Best antivirus/firewall for windows XP sp 3?

[OldSchool38]

I have a couple of desktop towers right now (a homebuilt with 7 and an old dell with win2k).  However I'm working on fixing another old dell tower I was planning to put win XP sp3 on and I was wondering, I run the current version of avast on my win 7 system and avast version 7 on the 2000 tower, both of which work great-before I go installing the latest avast version on XP-is there a specific version that works best for the XP OS?

 

Also the last version of Comodo firewall that works for 2000 always seemed to work fine for me (I tried outpost firewall 2009-but the 'Sheilds up' site kept telling me it was leaving ports open while the old Comodo firewall didn't), the current version of Comodo firewall I have on my windows 7 system is a 200 meg monster.  Is all that really necessary or is it just bloatware?  In other words does the old version of Comodo work just fine for regular web surfing, e-mail etc?  I want good protection, but don't see the need for unecessary bloat.

Edited April 6, 2015 by OldSchool38

[w2k4eva]

For a firewall I like an older version of Comodo, specifically 3.14.130099.587, I put this on all my builds from XP to W7. I prefer this one to any of the version 4 or 5 releases since they actually took away some features that I use and I don't like the other stuff they have added since then. Re the older one for W2k, I think it does not have the Defense+ component which is one of the things that I love about Comodo! Their site does not host any of the older releases though, so you may have to get it from an archive site such as http://www.filehippo.com/download_comodo/6975/

This version is only 43MB rather than 215MB for the latest. When installing I generally uncheck the optional addons and toolbars, also uncheck the AV component. My w2k builds generally get an older version of ZA Pro (5.5) since I have a multipack of licenses for that.

For AV I have been using Avast 6 (not that 7 is bad, I just prefer 6), but avoid the behavior shield and sandbox features, also I don't care for the web reputation plugin or google chrome but these are not too hard to turn off. (The trick to installing it is to first adjust your system time/date to December 2011 beforehand, enter a license key, then adjust the date back to the present.) At least with AV there are quite a few to choose from. I wasn't going to use the too-heavy features they have been emphasizing in the newer releases - virtualization is just too much for an older system to support, they don't have the RAM to go there.

I picked Avast based on what is NOT in the user license agreement - the others I looked at had too many objectionable items for me. I do not want software that claims the right to arbitrarily grab files off my hard drive and send them home without asking or even informing me, and that item was in all the other EULAs I looked at.

[OldSchool38]

Just tried the version of Comodo suggested-great stuff!  Checked it out on the 'Shields Up' website and it appears to offer the same level of protection that the newest version does at 1/4 the size!  Thanks!

[w2k4eva]

Not that I actually do all the stuff in these links (I like my own setup better), but if you are into "lite" these might be an interesting read:

 

https://forums.comodo.com/install-setup-configuration-help-cis/comodo-firewalldefense-lite-no-antivirus-no-trusted-vendors-t74633.0.html

 

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/making-avast-the-lowest-overhead-av-available.263940/

[Mcinwwl]

Yep Comodo can be reccomended. While versions 6 and 7 caused my XP to crash, I still use Firewall and Defense+ from version 5. I used AV as well, until I encountered update prblems, as described here:

https://forums.comodo.com/antivirus-help-cis/comodo-av-version-5122562492599-wont-update-t88447.0.html

You must be aware that some people disreccomend Comodo due to their EULA.

 

Additionally to Comodo FW/D+ I have Avira AV Free (best accuracy according to latest AV Comparatives test), Malwarebytes nti-Malware as on-demand scanner (from time to time), and Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit as additional paranoid protection (easy to use, almost install-and-forget)

 

Hope I helped a bit :>

[OldSchool38]

Thanks for the info, btw I just found out today that Comodo 3.14.130099.587 will also work on Windows 2003 server standard Sp2!  I was reinstalling it on another computer of mine (a dell 330) and it works great!

Edited April 24, 2015 by OldSchool38

[DAEMONXX]

Best FW for XP is Sygate personal firewall (PRO). 5.5.2710(latest stable)

-very old, but better than other newer, minimal system requirements, well configurable, no call home...

[albator]

A basic up to date firewall compatible with xp is privatefirewall. It's the best from all the firewall I have tested and it's free.

[sanszajnrege]

I'm using norton internet security 2009 and I'm fine with it

[zach1]

Currently I have installed AVG Internet Security 2013 on my IBM T43. It's workining well with 2GB of RAM, but when I had installed it with 512 MB that was a nightmare! I only replaced memory recently. Originally, I had 512MB of memory since 2005.

Edited June 23, 2015 by zach1

[lucid717]

I still use Comodo FW/D+ v 5.10... it's my favorite. Of course I love the HIPS. If I only wanted an outbound FW I'd probably use v3 too, or something else entirely, like LooknStop or Kerio 2.1.5 (great legacy apps). But I could do without the sandboxing module in it. I disable it. And products having useless bloat I don't want/need is a pet peeve of mine.

It's also why I can't stand most AV's these days. My ideal AV was something like Avira Free in the v5-6 days. Just a resident file scanner and nothing else... exactly what an AV should be, and all it needs to be. I can't stand these bloated AV's with all these modules, or "shields" I don't need and that other apps I have can do a better job at. And don't like/trust the cloud either. That and don't like putting all my eggs in one proverbial basket, and like a layered approach. So no suites for me. But you just can't find AV's like that anymore. Emsisoft, to it's credit is about the closest thing I've found these days. It's pretty light and basic.

I don't use any real-time AV at all on XP Pro SP3. I run Firefox sandboxed, and any new downloads go to a dedicated, isolated partition that's also sandboxed. And I'll scan it with VT Hash Check and/or Malwarebytes Free before unsandboxing it. VT Hash Check is a great app IMO. I also figured out a way to get it to automatically scan downloads in Firefox in tandem with an add-on "Download Statusbar". If you go to VT Hash Check's site, boredomsoft(dot)org, on the main page there's a link to the thread I created at Wilders telling you how to do it. Of course it only scans files up to 32 or 64 MB, so for things larger I use MBAM Free. Or do a full scan with Hitman Pro to get around it's file size limit when doing a shell scan. Those are the 3 AV's I use, and also have TDSS Killer & GMER to periodically check for rootkits. But nothing realtime.

On the Win7 Ultimate x86 setup I have on a Mobile Workstation I am in the process of choosing a real-time AV though, because I don't feel confident that I can lock it down the way I can XP. I mean my XP setup is so stripped down, hardened like crazy. And with LP/GP tweaks, default deny SRP, running LUA with tight folder permissions. Restricted sandboxes for anything internet facing. Paranoid D+ also a default deny approach there. And in Firefox hardened about:config like crazy along with NoScript, RequestPolicy, ABE, etc... Also added Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit recently and figured out how to get it to integrate with Sandboxie.

And even if something managed to bypass all those measures all I'd have to do is reboot my computer anyhow, and/or boot from a clean image. I just don't see a need for a real-time AV. I think they, more than any other piece of software, add footprint to a setup. And Web Scanning especially does.

But I'm leaning toward Emsisoft if I had to pick one.