I wouldn't install NIS. Some good reasons have already been posted.The biggest problem I have with Norton is uninstalling it!I don't know of any security program that offers a removal/uninstall tool because their program is such a beast to uninstall. You have many better options in my opinion. Some free programs are AntiVir or Avast for antivirus. Sygate and Zone Alarm for free firewalls. You could surf the web for Defender Pro Plus or BitDefender.They both have an a/v & firewall package.Defender Pro uses the Kaspersky av and firewall.No trial available that I know of,but it can be found for a reasonable price via a Google Search. Before buying or trialing a program check out the support available whether it's a web forum or e-mail. HTH, JB.

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Trend Micro Internet Security suite makes a good product as does Norton (despite what has been posted above). I've worked as a NW Admin for 10+years and have not have the problems that people here seem to have whether it be on a local user version of Symantec or the Corp. version. ANY product can be compromised by someone that knows what they are doing but, you stand about the same chance being struck by lightning as you do getting hacked on a home PC. Think about it, what do most people have on their home PC that a hacker would give a crap about, in 99% of the cases...NOTHING? The Norton suites are fine as long as you only install the parts that you need,. In other words leave off the disk manager, unerase, etc and leave the fluff off. Don't be pulled into a panic or frenzy based on a few people that have a perception about a program being a system hog. ANY of the products will eat recources if you do a default install with all features running. That being said, McAfee is a POS on all levels but, at least that is based on first hand experience in multiple envoronments

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I wouldn't call measurements of high memory, CPU and HD space usage a "perception". I use Norton products myself - SpeedDisk, DiskDoctor and WinDoctor, and I think they're the best available. Norton have dropped several of their overblown and unneccesary utilities over the years, but it seems their habit of "going over the top" persists. NAV and NIS are too resource-hungry and intrusive for the functions they perform, especially on low-end PCs. The fact is, I haven't come across anyone who's been or is totally happy with NAV or NIS, and quite a few who positively hate them. It may well be that these products don't live well with some combinations of O/S and software, but they should be designed in such a way that they can live with just about anything. A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to install an AV for him - he'd forgotten that I installed eTrust AV for him last year, and the icon in the systray meant nothing to him it seems (he's not exactly computer literate). That speaks volumes - the AV is unobtrusive, causes no problems, and quietly updates its virus defs. a couple of times a week. I'm not someone who "jumps on the bandwaggon" to criticise software products, nor am I chauvinist about products I use and like. I wouldn't call myself a Microsoft fan, but I recognise good software when I see it, and their latest security offering "AntiSpyware" is as good as any in my opinion (even if they didn't write it!)

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I gotta disagree with you there, I AM a Microsoft fan and hate the anti-spy software. I would MUCH rather immunize a system and then manually run scans(spybot S&D/adaware, etc) versus a software that runs all of the time like MS's.That is odd that you would endorse a product like that when it uses similar logic to that of the Norton Suite in that it is running throughout the session versus only when you need it. Let me clarify one thing though about the suite. ANY software suite will bog down an OS if you just keep clickin next throughout the install, not just Norton. If, however you actually read the screens and manually customize the install to do only what you need, it will not bog the OS down typically. I would be willing to bet that if you install NAV (and JUST NAV) and configure it the same as any other legit AV only software that it would use no more resources significantly than any package of your choice. There may be an exception or two but, it will not be the rule.

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NO WAY! I work for an Internet Provider and have people bring us their virus-infected computers that have Norton installed and up-to-date. Yet Norton doesn't find any viruses on the machine. I've also worked as the Sys Admin for a school district where someone who worked there before me thought it a good idea to "protect" ALL of the machines with Norton AV Corprate Edition. All PC's running NAV with daily updates, including our Primary Domain Controller. The domain controller got no warnings/notices from Norton that it was infected with any viruses. HOWEVER, it got infected 3 times with the same virus that was known for about 2 years. The only reason I found that it was infected was because the virus overwrote all of the html documents on the IIS server it was running to host the school intranet website with obscene messages. I will never trust Norton anymore. They've built a name for themselves and so people will buy it because they think it's good because they've heard of it. Follow the suggestions of the other people in this post and go with a free AV prog made by a smaller company. They try harder so they can compete with the big dogs.

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