Expert: Doug Woodall - 9/6/2008

Question
dear friends,
i have important data on my laptop, celeron m, 1.8 ghz, 40 gb hdd,255 mb ram, it has given no problems and is running as good as new since 18months,

now i have brought an internet modem , which is a wireless usb can connect upto 115 kbps., dial up and as  i'm aware that with net comes problems, hence i want to ask the following questions

1)  which is a good antivirus, in free i have used avast earlier, then i have heard about avg free edition, my pc guy can arrange mc afee antivirus, but i personally dont like mc afee because i have used it on my home pc, firstly it slows down pc, secondly the download of update is massive 60 mb, (and i will be charged on time not data...)but yes it can be trusted.. do u still recommend mc afee,i can choose only between the above 3 options

2) do  i need a fire wall, recommend a free one if necessary, used zonealarm before on home pc, it blocks all net traffic, infact my windows firewall blocked my net , i had to turn it off..

3) do i need spyware, adware, recommend good ones

4) lastly, since  i have dialup, recommend a free download manager, i have used download accelarator plus before.


as on today my laptop is in excellent speed, but prevention is better than cure, pls recommend good free protection

thanks
Nitin  

Answer
Hello Nitin,
Avast and AVG are widely used because they are reliable and low cost, even free. I would stay with Avast.
Ive used it myself and it worked well om my XP machines. I dont know how well they work on Vista though.
Please get a reliable Firewall and configure it to suit your needs.
So many dont give their Firewall any thought, good for you.
Yes you should have a AntiSpyware tool.
Most are happy with Ad-Aware or SpyBot S&D.
There are some good review sites to look out to help you in your decision.
Try toptenreviews.com
Im using BitDefender right now on my Vista machine. Its a all-in-one.
It seems to work well with Vista.

Hope this helps.