I rarely use the same brand twice in a row, its a nightmare for my intonation and truss rod 8)
But I've recently tried Curt Mangan (good feel and sound, cheap, last a reasonable time), DR (good but not worth the hype IMO), SIT (ok but again nothing special), R Cocco (seemed to get corroded really quickly but definately had an air of quality) and I'm now using Elixir nanoweb which sound good, feel better than the polyweb versions and seem very resistant to corrosion (its quite humid here even though its starting to get cold).
In the past I have used most popular brands; Ernie Balls turn to rust, Dean Markley are too stiff but I do really like the Blue Steel range and D'Addario are fine, standard strings that just work.
As for gauge I use 9-42/44 on 25.5 " scales and 9.5/10-44/46 on 24.75" sclae, depending on which are available.