[Fyron]

You've got a really bad firewall if it isn't monitoring port activity... That is not the job of an AV program. Norton is famous for bloat as much as the rootkit-like nature of their "personal" programs.

I am not aware of any free AV programs that will scan IM sessions, though they may exist somewhere. But then, I would rather not have any do that due to the excessive load it would place on IMing for no real net gain. Practicing safe computing (not clicking on links or accepting files from strangers) is just as effective.

AV scanners at the mail server level tend to be more effective than client side scanners, since a lot more effort tends to be put into them for robustness and efficacy. If you don't use something like outlook express, mail viruses are hard to infect yourself with simply by practicing safe computing. Delete anything that looks suspicious, never open attachments you were not expecting.

That being said, AVG Free does have an email scanner (not sure if it is a separate download or what, as my copy says it is not installed; but the site mentions it is included).