Free vs. paid security software

Jasmine,
There are thousands upon thousands of PC users who rely solely upon FREE security software to protect their PCs and it works.
Not sure which paid-for suite you have but it will be resource hungry. Check out the list I give and decide which you want to use. Just before your suite expires download all the free programs that you chose and save to Desktop.
Remember, only one software firewall and only one antivirus program.
Check out the Removal tool for your security suite and then physically disconnect your internet connection by unplugging your modem.
Use either Start > All Programs to find the uninstall for it or use Control Panel Add/Remove to uninstall it.
Then, turn off Windows Firewall and install all the new programs individually.
When installed , reconnect your modem, go online and update each program. Then run each IN TURN and you will be surprised what they find,but just let them delete everything.
Most of them, because they are free, do not have an auto updater or a scheduler to run them so set aside a short time two or three days a week to update them. Lot cheaper than paid for stuff.
Some useful security places here:
Just a few trusted ones to start with...
Click on the name?
Spybot S&D
.
Spyware Blaster
.
Adaware
.
A">http://majorgeeks.com/download172.html]A

I find that AOL protections work well--better than when I purchased packages to install.

I'm afraid I'm not very technical. Never going to win the "best answer" prize round here, but I can tell you this much.
I have a laptop running XP home edition. My friend has a desktop running XP home edition. I have a job, she doesn't. I installed on my pc Norton Antivirus and Zonelabs Professional Firewall both of which cost me an arm and a leg. I also have free Ad Aware and free A squared.
On my unwaged friend's pc I installed AVG free virus guard and the free version of Zonelab's firewall, also the free Ad Aware and SpyWare Blaster. I've experimented with other anti-spyware stuff in the paston my laptop, but it can't handle too many apps at once due to low RAM and small 30GB harddrive.
Zonelabs Pro Firewall and Norton Anti virus both now have anti spyware protection in REAL TIME built in. And that in my humble and not very techie opinion is the major difference between free and expensive. Real time protection.
I surf on my pc, I run a spyware scan, the results are disappointing. LOL. Nothing much to see.
I surf on her pc and run a scan. Ad aware brings up eight or nine objects per session. I used to get the same results before Norton and Zonelabs introduced their anti spyware stuff.
With free programs you tend to need to run a scan and catch things after the event. If you pay, the same rubbish doesn't get within spitting distance of your pc.
And you get more options to fiddle with and reset paid for software. Not necessarily a good thing if you don't know what you are doing......
So you get less protection and less flexibility from some free security ware in my not very learned opinion. But you can live with it.

Jasmine, I have been using spyware blaster, spybot and avg free edition for about 3 years now and have tested it against the mcafee and nortons products. I have found more viruses with avg free that were not detected by the big money names. spybot is one the the best spyware removal products on the market. I also use ad-aware to remove and clean up the junk,temp files and cookies. I have been a computer repair technician for 10 yrs now and these free products are great compared to what you pay for. I also used to use sygate free firewall but symantec seems to have bought them out. that should tell you that it was a great product. I also install these programs for my clients and they are very happy and if there systems come back in for anything, it is usually not a virus or spyware problem.

James

I have had far better results with with Free security software that is available for free download on Cnet. Norton, McAfee, and Microsoft all want exclusive control, Norton will not install if you use AVG, which recently has done a better job on virus detection and removal. The McAfee suite I got free from Comcast Kept asking for renewal and crashing my system.

AdAware free is the king of Adware removers. I have tested it against half a dozen and it always comes out on top.

I just downloaded Advanced Windows Care and not only was the installation was smooth as ailk, but my system, (Celeron D 3.2 GHz, 384 Meg Ram, 240Gig Hard Drive running XP sp2), booted and ran noticeably faster.

