anti-virus/firewall software

[Masherbrum]

ESET is probably indeed one's best bet if you want to pay for Virus/Malware protection.  It costs $60/yr for one PC, or $70/yr for up to 3 computers.

I guess I just don't like buying software on a subscription basis.  Especially when I have found a decent alternative for free.  The whole concept of only having the right to use software for a subscription period has just bothered me, for some reason.

Norton is definitely not worth paying for, in my opinion.  Avira scans way, way faster than either Norton 360, or the AVG software that I also tried.

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For the Smart Security 4 Suite (NOD32, Malware & Firewall) I paid $80 for 2 years.   $40 a year is a bargain.

[Shuffler]

ESET Smart Security 4

AKA NOD32

[Vulcan]

Norton and McAffee are notorious for not stopping known threats...and being resource hogs. If I had a dollar for every system I've had to do a complete reload or virus removal on, that was running either system, I'd own a Hummer right now. Both corporate and home user versions are proven to be easily shut down by many known viruses and malware. Tren Micro's PC Cillin is a little better, but still a resource hog.

I use the corporate version of mcafee, I'd say it's better than nod32. It's light, not resource hungry, and does a great job. It's also been like that for some time (as I own/use a bunch of PC's I often run mixed AV to compare performance). The home versions of mcafee are not nice I'd agree. I also hear the more recent corporate versions of symantec are vastly improved. So I'm not really sure where you get your information from but it's not correct.

[Mustaine]

Mustaine, would you happen to be able to provide a quick compare between HyperWRT and DD-WRT? If not, I'll go see if I can dig one up.

I can't say for sure as I only have experience with DD-WRT but many of those products are similar. The Linux based firewall allows so many configurations you just need to know what you are setting.

[Ruler2]

The military doesn't have a corporate edition available for win7 (just vista and XP, avail for free to military members and their families) and I already put win7 on my laptop, so I put the new MSE software on the laptop. 

Well... lucky for me my dad's in the USAF  BUT I went to download it and I need somre sort of certificate,how would I get this?

[eagl]

You can join the military...  That's one way to get a certificate.  Actually it's the only way I know how.

The way to get the military symantec antivirus is to have the military member go to their computer resources office and have them help get it onto a CD or portable hard drive.  Flash drives are not authorized on military networks and the geniuses who run the network also disabled CD burning, so their solution is to allow portable USB hard drives...  I can plug in a 2 terabyte external hard drive to a military network, and this is somehow less of a threat than a 2gb thumbdrive or burning a 640MB cdrom?  Bunch of geniuses running the network, yessir, geeeeeeniuses.

In any case, you need to get it from within the network, and it needs to be from someone authorized to be on the network in the first place.

[Denholm]

ESET Smart Security 4 (Firewall, Anti-Virus (NOD32), Anti-Spyware, and Anti-Spam).

[TwinEng]

I use the corporate version of mcafee, I'd say it's better than nod32. It's light, not resource hungry, and does a great job. It's also been like that for some time (as I own/use a bunch of PC's I often run mixed AV to compare performance). The home versions of mcafee are not nice I'd agree. I also hear the more recent corporate versions of symantec are vastly improved. So I'm not really sure where you get your information from but it's not correct.

But it is indeed correct, because everyone else here is using the home versions of McAfee and Symantec, and not the corporate versions like you are.

This is the big problem with both McAfee and Symantec in my opinion.   They both have forgotten about the average home computer user, and only really now care about keeping their rich corporate customers happy.

Actually, they are really no different than the US Congress, in that respect.  The Congress also now mainly focuses on serving the needs of corporations, and not average citizens.

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[MjTalon]

ESET.