Page 1 of Antivirus & Firewall question

I`ve just signed up for broadband, while on dialup i have been using AVG & ZoneAlarm to protect myself online, my question is, will these programs be ok to use when i go over to broadband??, or should i be looking at other software??.

Thanks :)

I have used AVG and Zonealarm whilst on dialup and broadband and they both work great with no problems. They work the same whether on dialup or broadband.

They`ll work ok but it`s worth thinking of a modem router it`s hardware firewall is more secure than a software one and it won`t use up your computer`s resources.


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You should have both. NAt routers are generally pretty good, but they don`t stop all traffic from getting through. This is where it`s advisable to have a software firewall in place. Both pieces of software you mention will do the job, and I still use AVG myself. I ditched ZA in favour of Kerio some time ago, but Kerio has recently been dropped by teh company that made it.

This item was edited on Saturday, 18th February 2006, 21:58

I`m afraid a hardware firewall is NOT more secure than a software firewall. Both hardware and software firewalls implement their protection via software and the ones built into the router (at the server end, hence it`s called a hardware firewall) is not usually upgradeable whereas at the client end, you can install software updates to them easily.

The hardware firewall provides the first line of defence and is very basic. The software firewall will do the job of a hardware firewall anyway but manufacturers implement hardware firewall for basic protection when someone installs Windows on a new PC and logs on before installing the software firewall - of course this is not going to prevent the PC from all attacks but will give some form of protection in the short term against more established viruses and spyware.

In a nutshell, people should NEVER rely solely on a hardware firewall. It is a general misconception that they are like Fort Knox but that`s because many people do not know exactly what they are.

This item was edited on Sunday, 19th February 2006, 10:34

Thanks a lot for the advice, feel a bit better about it now.

Cheers :)

I was using Kerio Firewall for a while, but when the trial period ran out, started to have all sorts of problems with the free version with my home network. As I could not be bothered to spend a lot of time investigating it, I switched back to Sygate.

I have also found that Sygate seems to be a bit more stealther than Kerio (you can check your firewall here), so I feel happier with Sygate.

If you are interested in some other useful free stuff, look at the links given here.

Thats great :)

Thanks a lot :)