I am thinking of getting this acer laptop:

http://www.compusa.com/applications/...Sku=A180-16006

ANd it does not come with virus or firewall protection so I am asking the guru's here if I should use AVG and then what firewall? It will have 64 bit Vista on it and I won't want to be online for long without protection, just long enough to download it or maybe download now and burn to disc and install from that. That might be the better way to go.

So I have hear Comodo is a good firewall but I don't know...

http://www.comodo.com/

What do you think? What will be best?

I use ZoneAlarm. I like it. It seems to stop a lot.

I did some trials of the top Internet suites and posted my "reviews" of them, about a year ago or so... I'll try to find the thread and bump it up.
A nice thing about the suites is they cover protection for AV, spy, Internet/firewall, wireless, email, parental - & ID protection if you set it up for that.

I ended up deciding on Zone Alarm and bought it downloaded and am good to go, I did have a problem with the XP SP3 update and had to redo system, due to my fiddling around with things....luckily I had a lot of basics saved on my spare hard drive.
So now I turned off / disabled the SP3 update but get all the others. You can choose to deny certain updates if needed.
I lost my key for ZA at the time but just had to email them with my info and they sent me the key for the new download program when I was ready to reinstall it.

I did add on Threatfire {works along side with your other AV program} just last week cause son & hubby both had minor things on their profile accounts.

well here's the link to my "reviews" post - I thought I had more info there and I hadn't tried the ZA yet at the time.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post137928-1.html

but most of them had 30 day trials and you can just remove it if you don't like it and try another one.
that way you find the one you like best. As long as you stay with the top 10 names and download from safe sites you should be fine.

top Internet security links post -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post350992-1.html

You should copy that to the sticky Jo.

i agree make it a sticky, and I would think any new PC is gonna have a bundle package for security, just stay away from Norton, which is a real shame because when the world was still dos based Norton had some great products

another \decent place is
savemybutt.com

there is a really good program called advance windows care, its good easy to use and its free

cc cleaner is another good cleaning tool

I am using Aviara virus for free and so far ok

and they have some free registry cleaners too

and filehippo.com has everything you could think of, a lot of them are free

one thing I might mention if you are getting a new PC and it has vista, try to get at least 2gigs of memory, if it only has one, time to haggle, just say I would buy this right now if it had 2 gigs, see if they wont add one for you, doesnt hurt to try

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the replies! I want to take good care of my new lappy.

I'm surprised it doesn't come with at least 90 days free anti virus/security .. or trial versions of them??
I'm sure my aunts new laptop came with a years worth, and my daughters came with 90 days..

It was part of the preloaded software - they hope you will just pay and keep their program when the free time is up.

Our is a Compaq and aunts is a different brand. Can't recall which one though.

if your going to get the 64 bit vista make sure its the ultimate for best performance also. the windows defender will work fine enough if your not going to be online for a lot and leave it connected to the internet.

i use my webroot spysweeper /antivirus/firewal program for the vista 64 and have no problems.


the hard thing is now that your going to vista and 64 bit then you will need to make sure programs you install on it will be compatable witht he 64 bit operating systen

good luck its hecka fast


roger.