vista advice

devizes18193

hi all ,

I getting a new lappie for my eldest 15. Its going to have vista preminium on it , is there any recommendation for firewalls and virus . Normally with xp I go for avg and zone alarm . would that still stand , oh and will fire fox work . Its an advent x6000 lappie

alanrowell

Yes, yes & yes

Though some people seem to prefer Avast as an anti-virus

devizes18193

thought as much ,Thanks

PiratePete

devizes18193 wrote: »

hi all ,

I getting a new lappie for my eldest 15. Its going to have vista preminium on it , is there any recommendation for firewalls and virus . Normally with xp I go for avg and zone alarm . would that still stand , oh and will fire fox work . Its an advent x6000 lappie

I use AVG and the latest version seems very good.
I used to use Zone Alarm but as they didn't support Vista for ages went with PC Tools Firewall Plus and find it very good. It doesn't hog resources and does everything that Zone Alarm does.

robt_2

If it is behind a router you don't *need* anything more than the windows firewall with Vista

Networkguy

The built in WIndows firewall is more than up to the job these days (as it was in XP) so just use that.

As for AV, as the others have said AVG and Avast are good for the money (free) and will provide perfectly good protection if you leave them to update automatically.

Windows Defender (also included with Vista and a free download for XP) will look after the spyware etc.

And finally, make sure you switch on automatic updates because even if you have a firewall, AV software and anti spyware, if your machine isn't properly patched, you might as well not bother.

BillScarab

I'd suggest you scan this forum for people's opinions on the latest version of AVG (AVG 8). Personally I use AntiVir with Vista and am very happy with it.

Personally I'd steer clear of the Windows firewall. It is much better than the XP one but outbound protection is not in place by default. I prefer Zone Alarm.

2Loose

The firewall in Vista is very good, but a sod to configure for most people.

Try Vista Firewall Control (free) which is an easy to use interface for handling two way traffic - (1.do I let that program send out to the internet, 2.do I allow that program to receive from the internet)

A doddle to use...