OT: Anti-virus / firewall solutions

[Fyron]

Xrati said:
Nothing that is any good, is ever free.

Most commercial software is shovelware crap, unfortunately...

Xrati said:
Spyware S&D has a program called the 'Tea Timer" that protects entries to your registry without your premission. It is one of the best ways to protect your computer. You can't even install a new program without authorizing it to allow registry changes.

In my experience, Tea Timer has been more hassle than it's worth. It catches harmless things left and right and doesn't stop a lot of more harmful system accesses. Luckily Vista's UAC makes it completely obsolete, and does a better job to boot.

[Xrati]

Xrati said:
Spyware S&D has a program called the 'Tea Timer" that protects entries to your registry without your premission. It is one of the best ways to protect your computer. You can't even install a new program without authorizing it to allow registry changes.

In my experience, Tea Timer has been more hassle than it's worth. It catches harmless things left and right and doesn't stop a lot of more harmful system accesses. Luckily Vista's UAC makes it completely obsolete, and does a better job to boot.

[/quote]

So if it's not Vista, it's "No Good?" I don't think so.

In my experience Fyron, I've had no problems with it. Maybe I just have it setup better for my system. Sometimes all we have to work with is what we are given...

[Fyron]

Xrati said:
So if it's not Vista, it's "No Good?" I don't think so.

Why do you extrapolate such a grandiose claim from 2 data points? XP's firewall does not do the most important task of a software firewall, blocking unknown outbound connections (it was useless from the day SP2 came out, nothing to do with Vista). Tea Timer is overly aggressive in blocking the type of changes it blocks, and misses other important types. These are simple facts. Vista happens to come with better software for these particular applications, but there are certainly lots of better apps that can be used in XP as well (eg: Comodo)..