Norton Internet Security

[Terry Bennett]

Forgive me if this is outside the remit of this forum ...

My annual subscription to Norton is due for renewal shortly and is now £55
Sterling (up from £39.99 last year). This does seem a steep rise just for
the very basic package and I'm wondering whether it is worth it, or whether
there are any cheaper alternatives.

I appreciate that non-renewal would mean that I would not receive any of the
updates and, presumably, my PC would then become more vulnerable to new
threats. Realistically, how much of an issue is this for a home user that
accesses the Internet c 2-3 hours per day?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Forgive me if this is outside the remit of this forum ...

My annual subscription to Norton is due for renewal shortly and is now £55
Sterling (up from £39.99 last year). This does seem a steep rise just for
the very basic package and I'm wondering whether it is worth it, or whether
there are any cheaper alternatives.

I appreciate that non-renewal would mean that I would not receive any of the
updates and, presumably, my PC would then become more vulnerable to new
threats. Realistically, how much of an issue is this for a home user that
accesses the Internet c 2-3 hours per day?

Any advice would be appreciated.

You'll get nearly as many differing opinions as you will responses.

I'll start by saying that I don't think any security "suite" is a
good choice. It'd be better to use smaller, less-resource-draining
stand-alone products.

I had used, and recommended, Norton Antivirus and then Norton
Internet Security, for many years, on Win98, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP,
all without any significant problems. I had used McAfee prior to that.
But it's been several years since I've been tempted to try McAfee
products. Their quality seemed to take a steep nose-dive after they were
acquired by Network Associates.

However, when my subscription to Symantec's updates for Norton
Internet Security came up for renewal at a cost substantially higher
than the preceding year's subscription, just as yours has done, I
decided to try less expensive solutions. I downloaded and installed the
free version of GriSoft's AVG
(http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php ). It proved to be easily
installed, easy to use, and quite effective. Additionally, I was
pleasantly surprised to see a small but very noticeable improvement in
my PC's performance, once I'd replaced the Symantec product. Another
free (for personal use) anti-virus product is AVAST! Home Edition
(http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html), which is what I've used
without problems on both WinXP Pro and Vista Business.

For a recent comparison of anti-virus products:

Retrospective / ProActive Test
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Additionally, Microsoft has stepped up to provide Microsoft Security
Essentials, free of charge. I've been using it exclusively for several
weeks now, without problems on both WinXP and Windows 7 installations.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

It's been well reviewed by some:

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/first-look-microsoft-security-essentials-impresses.ars

.... and upset other major security companies:

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/ne...pplaud-mock-microsoft-security-essentials.ars



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Forgive me if this is outside the remit of this forum ...

My annual subscription to Norton is due for renewal shortly and is now £55
Sterling (up from £39.99 last year). This does seem a steep rise just for
the very basic package and I'm wondering whether it is worth it, or whether
there are any cheaper alternatives.

I appreciate that non-renewal would mean that I would not receive any of the
updates and, presumably, my PC would then become more vulnerable to new
threats. Realistically, how much of an issue is this for a home user that
accesses the Internet c 2-3 hours per day?

Any advice would be appreciated.

In my view, Norton is the *worst* security software on the market, and
I wouldn't use it if it were free.

Here are my recommendations:

Anti-Virus: Nod32, if you are willing to pay their fee, Avast if you
want a free one.

Anti-Spyware: Both MalwareBytes AntiMalware and SuperAntiSpyware, both
free.

 

[JS]

Forgive me if this is outside the remit of this forum ...

My annual subscription to Norton is due for renewal shortly and is now £55
Sterling (up from £39.99 last year). This does seem a steep rise just for
the very basic package and I'm wondering whether it is worth it, or
whether there are any cheaper alternatives.

I appreciate that non-renewal would mean that I would not receive any of
the updates and, presumably, my PC would then become more vulnerable to
new threats. Realistically, how much of an issue is this for a home user
that accesses the Internet c 2-3 hours per day?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Norton NIS2010 is much improved over past versions,
I have tested it on low end computers with AMD and
Intel P4 (both single core non HT) processors with 512MB of memory with
virtually no performance hit.

In the long run it's how effective your AV software is in doing it's job and
NIS2010 is one of the best even if you are only on the Internet a few hours
per day!

 

[Terry Bennett]

Many thanks for your advice guys - much appreciated.