which antivirus and firewall for netbook?

S

sasa110

Disciple
hi,
i got this hp netbook, atom proc and all. installed Windows 7 (Ultimate edition) - this one is a stripped down version for netbooks.

I've initially installed avast and zone alarm, things are OK, though i'd want to make it lighter, if possible. following are the choices i got - please advice me on which combo would be lightest on the system (note: i'm only looking for free versions, not paid ones)

AV: avira, avast, microsoft security essentials, panda cloud AV, any other
FW: windows 7 default, zone alarm, comodo, any other
thanks.
 
AV: Microsoft Security Essentials is the lightest one and also supports real time protection.
FW: Windows Default is enough in my opinion.
 
you can use the default Windows AV & FW as suggested by @muzux2.

ZoneAlarm firewall is very customizable and gives lot of control over apps.

@mutant: nod32 is excellent but (officially) "paid" option. OP wants only freeware.
 
IMHO ...use Kaspersky Internet Security it is light and fast also .. have been using it for the last 2 yrs...
 
SOM1 said:
IMHO ...use Kaspersky Internet Security it is light and fast also .. have been using it for the last 2 yrs...
Click to expand...
no way bro its not that light i have an HP netbook [starting range] and faced problem even with avira ... later customized window and now its working good
 
to be honest there arent any Free Security suite or applications available which has been optimized for netbook's frugal processing capabilities

if you want to install a security suite in your netbook, you have no way but to go for paid

Norton has some netbook optimized versions available, you can check them out for a trial period and decide for yourself
 
Microsoft Security Essentials is free for use on licensed Windows OS. I am not sure whether it works on ahem versions.

I personally use Avast Home edition on my netbook, it is light on resources. For firewall, default windows firewall would be good enough.
 
Been using Avast and Windows Fire wall alongwith MalwareBytes Anti-Malware on my netbook for over a year.

Question to Avira users: About 2 years ago when I used to Avira the regular updates were very slow. How is the update scene now?
 
I have tried every single AV you mentioned here on my netbook and
MSE was light , but it takes too much time to scan even a pen drive, stay away if you use a lot of external Drives!
Avira didnt work on my netbook properly, always gave me errors :huh:
Panda doesnt detect a thing :mad:
Avast was very good, but a teeny bit heavy on the netbook!
Tried the Indian NPAV, It was Okeyish, but made the startup a bit slow and not free !
Quick Heal, Dont even think of putting it! My netbook failed to startup thrice after the installation, and worked like a snail!
Kaspersky- Same as above :p
Had Norton installed on the netbook when i got it, It was good for nothing:p !

I have been using Nod32 for six months now and i love it, Its Perfect, but NOT free!

Your best bet would be MSE or Avast :)

Never used a firewall! Isnt an AV more than enough??
 
thanks for the replies everyone!

the win 7 FW, as unanimously suggested here, is indeed lighter than ZA. AV, i'm keeping avast free edition for the moment, again, based on suggestions here. not trying MSSE at the moment - shall try it if avast doesn't work out.

had i not asked here, i'd have made the mistake of going for ZA+panda cloud. so, thanks once again everyone. :)
 
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