"Best" free antivirus and free firewall program?

I have McAfee now, and subscription is running out.

I don't mind paying for these programs but if there's free ones out there that will give me just as good protection, I don't want to waste my money.

Are the free firewall and antivirus just as good as payed ones and if so which would you recommentd?

I'm thinking the saying "you get what you pay for", meaning you have to pay for something of quality.

I may be wrong.

Please help me decide.

I have Windows XP and not even thinking of converting to Vista.

"Best" free antivirus and free firewall program?live update

avg is pretty good and zone alarm free firewall is as well but make sure you get the zone alarm for xp or vista or your system could crash big time. click on these links...

http://free.grisoft.com/

http://www.filehippo.com/download_zoneal...

"Best" free antivirus and free firewall program?norten

Hello,

I recommend you AVG Free Edition which is very effective :

- More than 90% detecting rate

- Several updates per day

- Very light

- Easy to use
avg is the best
I was in the same boat not too long ago, and I researched for a while and found Avast. This program seems to be the highest rated among the free anti-virus programs, and has worked exceptionally well for me.
go to www.avaist.com its the sht
Avira, Avast! and AVG are good, in that order - in my opinion.