Norton Expiring This Sunday, Go for Avast?

jakeny

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A lot of you guys have recommended Avast in the past to me here. My Norton Internet Security expires this week and I'm wondering if I should just not renew it and go with Avast solely (as my only protection program).

I don't know...psychologically, it just feels better to have a paid program. :lol: Is Avast in some way inferior at all to the paid ones?

And, lastly, should I go with the completely free Avast or upgrade to the paid version? The paid version would still be cheaper than Norton for me. Norton did have a feature called "Intrusion Block" that seemed to have helped me a lot in the past. I would seem notices pop up about once a month saying "Trojan blocked"..."Attempted intrusion blocked" etc. that seemed like important deflections.
 
Which anti-virus to go through is largely going to be opinion based. At any rate you should only ever one anti-virus on your computer at any one time. If you keep Norton, don't both with the internet security version - it adds nothing of real use anymore. Back in the day the thing that sold it was the firewall but now the windows firewall is typically enough for people once behind a router's firewall (which odds are you are behind one).

Avast free should be good enough for you.
 
I think anything would be an upgrade over Norton...

I agree with celegorm, the windows firewall does a great job. The only real difference is that the windows firewall usually blocks things behind the scenes without having to notify you every single time about what a great job it's doing...
 
Agreed with both above.
I have had great success with Avast, and it passes tests that most others do not. But there are plenty of greats out there. But no, I would never recommend renewing your sub to Norton.
 
Alright, I'm going to go with Avast!

Will save me a good chunk of money that I can put into my savings!! Thanks for the feedback guys.
 
All you need is the free version for better protection than you have been paying for. (not to insult you).
It will bug you a lot with premotional offers ect... but how else do you expect a company offering their best software for free to make money.
 
All you need is the free version for better protection than you have been paying for. (not to insult you).
It will bug you a lot with premotional offers ect... but how else do you expect a company offering their best software for free to make money.


EERRMM I don't expect them to spam me with adverts free or not. Avast is as good as anything but it does spam you. As was said it is a matter of opinion at the end of the day. I just use Microsoft Security Essentials and have done ever since it came out and I have not had a virus yet. But do not get so complacent that you start to think that antivirus programs are 100% effective. They are not whether you use a paid one or free one. The virus writers will ALWAYS be one step ahead of the virus killers and hueristic prediction is just that it's a prediction that is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.
 
EERRMM I don't expect them to spam me with adverts free or not. Avast is as good as anything but it does spam you. As was said it is a matter of opinion at the end of the day. I just use Microsoft Security Essentials and have done ever since it came out and I have not had a virus yet. But do not get so complacent that you start to think that antivirus programs are 100% effective. They are not whether you use a paid one or free one. The virus writers will ALWAYS be one step ahead of the virus killers and hueristic prediction is just that it's a prediction that is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.
All that I can say is that I agree. Some do work better than others, and Avast out preformed everything but Bullguard in my tests, but that was personal testing before deciding on one. I can deal with there premotional crap for the protection that I am getting, which will never be good enough, but works for now.
 
9 times out of 10, the user is the reason for the virus anyway to be fair. An Anti-Virus can only do so much if you ignore every warning and gives and download/run a file that's malicious!
 
9 times out of 10, the user is the reason for the virus anyway to be fair. An Anti-Virus can only do so much if you ignore every warning and gives and download/run a file that's malicious!
I wish more people understood this. I got into a conversation that almost turned into an altercation because the other person was not getting the point. People watch to many movies and TV shows. I was answering the users question, and that was about how to keep "hackers" out of their system. As has been stated here, the Windows firewall will do well for most people, and breaking into computers does not work the way that they show on TV. Despite that, the user still wanted to know about several computers on a network. It just does not work that way. Sorry... slight rant included in there but the point remains quite solid. I do not look down on people who do not understand. But I am going to get upset after I must repeat the same thing over and over in different wording, trying to figure out how to get them to understand.
It goes somthing like this, because that user was not the first user to ask...
[rant]
"I want to secure my information."
"Understood, there are plenty of ways to do that. Lots of programs that will help you."
(In the last users case)
"But what if I am writting a screen play, and someone wants to steal it."
"Then you must let them in."
"But what do you recommend to keep them out."
"Do not download anything from anyone that you do not know personally."
"They can inject it right?"
"No, they cannot."

Blah blah blah. I finally cut them off because they asked the same question over and over, and I gave the same answer over and over.

"Nobody can get into your (network) without you allowing them to, and they probably would not want to if you do not publish what you are doing. But that is all I am willing to say on the subject."

They got mad, and ended the conversation.
[/rant]


This happened yesterday, with one of Cynthias friends. It took much longer than described above, but that is the hilight.


I am not sure how to handle people like that yet, but I come into contact with very few. It hurt Cynthias feelings because she was the one who got me into contact with that person, and they disconnected after finding out that they... might... be wrong.


Byond that, here is the point. I wish schools taught what you posted above, and even what I am posting here. I feel that it really does need to happen.

TL;DR
Thank you for understanding that, teach it to everyone that you know, and understand that some people cannot or will not be taught.
 
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