For good advice try www.rayshaw.com.au
Trend pc cillan Security Suite is the recognised top performer
Graham

Dear Jasmine,

You don't say what you use your computer for, and that will make a difference in the answer. I've actually been compiling free download.com links that I've used with a great deal of success for the past six years, for personal use. Note that the links are for personal use, and not for use within large companies. I'll tell you, though, if I owned a large company, I'd pay for the software for my employees' computers, because the free (slightly limited) versions have treated me so well at home.

Briefly: I have two computers at home. The desktop was built for me by an ex back when I went back to school five years ago. I used to use it for downloading music, but there's too much issue about file sharing and copyright. As a paralegal, I don't want to do anything that will jeopardize my job; that's my choice and I wouldn't tell you what to do. I use my laptop to maintain my website. Both machines are used for heavy internet surfing, blogging, and online shopping. (The laptop, with its faster processor, is used more with my voice software, which I can't run on the desktop. I smoke next to the desktop, because I always have. This is icky - and my perpetually filthy monitor will attest to this - so I don't want to smoke near the newer laptop.)

You'd said that "nothing is free" but I'm sure you've given to your community. Software writers do the same. They also offer different levels - for example, personal versions for free, and professional versions for a fee. I've also read that some freeware is given as such to promote other software in the line, to grab one's attention. Because of physical limitations, my work hours - and my salary - are limited; what should be surplus for my computer mostly goes to doctors and health insurance. I grab freeware when I can, and donate when asked.

From Wikipedia:

"The term freeware was coined by Andrew Fluegelman when he wanted to sell a communications program named PC-Talk that he had created but for which he did not wish to use traditional methods of distribution because of their cost.1. Previously, he held a trademark on the term "freeware" but this trademark has since been abandoned. Fluegelman actually distributed PC-Talk via a process now referred to as shareware."

First: virus protection. I've tried several of the big-name virus scanners (especially when I was entitled to an academic discount!), but the best I have ever used was recommended to me by my sister-of-choice, Heather. When she was working at an ISP, they told all their customers to download AVG Anti-virus. I wasn't using CNET yet, but as you can see, this is a highly rated product! As of this writing, they're up to version 7.5 which you can download for free, here. It's caught things that the "bigger" names have missed, doesn't bother my non-threatening files (my mom's Anti-virus scans every document she opens, even if she created it; it seems to take FOREVER!) and AVG is constantly updating and constantly improving. The aforementioned desktop was purchased when a top virus "protection" software allowed an infection to infest my computer. After I'd gotten the desktop, I burned and loaded AVG - and it fixed the problem. My mother can't wait for her paid subscription to another Anti-virus to expire so that she can download AVG - the tech support at the pay place is lacking. Severely.Note that the free version looks for viruses, but not does not include Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, or a Firewall. (I've never looked at their other software. It does constantly download updates for you, so that you've got excellent protection.I'm so happy with this product that I'd pay for it. It's free for personal use, or, if you want to install in a small office, the price is very reasonable. There are many different packages for the commercial user; you can build a bundle of whatever you want, for as many computers as you need. I'd looked at building a package for three computers, and it was less than a year subscription of the package my mom uses, for her ONE computer.

Your next point was spyware. A great deal of the spyware is malicious (bad). It's often installed without your knowledge, when you visit a site. I'm fairly certain that a lot of spyware is, in part, responsible for the hacks that I keep seeing on MySpace, where a user will "post a bulletin" saying that "I tried such and such, and it's great!" - and I'm not sure if it actually steals your account password, or if it "posts" while you're logged in.I clean both my computers, every week, for cookies and spyware. I clean out the cookies, first, because I run a full spyware clean, and there's no point in asking the spyware search to clean stuff that will be discarded, anyway. (To clean out cookies, I've been using Steve Gould's Cleanup utility with great success. Free, though he doesn't mind a donation.) I've been using Ad-Aware successfully for over five years. It will clean up ALL the crap you've picked up by surfing. all those popup ads dump spyware, you know. You can get the free edition of Ad-Aware directly from download.com. It's rated highly by CNet and by CNet users. AVG also offers AVG Anti-Spyware Free but I am old and set in my ways, and despite my loyally to GRISOFT, I haven't downloaded this yet. The free version is available on the GRISOFT home page, here.You may choose to get rid of any spyware that you see. Personally, I allow what I've learned is called loyaltyware: This is software from merchants - stores - that keeps track of who should be paid for visiting web sites. I subscribe to shopping sites that give cash back, and they let me know when I've visited a site that qualifies for a bonus. Ebates's loyaltyware lets me know. (For example, if I go to a certain site where I buy get over-the-counter pain supplies, I'll get a small popup that says You qualify for a 3%cashback for your purchases at thisstore.com and, when my purchase is complete, I'll get an email saying how much I earned. I intentionally installed the software so that I get these alerts when I browse, so that I'll get my bonuses if I stumble upon a cashback site and don't known it. If you'd like to see how loyaltyware works, I found a small group of online tutorials here.)

