The Best anti-virus / firewall program for a PC gamer

Hi, I am a heavy PC gamer and I am not using any firewall or anti-virus program at the moment. I've heard bad things about Norton and McAfee and don't want to use those. Does anyone know which program works well without slowing down the performance of my laptop? Cheers.

 

Been hacked much?

Get nod32 and a wireless router. After that, you could use the windows firewall, it won't matter.

Of course the xp windows firewall sucks... the vista one isn't bad...

ZOne alarm firewall is never a bad thing.

 

I use a combo of Adaware SE by Lavasoft, and AVG Free by Grisoft. That seemingly simple combo has never failed me in two years of use.

 

Dude you should not be on the net without at least a anti virus software. The choices depend on which OS you are using. There are some free one for XP at www.zonelabs.com (firewall) and www.grifsoft.com (av). If you are using vista then you might try www.avast.com which is also free. Personally I stay away from McAffee because it is very much a resource hog. The new Norton Security suite 2k7 is supposedly light on the memory resources so that may be a try. It does cost though. My personal use is a corporate symantec av I get for free from my work and I use a router for my hardware firewall. Hope this helps, go get some protection asap!

 

Avast and Windows Default firewall.

Resident Protection Terminated for Avast.

 

All those programs will take up huge amounts of resources though. Nod32 takes up pretty much nothing, and it is one of the best at getting rid of viruses.

I'd also get a router.

 

Avast only takes up about 15mb without the resident protection.

 

I'm using windows XP SP2. Thanks for the suggestions. I've never heard of NOD32 before... Does Avast or AVG use much resouces or will it slow down the performance much?

 

What I do is I disable the anti-virus program from opening at startup by changing my msconfig options. When I need to scan or download new updates, I just open the anti-virus program.

I find that opening anti-virus programs during startup is really just annoying. Also, if there's this random cookie that's giving you trouble, Norton will pop up and go "TROJAN DETECTED" while you're in the middle of a game, and it's really frustrating because you'll crash to the desktop and be killed while your computer is frozen as it sllooowwwlllyy tries to alt-tab out of the game.

 

Yup. Use AVG antivirus, Windows Firewall and Lavasoft Ad Aware SE. Very light on the system.

 

I'm using Eset NOD32 anti-virus + Zone Alarm 7 firewall. It's a great combo.

 

What do you guys think of the new Norton 360? I heard it is low on resources using... Anyone here tried it?

 

Windows Defender

 

lol, good one!

 

Hahaha! :laugh:

 

I generally use Avira Antivir & Zonealarm, both are very light applications (and free), and haven't had any virus or malware problems while using them. In addition to those, i often run checks with Lavasoft adaware personal edit. and spybot to prevent spyware and other *ware getting in my comp.

 

I suppose NOD32 + a good firewall (currently non-existent for X64 =( )

 

Windows Defender is for spyware. It's not bad for cleaning spyware, pretty good actually.

A person needs the following:

Spyware cleaning (I suggest windows defender, or spysweeper)
Trojan blocker (Try the free version of A-Squared)
Anti-Virus (Try NOD 32)
Software firewall (Get zonealarm)
Hardware firewall (get a wireless router)

After that, you really won't hafta worry about a virus outbreak.

Some people would suggest spybot or ad-aware, the problem is, while being free, they are also easily hacked.

Windows Defender gets rid of alot of spyware, and is free, so I suggest it. If you want more protection, the best is spysweeper. It defends your pc, protects it, and slows it down as well.

Nod32 is one of the best at getting rid of viruses, not the best, but it also leaves the smallest file footprint of them all.

Zonealarm pro is the best firewall, if your willing to buy it. If not, regular zonealarm does the job.

You also need a trojan block. A-Squared gets rid of trojans that no other program does.

The best advice of course, is to not visit crazy sites.

 

I have PC-cillin And i have never had a virus. I play games just about everytime that im on my computer. It is wonderful, and it is about 45 dollars for 12 months. It was a great investment.