Hi all,

Just a simple question.

1. Which is the best free firewall?

2. Which is the best free Anti Virus?

Well Avast antivirus must surely be the best? Its free and some of the most tech-savy people I know use it. Never heard any complaints.

Well I had Avast and Mc Affee installed and recently my harddisk was wiped out due to some kind of Trojan or virus.

Also had Zonealarm running.

MC Affee found the virus and Trojan but was not able to clean or remove it, Avast detected nothing.

Did a leaktest at GRC and was able to connect with the server meaning it will not give full protection.

Zonealarm I mean.

That is why I am asking.

A decent OS could do the trick.

A genuine OS and Antivirus/Firewall is probably a good idea ... As for the rest, up to you.

Naka.

Well I had Avast and Mc Affee installed and recently my harddisk was wiped out due to some kind of Trojan or virus.

Also had Zonealarm running.

MC Affee found the virus and Trojan but was not able to clean or remove it, Avast detected nothing.

Did a leaktest at GRC and was able to connect with the server meaning it will not give full protection.

Zonealarm I mean.

That is why I am asking.

I also have McAfee and avast on my pc. I was told to stop running them both at the same time as they would conflict and slow down my pc considerably. Think I am going to have to nerd up and find out for sure.

A decent OS could do the trick.

Yea, I know I don't use ether and no problem, Opera takes the pop ups. Kmail takes the spam.  Life is good.

But, in the other one I use antvir and the XP firewall,  and its done a good job.

I think Avira is better than Avast now. I used to have Avast but it let all the flash drive bugs through, which was annoying. Avira seems to get those. It even detected a virus on our drivers mobile phone being broadcast over bluetooth

Firewall...sorry to say I have abandoned Zone Alarm. It used to be great but just starting causing more and more problems until it was unbearable - I think its' gone the way of bloatware. I just use the windows firewall now.