Your suite also includes, you say, a firewall. If you're online, you really must have a firewall. The whys are listed here on ZoneAlarm's web site but, basically, any seller or dictionary will tell you that opening a gateway to the Internet also means that people can get in from the outside. A firewall only lets authorized traffic through your gateway.After reading an excellent Q&A on CNET, i got off my butt and downloaded a firewall; i went with the very highly rated (by CNET and by users) Zone Alarm. (Read user reviews here; free download here on download.com.) I based my choice on the number of downloads, the CNET review, and the user reviews. (what good is a perfect review if only four people rated it? ZoneAlarm was rated by 1,322 people as of this writing.)

If you choose not to accept my recommendation, here are some other free virus scanners on download.com, free spyware remover downloads on download.com, and free firewall downloads on download.com, sorted by user reviews - highest, first sorted by user reviews - highest, first. Feel free to adjust the breakdown to narrow down your operating system - Mac, Windows [version], etc.

I'm obviously a fan of CNET and download.com. If you do a search for freeware, you'll find a lot of other sites with great stuff.
(I use some of them, but don't download unless I can read unbiased reviews, such as those on CNET.)

I'd begun writing about this for my friends, who seem to get attacked weekly on blog sites. I don't blame the sites; I blame the trash that gets in there, like riffraff visiting your favorite neighborhood haunt. I hope you can use it, even if you never wind up coming across the page I'm working on. CNET is a community and, like neighbors should, I'm happy to share what I've gathered so far. I do hope that I was able to shed some light onto the subjects for you.

Rebekah Sue Harris

Hi Jasmine,

Good question and there are probably as many different answers as members of the community! I'm sure you'll get loads of advice to decide what is best for you. I won't try to address the whole of this vast field but rather, outline my personal experience. Your mileage may vary.

You didn't say but I'll assume you are running in a MS Windows environment and that you have a broadband connection. The answer to your question depends on what you are trying to achieve - gross generalization here - paid security products tend to provide better, or at least, more facilities than the free versions but you can achieve a perfectly satisfactory protection scheme for the average SOHO environment using the free products. You will, of course have to invest a little more effort, in that you will have multiple products to set up and maintain, rather than a single integrated suite.

Way back in the early days of PCs on dial up networks, I used to be a great fan of McAfee products but over time, these seemed to be imposing an increasingly higher overhead on my systems. The final straw came when one of the versions started using Internet Explorer for messages and the biggest security exposure on Windows systems is - - - right!

At about the same time I got a home broadband connection and looked around for a better solution. I chose Zonelabs (now Checckpoint) ZoneAlarm free firewall, the free version of Grisoft AVG anti-virus, MS Windows Defender (then in beta and called something else but the name escapes me) running as a continuous anti-spyware protection backed up with the free Ad-aware anti-spyware running on demand (I ran it weekly). This setup cost nothing, reduced the overhead on my systems and, hand on heart, protected me from all nasties that might come along. I should add that I am VERY cautious about opening attachments and files on removable media - I scan everything with the antivirus and anti-spyware applications before opening and then only from trusted sources.

