Best lightweight AV & firewall?

I was using AVG which was a horrible resource hog that fails badly in benchmarks so I moved to Norton and had a fantastic experience and it only used 10MB of memory. Now I would like a free security set.

I am currently using PC Tools Firewall is there a good combo you can recommend that has a light footprint?|

 

I would recommend using Micosoft Security Essentials and the Windows Firewall.

Both are free, lightweight, and work great.

 

panda cloud and windows firewall

 

I am really looking for application control most of all and Windows FW doesn't seem to offer that on XP. As for Security Essentials, the benchmarks I have seen shows that MS Security Essentials is worse than AVG.

 

Perhaps somewhere in your original post it might have been a good idea to share that information...

I would go with Panda Cloud as antivirus and search for an old version of Kerio Personal Firewall (2.1.5)

Last Freeware version: AI RoboForm, ShowCalc, Kerio Personal Firewall, eCleaner, MoveOnBoot, Abilon

 

AV-Comparatives - Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software - Welcome to AV-Comparatives.org

There you'll find the MS security essentials ranks right up there with the best.

You'll also find that Norton AV is no longer a hog of resources. Those are the two I'd recommend, one free, and one paid for.

 

Microsoft Security Essentials + Windows Firewall

 

But, as he noted, he has XP and he is interested in application control. Windows XP firewall won't cut it.

 

-> didn't say it in the first post

 

For lightweight AV I would choose Panda Cloud Antivirus:
DOWNLOAD FREE ANTIVIRUS - The first free cloud antivirus against viruses - CLOUD ANTIVIRUS
Be sure to read Panda releases version 1.3 of Cloud Antivirus - Security about getting the URL filtering, but without the toolbar (Gandalf hates toolbars ).

For lightweight firewall I would choose Sunbelt-Kerio Personal Firewall :
Free Firewall Software ? Sunbelt Personal Firewall
Download from here: http://www.filehippo.com/download_sunbelt_personal_firewall/
Or just use the build in Windows firewall and get application control with Windows 7 Firewall Control: Windows 7 Firewall Control : Sphinx Software
(don't get confused by the name, there is a free version also for XP).

 

Then also take a look at Online Armor free and Privatefirewall free for HIPS.
OA is bit more user friendly, PF is more basic.
For AV, the usual suspects; Avast, Avira or MSE, choose your pick.

Also take a look at EMET, a Microsoft tool that can force programs to use Microsoft's own safety measures DEP, SEHOP and ASLR (Vista/7). "A toolkit for deploying and configuring security mitigation technologies" as MS calls it.
This can prevent 0-day exploits in f.i internet facing apps. Free and 'set and forget'.

 

I use ESET Smart Security 4.2, it is one of the least resource hunger AV & firewall's on the market, and it does quite a decent job.

 

Another vote for MSE.

 

Honestly, all the current AVs are pretty good. There is no such thing as a perfect product. Things change all the time, so while at this moment in time product X is better than product Y, maybe next month, product Y will be better than X. IMO read the AV report summary and pick the product that you prefer the most (ie. if you have 2GB of memory, then go with the lowest impact performance - despite it might not being the best overall product or if that costs money, go down to the next free one).

 

Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 + Windows Firewall. On W7, it's pretty much all you will ever need in terms of security.

I know recent IE versions are vastly safer than older versions, if you use Firefox or Chrome you will probably be even better off safety wise.

 

I'll go for either MSE or Avast!, both are lightweight and good imo.

For lightweight firewalls either stick to default windows firewall or if you want more protection grab the Comodo firewall. It has been working great for me and many others and it's also very light on resources.

 

Im also on xp atm and i use avast. I had comodo installed and it did seem quite lightweight but it kept on popping up stuff that i couldnt understand. Im sure it works well but it seems to require a lot of research to make it an effective deterent.
Anyone try Zone alarm free fw on xp, or has anyone got a better/easier firewall recommendation?

 

Try Comodo

Free Download - The Best Firewall Protection and Anti-Virus Scan Software from Comodo

Can download free AV, FW and AV +FW in 32bit or 64 bit formats.

Cheers
3Fees

 

good product, but not sure I would call comodo "light weight"

 

Agreed, most definitely not lightweight!

 

The question was;

I'd suggest taking a look at PrivateFirewall; link.
Mind you, this is also a FW+HIPS combination so check out their 'product tour' to see if it's for you.

 

Thanks baserk. I tried installing online armor last night but it made my startups much slower. Im sure its because of some process i accidentally blocked, but imreally dont want to go through the hassle of reading a long manual ( comodos is 300+ pages long).
How effective is xp's firewall? I know win7's is quite good, im just not sure how good xp's is.

 

OA offers an option after install, to run an automated check on programs already installed.
If you are sure that your notebook is clean, it also offers an option to run as 'trust everything'.
In the first post, there is a link to the OA help pages (no 300 pages ) which list these options.

About XP, since XPSP2 the firewall is just fine for decent inbound protection.
Win7 FW offers more options for outbound protection/control but it can take quite some configuration.