Thinking of finally moving away from NIS 2007...

[jg37202]

As a long-time Norton user, the Avast! product looks very promising.

What I essentially need to know is as follows:

1. How RAM-heavy is the application, as Norton does tend to slow down things periodically?

2. I suppose I will lose my firewall protection--what would be the best way to address this gap i.e. what product is most compatible?

3. Does Avast! offer both adware AND pop-up blocking as NIS 2007 with its module add-on does this?

4. On top of anti-virus capabilities, what other protective features are offerred?

Thanks!

[wyrmrider]

avast will free up your system, hard to tell how much without system and os info

you will need a firewall I use Zone Alarm, others use Outpost and there are several good ones
do a search on "firewall" above and you should be able to pick one to fit your needs

I have no problems with pop ups
the answer depends on your browser
If you are using firefox it has pop up protection available
all anti virus all the time
as you may be aluding to AVG-8 for instance has added  some other protection by merging the former EWIDO suite
Sunbelt Counter Spy is adding Anti Virus- anti spyware has always been top notch- anti virus is a work in progress
what I am trying to say is that as of now you are better off with separate products
we can discuss that after you post back your system specifics

before removing norton post back as there are some specific things you need to do to get it all
specifically using the separate norton removal tool
Have you ever had any other AV or suite including pre-installed (which maybe NIS was?)

been there done that
Wyrmrider

[jg37202]

Thanks wyrmrider for your detailed response.

My system details are as follows:

MS Windows XP Home SP2
Pentium 4
2.40 GHz
512 MB RAM
IE version 6

[FreewheelinFrank]

Sunbelt firewall works well with avast!

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/

Get a modern browser like Firefox or Opera for pop-up blocking.

[ardvark]

Hi...

Comodo firewall seems to work well, too, although I have not extensively tested or used it.

Your memory usage will definately decrease with avast. just bear in mind that avast Home or Pro doesn't have all the built in components that NIS does, as Wyrmrider has mentioned. These functions will have to be filled by other 3rd party applications, the firewall being one of the main examples.

Avast has anti-rootkit protection, a web scanner, P2P and instant messenger scanners, Outlook and e-mail scanners along with the standard real time file scanner. Not bad for free. The professional version also has a script blocker and other amenities not found in the free version.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards...

[wyrmrider]

I agree with everyone
do post back BEFORE you decide on a change- we can save you some time and multiple reinstalls
did I mentioned that I have used almost every AV on one computer or another
all in all AVAST works for me
Sunbelt bought an existing Firewall and is giving excellent support
others mentioned work also
if running ie there are some other things we will discuss even if you do switch to firefox as your main browser
is your windows update up to date, ie, office, java etc  all can be vulnerabilities
no need to change to ie7 if ie 6 is at latest rev
you have to keep ie for windows updates but you can make it more secure even as a back up browser
have you installed Spywareblaster?  That's a good first step

keep in touch
Incidentally you will find this forum more responsive than ANY other AV forum