What is the best free anti virus and firewall software?

I would recommend AVG for the anti-virus and Zone Alarm for the firewall. See links below. People will have all sorts of explanations and/or reasons to recommend different applications and MOST will be fine, but the proof is in the pudding as they say: these are used by MILLIONS across the world. Using ONLY the Microsoft firewall in XP is not enough and quite frankly not very efficient. Keep in mind that those who recommend McAfee or Norton are forgetting that you will have TO PAY for those applications after the trial period. AVG is free at all times.

Added comment: Norton is a hog on RAM while AVG is not and you do not lose speed, actually you can hardly notice that an AV is running in the background. Avast is also a good choice. My criteria when choosing software is this: How easy is it to install, use, update and how good is it at doing its job? Both have met all the criteria.

What is the best free anti virus and firewall software?hijackthis

www.download.com

What is the best free anti virus and firewall software?malware

I think McAfee is just the best allround. Try it and see, u'll not regreat you did!
if you have xp with sp/2 installed you already have a firewall

go here and download free avg

http://www.myspace.com/computer_works
Zonelabs.com -I've been with them for years and I'll tell you this I love that when it finds something it kills it right away(BAMM), which has not been often thank God, I will tell you it better then others I got this antivirus recommendation from my friend a hacker ,oh you should also get Spysweeper at webroot.com it's very good to it also doesnt let anything by-lol-edi
AVG is great - was recommended by our IT guy at work.
AVG