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I just want to break free..


hkspike

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GuysIf (maybe when) I come to my senses and rid all my PCs of Norton which seems to give me too many headaches, which apps would you recommend that I use to replace the critical functions of firewall and AV. I'm fairly happy with WinDef which seems to tick along ok. What else do I need? If there's quality stuff out there, that works and comes free, after years of paying Symantec to make me work, that would be nice. But not essential.TIA, Andy

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Which Norton software do you use? Here's my general suggestion list...AntiVirus: AVG Free/Pro, Avast Free/ProFirewall: Agnitum Outpost Free/Pro, ZoneAlarm

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My own personal preference for a free AV is Avast. However, I think you would be missing a bet if you did not try a couple of paid AVs, KAV6 and NOD32. Give them a try and see how they run.Hope you don't have problems uininstalling NAV.Probably the best value for a paid AV is Bit Defender. However, recently they have updated it and it does not play well with some other security apps.Jerry

Edited by JerryM
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henderrob

I removed Symantec Anti-Virus 2006 and Zone Alarm Pro in favor of a free kit from our ISP - Shaw Cable.It is based on F-Secure but includes A/V. F/W, anti-spam. Machine loads quicker and seems quicker.

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redmaledeer

The free antivirus Antivir would seem to deserve mention. I haven't used it myself, but it is often stated to be comparable to the free Avast. I have happily used the free AVG antivirus. But in tests it pretty regularly comes out as substantially less effective than Antivir or Avast. AVG is said to be easy to use, and perhaps that is a reason for its popularity. Of course, it is hard to say that one antivirus program is better than another. Surfing habits and other protective programs vary greatly, and that muddies the picture.

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The free antivirus Antivir would seem to deserve mention. I haven't used it myself, but it is often stated to be comparable to the free Avast. I have happily used the free AVG antivirus. But in tests it pretty regularly comes out as substantially less effective than Antivir or Avast. AVG is said to be easy to use, and perhaps that is a reason for its popularity. Of course, it is hard to say that one antivirus program is better than another. Surfing habits and other protective programs vary greatly, and that muddies the picture.
AV Comparatives shows a high detection rate for Antivir. Better than Avast and AVG, but I understand the free verson does not include a pop3 scanner . I am not sure about the details of that so one should check it out.http://www.av-comparatives.org/Jerry
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There are a lot of personal preferences in this issue that might be more of a Psychological "thingy"rather then technology. In most cases you can not go wrong with the applications mentioned in this thread.I use as active Guards (I.e. Starts at Boot and stay active).1. The Firewall part of NIS 2003 (it scans pop3).2. Antivir3. Microsoft Win Defender.I keep (not as active) few freeware applications (like Ad-ware) for occasional scanning.In case of a Network, I stay away from ZA like it is the “plagueâ€.Assemble a Freeware Security suit for Internet Connection Protection.]Jack (MVP-Networking).

Edited by JackR
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GuysIf (maybe when) I come to my senses and rid all my PCs of Norton which seems to give me too many headaches, which apps would you recommend that I use to replace the critical functions of firewall and AV. I'm fairly happy with WinDef which seems to tick along ok. What else do I need? If there's quality stuff out there, that works and comes free, after years of paying Symantec to make me work, that would be nice. But not essential.TIA, Andy
man, do I have to agree. The 2002 version lost its subscription infomation on an XP and is insisting we reinstall, which of course is not doable nowadays.On another pc running XP, the 2006 is insisting the subscriptin has expired even though it is only 5 months old. ;) to Symantec
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There are a lot of personal preferences in this issue that might be more of a Psychological "thingy"rather then technology. In most cases you can not go wrong with the applications mentioned in this thread.I use as active Guards (I.e. Starts at Boot and stay active).1. The Firewall part of NIS 2003 (it scans pop3).2. Antivir3. Microsoft Win Defender.I keep (not as active) few freeware applications (like Ad-ware) for occasional scanning.In case of a Network, I stay away from ZA like it is the “plagueâ€.Assemble a Freeware Security suit for Internet Connection Protection.]Jack (MVP-Networking).
HI Jack,Does Antivir scan incoming email, or do you leave that to the NIS firewall? I never thought of a firewall scanning incoming mail for viruses.Thanks,Jerry
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Guitar Man
redmaledeer Posted Today, 06:06 AM I have happily used the free AVG antivirus. But in tests it pretty regularly comes out as substantially less effective than Antivir or Avast. AVG is said to be easy to use, and perhaps that is a reason for its popularity.
JerryM Posted Today, 10:11 AM AV Comparatives shows a high detection rate for Antivir. Better than Avast and AVG
I've seen tests involving AVG that confirm this too. But ever since I replaced Norton with AVG Free close to 3 years ago, I have never been hit with anything. Nada. Zilch. For that reason alone, it remains. :blink:
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Most of the people I know who use anything except Norton, and McAfee use AVG free. Not one has ever had an infection to my knowledge. "If it ain't broke don't fix it."None of them surf risky sites, and that is an important aspect.Jerry

