Everyone has their own stories and own preferences which they are entitled to.. No one should force anyone into believing that one product is better than the other.. Do what I have and test them for yourself.. Read different reviews from sites which tested different AV products and know how to interpret the results..

Ive used Norton, McAfee and ZoneAlarm.. By far the worst in letting viruses get through.. Im using Kaspersky AV v6 and NOD32 on different machines and they both have different advantages.. KAV is great at detecting current viruses with is daily updates and great scanning engine.. NOD32 is great a detecting possible NEW viruses with its advanced hueristics engine, has a very fast scanning engine and uses less system resources to operate.. When configured properly is will be as good as any other AV product..

NOD32 is not really aimed at novice computer users and is highly customizable.. If your using the default settings your not running it optimally.. There is a nice article at Wilders Security Forum written by BlackSpear that helps explain all the settings and setting them up.. Its highly recommended that if your an NOD32 user that you take at look at this article..

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=37509

AOL has a free AV product which uses the Kaspersky engine called Active Virus Shield.. If your looking for a FREE alternative to protect your system this is a great product since its basically Kaspersky AntiVirus v6 but with a different skin..

http://www.activevirusshield.com/ant...eeav/index.adp

Theres a website that has reviewed the different AV products as well that I havent seen mentioned here which may help an anyones decision in choosing an AV product for their system..

http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/...p?id=82&mnu=82

As far as firewalls are concerned, Im using Comodo Personal Firewall v2.4.8 and Jetico v1 which are both FREE.. Both are great but Jetico is geared more toward advanced users since it doesnt have GUI's like other firewalls.. The plus is that its extremely light on the system.. My NOD32 and Jetico system is extremely faster with BootUp and App launch compared to my system with Kaspersky and Comodo running with a faster processor..

Basically I would only recommend that people try other software for themselves.. You may find that another product is better suited for you over what you currently have.. Thats how I dumped Norton, McAfee and ZoneAlarm (AV on ZA is horrible)..