for a firewall, look into Comodo or Online Armor [choose only one].   Despite being free, each of these firewalls is in fact BETTER than any paid alternative on the market !!!

keep in mind that one's surfing habits is the most significant factor in catching viruses/malware.   and if you intentionally tempt fate long enough, something may eventually get through.

having said that, both avast, as well as Avira's Antivir, are two very good free anti-virus programs [again, choose only one].

avast 4.8 includes some anti-spyware as well as anti-rootkit protection; antivir [free] does not.

i would suggest you also look into anti-malware protection.   in terms of free, the obvious choice is windows defender [for resident protection]; and the "team" of both MalwareBytes AntiMalware together with SuperAntiSpyware for on-demand scanners [get ALL of these].

also, use SpywareBlaster for immunization.

i believe links to all of these products should be included in the "sticky" at the top of this forum.

Joe53 has used both firewalls, and as such, is in a better position to talk about them... and their "friendliness".

I am using an older version of comodo, 2.4.

with any firewall that offers OUTBOUND protection [windows firewall offers only INBOUND protection], there will be a "learning curve", as you have to "teach"/inform the firewall about the programs you want to allow to have internet access.   Comodo can scan your system to quickly/automatically detect the programs it "knows" about.   Nonetheless, you'll probably find yourself confronted with a request for permission, for almost every program that wants/needs to access the internet.   fortunately, there's a box to click, to "remember this decision"... so after you go through each program once, things tend to get back to normal.   but it can take a few days getting used to.

also, anytime a program gets updated, you'll get a warning (at least from comodo) that its "cryptographic signature" has changed.   given that the program has been updated, that's to be expected... and should be "approved" by you.   [the reason comodo asks is that, if it weren't a legitimate update, it could have been malware changing the program!].

I agree with all the above, and would note also:

- Comodo Firewall Pro 3 is not very user-friendly, but includes a Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) which is a nice added layer of protection.

- Comodo Firewall 2.4 is much more intuitive, but lacks HIPS. As a mature product, it is no longer being developed.  Forum support at Comodo is still available.

- Online Armor's free Firewall is easily the most user-friendly and intuitive, and includes HIPS. However it is not yet Vista compatable, and unlike the Comodo FWs, cannot be manually upgraded when newer versions are released- you have to download/uninstall/reinstall, which is a major nuisance.

These 3rd party firewalls are reviewed here:
http://blog.scotsnewsletter.com/2008/03/24/the-best-firewall-software-of-2008-online-armor/

As far as out-bound protection goes, the latest results of leak-testing by matousec can be reviewed here:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php

Note that no firewall stops 100% of outbound leaks (ie malware in your system from connecting out, which is, after all, the main reason of using a 3rd party firewall). But some do a pretty good job.

My own opinion is that 3rd party firewalls do provide an extra layer of protection, but it is marginal at best, and that Windows FW is probably all that most need.

Hi

This one System Suite 8 Professional is very good to use.

From Chris

My computer
Dell Dimension 1100
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3
512 MB of Ram
Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 256MB
Intel Celeron CPU 2.53GHz
Dell E196FP
HDD WDC WD800BB-75JCO 80GB C:
HDD Samsung SV2042H 20GB F:
TSSTcorp CDRWDVD TS-H492C D:
LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-851S E:
Linksys Wireless-G WUSB54GS With SpeedBooster
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 90
Logitech Cordless Click Plus Rechargeable Optical Mouse
Mozilla Firefox 3.0
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

My Security Software
Avanquest SystemSuite 8 Professional
Windows Defender