Less resource-intensive A/V and firewall?

[Bert Hyman]

In order to be allowed to connect to my employer's network at home, I'm
required to have anti-virus and firewall software installed. They
provide Symantec Protection Agent 5.1 and Symantec Anti-Virus
10.something, and that's what I've been using for a long time.

The software works fine on my "real" PC and laptop, but I have an old
Thinkpad 600E with a Pentium II and only about 290MB RAM [odd number, I
know: 256MB+32MB on the motherboard]. The machine takes forever to start
up due to the startup scans and the periodic A/V scans bring the machine
to a virtual halt all the time.

I sit behind a hardware firewall, so the software firewall doesn't have
to be too bright, but I do like SPA's ability to block or warn about
apps that try to "phone home."

Is there something (much) more lightweight that provides decent
protection? Since I've been using this free stuff, I haven't looked at
what's on the market for years.

 

[Gaz]

In order to be allowed to connect to my employer's network at home,
I'm required to have anti-virus and firewall software installed. They
provide Symantec Protection Agent 5.1 and Symantec Anti-Virus
10.something, and that's what I've been using for a long time.

The software works fine on my "real" PC and laptop, but I have an old
Thinkpad 600E with a Pentium II and only about 290MB RAM [odd
number, I know: 256MB+32MB on the motherboard]. The machine takes
forever to start up due to the startup scans and the periodic A/V
scans bring the machine to a virtual halt all the time.

I sit behind a hardware firewall, so the software firewall doesn't
have to be too bright, but I do like SPA's ability to block or warn
about apps that try to "phone home."

Is there something (much) more lightweight that provides decent
protection? Since I've been using this free stuff, I haven't looked
at what's on the market for years.

Use the built-in WinXP SP3 FireWall and Avira AntiVir.

Is the sp3 firewall a noticable improvement over sp2 firewall?

Gaz

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "David H. Lipman"

Use the built-in WinXP SP3 FireWall and Avira AntiVir.

Does the built-in firewall allow control over outbound connections?