Can Free AV+Free Firewall match Commercial AV?

Yes most definitely yes, I gave up KIS and currently run Online Armor Free, Avast 5, Defensewall (Gizmos promo)

 

If you want a "fire and forget" simple free solution, I would suggest Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 + Windows integrated firewall is all you really need. Particularly if you are behind a hardware firewall.

Pretty much guaranteed compatability with your OS, minimal user interaction required, and recent tests of MSE by av-comparatives are very promising against viruses and malware.

 

Does paid-for suites vs MSE and avast! 5 Free count? https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1592631&postcount=1

 

Just a note. Threatfire may be a "HIPS substitute" but it works by interpreting process behaviour.

 

This I feel would be very hard to do. Simply because there is no way to define the best from 3rd party some people will accept chatty program where others wont. There is so much that is open ground there that it would be almost impossible to judge from a 3rd party point of view.

 

Too many posts to answer :

- certainly there are many combo of free softwares sure as - or even more - the pay suites.

- the usability is inversely to the security if, as often happens with the pay suites, there are many default rules too.. large.

- as Smage says, " people in this forum like to have full control over what is happening in their systems ": we are not fundamentalists , just the full control is the only way to have a " full " security.

- I've always thought that the better multi layer defense is a multi softwares based defense ( avoiding the system conflicts naturally ): if I use different products to build the multi layer protection, is more difficult for an hacker to disable and to bypass them than to bypass an all-in one-suite.

Positively I do so from much time and my system runs very well.

 

well to each his own really.............for last 8 months i was without a paid product and was very happy not shelling out the cash...

but my opinion has changed,as mentioned earlier,and i have learnt the lesson....

in my view,you can obviously add different component from different vendors...but there's always a compatibility issue.........anyhow i find it easier to,now,to install a suite which is "install and forget"....

 

I agree that you don't need a integrated suite to have adequate protection. I had been using KIS with A2 running with it. I found that at times my laptop would slow down and opening firefox would take 10-15 seconds. Not that 15 sec is a long time but I like things to work without slowing me down. I now use OA paid and A2 paid. Its light and its very strong protection. I once thought that if I didn't have a full suite nothing could fully cover all the bases. Now there are alot choices that play well with each other. Avast, A2, Avira with either OA,comodo or zonealarm. You can't go wrong with any of these choices.

 

Yes, I do agree it would be difficult to compare configurations of free security tools against the paid suites, because the number of combinations of the former are quite large. Yet, in the absence of having done this comparison, there exists no objective basis to argue that a collection of free security tools is worse than, the same as, or better than a specific security suite.

I wonder: if price were not a consideration, would folk still choose the free tools? Why or why not? Are there reasons other than “personal preferences”?

 

no security product stops any virus/malware. If avira/avg couldn't remove your last infection, I doubt nod32 or kaspersky or the paid versions could either. If they could I guarantee you that you could find malware that AVG/avira can remove that particular paid products cannot. This is precisely why security experts do not promote any particular scanner as 'THE BEST' but advise layering a few scanners on your system to detect/remove malware for best chances of success. This is why i believe paying for security products is like paying for air and that prevention is the best tool anyway. I don't put very much trust into 3rd party security scanners, at least not as much as most of you do.

 

While I like suites, I am convinced that there needs to be a top notch anit-malware application like SAS or MBAM also running. I have posted elsewhere that a friend who was using an updated Norton suite got infectedd with antivir rogue.
Norton did not prevent it or find it on a scan. Using SAS and MBAM it was easily removed.

I also recently was looking for the MBAM site and googled it. The results included one that looked like the real site, but when I clicked on it MBAM blocked it as malicious.

I suspect that Avast Home + PC Tools Plus firewall + SAS free to scan would offer excellent protection. I continue to think though that SAS or MBAM should run in real time because AVs will not be as likely to detect some malware as those anti-malware applications.

Regards,
Jerry

 

ThreatFire
Comodo FW
Comodo Defense+
Avira Free / (Avast 5)

VS