AVG Free Discontinued

[Moira]

I don't understand that statement either. -Chris-, tell me how using a proxy to browse the web protects you from virus threats?? In fact, if anything the reverse would be true, ie the quest for working proxies would more likely lead you to the world of malicious software and viruses.

[nihil]

-Chris-,

I think that you are getting confused. Sure the proxy hides your true IP address, but if you are communicating with a website, you have made contact and packets are passing to and fro.

I think that you might be getting confused with the concept of running your internet browser in a "sandbox application"?..............."SandboxIE" and "Fortres Grand Virtual Sandbox" are two of these that spring to mind. Here your browser and its activities are isolated from the main guts of your system.

When you close your session the contents of the sandbox are dumped, along with anything nasty that might be in there

You also have to bear in mind that you connect to your ISP first, and then to a proxy. If you set up a machine with a free copy of the Zone Alarm Firewall on it and just connect to your ISP then leave it for an hour or so you will be amazed at the number of probes that have come from your ISP's address block. Worms, Trojans, Hackers, Viruses.............God knows what because the firewall stopped them.

[-Chris-]

I once set up a proxy which was actually an external server, and my computer connected to that external server, the external server connected to what I wanted e.g. a download site, the download went through the server was scanned and then went to my computer, so even if virus etc was downloaded it wouldn't even come close to infecting my computer.

[DISLEX]

I would grab Avast. It's awesome and it goes easy on your system resources. IMHO, it's the best out. It's free too!

[nihil]

DISLEX I also use Avast! (me hearties......and don't bogart that bottle of grog) and find it very good............. very low on resource demands?

-Chris- I don't think that you quite understand the issue? a "proxy" is generally just a "postman" for a variety of users; all it really does is handle traffic for multiple users.

Now, on a network, you will find "hubs", "switches" and "routers". Once again, they are directing traffic, and are not security per se.

You described a situation where you used an external server, and there were security measures in effect there.............that is not the effect of a proxy......that is simply an external server.............. like quite a few hardware routers (decent ones) will have firewall and spam filtering capabilities?

[Moira]

I agree with DISLEX - Avast is very good, it's free and it works with Vista!

[DISLEX]

DISLEX very low on resource demands?

Well, I mean it doesn't bog the computer down like I have seen others do. Norton can slow computers down to a crawl. I have never had a problem with Avast causing any type of lag. Even during an update, things run very smooth. As far as I can tell, it doesn't throw files all over your computer either. Avast is very clean, easy to use, and they seem to always be doing a great job on keeping up with all the virus updates and what not.

[nihil]

Dislex..... sorry mate, I put the "?" to ask for agreement

It is very low in resource requirements IMO..... Norton, McAfee and some of the others are pretty demanding.