Traditional AV Protection / Firewall

[Tsaar]

Just curious if anyone still uses the more traditional names in AV protection, such as Norton and McAfee?

From a quick internet search it appears McAfee has terrible reviews, but Norton seems pretty good (especially the firewall). I am thinking of picking it up on Amazon since it is less than $20.

I have mainly started looking at 3rd party firewalls due to the Windows outbound rules being a PITA (I tried every combination possible to get Windows Update to work and it always failed...also have some issues with VMware). PCMag (not sure how reliable this is...) also said that Norton had the highest rated firewall.

Anyone have experience with these later releases of Norton?

 

[Entropism]

I was using Norton 360 for the past year, and actually loved it. There are some rumblings that it's not as effective on 64 bit machines, but I never had any issues. I'd also recommend Avast free, F-Secure's suite, Kaspersky's suite, and ESET's solutions.

PCMag is generally pro-Norton, and there are tons of Symantec ads in the magazine. I'd put more weight behind www.av-comparatives.org and www.av-test.org.

For firewalls, have you tried a shell for window's firewall? Tinywall, Windows Firewall Control, etc seem to do well.

 

[biostud]

I use a modded version of f-secure provided from my isp for $4/month for three PC's.

 

[MontyAC]

I use free versions of Avast Antivirus and COMODO Firewall.

 

[John Connor]

Bitdefender on one computer running with an older version of Comodo. (Look up old version Comodo in Google) Avira and Comodo on the desktop and laptop.

 

[sourceninja]

I use the av/anti-malware that comes with windows 8. I combine that with not opening files from people/places I don't trust.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

Just curious if anyone still uses the more traditional names in AV protection, such as Norton and McAfee?

From a quick internet search it appears McAfee has terrible reviews, but Norton seems pretty good (especially the firewall). I am thinking of picking it up on Amazon since it is less than $20.

I have mainly started looking at 3rd party firewalls due to the Windows outbound rules being a PITA (I tried every combination possible to get Windows Update to work and it always failed...also have some issues with VMware). PCMag (not sure how reliable this is...) also said that Norton had the highest rated firewall.

Anyone have experience with these later releases of Norton?

Lots of large corporations still use these. Of course, they do it because the manageability and central integration suites are superior in these big-name brands, not necessarily because they are better, but they're also not awful and do perform their function adequately. Always remember, AV isn't perfect, so perhaps Kaspersky is better, but it's like trading a 75% success rate for a 78% success rate. Artificial tests sometimes show 100% success rates because they're hand picking malware from "well known" sources.

 

[JBT]

I use the av/anti-malware that comes with windows 8. I combine that with not opening files from people/places I don't trust.

Ditto.