attempts an outgoing connection.

T4i

tr3mor wrote:

On my PC i've got...

Avast

Zone Alarm and a hardware firewall Router

Spybot and AdAware

Firefox / Thunderbird

I think that should be sufficient to stop all but the biggest moron getting any problems.

Not sure why you have both hardware and software firewalls. The hardware wins hands down as it inspects packets before it even reaches your p.c. NAT and SPI is a more than ok way of firewalling.