Two questions here for you guys:

1. Currently I have the Norton Firewall and Antivirus running on our home computers, but my subscription just expired, so I was contemplating dumping the whole package and picking up a couple of the free programs. What do you all recommend for a firewall, I figured for antivirus I would go with AVG, but need input on the firewall side.

2. When using Hijack This! I usually just run my logs through the Help2Go detective here: http://www.help2go.com/component/detective/ is this sufficient or should I be having someone with a little more knowledge than I look at logs occasionally?

Thanks guys!

Augie

just buy trend micro pccillin internet secuity 2006 for 40 buxs the best 40 buxs i've ever spent

Definitely uninstall Norton before you add anything new. Dumpin it will be good.

Shifty has a good thread of recommendations on free stuff,
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=195287

I think AVG offers a free firewall now also, but you have several other free ones that work very well.

What I do whenever my subscription is up is uninstall Norton Antivirus. Then I go into the registry and delete any registry keys containing "Symantec" or "Norton". Then I reinstall Norton and do liveupdate.

With the registry keys deleted, the computer doesn't think Norton was ever installed, so allows a reinstall without resubscribing.

You can use any Norton Antivirus back to 2002 on XP. 2001 and earlier won't work at all. The only thing you are gaining by going to a newer version is not having to download so many updates after reinstall. Some of the newer versions even have features I don't use or like. I bought a tower a couple years ago that had 2004 on it. It always wants to veryfiy things and creates rules for certain programs. All I want is a program to tell me when there is a virus on my computer.

bah, AVG is the best antivirus out there... my wife is prone to viruses and this has caught every one before it evengot saved to the computer... as a computer tech I suggest it to all my "customers"

After several years, I just dumped Norton. Had a virus that corrupted my registry. And I was tired of waiting when I opened a file or program. I followed Shifty's advice in the link above. My computer runs much faster, and will hopefully remain virus-free. 5 years ago Norton was the lead dog. I got tired of seeing nothing but axholes.

I like Trend Micro's product, but this is something to read:


Why popular antivirus apps 'do not work': Antivirus applications from Symantec, McAfee or Trend Micro -- the three leading AV vendors in 2005 -- are far less likely to detect new viruses and Trojans than the least popular brands.

Article: http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/securifythis/soa/Why_popular_antivirus_apps_do_not_work_/0,39033341,39264249,00.htm

As for "AVG being the best", for the record, a recent virus came out (can't remember which one) and someone did testing on all popular titles out ther eincluding AVG and Avast and AVG's heuristics scanning ranked really low - but not lower than some other household names. Avast has better heuristics. This is very important for "variants" of a virus - so, say some new variant of the MyDoom or Sober virus comes out ... even if you don't have a definition to ID that virus, heuristics might find a trace signature in an infected file that would tip it off.

Thanks everyone for the responses, I have already been using Housecall's free online scan about once a month or so so I am familiar with Trend Micro and will probably continue to use their online scan, but it looks like I may try Kaspersky's after reading the article shifty posted.

I know I probably should have posted a new thread, but does anyone have any input on my HiJack This! question?

For HJT logs, I do not trust automated scanners. HJT is a serious tool and if you kill some of the "questionable" things one of those automatic parsers might flag as "iffy", you could nuke your system or make some programs totally inoperable.

I advise everyone to always run a log past an expert if you are ever in question about an item - and, if possible, just create a new thread with a log. Nobody is going to get pissed at you over it. If you want to post requests once a month, just post them in the same thread you posted the original.