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Guitar Man

AVG just works. It's stupidly easy to set up, and once the schedulers are set, you never have to touch it again. The def updates come in almost on a daily basis. These are the things I love about it.But that's not all that is required to be protected. One must have a true "layered protection" setup, including a proper 2-way firewall, SpywareBlaster, StartupMonitor and Ad-Aware. But again, that's only my setup.To each his/her own...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I settled on KAV6 for my desktop. It runs light, scans very fast, has a high detection rate, and runs well on my machine.I have left Avast Home on my laptop, and along with Ewido, I believe that I am as secure as I need to be. The layering of Avast and Ewido significantly improves the trojan detection, and that is where Avast falls short according to AV Comparatives. I have never tried Avira free, but the lack of pop3 scanning in the free version makes it unsuitable for me. Otherwise I would probably use it due to the great detection rates.Jerry

Edited by JerryM
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  • 1 month later...

OK guys. Finally binned Norton from this PC - rest to follow. But....Having decided to install ZoneAlarm's free firewall, how do you set it up? It runs a nice on-line tutorial but the actual screens don't look quite the same. Most of it is working fine except the wireless network around the house which it totally shuts down with a nice friendly alert. But that alert doesn't offer me the option to ok the connection to/from another PC.So, please, how do I tell ZA's firewall about the standard wireless network and other PC that can share files?TIA, Andy

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Having decided to install ZoneAlarm's free firewall, how do you set it up? It runs a nice on-line tutorial but the actual screens don't look quite the same. Most of it is working fine except the wireless network around the house which it totally shuts down with a nice friendly alert. But that alert doesn't offer me the option to ok the connection to/from another PC.
You need to add your network IPs (if you use static IPs) or DCHP pool IPs (if you use DHCP) to the trusted zone. I don't have ZA installed here, so I can't give you step-by-step instructions.Actually, I found a screenshot of where you need to be:http://www.dslwebserver.com/images/sbs-zon...onfigure/28.gifClick Add >> and select the option according to your network setup (static or DHCP).
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I run ZA (older free version) and have one computer connected with a wifi card; all the others are hard wired.Click on the left menu, Firewall. Then zones and at the bottom, click add. Then select IP Range from the menu. I called my choice network and put the range from 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1. 255 ; I suppose I could limit it a bit further but it works so I'm not "tweaking" it.

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Guest LilBambi

The following has always worked for me and for simple networks I have set up for clients.Actually with the newer versions (since v6.x) just make sure you are connected to the Internet during the install, and let it autoconfigure. It has found all the networks, wired or wireless doing it this way since 6.x (after they fixed their problem when 6.x first came out). It's been rock solid.If your configuration is to also allow local shares between computers on your local network, you will need to add the IP addresses of those computers on your local network (where zlim was talking about ).note: I would suggest being specific and name each 'connection' by computer name to help you later when you may not remember the numbers or need to change the addy for a specific computer.And be sure to choose the trusted rather than Internet for these local network IPs. Using the IP range would also work, but again, be more specific than a huge range. You can always add another IP address to the range later, or add another computer's IP addy separately later.Just my two cents. :thumbsup:

