# Norton Security Renewal - renew or look elsewhere



## musicfan (18 Aug 2007)

My  3 months free nortons internet security is now due for renewal.  Should I renew at a cost of €65 for a year?

I've looked at previous threads on internet security but for someone who is new to the Internet / PC's etc they appear to be very technical!! If I decide not to renew with nortons is there one website / company where I can to go purchase / download software that will secure against everything (previous threads seem to suggest lots of differnet software to protect against different things!!!).

Thanks


----------



## anseo (18 Aug 2007)

Just use Zone Alarm for a firewall.

AVG Anti-Virus for anti-virus.

AVG Anit-Sypware / Spybot / Ad-Aware for spyware.

All free.


----------



## aircobra19 (18 Aug 2007)

Use anything else but not norton.


----------



## lyonsie (19 Aug 2007)

Look at www.geekstogo.com   they give great advice and help.


----------



## ACA (19 Aug 2007)

> originally posted by *aircobra19*
> Use anything else but not norton.



Any reason why? Does it not do what it says on the box??


----------



## musicfan (19 Aug 2007)

anseo said:


> Just use Zone Alarm for a firewall.
> 
> AVG Anti-Virus for anti-virus.
> 
> ...


 
Had a look at the Zone Alarm and AVG websites.

Zone Alarm is not free - am I looking in the wrong place??

Re AVG - Should I download the Anti Virus free Edition (basic protection) and the Anti Spyware Free Edition?

Would I be better off paying for something or is this sufficient for a home laptop?

Sorry if these questions are basic but its my first home laptop and I know nothing about what security I should have.

What is wrong with Nortons?


----------



## ClubMan (19 Aug 2007)

musicfan said:


> Zone Alarm is not free - am I looking in the wrong place??


Free edition is available _here_. I use _Comodo Pro _free edition these days.


> Re AVG - Should I download the Anti Virus free Edition (basic protection) and the Anti Spyware Free Edition?


Yes.


> Would I be better off paying for something or is this sufficient for a home laptop?


I have run the tools mentioned above on my personal laptop and have never had any problems.


> What is wrong with Nortons?


Slow/resource hungry, nag screens etc.

See [broken link removed] and the "clean PC" thread pinned at the top of this forum for more free tools recommendations.


----------



## BlueSpud (19 Aug 2007)

anseo said:


> Just use Zone Alarm for a firewall.
> 
> AVG Anti-Virus for anti-virus.
> 
> ...


 
This is the way to go, I have been using 1 & 2 for years, as have friends, no problems.  We use the commercial version of AVG at work and no problems either, cheaper than the common ones too, e.g Norton.


----------



## joanmul (21 Nov 2007)

anseo said:


> Just use Zone Alarm for a firewall.
> 
> AVG Anti-Virus for anti-virus.
> 
> ...


 
Hi Anseo. I looked at AVG and I didn't see a link for free anti-virus or spyware. What should I be looking at?


----------



## carpedeum (21 Nov 2007)

Another option...

http://www.filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus/

http://www.filehippo.com/


----------



## Guest125 (21 Nov 2007)

I started with Norton like yourself but found it very processor hungry particulary in my laptop.I then decided to try AVG anti-virus(free) along with Comodo firewall but with children using the Laptop it was too intrusive asking all sorts of questions which caused problems.I'm now using Kaspersky internet security 7 which I bought on e-bay for €30,three user edition(disc included).All is going well so far.


----------



## aircobra19 (22 Nov 2007)

musicfan said:


> ....
> What is wrong with Nortons?



Everything.


----------



## Dearg Doom (22 Nov 2007)

joanmul said:


> Hi Anseo. I looked at AVG and I didn't see a link for free anti-virus or spyware. What should I be looking at?



http://free.grisoft.com/


----------



## noname (22 Nov 2007)

aircobra19 said:


> Everything.


 

couldn't agree more I hate norton,, it seems to cause alot of problems, nut I cant remove it from my laptop, anytime i have tried I was told it cant be removed as it was being used by another programme (i think I have everything turned off) any advice on this would be great.


----------



## ClubMan (22 Nov 2007)

Boot into maintenance/recovery mode and uninstall it from there?


----------



## noname (22 Nov 2007)

thanks for the tip Clubman, but that is abit above my head, is maintenance/recovery mode when you hit F8 on start up?


----------



## ClubMan (22 Nov 2007)

Yes.


----------



## joeysully (22 Nov 2007)

www.avast.com
Best antivirus i have found and its free and discreet which i like 
Daily updates. just need an email address...


----------



## joanmul (25 Nov 2007)

Thanks Dearg dorm for that link.


----------



## Flymask (25 Nov 2007)

Do you have to uninstall all other forms of antivirus protection before you download something like AVG antivirus/anti-spyware (free versions) or can they run in tandem with other sysytems such as F-Secure?


----------



## bond-007 (25 Nov 2007)

Kaspersky is the best going. It found virsuses that AVG and Avast both missed.


----------



## carpedeum (25 Nov 2007)

bond-007 said:


> Kaspersky is the best going. It found virsuses that AVG and Avast both missed.


 
I would agree with this. While the free AVG version is very good, it is not water tight. One of my teenagers loaded up a game last week, infecting a PC.  We use AVG. The virus was reported as an AVG false-alarm on some forums, but, I was taking no chances. Kaspersky Online Scanner reported it as a virus and nuked it (http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner)


----------

