Quick IT Help needed

[richierich]

Hopefully someone can help me before I leave work.

My rugby club has a new PC I have agreed to help set it up for them this evening. (I know fairly little about PC's, apparently this is more than anyone else there!)

I need to provide some sort of free virus and firewall protection, available for downloading off the internet, that will not mess or slow up the machine.

Can anyone provide a recommendation and links?


cheers
Rich

[RossRoy]

For the anti-virus, I've been using AVG for a long while, but the latest version is slow as hell, so I switched to Avira. Avira is good, but it seems rather prone to false positives.

http://www.free-av.com/

You also have the option of using Avast!, but I hate that you have to re-register every 14 months or so: http://www.avast.com/


For firewall, I don't use one (I have a hardware one, more than enough). You could simply activate the one included in Windows XP SP2+. Or, if you really want, Comodo makes a nice one. Light, but a little daunting for a standard user, but the default configurations work well enough.

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/overview.html

[lyonsden5]

Agree with everything Sebastien said. I too used to use AVG but found the latest version slow (and a bit of a pain). I now use Avast and have had good luck so far.

For a firewall I have used the one in Windows. It is adequate but you have to remember to disable it 1st when you are having any trouble with anything online. My experience is it is usually the cause of the trouble.

[DJ Doena]

I'd recommend Avira as well.

As Firewall I'd use "ZoneAlarm": http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/zonealarm_free_firewall.jsp

[RossRoy]

Oh just thought of something: If Avira gives out a positive, but you want to make sure, there's always VirusTotal.com where you can upload the file and have 36 anti-virus engine scan the file. Then you can decide whether it's a false positive or not.

[richierich]

Thanks boys, knew I could rely on you