best free firewall and antiviral combo

I'm running win7 Home Premium and just got a new hard drive.

I've been using Norton Anti-virus (from centurylink) and comodo firewall in the past. However, CL's site for downloading the anti-virus program is down (has been for 24 hours) and comodo's firewall now comes with defense + that conflicts with Norton and even though turned off not sure if that's good enough + it now pops up, even in safe setting on the firewall and I don't know enough what to ok and what to block - it didn't used to have the defense+ with the fire wall or popups under safe.

Since my main computer just got a new hard drive and I can't use until I find the right security for it & I was looking for suggestions.

I'm low income so want to use safe free programs and any other suggestions to include would be fine (I usually install free sandboxie, malwarebytes, peerblock, spywareblaster, did have ccleaner but heard conflicted with a program, had winpatrol but heard it conflicts with other programs,had Spybot Search & Destroy- but heard it conflicted with programs I had, I had DNS through comodo, ff with cookies monster, better privacy, ghostery, wot, adblocker+,linkextend, flagfox, noscript, FEBE, & redirect remover, used to have mvphosts - but caused some problems.

So would appreciate suggestions on free anti-viral, free firewall and any other security suggestions to run a safer computer.

Thank you.

The best way to protect yourself is to devote an hour or two a day to keep abreast of the latest security news so that you can stay one step ahead of malicious attackers most of the time. I recommend the following sites for that purpose:

• Heisse Security
• Internet Storm Center
• KrebsOnSecurity

As regards free security apps, all the big names offer adequate protection, but users don't bother to read the instructions and therefore don't configure them properly and that's the main reason they pick up viruses, trojans and other malware. Either AVAST or Avira are excellent, but the latter has constant nag screens which is the main reason I prefer Avast.

The Comodo firewall is good too, but again, read the instructions to configure it properly.

Malwarebytes is the last one I'd recommend, but you do have to manually update the freebie version.

I agree with Xircal. I love my Avast Free antivirus and Comodo firewall. I don't need a separate sandbox tool because Avast includes one even in the free version, and the boot-time scan is awesome. NoScript and AdBlock Plus should be your best friends (using Firefox like me, I assume?). You may also consider using the Hosts file (you may have already done this with Spybot) to add another layer of security:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/hosts-files-explained/

I would just point out that Malwarebytes (the free version) is great as a malware scanner and removal tool, but you have to pay to get the real-time protection. I too had issues with many of the free anti-malware tools that offer real-time protection, but finally found a winner in IObit Malware Fighter (IMF) free version. It's easy on system resources, scans are the fastest I've seen among similar programs, and it updates automatically.

I haven't had any problems since installing Avast Free, Comodo, and IMF. Just be sure to do a little research to configure properly for your personal preferences. There is also plenty of advice on these forums to help you browse the Internet more safely and securely. Even the best security software cannot protect you if you invite attackers into your system.

Choosing an Anti-Virus Program
Choosing a Firewall
Supplementing your Anti-Virus Program with Anti-Malware Tools

There should not be any conflicts if you want to use WinPatrol.