I recently had to remove McAfee Security Suite, as it was causing me major problems on system resources, with my PC regularly freezing. I now have AVG free antivirus, with just Windows Firewall. I tried Zonealarm, but that slowed my PC down almost to a halt. Are there any good free firewalls that are low on system resources?
Is Windows Firewall safe?antivirus software
Windows Firewall is enough for basic protection, as it effectively checks inbound traffic. You can keep using it, but make sure that your computer doesn't have any malware infections, which can send valuable information and keystrokes to their makers (Windows firewall does nothing to check outgoing traffic, hence it cannot the malware). But you do require an anti-spyware with real time protection which will constantly monitor your computer and protect you from malware. I will recommend Windows Defender:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security...
or
Spyware Terminator:
http://spywareterminator.com/
Also, get the free (and VERY light) McAfee Site Advisor plug-in for your Internet Explorer / Mozilla Firefox browser, it will alert you of bad sites.
http://siteadvisor.com/
Follow these and there won't be any need to switch to another firewall!
:)
Still, you may get another firewall if you aren't satisfied. I will recommend Comodo Personal Firewall, which is free yet beats all other firewalls (including non-free ones) in leak proof tests!! It is also light on your system.
