Norton or AVG Free?

AVG without question. It's much lighter than Norton. All you need to say to him is that AVG is used by lots of people and is well known in the online community. You can also say that AVG will be lighter on your system. You won't have to put in a call to your resident computer expert (heaven forbid geek squad) to make the computer faster and clean out all the junk Norton leaves behind. The point that has to be made is that the Norton of 2008 is not the same Norton that existed in the early 2000's. It has changed signifcantly since then.

Another thing that you shouldn't say to your dad is that anti-virus programs do nothing. The main problem in the present day and age is spyware. AVG doesn't handle spyware. It *is* possible to run a computer without virus and spyware protection if you know what you are doing, though I would not recommend it.

If he absolute wants to spend money on an anti-virus solution tell him to check out Nod32.

It is all behavior based, if you are careful you really can prevent infections in the first place. For instance is don't download any programs without checking it out in depth first. Also don't download email attachments with those videos that the older people still like to send around


What I would recomend for security:
- NAT Router or windows firewall (XP SP2+ and Vista)
- Windows Defender (Download with XP, Comes with Vista)
- AVG Free or if you want to spend money nod32.

Anything more would be overkill to have for general use. If you want more spyware programs you can get them in the event you get an infection.

Well, I would go with Norton out of those two, but Norton uses to much power.

Honestly I would use Trend Micro. I have tried a lot of fire walls and anti viruses and Trend Micro is by FAR the best.

Check it out

http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/pe ... urity-pro/index.html

But before you buy it, try the trial out first. To see if you like it.

Yep.

Whenever someone asks me if N(payed item) is better than Y(free item) I try to compare the two for them to see.

I have never used Norton myself (I don't have extra money to waste) but my friend has it and I've had to deal with it once or twice when trying to do something with their computer.

On my Windows (this one is Linux) I have AVG Free and it's never caused me a problem. The only time I or my family has had problems with AVG was when my Brother had AVG and ZA Anti-virus running at the same time (when he had updated the ZA it had activated its Anti-virus I think). Once he disabled ZA's anti-virus it worked fine.

Let's look at their length:price ratio:
A 1-year license of Norton costs $79.99 - 1 Mo.:$6.66, 1 Wk.:$1.53, 1 Day:$0.21.
An infinite-year license of AVG Free costs $0.00 - 1 Mo.:$0.00, 1 Wk.:$0.00, 1 Day:$0.00

Now granted, Norton does give alot of extras: Antivirus, Antispyware, Email scanning, Antiphishing, Rootkit detection, Identity protection, Web site authentication, Network monitoring, Firewall protection, Automatic backup and restore, 2GB secured online storage†, PC performance tuneups, Automatic updates, Embedded support, Optional antispam and parental controls, but do those out-weigh the annoyingness of removing it?

With AVG Free, and other free security programs, you can accomplish all the needed security features for a much lower price ($0.00 per year).

Usually all the free programs will not equal or exceed the amount of resources needed for Norton, it all depends on which ones you get.

I'd definitely suggest you try to show him the difference. If he switches to AVG he'll save $79.99 a year (that's a few gig of RAM a year if you wanted more, or it could be used for other computer hardware).



Oh please, not those amateurs. You'd have to clean the computer out again to take their stuff off.

[color=#00BFFF]Norton/Symantec is in it for money.

AVG is in it to protect us.[/color]

It will of course have ads on the site stating what the paid version does, but it will not shove the paid version down your throat.

I've never gotten a popup on AVG's site.

i love avg over norton it seem liks avg gets the job done