ArchAngel, Thanks for the info. If I don't open e-mail attachments, what benefit would the Norton AntiVirus serve? Thanks for your patience, gotta_trade
Norton Antivirus would tell you if the attachment of the email contains a virus or not. Just a reminder for all who haven't heard from the news yet, there is a new worm spreading around, it doesn't need to be 'openned' to infect your computer. http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/31315.html Update your antivirus and Windows Cheers!!
You can set it up to either periodically or actively scan for virus infected files. Email attachments are only one way you might get an infected file. You might download a program that itself is infected. You might even load software from a CD that was compromised. A periodic scan of your machine would catch and quarantine/fix such infections. Not a great fan of Norton software in general - the only program of their I use is NAV. The rest of their stuff is total bloatware - makes some of Microsoft's software look anorexic by comparison
The software firewall will compliment the hardware firewall. Remember the program is only as good as the operating system and as you can see windows has it's security issues evidenced by the latest virus attack. Your data communications won't be hampered as long as you keep the same settings as the hardware firewall. I assume it's configured to allow http communications, pop3 and smtp. Once those communcation ports are open on your software firewall as well you won't have any problems.
I have all three that you have discussed. As far as Antivirus, do you ever download anything? Well, then you need it! Both Norton products work well with the Linksys dsl/cable router you have discribed. I have four systems connected and all work well...no problems once configured correctly. Bob
Norton AV could detect infected files in the following circumstances: If you used WinMX, Kazaa, or the like to download music, movies, files. Some website (mostly porn ) could also send you virus (I think via Active X, Java.....). After understanding antivirus and firewall, you may want to look at the spyware detectors. A nice one in Ad-Substract, from Lavasoft. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ Remember, none of those software is perfect, but it's better than having none. Just like a thief trying to steal a car, he will choose the easiest one in the bunch. Cheers !!