Antivirus/Firewall for 400mhz Dinosaur

[alice]

For some odd reason, I have the desire to resurrect my ancient Dell 400C. I've been looking through old free antivirus and firewall programs and am having a hard time finding versions which can run on my golden oldie.
Anybody have any advice (besides tossing the old box out)?
Thanks in advance.

[Pete]

Assuming you're running Windows 98 or newer.....

Firewall - Just about any of the free versions of ZoneAlarm. The older versions are fine as a basic firewall, the newer ones have some nice extra features that you may (or may not) consider bloat.

AntiVirus - I'm running AVG version 7.5.516 on 400 mh (and older) without problems, (be sure to check for updates daily).

I'm sure others could recommend their favorite Firewall and AV as well.

[Constance]

ZoneAlarm was slowing down my 500 MHz deadly, so I wouldn't recommend it ... while Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5 was running just fine :]
As for an anti-virus, well, do you really need it ? ...

[dummy1]

Look 'n Stop 2.05 runs like a feather on my 366mhz laptop, and I even run it on my P4 3.0 ghz. It sounds generic, but it's a mighty powerful little firewall.


Kaspersky 6.0 (or earlier) ran alright on it, but on an as-needed basis... no real time scanning or anything. I ended up uninstalling it because I really didn't need it on that particular machine.

Nowadays I only try out new or iffy software in a virtual machine sandbox that is thuroughly protected and up to date with fixes + security. KAV 6.0 works fine there too... though I still dislike their active protection. I need to try NOD32 (i think 2.7 is what I reasearched being my best bet), but haven't got around to it yet. If anyone knows how well it handles itself on old hardware before I think to try it - let me know.

[locustfurnace]

FreeBSD has a firewall (it is a firewall, it's built into the kernel) and runs quick if you like the terminal.

I think recommending FreeBSD to someone is a bit overkill. FreeBSD's kernel does not have with the firewall enabled by default so you need to recompile it. But it is an easy to learn packet filtering system for the technically inclined, but probably more luggage to heft than simply adding a software firewall to ones MS Windows system.

Since the user would need to build a computer with the FreeBSD Operating System to take advantage of the excellent packet filtering.

[the gaffer]

just whacked avg antivirus and kerio personal firewall 2.1.5 (last freeware version i think) on a 400 mhz box with 98se and it runs fine,depends a little on what ram you have in the dell,this old box is gateway 400mhz processor with with 256 mb ram.

[citra]

What is the best antivirus for old computer? My computer is 128 MB RAM.

[Constance]

I'd say anything that you don't use as a resident AV, or if you do, that doesn't rely on signatures but on program behavior instead.
For there are so many viruses and variants out there, that signatures would probably take up way too much RAM to be loaded permanently

[khelben1979]

Maybe the Comodo Firewall can be useful?

When it comes to good anti-virus I would like to recommend the free tools from the Sophos website.

Sourceforge.net has anti-virus.