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I run ZA (older free version) and have one computer connected with a wifi card; all the others are hard wired.Click on the left menu, Firewall. Then zones and at the bottom, click add. Then select IP Range from the menu. I called my choice network and put the range from 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1. 255 ; I suppose I could limit it a bit further but it works so I'm not "tweaking" it.
That would do it (obviously, you're using DCHP). If you do want to limit it, your router's control panel will have an option to specify the DHCP pool.
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If you do want to limit it, your router's control panel will have an option to specify the DHCP pool.
Would that be the spot where I've limited the Maximum Number of DHCP users? I do have mine set low. Edited by zlim
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Thank you, kind people, for your replies/thoughts.A more user-friendly interface would be welcome but....it's free.One more small question: I keep getting a nag that says:"The firewall has blocked Internet accessto 205.252.144.28 (DNS) from your computer.Program: Generic Host Process for Win32 Services."Is a DNS look-up dangerous these days? svchost.exe runs in many forms all the time. The IP address appears to be my ISP. Why is this call blocked? Should it be? If safe, can I tell ZA to ok it? Always?Andy

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I allow because your ISP translates what you type into DNS to serve you the correct web page when surfing. If it isn't working, you get 404 errors.

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205.252.144.28This URL does not reslove...
C:\Documents and Settings\Michael>tracert 205.252.144.28Tracing route to 205.252.144.28 over a maximum of 30 hops  1	<1 ms	<1 ms	<1 ms  192.168.0.1  2	 6 ms	 7 ms	 6 ms  10.55.64.1  3	 8 ms	 7 ms	 7 ms  rdl3-pos3-4.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.192.117]  4	19 ms	19 ms	20 ms  mas2-ge0-3.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.29.129.177]  5	18 ms	19 ms	20 ms  mas3-ge10-1.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.29.141.5]  6   179 ms   180 ms   182 ms  203.208.191.5  7   177 ms   178 ms   178 ms  4.78.194.89  8   176 ms   177 ms   177 ms  ae-13-55.car3.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.68.102.142]  9   177 ms   178 ms   177 ms  reach-level3-ge.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.68.111.138] 10   175 ms   175 ms   176 ms  i-1-2.wil-core01.net.reach.com [202.84.251.213] 11   358 ms   357 ms   357 ms  i-2-0.tmhstcbr01.net.reach.com [202.84.144.1] 12   389 ms   404 ms   400 ms  unknown.net.reach.com [202.84.153.222] 13   358 ms   358 ms   360 ms  i-10-1.tmhstcar01.net.reach.com [202.84.153.213] 14   359 ms   360 ms   358 ms  unknown.net.reach.com [134.159.128.150] 15   357 ms   357 ms   357 ms  pcd507073.netvigator.com [218.102.39.73] 16   359 ms   359 ms   360 ms  205.252.144.28Trace complete.

I couldn't resolve the IP to a host name though.

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I would go to your Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Services and scroll down through the list clicking on each one that is running to see what is running a svchost routine and why. It's a handy tool but it won't tell you where it is trying to connect but it could tell you why.

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Thank you, all!I'm fairly sure that address is my Internet Service Provider.I seem to have 5 or 6 instances of svchost.exe running. These say they are running: TCP/IP NetBios Helper, Wireless Zero Config, Windows Time, WIA, Firewall/ICS, Windows Audio, WbClient, Task Scheduler, System Restore. Pretty boring stuff.No 404 errors and no kids shouting at me - so I guess life goes on.Andy

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Guest LilBambi

Hi hkspike, I found this on Google but can't read it since I don't speak the languages shown. Maybe you can read at least some of them. Looks like one might be your webpage at hk.geocities etc.??Here's what I found:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=...5.252.144.28%22When I do a HOST on that IP address (copied and pasted it to a terminal window to check), I get NO host information either about that IP address, not even info on the ISP it's attached to. It's like it's non-existent. Maybe that's your IP address not DNS? Which would be an odd thing too, unless you are running named and running your own dns server locally?

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Nice idea but sadly after 14 years, I still don't speak a word of Cantonese (ok maybe a dozen) but I certainly don't read it!The issue does not seem to be stopping anything so I guess I'll not worry about it.But I would like some other help: my hp iPaq 4700 synchs beautifully but my wife's 1950 gets blocked. Yet I see no red X in the firewall. Any ideas?

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