What are alternatives to Norton?

[Porge]

I have been using Norton for years and have not had any problems with it, except that the last few year's versions are not very user friendly.

 

Just had the email notification to say they want to debit £69.99 from my account for the next year's subscription.

 

It seems to get more expensive by the year and wanted people's thoughts on what alternatives there are which are cheaper or free.

 

Thanks

[KenB]

Hi,

 

DON'T PAY IT !!

 

There are a few good ( free ) AVs available.

 

I use MS Essentials.

It is excellent. Auto updates - runs in the background - no adverts :)

 

There is also Avast and Avira that you could look at.

 

I certainly wouldn't pay those prices when there are free options to be had :)

 

Just a note:

Don't have 2 AVs on your system at once.

 

If you do decide to get rid of Norton - there is a removal tool that you can download.

[etavares]

There are several versions of free security software that are very effective at protecting your system. You should have one each of the following types of programs..have more than one in any category will result in false positive and slow up your system with no increase in security.

 

• Antivirus - Good ones that are free for home use include Microsoft Security Essentials and Avira AntiVir. Avast is also free for home use, but the recent update is really making me want to change to MSE myself.
  
• Antispyware - SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware are both free for home use for the manual scan. These are very effective. I personally use MBAM. You can get a paid subscription that allows it to run in real-time protection mode.
  
• Firewall - Windows comes with a one-way firewall by default. This protects you from inbound threats...very important. However, it does not protect you against outgoing threats. Say you have a bot on your computer that wants to connect to the control server...it can easily do that. For more protection, you can enable the Windows 7 firewall to protect against that...but you will have a lot of popups asking you if such and such a file can access the internet. If you will just blindly click OK because it's annoying, then dont' bother...just keep it on the inbound protection mode.
  

 

Hope that helps. I personally haven't had much luck with Norton myself.

[wellies]

By all means change from Norton if that's what you want to do but there's no need to do it for reasons of cost. It is possible to buy from places other than the Norton site. Amazon and even PC World sell NIS for about £22-00. There is no need to uninstall the copy of Norton that you have. Simply open the program and click the 'Renew' button. Then click the 'I have a key or code' link. Enter the key that comes with the new CD. You will be asked for your account username and password. Once entered, the renewal process and activation will complete.

 

Before leaving Norton, consider the fact that it has given you no trouble over the period of time you have used it. This has been my experience over the past four years. Its detection rates and protection are good:

 

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/

 

I renewed for another year just a couple of days ago. I consider it better than the free products I've tried and think that paying £22-00 a year for three licences is worth it. I read on another forum that Norton has been running an offer to buy/renew NIS for £14-00. I wish I'd known about this before I bought a CD from PC World a couple of weeks ago in readiness for the expiry date. I believe the offer has expired now.

 

I agree with the advice to have a number of layers of security. No AV program will catch all of the malware all of the time.

 

I have removed Norton a few times because of wanting to try out various security suites and AV programs (free and paid). The removal tool should be run a couple of times, rebooting each time. This should leave the computer clean enough to install any other AV program you choose. However, I have found that even after running the removal tool in the recommended manner. There are still files and Registry entries left over. I believe these can be ignored but I always remove them manually. This is just to make the system as clean as possible before installing any other suite or AV program.

 

Edit: Current Amazon prices: NIS 2012 is £21-59 (3 computer licence). Norton 360 is £31-99 (3 computer licence).

Edited May 7, 2012 by wellies

[Porge]

Thanks to all

 

I appreciate all the quick responses I have received here. I am going to take the advice to load the free software available. If I find any problems, I can still buy the 2012 Norton 360 at a much cheaper price online, rather than have Norton automatically charge my bank account.

 

Thanks everyone!

[KenB]

Let us know how it goes with the new AV.

[wellies]

I hope you get on well with whatever program(s) you choose. It's all about reading as much as possible about the various security programs available, trying them out and weighing up the findings. If everyone agreed that there was one single AV program that was the best, we'd all be using it. I think Norton and Kaspersky are the best but that's just me. We all hope we never come across anything that can bypass the protection of our chosen AV program. There probably is malware around that can but it just depends on whether we come across it or not.

 

Consider using Sandboxie as well. Then your AV program will only be called on to do its job if anything bypasses that. I think this is better than the sandbox included within some AV programs:

 

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FrequentlyAskedQuestions

[Porge]

Just to let you all know, that two weeks on, my laptop is working just fine with no security issues.

 

Firstly, I downloaded software to completely remove Norton from my system.

 

I then ran CCCleaner

 

I used:

 

Microsoft Security Essentials

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Turned on firewall in control panel on Windows 7

 

Just goes to show that you needn't be afraid of all the "urgent" Norton messages on the screen advising that the subcription is running out. In fact, for all us computer novices, don't be bullied by these companies and save yourself some money.

 

Thank you very much to all for your help and keep up the good work!