Greetings, I am an old novice so please be kind! My son recently gifted me a laptop which came installed with windows vista. It also had Norton antivirus trial version which is about to expire. Now I am looking forward to buy one. While doing my bit of research I came across two software one is Norton antivirus and the other is Norton internet security. http://www.ecostsoftware.com/symant... http://www.ecostsoftware.com/symant... I just want to know the disparity between the two. Which one should I buy?

Neither. Norton is the biggest hog of system resources. Completely remove Norton by going to their website and follow the removal instructions. Then download and install AVG FREE antivirus or maybe AVAST. I use AVG from www.grisoft.com. It runs in the background and uses very little resources. Updates are free also and can be done manually or scheduled to run automatically. No single virus scanner will do it all, but I found AVG to be very useful over the years. Good Luck...

... had good reports about "Avast" antivirus FREE ... worth a try for nothing http://www.avast.com/eng/download-a... Grrrr "...pentathol makes you sing like a canary" ... got brain freeze

Norton antivirus is a basic antivirus and antispyware program. Internet security includes extras like a firewall, email scanner and so on. Most of the other antivirus companies do Internet security versions of their programs. There are better options than Norton as it can make your computer run quite slow (uses a lot of system resources). McAfee is the same. Have a look at http://www.datadefender.net for reviews, comparisons and download links to the latest software from the major antivirus companies. All of them do free trials for 15, 30 or 60 days (depending which one) so you can try them for yourself before you buy. This route gives you better protection than the free programs out there as they will not give you 100% protection from security threats that could harm your data and invade your personal privacy. I personally recommend Kaspersky Internet Security or ESET NOD32, but check out the reviews on the http://www.datadefender.net site and make up your own mind.

If you prefer to buy an anti virus then Norton is ok, that product gets slamed alot in forums not because it's a bad product but because it tries to do too much and slows down your pc in the process. Most people are pointing out that you do not have to buy an anti virus/internet security, there are lots of good free one's that you can download. Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel. ~Homer Simpson~

Hi, Antivirus software is only as good as the viruses it can detect. Antivirus software can not protect you against unknown / new threats. For this you need HIPS. Regards, (andrew at Rising-UK.com) RisingUK PC Security @ Rising-UK.com

does avast protects you from unknown threats?