I still use this setup on a couple of old PCs that aren't used for anything that's very important, print servers and such like. But when I upgraded to a home network, I also upgraded my server and primary systems to ZoneAlarm Security Suite (ZASS), now at Version 7. These systems are all Windows XP SP2, ZASS V7 won't work on anything prior to Windows 2K but some earlier versions are still available if you have an older system. I should probably add that my router has an inbuilt hardware firewall, which I would recommend, but which is probably outside the scope of your question.

ZoneAlarm Security Suite has the same very solid but easy to use Firewall, that on first installation will go into "learning mode" for between 7 and 21 days, in which it runs on medium security settings until it determines how you use your system, after which it will switch to the more secure stealth mode. If you are happy setting up firewalls, you can skip this learning mode and manually configure the stealth mode straight away.

In Version 7, ZASS uses the Kaspersky antivirus engine that is recognised as one of the best around and checks for signature updates every hour - mine seems to actually install updated definitions 8-10 times a day! Also in Version 7, the anti-spyware component is now ranked alongside the best available. This isn't free but the cost is reasonable, around about USD 60, including a year's updates, as I recall.

Since using ZASS, my network has been malware free, it fully protected me but I'm still obsessive about attachments and removable devices! One caution, ZASS automatically schedules a full system deep scan for viruses and spyware once a week to check that nothing has slipped by the real time scanners. On my Centrino 1.5 GHz laptop, with three partitions on an 80 GB hard disk, this takes nearly five hours in the background! Make sure you set the schedule for this at a time you aren't doing anything particularly I/O resource intensive.

So my experience has been that both free applications and paid integrated suites have provided equally good protection against malware, assuming you also take reasonable care with what you "invite" on to your machine. The integrated suites are somewhat less effort to set up if you have several computers and paid versions do have a few additional features and reporting mechanisms.

I've no commercial connection with any of the products I've mentioned, they are just the ones that have worked for me. I'm sure others will have their own equally successful recommendations.

Good Luck.

Sav. M. in the U.K.

I had always used McAfee until this year. They got more and more costly so I did some checking on some freebies. What I found is there are several free virus programs, spyware programs, etc. but which to choose? I went with CNET's highest rated ones which include AVG 7.5 as my antivirus program. It is free to home useres but for professional use, it does cost. And I use AswarePE Personal for my spyware, trogan softaware. Plus you can also download Windows Defender for free from the Microsoft website. I don't know that these have worked any better, but they haven't made anything worse and I am not having any problems. Just do some checking before trying. CNET is a good resource for information such as this. Hope this helped!

Sandy

I used to do the same. Pay for "feeling secure", but trust me, there is no such thing as secure. At least not on-line. If somebody wants to hack your PC, it's only a matter of time and resources to do it. You can have the best protection money can buy. Our best, and maybe only protection on-line is being "nobody", one in many million internet users, with nothing "interesting" stored in our PCs. Usually whoever tries to sneak in your computer is doing it because he/she found some open ports, during the sweep of a wide range of IPs. This can be prevented by almost any firewall set-up properly. Regarding viruses and other nasty stuff on the web, it is a bit different. The big names (in virus protection) pretend to give you the best protection money can buy, but nobody can give you absolute protection. It comes down to your surfing habits. If you use "the safe side" of the web and you open e-mails only from trusted sources, you're fine with any free antivirus utility, if not, you still have a handfull of utilities to choose from.
As I said in the beginning, I used to pay for this stuff, but if one needs to protect more than one PC it ads up. So I switched. So far I can recomend it; I saved money and significant computer resources. Yes, resources! Less running processes and less used RAM means a faster machine.
I can recomend you to try some of the following free utilities:
firewall: Sygate Personal Firewall (unfortunately this is difficult to find, beeing purchased not too long ago by one of the biggest names...meaning it is a good firewall)
antivirus: I am using AVG free edition and Avast on my machines combined with Spyware Terminator, and so far I have nothing to complain.
Of course there are many others out there, you have to find the one that fits your needs.
I hope this will help. Good luck!

