StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm asking because right now, I'm sick of Norton Internet Security 2008, and am highly tempted to uninstall it. However, I'm worried about how it will affect my PC's security, and have one other question.

1)Right now, I have the updated version of Spybot Search and Destroy, as well as the AVG free version and Norton Internet Security 2008. If I were to uninstall Norton Internet Security 2008, would it be better to install the full version of AVG, or just the free version? I would kind of like to have a firewall, since I occasionally look at porn.

2)Does the full version of AVG interfere with Bittorrent? I've read that somewhere, but I'm not sure of the source's quality. I do like to use Bittorrent, so it would concern me greatly if AVG Full doesn't work with it (the free version doesn't give Bittorrent any grief).

If I could ask another question, is the full version of AVG faster than Norton Internet Security 2008? I've heard that Norton is exceptionally notorious for taking up a large quantity of computer time and RAM, but I'm not sure how good it is by comparison.

I would kind of like to have a firewall, since I occasionally look at porn.

You kind of need a firewall all the time. Is the SP2 one active?

Why not use AVG Free with a free firewall?

Do you have any recommendations on free firewalls? Particularly ones that won't block Bittorrent?

Guardsman Bass wrote:Do you have any recommendations on free firewalls? Particularly ones that won't block Bittorrent?

Any firewall can be configured to allow BT access to the few ports it needs. The free version of Comodo was pretty good the last time I tried it.

The Windows firewall is pretty good actually, might not be as full featured as other firewalls, but it's nice and light, you can also set it up so it wont block any given process, so you just need to specify you don't want it to block your BT app, I'm using that and AVG Free, haven't had a virus or anything like it in ages.

I personally use AVg + ZoneAlarm. It ain't a bad firewall, even though the free version does not let you customize things too much.

Not sure why, I love the pop-up window asking if a certain program should be given access to the internet... it is annoying when it shows after you patch a program, but it's pleasant when it shows up to block things that really shouldn't be acessing the net (like a lot of installers).

I made just this same switch about two weeks ago, and I've noticed an upswing in computer performance without Norton. Even during a scan, I can use the computer, without it being uselessly slow.

As for a firewall, I've been using Kerio for a long time, with no complaints. It requires you to pay attention during the installation of new programs as access permissions are constantly prompted from the user, but it's very thorough.

I'm not using the Internet Security version, but at my office I recommended we switch from a half-assed Norton/Symantec setup to AVG Network Edition, which we did. It's just AV+firewall (no anti-spyware). Compared to the complains I got when Norton was installed, there's almost nothing now.

Crayz9000 wrote:I'm not using the Internet Security version, but at my office I recommended we switch from a half-assed Norton/Symantec setup to AVG Network Edition, which we did. It's just AV+firewall (no anti-spyware). Compared to the complains I got when Norton was installed, there's almost nothing now.

The new versions (8) of AVG antivirus includes the anti-spyware (the stand-alone antispyware app has been discontinued, AFAIK)