AV, Firewall, Imager

[Muji-FightR]

Well, like visible in the topic name, Im lookin for some good software pieces.
I need an AV scanner, thought of NOD ? Can anyone just tell me if its as good as you can always read...
Dunno, Im using Avast right now and the license for updates finishes in 2 months...so Im looking for something new, avast had some bad reviews so i dont want to use it any longer
second thing i need is a recommendable firewall, dont have a clue...
nothing special, might be freeware aswell, main thing is that it works
and last but my no means least is an imageing software to make a clean winXP setup with SP2, updates and .NETFX which I want to make an image of...
thats easier than format c: and reinstallation of all the crap once again...
so i only have to do it once and never ever again, just have to use the image...

thats quite a lot, thanks for your answers...

Muji

[kosmiq]

NOD32 is great, I am using it now and I intend to stay with it too...
Uses very little resources, feel safe, a lot of updates (virus definitions updated almost every day) and really do find things if there are any.

As for firewall, well I can't point out a winner there. I'll leave that one for someone else.

As for imaging... Not my thing to do. I prefer a real clean format when its needed instead of some image thing.

[Muji-FightR]

Regarding image-software:
After creating a clean format I will do the image, so I get rid of doing the reformat twice or even more often... After applying the image, it is almost like a real format, absolutely no difference except for 5 hours of freetime more due to the fact that any important software (AV, .NETFX, drivers, ..) is already installed...

[Joe Forster/STA]

I agree with NOD32, I'm very satisfied with it. (It seems, my agitations at my work place were not in vain, we might just switch to NOD32 here, too.)

At home, I have no Net access but, if I did, I would choose Zone Alarm Pro for the firewall as I've heard good things about it.

As for imaging, I use good old Norton Ghost (6.5 and 7.0) under DOS. (It copied my 100 Gigabyte ext2 partition to my newly bought hard disk, re-sizing the partition on the way, without a single bit getting lost! A VERY NICE program!) If you prefer Windows, you'll like the newer Symantec Ghost or Acronis True Image (Home).

[Grumpy]

As for imaging, I use good old Norton Ghost (6.5 and 7.0).........If you prefer Windows, you'll like the newer Symantec Ghost

I have used both the Norton and the newer Symantec and found them both to be very good Ghosting programs.
I used to use the 6.5 but now I use Symantec Norton Ghost 9. It is very easy to use!
You have the option to create Ghost images straight to DVD's or just as images on a spare hardrive. You cannot create the images on the hardrive you are Ghosting!
But instead of creating the images onto DVD's I prefer to create them on my spare hardrive then copy those images to a DVD. I only do it this way as when Ghosting back it can take quite some time to Ghost from the DVD's, so I copy the images back to my hardrive and then reghost from there.
To Ghost back to my original setup from the images takes me about 15 minutes, then I virtually have a fresh reformatted system.

[Muji-FightR]

Thanks, will see if i get a trial or stuff to see if its worth buying
How exactly does imaging work ? For example, my winXP has gone due to SF driver corruption or whatever, how can i reapply the image on my HD ? Are there bootable discs coming with these programs ? Assuming i have no 2. HD (I do have one, just in case its gone as well), can someone explain to me how this works in detail ?

[Luciel]

Dunno i've been using avast for quite a while and it's great, at least for me and it gets virus defs updates every day (there's been a few days where it's had 2 updates lol) and for firewall, my vote goes on zonealarm pro

[Joe Forster/STA]

As for how imaging works, it's very simple:

- Norton Ghost for DOS, that I use, runs under... well, hard to guess... DOS. So, there's no problem with how to boot the system; e.g. from a boot disk, with included CD/DVD-ROM support (I have a few generic CD/DVD-ROM drivers for DOS, see http://sta.c64.org/dosprg.html#cyb ) or from a bootable CD/DVD-ROM that includes not only DOS but also the actual hard disk/partition image by Ghost. A great problem is the very low speed (~2 Mb/s) of saving/restoring data. But, when I moved my stuff onto new hard disks, I didn't mind the process going on for some 10 hours at home, while I was working...

- I haven't needed to use Acronis True Image yet but, as far as my colleagues explained to me, it can kick in during boot time and then can save/restore even the boot partition. This one is fast, like, at least, ~20-30 Mb/s!