BleepingComputer.com: What Protection??

Good evening people,
My Anti-virus is due for renewing. I'm currently running Norton anti virus 2009.
Any tips on anything better !!! Norton has let quite a few things through this year, and i'm sure it makes my PC run slower.
People keep on to me about running the free version of AVG. Is this a good idea??
Any advice would be very very grateful.......
Thank you...Trevor.

Take a look here Trevrev: Freeware Replacements For Common Commercial Apps.

Hello Trevor,
Untill some of the experts finds a time to respond,here are my experience.
Im not sure about Norton but Im sure about the folllowing:
It is much better and easier to prevent,then to heal.
First,go to grc.com and learn to enable DEP-data execution prevention, on your pc,to protect all of your data,not only the important ones.Study a litle bit what Steve Gibson,the owner of grc.com, and well known security gury, says about security.Run Shieldsup! and let them test more than 1200 ports of your pc for vulnerability.
Keep UAC-user account control on all the time-its your friend.
Download and install Win Patrol,an free and esential protection for a pc.It will silently run in the background and and monitor all processes inside your pc.If any changes is about to happened,Win Patrol will display notification and ask do you approve or not this change!
Then just Google and see the rewiews of the antivirus software.This site has a list of Freeware Replacements so you will not need to spend money.
Well,as a doctor,I know how important is to prevent a disease.For this reason I advice my patients to take multivitamins to make their imune sistem stronger,thus preventing an infections to happened in the first place.The same functions for the pc health has,besides Win Patrol,a program called Spywareblaster.It will make another shield arond your pc and prevent infections!
Of course,many antivirus programs have a real time protection.
It is up to you to decide how many layers of protection do you need.Choose an option where you will feel safe.

Thanks for your feed back guys, I've been pondering over purchasing AVG this time.
But after going through some of the threads on the subject, i just can't make up my mind !!!!

I like Avira... (just a subtle nod)

Norton AV is very good, but if you were not implementing and safe computer practices then any software is useless no matter how good.

If you don't want to pay for Norton AntVir, Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials are all great choices. I personally prefer MSE because of the simplicity, reasonable detection rates and low false positive rates.

I generally advise against Symantec and Norton products. Not because they are ineffective but because they are bloated and will slow down your computer. I prefer and recommend Avast! Antivirus. The home edition is free, very effective, and doesn't consume gobbs of resources.

I keep hearing about free anti-virus. I've always purchased my products assuming that i would get more protection.
It's true! Norton does slow down your system quite alot, hence the reason i'm looking else where.
It's a mine field though.

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 19 2009, 03:16 AM, said:

Have you even tried the Norton 2009 products?

Apart from Norton on my PC i also have Superanti spyware (Free) and Maleware bytes (Free). I run scans with these every weekend.
Will, these programmes conflict with my Norton??

Paid does not equal quality nor does free equal lack thereof. Some of the best programs out there are free, and many are Open Source.

I have never used a paid security product on any computer I had control over and have remained infection free on those machines. On other computers, such as those at my former workplace, where they had "Enterprise-level commercial" protection programs installed (Symantec), I cannot make that same claim.

As I said, commercial programs, like Symantec's, are not bad, but they do have a bad tendency to heap feature after feature into the newest version, rather than make incremental improvements that are less noticeable, in order to justify making people pay for the "latest and greatest!". This is called "feature creep" and makes programs slower, less efficient, and more prone to errors; it is certainly not specific to commercial programs but is, in my opinion, more prevalent there.

Most non-open source but free security programs, like Avast! also come in "professional" versions that include extra bells and whistles. Among the bells added to Avast Professional is the ability to schedule regular scans and a nifty-looking interface. The free version detects all the same badies as the paid version, it's just missing a few extras.

Another problem I have with programs like those from Symantec, McAffee, et al, is that they try to be your all-in-one security suite. They usually include a software firewall, virus scanner, spyware scanner, web browsing filter, and lots of other features. This is yet another example of feature creep, at least in my opinion. Also, I think it's wise to cultivate a heterogeneous array of security programs to reduce the possibility of an error in one program or facet of a full suite affecting the other parts.

For example, I use Avast as my anti-virus. It scans files as I access them and monitors my web browsing to intercept bad files before they're even downloaded. I also have Comodo Firewall (also free) as my firewall. It monitors ingoing and outgoing network connections and only permits connections that I have already approved. For my anti-spyware defenses I use Spybot Search& Destroy and Adware Free (both free). They scan for (and SB S&D proactively prevents some) spyware. I also check the MD5 hash¹ of any file I download against VirusTotal's database.On top of this I run Firefox with NoScript and AdBlock Plus.

There ain't nothing gonna get through all that², and I didn't spend a dime.

¹ Disclosure: I wrote this program
² I know, never be too confident.

Thanks Andrew, Interesting reading.

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 19 2009, 05:35 AM, said:

I agree.

But have you tried the Norton 2010 software? If not, how can you say they are "bloated and will slow down your computer"?

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 19 2009, 05:35 AM, said:

But if the features really are useful in protection, then what's wrong with it?
Not to mention the OP was using Norton AV, not the suite, which has less "feature creep".

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 19 2009, 05:35 AM, said:

IMHO, some of these features are very useful, particularly for average users.

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 19 2009, 05:35 AM, said:

That's true, but you probably wouldn't have got infected even without those programs. But most normal computer users who need protection will probably want a simple solution, not something more complex such as Comodo.

Someones, on Oct 19 2009, 11:20 PM, said:

Nope. With me you only get one chance at a first impression. Screw that up and I'm unlikely to give you a second chance.

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Nothing wrong with it per se, but as I said a heterogeneous security environment is more robust, IMHO.

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Probably...

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Comodo is complex? Since when?

Without those programs I would have been infected numerous times over. I may be smart enough to know better but I'm also just dumb enough not to realize that I'm smart enough to know better.

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 20 2009, 12:05 PM, said:

Of course, to each his own. However, might I respectfully suggest that if you haven't tried Norton for years, then perhaps you should not make claims about it to other users, particularly when it is in contrast to various tests/reviews.

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 20 2009, 12:05 PM, said:

Um... for average computer users like the typical 'mom and pop' users?

Amazing Andrew, on Oct 20 2009, 12:05 PM, said:

So Avast has actually detected numerous malware on your computer? Are you a high risk user by any chance?
Thanks