Hi Jasmine, I'm not an IT Tech, nor am I rich, but, I do have common horse sence.
You can have a FREE FIREWALL..by Zone Alarm you can download it at www.zonelabs.com just make sure you download the FREE one not the FREE TRIAL...This is bt FAR the BEST FIREWALL, the only difference between the free and the paid, is you get to customize it better and it gives you a few other things..But, the FREE one updates when a new free version comes out. Plus you always have the option of buying when your ready..I myself used the Free one untill I was able to afford to buy.
You can get a FREE ANTISPYWEAR program from Microsoft. its called
Windows Deffender..it works very well, but I also use Trend Micros Antispywear.the Paid Version.
Microsofts Windows Defender link here.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
If your interested in looking into TrendMicros Antispywear program.
Here is their link.
www.trendmicro.com
My AntiVirus protection is Norton Systmeworks this is paid never free, but it works very good, I've never used anyother on this computer and I'm always Virus Free.
Hope this helps.

I personally have been using Norton for about ten years. My theory is: 1- You only get what you pay for. 2- Just how valuable is the information on your computer to you or to others? Norton is one of the highest rated AVs. My security is worth a few bucks a year.

Ray Holt

Jasmine

I too used to pay for software believing I was getting more from a purchased product. Alas, I was wrong. There are very effective and free programs available for download. AVG Free is a very good anti virus I have used for years. Ad Aware Personal and Spybot Search and Destroy are both good tools to have (and free!) for malware detection. You should also have Microsoft's Defender (also free). I assume that you have a subscription for anti virus and security software. There are many other utilities available for free or as shareware (minimal cost $15-$30). Check out Download.com for a dizzying array of free software. Many of these programs are free for personal use and the developers generate revenue at the enterprise level e.g. the excellent X-1 search tool. And with more open source programs becoming available almost daily you may never have to pay for software again! I have been using Thunderbird mail,Sunbird calendar and OpenOffice for the last year and will not be upgrading to Office 2007 and not spending $600. With a little research and a little bit of time invested I think you might discover that you may just want to keep that subscription fee in your pocket. Good luck!

Dear jasmine most of the people are these days tired with the viruses and spywares as many of them are coming in existence rapidly also new types of viruses are also developed as rootkits,dialers etc which harm your computer.

As matter for security it has been very difficult for a user to protect his personal computer from online threats as they really breaks one's computer down.

As the viruses breaks we observe that most of the antivirus companies offer upgrades and renewals at some lowere price but when some registers either these softwares use high memory or they dont work and it makes user upset.Also most of the free anti virus companies have often two editions
1 )Free edition.
2) professional edition.

Free editions have basic interface and provide security for viruses they dont block or have the real time protection freom new or from upcoming internet viruses.so for this particular service you will have to pay.anbd for that you may register for professional edition.

One of the solution for you is firstly try a free version of any antivirus like kaspersky 6.0(30 day trial version)AVG,or avast to see which anti virus is easy to use and handy for you.

secondly you regularly visit the web sites of computer helping resourses such as CNET,PCWORLD etc to see wheather which anti virus is going popular among users and which one is advised by technology experts.

Last but not the least you may use disk freezing utilities to freeze your active disk (usually cC drive)after installing your all needed programs it will ask about you disk which to freeze select desired disk and freeze it will make it freeze no change will be ever possible to make to the drive etill you provide the password to do so if something like virus comes simply restart computer and computer will be new as it was with newly installed windows.for this spurpose you may use freeze program free to use and is of size some KBs so you can be wooried free..

HOPE this solves the solution

MUHAMMAD WAQAR

hai there,lot of free software you can use.
Avast Antivirus or AVG for antivirus.
Ad adware SE Personal for spyware.
Spybot - Search & Destroy for spybots.
All these programs you can find it by www.cnet.com and it is working very well.

