I’ve begun to get fed up with NAV Corporate Edition 10, which is what I have on my computer at home (courtesy of work, which permits one home copy). Lately, although it seems to dutifully download virus updates nightly at 6pm, it isn’t updating the virus definition file timestamp on its information page. It also displays an “Autoprotect is Disabled” warning on start up, although when I open Norton, it is enabled. Work has just upgraded to SAV Corporate 11, but I haven’t yet gotten a home copy. Additional factor: I have three other machines to protect (2 desktops, 1 netbook).
The latest PC World review likes the G-Data Internet Security 2010, but ranks Norton Internet Security 2009 a close second (91 vs. 90). G-Data is cheaper ($40 for 3-PC license, $30 renewals, vs. $60/$55), but it is also a German company, with little web presence. I can also find very few user reviews of the G-Data product, and the formal reviews for G-Data are mostly echoes of the PC World review. Norton/Symantec, on the other hand, has been around forever and a day, is a US-based company, and has a broad set of reviews. Norton is also available as a CD, which makes installing it easier; G-Data is an over 250MB download only. [I’ll note that other products in the PC World review set that were close to the top two were BitDefender and Panda. AVG was #5.]
Complicating factor: I’m currently running ZoneAlarm on two of the PCs (the others use the Windows Firewall). On my main machine, I’ll likely keep ZoneAlarm, primarily in case I ever need to VPN into work. All of the suites come with a firewall, so presumably I’ll need to uninstall both the Firewall and any existing AV solutions before installing the suites. For some reason, that makes me more nervous. I’d also need to (if I use a suite on the main machine), figure out how to disable the suite’s firewall (or decide to unintall ZoneAlarm Integrity Flex).
So, I’m trying to figure out what to do. I’d like your opinion (facebook users: just comment):
