I've used Norton Security for many years, and I have been very happy with it. You usually can get a year subscription with up to 5 PCs for $20 when on sale.
I've also seen Eset security for a few dollars more, and finally Bitdefender security on sale for around $25 for a year.
That said, the built-in Windows 10 Defender has really improved over the last couple years, and surprisingly scores right up there with the best of them.
Was thinking of getting Kaspersky or the pay version of Malwarebytes.
Malwarebytes isn't an anti-virus program.Norton seems kind of overly strict, so it gets a bit annoying. For a year of having Web Root, it doesn’t seem to even find anything in the scans yet, so I don’t think it’s reliable. Had MCFee and Trend Micro before and they were alright. Was thinking of getting Kaspersky or the pay version of Malwarebytes.
The current version of Malwarebytes Premium is also an AV program, and it works well.
The only PV assessment we could find was MRG Effitas' Q1 2018 360 Degree Assessment and Certification, a real-world test involving 18 antivirus tools. Malwarebytes failed to detect all the threats and was one of only five products classed as ‘failed’, along with SurfRight HitManPro, Trend Micro Maximum, Watchdog Anti-Malware and Zemana Anti-Malware.
I use Norton and it seems to catch a bunch of stuff, even stuff that attacks me from the web.
But I still wonder can I do more? It’s what its not catching that worries me.
As long as you are using common-sense practices on your PC, you should be fine. Norton is always in the top 3 for overall protection. I've always looked at antivirus software as the last line of protection, and not something that would always save me from dumb behavior. Kind of like an airbag in a car. I try to avoid the wreck altogether and not rely on the airbag to save me from my bad driving.
No security program will stop everything when people aren't smart in what they do. Things like clicking on email links, going to unknown websites without first checking the link with Virus Total of Google Safe Browsing, or downloading questionable files. I can't remember the last time I encountered malware / virus. The main reason I still use an aftermarket security program is because of my wife and teenagers. They are in such a hurry when online, they sometimes forget to be smart with stuff. Luckily, my wife is better than she used to be in email links, and my teens usually check out the URL with Norton Safe Web and the two sites I mentioned above.
Sometimes you got to live a little and be wreckless like clicking on the YouTube link with the hot girl that’s not there.
The one thing I hate with Norton is the safe search.
Mostly I take the safety first approach, but sometimes downloading excel, 3D print files, alleged older Win 10 ISOs can provide unintended results.
What don't you like about Safe Search? I don't make it my default search engine like it recommends, but I just enable the extension in Chrome, and when I search using Google, it just has little green, orange, red, or grey box next the links letting me know any known security concerns for the URL.
For example, as a mod I have to take a look at suspicious links new members post, and this is what I do when inspecting it:
1. Google the URL, and see what Norton Safe Search shows.
2. Go to VirusTotal and check the URL there.
3. Go to Google Safe Browsing, and check the URL there.
Just doing those 3 things usually alerts me 99.9% of the time if something is wrong with the URL. But yeah, if you are downloading ISOs from places other than the company's website, that's an inherently dangerous thing to do because you don't know the author's intention. No security software will keep you 100% safe from that.
Check out Sandboxie or similar programs. It's like a condom for your internet facing apps. Everything I remove or plan to remove from the sandbox (downloads) gets scanned with hitman pro free, malwarebytes free and Avira free as well as virustotal if the file is under 256MB.I use Norton and it seems to catch a bunch of stuff, even stuff that attacks me from the web.
But I still wonder can I do more? It’s what its not catching that worries me.
Every year I renew I try safe search extensions and end up disabling them. It’s seems intrusive, provides search results that are cut short from what I’m used to and it’s seems like Norton catches stuff snyway.
I had no idea being a mod was so dangerous !
Did you ever hear of docker for Firefox? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sandbox-browsing-using-firefox-docker-container-ivan-davidkov/
Its one of the top AV, among the best in detection rates with low false positives.Is Bitdefender good for like adware, malware etc?