Tag: norton

If you’re looking for trustworthy advice on which is the best firewall and antivirus software to protect your computer(s), both paid and free, then look no further than PC Magazine‘s (PCMAG) antivirus reviews. I rely on PCMAG for their well-tested advice and I highly commend their recommendations to you. Here is a list of the pertinent antivirus reviews they’ve recently published:

“The Best Antivirus for 2014”

“The Best Security Suites for 2014”

“The Best Free Antivirus for 2014”

Be sure to read all pages of the articles, since each one spans across multiple pages. You don’t want to miss a single word.

My Personal Horror Story and Testimonial

Speaking from personal experience, I strongly agree with their evaluation of Zone Alarm’s antivirus. I highly recommend you avoid Zone Alarm’s antivirus software, whether included in a free or paid suite or as a stand-alone. While their firewall is hands down the best, their antivirus leaves you with a false sense of security.

As a highly satisfied user of their free firewall software for several years, I had such confidence in them that I finally decided to buy a multiple license of the Zone Alarm Extreme Security suite, which included their antivirus software, thinking all my computers would be as well protected as possible. It took only one miss of a virus in the winter of 2012 (as I later ascertained from the source of the virus) which was continually missed in regular scans until the summer of 2012 to convince me never to pay to use their software again! I knew something was wrong, but Zone Alarm’s antivirus scans kept assuring me there was no virus found on my computer.

After finally detecting the virus with a deep scan but then failing to restore normal functionality to my computer after removing the virus, I finally had to back up my entire host of user-created files and then re-install my entire OS (not to mention re-installing all my personally-obtained software and catching up on all the Windows updates since I’d bought my computer!). I then uninstalled Zone Alarm Extreme Security and, on the advice of a trusted friend who used to sell computers and their amenities, I purchased McAfee Total Protection. As an intermediate option at the time, I had been using a trial version of Norton Internet Security suite (which came with my OEM installation) until I could decide on which security suite to switch to permanently.

While Norton may have actually been the better choice, I haven’t had another infestation since 2012. In fact, prior to switching to Zone Alarm Extreme Security, I had always used Zone Alarm’s free firewall and AVG’s free antivirus together and had never had a virus during the ten or more years I used them. The only other time I had ever experienced a computer virus was back in 1999, which was the incident that actually prompted me to begin using antivirus protection! Nevertheless, in order to save money and stay well protected at the same time, I’ve decided to take PCMAG’s advice and go back to using Zone Alarm’s free firewall with AVG’s free antivirus together. Because I’ve used both of these free products as a team with such success in the past, I’m ready to trust them again.

My Personal Recommendation

With such effective protection with these free products, why pay my hard-earned money for negligible improvement? Of course, you’ll have to make up your own mind about what you think is best for you.

How about sharing your thoughts and experiences in a comment below? I’d love to hear from you!

 An Update on 4-14-2018

For visually impaired viewers, try browsing this comparison site:

https://www.comparitech.com/antivirus/