Is there any security programs that would protect a 5 year old computer without slowing it down too much?

Question

pentium 3 processer
Compaq Evo
Windows 2000

i would ideally like a firewall/scanner to detect stuff.

adaware is ok it doesnt appear to slow everything down to a crawl like other security progs do...

i have tried Norton and Mcaffee in previous years but I feel it is too slow to keep up with the updates and everything now...
any suggestions other than those two- preferably something opensource and affordable?

Answer 1

Kerio 2.1.5 is just about the lightest firewall there is. Uses about 4 MB RAM on my machine.

Although it is no longer officially supported by the makers of Kerio, there is a great Kerio 2.1.5 support forum at
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/kerio
to help and guide you if you have any problems.

2.1.5 is availible for free at:
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page7.html
-----------------------------------------

I use AOL Active Virus Shield. Don't let the name AOL fool you. Active Virus Shield is made by Kaspersky which is one of top-rated anti-virus vendors in the world.

In recent tests, the most popular free anti-virus, AVG, was only able to detect about 82% of a very large sample of viruses. On the other hand, Active Virus Shield was able to detect better than 99% in the same test.
Full test chart is here:
http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82&mnu=82

Active Virus Shield has excellent virus detection rates and is extremely light on using your computer resources. (6mb)

And it updates 12 to 15 times a day with new virus definitions, 7 days a week.

Free for everyone from:
http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?
-------------------------------------------

The only open source anti-virus that I know of is Clamwin and quite frankly, its virus detection sux.

Here is where the major free anti-virus programs rate in the Augest 2006 test of virus detection at www.virus.gr . 58 anti-virus products (both free and paid) were tested and this is where the "freebies" ranked. Percentages are the % of malware detected in the test.

2. Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.299 - 99.62%
http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?

7. BitDefender freeware version 8.0.202 - 95.57% (on demand only, no real-time protection)
http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html

11. Classic version 7.01.01.02 - 94.26%
http://www.free-av.com/

17. Avast freeware version 4.7.871 - 87.46%
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

24. AVG freeware version 7.1.405 - 82.82%
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

40. ClamWin version 0.88.4 - 51.23% (on demand only, no real-time protection)
http://www.clamwin.com/

46. Comodo version 1.0.0.4 - 41.02%
http://www.antivirus.comodo.com/

Full rankings of all tested products:
http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82&mnu=82

Answer 2

do a few routines to improve peroremance
If you are using winXP, then it has a built in firewall, and windows defender as an antispyware (separately downloadable)
For other options of antivirus programs it is a good thought to use a open source program. Currently CalmWin is the opensource GPLed freeware available at sourceforge. However the only drawback is that it does not contain a realtime scanner. You can schedule scans though. There fore it is the best choice as a second antivirus program. You can get a free version of antivirus program from one of the companies avg (http://free.grisoft.com) they have an antispyware as well. Or Avast , or Avira.
The calmwin has an icon in system tray, you can disable it by going in start > run >type mscongif > press ok > startup > uncheck calmwin, press apply, press close, restart. This will help you save some ram memory. Run the program manually whenever needed from the programs menu. Disable the other antivirus while running one.
Use ccleaner regularly to unburden your pc from junk files.

run the following two menus of ccleaner
cleaner > Analyze > Run Cleaner
Issues > Scan For Issues > Fix Selected Issues

Answer 3

I am running a P-III 500Mhz Dell with 512MB RAM and XP Pro.
I am running
AVG 7.5
Spybot S&D
Spyware Guard
Spyware Blaster
MS Defender
SyGate 5.6

None of these programs stop me from doing my work. I am on the computer 3 to 6 hours a day. As a matter of fact I have 13 computers, all setup almost alike (4 are running Avast).
In the following link you can download all of the software I mentioned and much more.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html

Answer 4

Google up and download Sygate - it's not supported because of Nortons taking them over but you can still download it from most websites now days i have it and it runs perfectly and uses very little memory :) try and see how that goes :)

Another is Zonealarm Free version

Answer 5

I agree with Tanelia, ZoneAlarm and AVG do a damm good job of protecting your computer for free! thay aint perfect but they are miles better than nothing or *shudder* the dreadful Nortan Anti-Virus!

Answer 6

Go with the freeware version of Zone Alarm and AVG Antivirus. Both are very low on CPU and Memory Usage.

If you can afford some $ you can go with Zone Alarm Security suite.

If you need any further clarification please get back to me

Answer 7

I use Zonealarm without too many problems. However I can't guarentee you will have the same results. I also use AVG free downloadable from http://www.downloads.com

Answer 8

Not only is Avast! (www.avast.com) free for private use, it's *much* faster than Norton and the like.

I use Avast! for realtime background scanning and Ad-Aware for spyware cleaning. Ad-Aware (www.lavasoft.com) is also free for private use.

Check them out!

Answer 9

yeah zonealarm and avg free - also get ccleaner - ccleaner runs only when u start it and gets rid of anything that slow the pc without harming it.

Answer 10

i use nod32 anti-virus and it is very good,and very light for computer
you can use kaspersky anti-virus,too; it is both anti-virus and internet security.