Replacing Norton

Ok, I had been gifted Norton's whole suite of Antivirus/SystemWorks stuff, and it's been installed and more or less running for a year now. My subscription is about to expire. I'd rather not pay that kind of money to go through all their hassles again. I won't go into detail, but I realize that uninstalling this will not be fun.

So suggestions on what to do now? This is just me on my little private network, no SOs or anything to mess things up or try and install strange/exotic toolbars or any of that.

Just so long as it can still talk to my 360.

ZoneAlarm
Avast! On-Access Scanner

Dat's all I use, and all I really need (plus AdAware and Spy-Bot S&D).

AVG free edition for anti-virus (better than Avast IMO, but I would pick Avast next before going with ANY paid anti-virus)
Windows Defender (was Microsoft Antispyware)
Firefox

Then you're good to go.

Well anything is better then Norton in my eyes, but anyway, AVG free edition is the bomb. I put that on all the machines I install.

AVG also has a anti-spyware program, but I haven't used that so don't know if it's good.

AVG Free here too. I used Avast for awhile, and it really slowed my machine down. Also, Zonealarm used to be good, but it seems to cause more problems these days then it solves, IMHO. Microsoft Defender is a nice antispyware. The key is to have active scanning. Once you have spyware on your system, its tough to get rid of it. Also, Firefox FTW.

Righty ho! Now, time to slay the Norton.

SirRockford wrote:

AVG Free here too. I used Avast for awhile, and it really slowed my machine down. Also, Zonealarm used to be good, but it seems to cause more problems these days then it solves, IMHO. Microsoft Defender is a nice antispyware. The key is to have active scanning. Once you have spyware on your system, its tough to get rid of it. Also, Firefox FTW.

So basically everything I said.

*legion* wrote:

So basically everything I said.

But the beknighted squirrel said it with FEELING

Tyrian wrote:
*legion* wrote:

So basically everything I said.

But the beknighted squirrel said it with FEELING

Tis true. I guess I was pointing out why I wouldn't chose Avast and Zonealarm. And... yes Legion is right. I bow to his superior ability to post before me.

Security is basically to the point where I run with only my hardware firewall and run wireshark every few days to make sure nothing is phoning home from my machines.

Virtual machine rootkits will kill us all.

I actually really like CA Anti-Virus and Trend Micro Internet Security, but AVG and Avast! are both really good as well. For spyware, my favourite is CA AntiSpyware (formerly Pest Patrol), but AVG Antispyware (formerly Ewido) is also decent. I don't like Windows Defender nearly as much since beta 1. I find it's accuracy isn't as good and it's sloooooooooow. But for the love of everything holy, stay away from Norton and McAfee unless you like having to double your RAM requirement for everything you run.

I installed the AVG stuff today (both AV and spyware). I wanted to thank everyone for their advice.

And I'll let you know my feelings on the spyware program. It's installed with Spybot and Ad-Aware, though, so I can't say it'll do much good.