Confused with AV/ Spyware and Firewall!?

Right...the more i read, the more i'm getting confused. Which is which? There are so many security program like avast, avg, zonealarm, NAV, mcafee, kapersky, trend, sygate, kerio, blackice, panda, F-secure and the list goes on!!

Now which ones are Antivirus, which ones are Firewall and which ones are Spyware?

I have noticed,... use one AV only but more spyware are better, is three or four spyware much better or two is optimum?

Confused with AV/ Spyware and Firewall!?nortan

It's good to see that your reading up first, a lot of people are like sheep %26 just download AVG rubbish like the rest of the sheep.

You can only run one anti virus program therefore you need to look at the detection rate, if it slow downs your system, if it uses a lot of ram,etc

AVG - detection rate 82% (very poor)

Norton - slows down your PC.

Avira (free)- highest detection rate, does not scan e-mail

Avast(free) - second highest detect rate.

Nod32 - fast, light, high detection rate (one of the best)

Kaspersky - in the same class as nod32

As for anti spyware programs there are two which stick out from the rest:

superantispyware %26 spybot SD (both are free)

Then you need real time protection from spyware, comodo boclean which is free gives very good protection (its better than spywareblaster)

As for firewalls you need one that does not leak - comodo pro does not leak (not vista ready yet).