Please forgive my ignorance – I’m still learning.
I currently use McAfee internet security suite. I know the suite has virus protection and a firewall (though I don’t completely understand what a firewall is).
Will avast home addition provide comparable protection to what I’ve got? Does it have a firewall?
Thanks!
Will avast home addition provide comparable protection to what I've got?
Yes. But don’t take my word for it. Have a search round for some reviews.
Here’s one where avast! gets five stars and the gold award, where McAfee only gets four:
http://www.webuser.co.uk/products/AntiVirus_200_index.html
Does it have a firewall?
No. But you can get very effective free ones. I use Kerio. Select simple mode when you install it if you don’t know anything about firewalls. ZA Free is good too.
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
I don't completely understand what a firewall is.
A firewall is like a security guard at the door of a building. It stops the bad guys coming in without invitation, and if by any chance they do get in, it stops them coming out again with all you possessions under their arm.
To be a little more technical, it stops hackers and worms connecting to your computer, and only allows applications which have requested information from the net to receive it. They also stop applications on your computer sending out information unless you OK it, so they stop Trojan horses sending out personal information.
In fact, Kerio doesn’t do the latter in simple mode. You need to switch to advanced mode. Here’s my guide for configuring Kerio in Advanced mode:
http://www.geocities.com/dontsurfinthenude/kerio_setup.htm
ZA has similar pop-ups. Allow trusted applications access to the internet. Do not allow applications to act as servers unless you really know what you’re doing.
Good luck!
avast doesn’t have a firewall.
A firewall basically stops unauthorised inbound and outbound activity to the internet.
You shouldn’t run two resident anti-virus programs as they are more likely to cause a conflict rather than twice the protection.
avast is perhaps the most configurable and flexable anti-virus I have ever used. Many Suites tend not to be so flexible and I much prefer to chose individual program more suited to my needs than a compromise of choosing a suite.
There are plenty of free firewall programs out there that will work with and compliment avast, Kerio and Zone Alarm being just two.
Thanks for your help. I learned about firewalls and got some good advice on configuration. I think some friends at work use Avast, so I’ll talk to them too – I’ve been out sick for a week. I actually want to go to work!
Does Norton Personal Firewall 2006 with Avast! provides a huge amount of protection? or does it worth the money?
Could NPF 2006 also be a good choice when looking for a Pay firewall to work side by side with Avast!?
Norton Personal Firewall provides excellent protection with avast. I used it for a year.
However, I no longer use Norton firewall for this reason: I paid £26 (that’s $50!) one year to renew my subscription. There was a new version out which would have cost me even more. Norton promptly dropped support for my version, despite being happy to take the subscription. Shortly after they issued an update which broke the program, leaving me with no firewall and no support. Other people had the same problem, and eventually I found the solution on the net: reinstall, reinstall, reinstall.
Norton firewall is expensive.
Subscriptions are expensive.
Updates are expensive.
If you don’t update you will lose support.
I’ve been using Kerio for over a year and it is very effective. I’ve just bought the full version from Sunbelt because it is so cheap. ($14.95)
Subscription is $10 a year.
Is NPF worth it?
In my opinion, no way!
In all our opinion, no way.
There is no extra protection that you can’t get for free in the web. 
Yup i guess you right. The one thing i found our about Symantec is that they lie to people. They said that they upgraded there product to better serve you. But the true fact is that every new version (2004, 2005, 2006) are almost the same as the last. They only add 1 tiny new feature that to my opinon is useless. Then they tell you that you have to upgrade inoder to recieve upto-date tech support. They just repackage the product and then just add the currect year to make seem it worth wild to buy it. Not to mention that every time they do a product update, they always add useless features in it. I like the NPF 2004 but they told me i have to upgrade inoder to recive the best of tech support.