Recommend a good free internet security program please

LiquidSnak · 14 Oct 2010

CarlTR6 said:

I do not recommend Zone Alarm for a Win 7 system. It is almost guaranteed to cause crashes on most Win 7 systems. We work BSOD's nearly everyday where ZoneAlarm is the cause or one of the causes. I do use ZA on my XP system.

Did not know this, thanks for the info and I will pass it along as well, if you don't mind :)

CarlTR6 · 14 Oct 2010

LiquidSnak said:

CarlTR6 said:

I do not recommend Zone Alarm for a Win 7 system. It is almost guaranteed to cause crashes on most Win 7 systems. We work BSOD's nearly everyday where ZoneAlarm is the cause or one of the causes. I do use ZA on my XP system.

Did not know this, thanks for the info and I will pass it along as well, if you don't mind :)

Certainly, it may help someone avoid problems. :)

PooMan UK · 15 Oct 2010

Thanks very much for everyone's comments and input. It's really appreciated.
Looks as if MSE is the way to go.

hackerman1 · 15 Oct 2010

PooMan UK said:

Has anyone got any good recommendations on some good "easy to use" free internet security software please ?

I've done some research into the following but would like to have your opinions on the best way forward ...

Online Armor
ZoneAlarm Free Firewall
PC Tools Firewall Plus
PrivateFirewall
Comodo Firewall Pro
Agnitum Outpost Firewall

Nick

Antivirus: MSE
Firewall: Online Armor / Comodo

Zonealarm has already been mentioned as causing trouble, but it´s also a bad firewall.

Windows firewall is also bad, i know because i´ve tested different firewalls with Comodo´s Leak Test (CLT) & CPIL, and Windows firewall wasn´t any good.

Outpost-free doesn´t work on Windows 7 (officially), although i discovered how to make it work.

Golden · 15 Oct 2010

I have used AVG Free in the past. You may want to consider that too...

hackerman1 · 15 Oct 2010

Golden said:

I have used AVG Free in the past. You may want to consider that too...

many people have used AVG, including myself, before MSE was available....

but AVG is also causing trouble, there are other threads about it.....

take a look at the forum.

do NOT use AVG !

karlsnooks · 15 Oct 2010

PooMan UK said:

Thanks very much for everyone's comments and input. It's really appreciated.
Looks as if MSE is the way to go.

A wise decision and glad that we could provide you with information to assist you in your decision making.

thefabe · 15 Oct 2010

I also would say MSE or Avast home free

yowanvista · 15 Oct 2010

MSE with MBAM

malexous · 15 Oct 2010

Leak tests aren't a good way of showing how well a firewall will protect you. Windows 7 Firewall is fine but if using an earlier Windows operating system, you should use a 3rd party firewall for outbound protection.

Just changing anti-virus isn't good enough, in my opinion. No anti-virus is 100%, especially against rogue/fake applications.

You should educate them more on what they should look out for. If you don't have the time, find a good article that you can link them all to/print out. An example regarding fake anti-virus:

Show them what their anti-virus' pop-up should look like. If they get a message claiming an infection, whether or not it looks like it comes from their anti-virus or something else, tell them to close their browser (though, some malicious scripts will prevent it), update their anti-virus and on-demand anti-malware and do a complete/full, successive scan.