The only free software I use is Spybot Search & Destroy Free Ad-Aware. I have used McFee Virus and firewall. I was getting too many viruses. I recently bought KASPERSKY Virus, it is the top RATED, very good, and easy to use. It is expensive $49.95 but worth it. The second year you pay only $35.00. I also download CCleaner for free, very good software, and paid for RegMechanic. Touch wood I have had 0 viruses. The free software is good, but not as good. Hope this information has helped you. My Mother taught me there are no free lunches in this world. I now use Windows Firewall.
Eleanore

My desktop has a paid security suite that works very well and is worth the money to me for it's coverage and simplicity. My wife's laptop uses all freeware systems. Neither of us have gotten any viruses, worms or trojans. The freeware takes a little more work because the updating and running is manual for the most part. I use McAfee paid version, CC Cleaner,and Easy Cleaner freeware. She uses Avast, CC Cleaner, Easy Cleaner, and Adware se. My wife is a little less computer oriented than I, so she is more reluctant to spend money on a program.

I have found the free ones work just as well if not better than the ones you have to pay for. I am currently in China so have to be extra careful but with AVG 7.5 it works perfectly

Well, with my limited experience (in both computer knowledge and anti-virus software) i have untill a month ago also have paid for anti-virus software. my first was mcaffe, which was fine, i had no problems with it. then a co-worker recomended norton, which i used for at least 4 years, again, with no problems. actually, when i bought the norton, i bought the version with repair software which helped keep my computer problems fixed as well. last month, i downloaded microsoft's live one care, which is also a paid anti-virus, but they have a free for 90 day trial. this, also sems to work fine, but there is one annoying item i do not like about it. i keep getting this balloon that says "live one care has changed your firewall protection" i am not impressed with this at all. i have a business associate who is really into computers (actually he is a systems anylist), anyway, i am going to ask him for a reccomendation for a free anti-virus software, and if there are any downfalls to this vs. paid prescription. i have a new vista computer, so i am not sure how much is out there, but as soon as i find out, i will re-post tolet you know. d.s.

Jasmine,

For the anti-virus, you should pay for one, like McAfee's or CA's.

For the firewall, the one that came with windows XP SP2 / Vista should be fine. Otherwise, you might have to buy one.

For the anti-spyware, you should get Ad-Aware and Windows Defender. Windows Defender comes with Vista, but if you have XP, go to www.microsoft.com to download it. Then download and install Ad-Aware from www.lavasoftusa.com. Run an Ad-Aware full scan every month, and schedule Windows Defender for a time when the computer is switched on.

Hope this helps
Harry

I had Norton Internet Security 2003 supplied pre-installed on my last PC.
It seemed to work OK , but stopped altogetner some while before subscrition reneal was due. I downloaded and installed Zone Alarm free firewall and AVG free Anti-Virus. After configuring the Zone Alarm forewall, Norton spang back to life. so I ran a full Virus scan. Noron said all OK, then I ran rthe free AVG full virus acan. It found 3 viruses, and removed them. I un-installed Norton, and now use AVG free and Zone alarm free on both my PCs. I also run AVG anti-spyware and anti-rootkit regularly, as well as spybot search and destrou. (all free, but Spybot asks for donations. Please donate something as this is what keeps this excellent software free.

Links:
AVG Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Anit-Rootkit: htt-://free.grisoft.com

ZoneAlarm: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp

Spybot Search & Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

I hope this is of some use to you.

Hope I don't jinx myself. I have never had a virus. I use everything free. Used Lavasoft Adaware, Spybot and AVG for the past four years. I now use Spybot, AVG and Windows Defender with the same result. I found when I did run Norton it slowed my computer down. I have Windows XP Home and use Windows Firewall.

i will start first with Anti-Virus. Many of my friends have been infected lately and I have been virus-free for some years now - mainly by using a free anti-Virus and Common Sense. Do not click on suspitions URL's and do not doenload suspicious files. I like programs that do not "suck-up" all my computer resources and are efficient at what they do. Fo this reason I use AVI Anti-Virus from Grisoft; http://free.grisoft.com. It keeps me protected - frequest updates and best of all, I can not even tel it is running (minimum resources) It also works well with Outlook and Thunderbird. You basically need scannin function and real-time protection. So be sure that whichever you choose you get both. some freebees do not offer "real-time" protection.

