IE7 users: which firewall and AV software do you recommend?
 

Since the latest Microsoft updates caused a conflict with my Symantec Norton Internet Security firewall, I've been using the Windows firewall. But now I've discovered that my Norton Antivirus software turns off the WinICF every time I reboot.

Microsoft, of course, blames all problems on NAV.

Symantec blames all problems on my Internet Explorer 7 browser.

But I don't want to change browsers, so it's time to ditch Symantec.

Is there any Firewall and AV software that coexists happily with IE7? Not to mention, did it survive the latest round of updates? Free would be good, but I'd even consider the MS product.

Please don't bother telling me to buy a Macbook. I've only had this laptop for a year and cannot afford to change.

Eset's Nod32 2.7 and F-Secure 2006 AntiVirus (but not 2007) for the AV;
ZoneAlarm for the firewall

Thanks for posting.

I'm not familiar with Eset. And why do you dislike the 2007 version of the F-Secure.

Have you ever used the Grisoft or Avast AV? (I've never had anything but Norton.)

Anti-virus - AVG or Avast
Firewall - Zone Alarm Pro or just use windows firewall

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite. Does firewall, antivirus, and antispyware. Seems to play very well with IE 7 on XP Pro. Very reasonable at $49.95, $10 more then just the ZoneAlarm Pro firewall.

Almost forgot, Zonelabs does have a 15 day free trial available so you can test it out to make sure it meets your needs.

I second the AVG selection !!!
Certainly can't beat the price

AVG Anti-virus plus firewall^ ^ ^

I noticed that Kaspersky is highly rated on CNet. Anybody use their stuff?

Before giving up, consider the possibility that you accidentally created a firewall rule that is blocking the Internet. I killed my email one time by accident. It's possible that you either gave the wrong answer to a NIS popup window, or you didn't see a dialog box that appeared under your other windows.

You could look at the log files, everything that NIS does is documented in the logs. You should be able to see what the problem is.

http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/88.htm#avvii

see also
http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/reviews.htm

AVG Free for antivirus and ZoneAlarm for firewall. Both are excellent and both are free.

I'm afraid that's not possible in this case. I lost my internet access Wednesday, immediately after installing the latest MS updates. I've really checked everything (including the NIS logs- in fact, the last rule change logged was on Dec. 11), run program scans, run Symantec's IC diagnostic tool, etc. Nothing worked except turning off the firewall, and Symantec's attitude is "not our problem, just uninstall IE7" which conflicts with my version of NIS.

I could even have lived with that, but the NAV turns off my Win ICF and that just doesn't cut it with ADSL.

But thanks for trying to help.

Thanks for the links. The Eset software sounds good, but I'm afraid I might not be able to figure out how to configure it out. I'm definitely techno-challenged.

I thought ADSL had its own hardware firewall, so you don't even need anything else. I use NIS with ADSL, but I always figured it was actually redundant to have 2 firewalls. People on the Internet can see your ADSL address but they can't see anything beyond that. The only trick is to change the modem password, don't leave at the default setting. Of course, I could be wrong.

You can use this test to see if you are really vulnerable or not:

http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

I don't think so, not if you and I are talking about the same thing. In the US I do connect through a router, so I have some firewall protection from it.

In France I connect by USB modem & have nothing but my software between me and the gremlins.

That's why I need to take care of this while I'm in the US.