Should I keep on paying the annual subscription rate for the Norton anti-virus software? Are there better protection services out there? What do you think? What do you do? I need to make a decision soon, so thanks for your opinion.

well there are others out there,some free,a buddy uses one can't recall the name of it right off hand.the one thing about norton,if you buy it online and 6 months down the line have a computer problem where you have to uninstall your virus protection.you are screwed.they only support internet reinstalls for like 60 days.if your gonna use norton go to bestbuy or walmart and buy the disc,this also has another advantage if you have more then one and less then 4 computers as you can use it on 3 computers.so that cuts the cost to about 20 bucks a computer.

www.free-av.com which uses Avira's top rated engine which consistenty comes out on top for all the AV tests. Also the full featured Avast which does a very good job and comes with web shield, P2P shield, IM shield and network shield at www.avast.com

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99 Gurkha with OM616 IDI turbo

2015 Gurkha with OM616 DI turbo

2014 Rexton W with OM612 VGT

I just ignore mine and I have never had a problem. But I don't really download anything online.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

X 2

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

With the free AVs mentioned above, the best way to protect your Windows is to run as LUA, Limited User Account which protects vital areas of your Windows installation. More info on LUA at http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/advanced/useraccount.mspx

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99 Gurkha with OM616 IDI turbo

2015 Gurkha with OM616 DI turbo

2014 Rexton W with OM612 VGT

I like NOD32.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

This is all the virus protection I need.

Exactly!

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Why do people with Macs think they're somehow impervious to hacks and security issues? Its amazing. Macs are not "more secure", its that only >10% of the population use them, so what hacker would waste their time writing stuff targeted at such a small percentile?

Second, here's one of many articles highlighting recent mac security flaws:

http://www.fiercecio.com/techwatch/story/leopard-security-flaws-emerge/2007-10-31?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss

I rest my case.

As for norton antivirus, not worth it, all it does is mess up the system, especially Vista. I've used no form of antivirus on my personal pc's or servers for the past several years with absolutely no issues. I'm in IT, so I do know what I'm talking about.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

So should I delete Norton off my Vista computer? Its long expired.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Yes, uninstall it. Your system will run much better. If it won't uninstall properly, download and run the "norton removal tool" from nortons website....just google search for it. I've had to use it a few times on students' computers....stupid norton software.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Because they are. I have owned 4 different internet-accessing Macs over the last 10 years with no form of virus protection and not a single one has ever had any kind of virus/attack/hack/malware/spyware.

Because it is so difficult to hack. The system requires the user's password to install/modify anything in the library.

3 minor flaws, thats it?

Let's look at Vista's 6 major security flaws found a full month before release.
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/12/vista_security_.html

How many viruses exist for OSX? 1, Leap.A, a benign proof-of-concept virus.
How many viruses exist for XP? At least 58 from just what I found in a quick search.

I rest my case.

Vista requires approval to do just about anything, so thats a big preventer of anything bad from happening. (Personally I loathe vista, but XP is a very efficient and well-tuned OS)

Also, to a hacker, circumventing the "credentials prompt" is pretty easy, thats the least of their concern when writing such an app.

I can bet that if there were anywhere close to as many hackers working on breaking into the Mac OS as there are out to get Windows, the number of flaws and successful attacks would skyrocket.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Yesterday I downloaded Norton AV 11 (Don't ask me how... ) and scanned my PowerMac for S&G's. My mac has been running 24/7 for the last year connected to the internet. No AV software, no soft firewall, no hardware firewall, no router (just the cable modem), 802.11g active with no encryption and bluetooth active. Mainly downloading through BitTorrent and encoding video.

Of 432,xxx files across 5 hard drives with 3.75TB total storage, there was no viruses, trojans, spyware, key-loggers or any kind of malicious code found.