Replacement for Symantec Protection Agent?

As a condition for accessing my employer's network from home, I had to have approved anti-virus and firewall apps installed on my home PCs.

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP3 on all my home machines.

They gave out copies of Symantec AntiVirus and Symantec Protection Agent, but I'm changing jobs and the SPA wants to talk to an update server on my current employer's network from time to time and I won't have access to it any more.

Both SAV and SPA are rather intrusive and resource intensive, but I like SPA's ability to selectively prevent apps from making outbound network connections, so I'd like to have a replacement that has that feature. Cheap (or free) would be a nice feature too.

Any suggestions for a software firewall with the ability to selectively block outbound connection attempts?

If you still have the installation package, Symantec Endpoint can be installed as an unmanaged client, in which case it gets updates from an internet server.

I'm not sure if it can be reconfigured once installed. You might want to look though.

Though, symantec keeps changing names of things at every rev, so I'm not sure how old your package is.

And that would put him in violation of the licensing agreement.

Which clause?

If he doesn't own the license for the product then he's not entitled to use it - He would have to obtain a copy of the license from his previous employer to continue using it.

You can read the licensing agreement online.

Sincere condolences.

OMN! One of the worst.

I hope, this is more a personal sexual preference or something like that, because "preventing applications from making outbound network connections" is not helpful for security.

Better try to configure them correctly.

Yours, VB.

It's helpful for my sense of well being and privacy.

Configure what properly?

Please cite to back up this assertion.

Symantec's AV engine did fine in these two latest tests, and the corporate product marketed under Symantec is among the least annoying such products I've encountered. Norton Antivirus on the other hand is among the most annoying.

Perhaps. Unfortunately it's a lot less helpful for your actual well-being and privacy.

cu

Please elaborate.

I find that knowing when an application makes a unilateral decision to initiate an outbound connection and call home is quite useful.

Is there any reason why you and "Volker Birk" like to make content-free followups?

Only that your personal firewall can't reliably determine whether or not an application establishes an unsolicited outbound connection. Meaning that there are ways for applications to bypass your personal firewall.

google://personal+firewall+leak

Because this topic has been discussed ad nauseam. You may want to consult a Usenet archive and read through prior discussions of this topic to find the answer to any question you could possibly have about this matter.

cu

Thank you.

And, good luck.