My free Norton Antivirus subscription is running out. I've had this for years (this is version 2005, I've had many reformats, so I've never had to actually pay). So, I'd rather not have to pay for the subscription.
I've been looking at other antivirus software, and AVG and Avast are always the most recommended. Norton, however, did more than scan my computer, but also had real-time protection against viruses, so it served as a firewall.
I've heard that AVG and Avast do not have this available on their free versions. Is this true? If so, how do I protect myself while surfing the internet? I friend told me that windows firewall was enough…but I don't believe that.
However, a techie once told me that Norton Antivirus 2005 and earlier renewed the free subscription upon a reinstall, or something like that.
Can some one verify that?
Thanks in advance.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Tom // Jul 11, 2008
AVG is just anti virus i think but theres free firewalls as well. the zone alarm one is good and maybe comodo. you might want some spyware software like windows defender as well.
2 bex whit // Jul 11, 2008
avg and avast can still be got for free
http://www.grisoft.cz/filedir/inst/avg_free_stf_en_8_138a1332.exe
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
avast scans everything you do, all the web pages, p2p ,messenger and I here that the version 8 of AVG is much improved in this department also
as for norton you would have to go back to the 2003 version to get one that will reactivate and thats useless these days
windows firewall is good enough if you are not infected as it (on xp) only works inward bound
a good free firewall is comodo firewall
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html
and the added advantage is your pc will run faster without the Norton Bloat
3 King Jake // Jul 11, 2008
I use to renew my Norton AV for free by reinstalling it. So yes that will work, although I am not sure what the latest year will work to do so. I was using version 2003. Do not reinstall over, you must uninstall first.
4 Akash Jain // Jul 11, 2008
any free antivirus..whether its AVG, avast, etc..is not recommended for any1 who is concerned about his security and privacy over ther net….so i highly dont recommend you the free ones…
norton 2005 is far better than them…reinstall it…most probably you will get the subscription days again…if you dont then go for teh SymNRT tool from the symantec website…
but again this old norton product wont protect you from many new threats..many kind of batch viruses, real time intrusion detection, the heuristics technology , hacktools etc…
so a newer version like Norton Internet Security 2008 is higly recommended….
windows firewall is crap…it doesnt give any protection ….
I HAVE BEEN USING NORTON FROM PAST 8 YEARS…IT IS A WONDERFUL PRODUCT…JUST KEEP IT UPDATED….
5 Ferenc // Jul 11, 2008
I am not a fan of the Windows Firewall, or Defender. I went with AVG for a while, coupled with things like SpyBot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware and such. Now I use eTrust Antivirus in conjunction with what Vista comes with and SpyBot, which has worked out well for me.
6 cotojo // Jul 11, 2008
AVG is not the best, up to V7.5 I always recommended it and installed it on others machines, but V8….no way, I changed to Avast and quick:
http://cotojo.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/avg-antivirus-v8-problems/
Avast offers higher protection, realtime scanning, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit, boot scan and more:
http://cotojo.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/avast-anti-virus-4-free-home-edition/
For a firewall, there is Comodo, Online Armor, Zone Alarm.
All of this is free.
Bear in mind that free AV's use the same definition files as the paid for versions, vendors do this in the hope that users will purchase the full version.
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