Now, on the spyware area - I am using Windows Defender from Microsoft. That is assuming you are running either Windows XP or Windows Vista (or you can not install). Again, it works with minimal reslurces and it has "real-time" protection. recently a read an article that Windoes Defender fell short of finding spyware that free counterparts like SpyBot and Add-Ware can indeed find. So to complement, I also have install the free versions of these to preform scanning - however - one thing to remember is that the free veersions of these do not have "real-time" protection and Windows Defender has save me a few times alreay "real-time" and is free.

Jasmine, what I do not intent to do is tell you what you should do but rather tell you what I did then let you decide.
When I got my new Vaio in March 2006 the first thing I did was uninstall the norton anti-virus and the reason was as follows. I did not feel happy with it's scan, was slow and never felt it was protecting my computer.
So with the help of cnet, asking around and reading computer magazines I installed the following.
For my anti-virus I went for the AVG having seen it on someone else's computer then installing it on a laptop I had prior to this desktop. It is 100% free and so easy to use and comes with daily updates. To this day and after 3 years of use. I have never had a moments problem.
I chose for my fire wall the ZONE ALARM which again is 100% free and does a great job. Again fairly easy to use and once set needs no further ajustment.
To that I have added SPRYBOT and AD-AWARE with SUPER ANTISPY WARE and SPYWARE BEGONE.
I can say hand on heart I am extremely happy with what I have and all are free.
Some of the software have a paid upgrade and you can always upgrade with extra bits if you are happy with the new software.
I hope I have gone some way to reasure you that is in this case free can be good. In whatever you decide I hope works for you and wish you well in your choice.

Most legitimate Security products are better then the paid ones. Take Kaspersky Internet Security or the Zonealarm one for example. Of course some of the freebies like comodo firewall, avast!, or AVG, and ad-aware is good. But they do not have the detection power of NOD32, Kaspersky, Webroot Spysweeper. Comodo is good on leak tests but have weaknesses which can be exploited. Please give me more information on your security suite.

Security software suites are one of the most frequently rebated shrinkwrap packages on the market. The manufacturers count on rebates not getting mailed in to make huge margins. The Symantec, Trendmicro and ZoneAlarm suites all offer 100% rebates on three (3) user licenses. When the subscription period ends they nag you to renew on a paid basis although nothing prevents you from simply getting a new box with 100% rebate.
A got'cha used by rebates to discourage sending in for the money is that sometimes they want proof of a prior version or a competitor's product. I always check, in the store before I buy the software, to learn what the requirements are. Typically they want the title page from the users manual, or a program CD or if you had a downloaded copy they will want the email validation from the purchase.

I find that tossing the box but saving manuals pays off big later when the free software offers come out. Just this year alone I have several hundred dollars of software and licenses for at least a dozen computers, free, for the minimal trouble of filling out and mailing the rebate.

A note of caution however; staple or tape the documents together so they cannot be separated after being opened. Many rebates are declined because of missing pieces that had been separated after being opened by automated letter openers.

So don't pay for that software. They design it to only last a year now and stop working. It wasn't always that way but now you can get it for free.

Hey
Jasmine H. I recommend you to renewal.I have Norton 2006. And
when it expires in 136 more days I will be renewing it to 2007.
Like they always say if its free something is missing in it. So
to save you the headaces stick with what you been using. Unless
you really can't afford to renew then look around for a good free
one.I hear AVG has 7.0 out but it's your call on security you
prefer on your system.But to me,nothing is really granteed but purchasing or renewing is your best bet. So RENEW if you wanna be PROTECTED.