Renew Norton sub or buy new???

[pickle-i-po]

My Norton 360 subscription is due to run out soon. Renewal via Symantec is �54.99.
I have seen brand new sealed discs on ebay for �31.
Which should i got with??

[ChuckFickens]

Niether!

Norton is rubbish, far to resource hungry and not particularly good at dealing with viruses (sp?)

You can get better protection for free using

AVG free (anti virus)

http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Ed ition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?tag=mncol

Zone Alarm (firewall)

http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm-Firewall-Win dows-2000-XP-/3000-10435_4-10039884.html?tag=m ncol

Adaware (ant spware)

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2008/3000-802 2_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag =top5&cdlPid=10903602

And to give you some idea of how badly writen norton is the uninstall doesn't even work properly! If you want to remove it you need the norton removal tool from symantec.

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo .nsf/docid/2005033108162039

[sandmaster]

A calculator will tell you which way to go with that choice. I use Kapersky which I find very good, but perhaps some abers can tell me if the free programs are better?

[ACtheTROLL]

for free chuck has it covered ...
to buy
My (and all the PC magazine's favourite) is Kaspersky

however ... the latest version of norton is getting some very good reviews ... they are actually saying it's now faster than many of the other favourites here.

symantec has never been criticised for what it detects ... just how long it takes to do it

if you look for OEM versions of the software you can save lots of money

you may need to buy a cheap mouse to satisfy the oem conditions

I recently got a 3 user lisense for kaspersky 2009 for �14

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?c ode=SWK-INTSEC93

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?c ode=SWN-ISEC09O

[pickle-i-po]

I've had Norton for a year now and have found it fine so far. It does everything by itself so i don't need to remember to do anything. I only have a very simple laptop, but do alot of searching as i am a researcher.
I'm a little confused, as i used AVG on an old pc i had and it got killed by a trojan.
I'm not that technical so was just going to stick with what i know.
Why is norton promoted everywhere if it is so bad. mine came with the laptop.
Sorry if i'm being a bit thick...but computers is not my speciality

[sandmaster]

I cannot speak for Norton but I once had McAfee. I tried to renew it online and it was a nightmare. I gave up, deleted it and bought a new disc and installed that. The following year I went to Panda, then Kaspersky after reading magazine reviews. What I am trying to say, badly, is shop around, and even if you choose Norton again it may be better to buy a new disc rather than renew online.

[pickle-i-po]

Quite frankly if the free ones are as good as or better than Norton i'm quite willing to give one a try.
So does the Avira one (free version) do the whole packet? Will I need to update/run it myself? Are they as comprehensive as Norton as it does disc optimisation, back up, etc and everything. I know you can run this manually but it's easier for me to have something that does it all automatically.

The ones Chuck recommended..do I need to downlaod all three?
Also do I wait until my Norton runs out, then uninstall it and then download these?
In simple terms please?
Your help is much appreciated. :)