the subscription on my antivirus software just ran out and i really dont feel like (ie, cant afford) throwing more money at it. so im curious, are there good, reliable, and most of all, free antivirus programs? if so, where can i get one?

 

(and no, yourdad, i dont feel like hearing about how i dont have to worry about viruses on linux, )

avg or avast are both pertty good

http://www.freebyte.com/antivirus/#scanners

 

avast seems to be clashing with my firewall. does it act as a firewall as well, or do i need to have another program dealing with that?

I used to get a problem wth AVG years ago but, now it works. Bonus . Its free it updates itself and it works.

Avast doesn't act as a firewall, unless your firewall has an AV built into it (which it wouldn't) I don't know what causes the confliction, what is the error message you are getting?

 

Avast is good and free (unless you go professional version), I'd recommend it.

is said it detected that the norton on access scanner was already active and that theirs couldnt be active at the same time, so it turned off its IM, email, on access, and whatever other scanners it had. but antivirus was alread removed from my system, only the firewall was still there. i removed the firewall and it started doing fine.

 

is there a free firewall i can get too?

Yeah, what you had was that you hadn't properly removed the Norton AV, by removing the firewall and the rest of the program, along with all Norton products you would have finished off the AV.

 

As for free firewalls the most popular is Zone Alarm (ZA) which is free unless you go proffesional. ZA is the most popular free firewall by a long shot, it is like the Microsoft of free firewalls!

 

I exclude the Windows firewall as I have little respect for the useless thing it is! Even ZA which is free is better than the windows thing, I'd recommend you to disable the windows one and you'll be fine with ZA and Avast (both free) (along with antispyware stuff like adaware, spybot etc.)

is said it detected that the norton on access scanner was already active and that theirs couldnt be active at the same time, so it turned off its IM, email, on access, and whatever other scanners it had. but antivirus was alread removed from my system, only the firewall was still there. i removed the firewall and it started doing fine.

 

Norton is notorius for uninstalling incorrectly.

 

If you can, try and re-install and then uninstall norton to see if that works.

 

If not, then delete any of the following folders that exist:

 

 

c:\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus

 

c:\Program Files\Norton

 

c:\Program Files\Symantec

 

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared

 

then try the instructions on this page.

 

after all of that, try installing your av of choice and seeing if it works now.

 

is there a free firewall i can get too?

 

ZoneAlarm and Kerio both come highly reccomended, and both are free (only install one).

 

as 5614 said, deactivate the windows firewall 'cos its poo and will conflict with your decent firewall if you leave it active.

 

Anti-spyware/adware/etcware programs:

 

Spybot S&D (make sure to select the option to turn teatimer on)

Ad-Aware SE

Spywareblaster

Spyware Guard.