ZA's antivirus is not all that great, the firewall is decent enough for most users though..

I gave up on ZA several months ago and decided on a separate AV and Firewall solution for myself which Im very happy with.. NOD32 and Outpost have been an awesome solution for me and nothing gets by them..

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seite...se_2007_05.php

ALL HAIL NOD32

NOD 32 rules ! And best version is 2.5

Look at the stats, Nod32 is good but Kapersky rules.

Indeed it does

I use McAfee AV and Firewall. No conflicts or problems that Norton has. I also use AVG on my HTPC with Zone Alarm. I use Firefox browser. Never a popup.

Been using AntiVir with Windows own firewall for 8 months...nothing getting through.
Scan with AdAware and Spybot, and run CCleaner regularly...good so far.

Worth trying...a free online scan with Trend Micro ...I ran this at work and Norton Need I say more?

yeah you wish...i actually used kaspersky for 2 years then switched over to nob32 because kaspersky didnt work well with a vpn i use for work

Interesting read. Looks like AOL is on McAffee now, so the free Kaspersky is gone?

I think I will give this setup a shot:

AVG antivirus freeware
AVG antispy freeware
Zone Alarm firewall freeware


I was able to get a 1 year freebie of the full Zone Alarm ISS, but from the sounds of it I am better off just using the free firewall and leaving the antivirus/antispy up to a more capable program.

thanks to everyone for the input and for keeping this useful thread alive

NOD32 has such a small footprint and uses a whole lot less resources than Kaspersky which makes it so much faster.. Im not saying Kaspersky is bad, its actually quite good and on par with NOD32, but it is a system resource hog..

And yes, AOL is using McAfee for their free version of AV..

As far as free AV, AVG is the choice to beat..
SpyBot for Anti-Spyware.
Comodo Firewall is a personal favorite for free firewall.. ZA is not bad either in the free dept..

With Kapersky you have to actually know how to use the settings, I also have it on a Virtual Private Network and if you are behind a router you have to disable the firewall. Other than that both are good but I think Kapersky is the best.

As per AV-Comparatives there is no clear winner between the two.. .0.86% difference doesnt make Kaspersky THAT much better than NOD32..

Detection of polymorphic viruses:

Kaspersky - 98.46% detection rate
NOD32 - 97.60%

Both achieved the ADVANCED+ rating

Retrospective/Proactive detection of (NEW) viruses:

Kaspersky
False Positive reports - FEW
On-Demand Scan Speed - SLOW

NOD32
False Positive reports - NONE
On-Demand Scan Speed - FAST

Both achieved the ADVANCED+ rating

The latter is far more important to me..

that is an old test...and the link didnt work
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seite...se_2007_11.php
avira beat nod and kav anyways lol

The link you provided does not work either.

Download the pdf here

November 2007 - http://www.av-comparatives.org/seite...e/report16.pdf

You have to look at the whole picture, the underlying point below is very important.

But it does make it better. I admit not that much but better all the same.

NO false positives and a fast scan speed make up for NOD32's slight shortfall in regular detection..

My very first post

I make use of Avast! Version 4.7 Home Edition , a free AV which once saved me from an awful attack on my computer and made me its supporter (the story is that I was downloading from the P2P network, had turned off my Windows Firewall and was relying only on my AV that suddenly noticed numerous warning messages generated nonstop by avast! saying that its Network Shield had blocked DCOM Exploit and LSASS Exploit attacks from some local IP's , attacks were stopped upon turning on the firewall but that made me think quite high of avast! and become quite faithful to it ).

Nothing can make up for a shortfall in detection.

Your only considering detection of current virus samples..

ProActive detection of "NEW" samples, NOD32 catches 71% while Kaspersky catches only 40%.. Thats a noticable difference..

Many viruses and their variants are written everyday and sent to infect computers around the world.. It takes time before AV vendors get a sample and virus databases are updated to isolate and contain them.. Id much rather have a balanced AV which gives me the most optimal protection which includes viruses that are not yet known..

Hi,Any AV software can only be a second line of defense. That's why I prefer a very restrictive system configuration.

Application software that requires administrative permissions or wants write access to %program files% or even %windir% is considered crap and will be deleted immediately.

Michael