Norton 360 Trial nearly over...

bought a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista Home Premium that came with Norton 360.
The trial is up in a month so I am in the hunt for replacements.
I find the 360 suite a little annoying in so far as the security aspect seems inobtrusive btu I cannot find ways to manually ignore a file/folder.
The firewall took a while to work out how to set rules.
It is the backup and "tweak" stuff that I can do without and are probably hogging needless resources.

So if I torch it what can/should I replace it with. Ideally I want good security, easy to use but configurable.
Low system impact [inc startup time] is important.
Options:
Renew 360 licence
Replace with NIS 2008
Switch to Kaspersky Suite [currently doing a 1/2 price offer].
Switch to Freebies: Avira or AVG? then what FW/Spam/Malaware stuff
Eset Suite not yet ready IMO

Help appreciated

 

apologies.
I remembered the Forum policy of no competitive threads. Any recommendation of a competent Vista Ready Suite with the requirements I list would do me. Don't need a "this better than that" as I have already said I am dissatisfied with Norton 360

 

So what is important to you in a suite?

 

"Ideally I want good security, easy to use but configurable.
Low system impact [inc startup time] is important."

Well then the only recommendation I can give you is go with Eset Smart Security, it gives you everything you requested above.
Cheers

 

ok, without making this a VS thread, cos im sick of them already being shut down.

and without giving biased comments, here goes.....

i too, would recommend you Nod32.

it seems to be the one your looking for, based on your requests.

good luck, try the trials, and if its not for you... give something else a try.

watch out for the price, Nod32 is extremely high in comparison to others.

 

I already have Nod32 v2.7 on my XP desktop and love it to bits.
I have been scouring the Eset forums and it seems that the ESS is not quite ready yet with alot of niggles still reported especially in the Vista environment.
I agree it is a case of YMMV but a decent 2nd option would be useful so that if I try it and it causes issues I am all set to go with the replacement.
The high cost of ESS is also off-putting I admit although if it is the prime candidate it isn't a killer issue.

 

the problem with eset having their forums here on wilders, is always that the posts are usually from people with problems.

the thousands who dont have problems dont post

try it and see.

only then, if you dont like... can you ask the question, what else?

 

Actually, this isn't a strong differentiator.

"Ease to use" is really a statement of familiarity with the design ethic. Even the most arcane design becomes easy to use with time. The other obvious point, once installed and set up, I tend to believe security software should pretty much fade to the background save for any infrequent and/or periodic use of a base feature.

This is a system dependent variable and can only determined by trial on your machine. Comments here may identify the set most likely to have minimal impact, but on a fast enough machine, none of the products mentioned will have a truly significant impact.

Blue

 

I accept both those comments BZ.
As an example I used to be a big fanboy of Norton year ago. Seems to be fine with none of the hangups and slowdowns people talked about. It was only when I made the switch on the same machine to Nod32 that I realised just how much of an impacr Norton was having!
I want to avoid that scenario by user experience.

I accept 100% that once set up the system should be invisible. I really meant the firewall component when I was talking about configuration as I want to avoid having long-winded/complex processes for setting rules [they way you had to when I tried Agnitum Output 2, for example].

 

Fair point.

BUT:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php
This doesn't inspire alot of confidence in the firewall!!

 

ESS is a suite (four integrated components) , not a stand-alone firewall , which the testers "think" . Moreover , ESET doesn't pay much attention to those leaktests . So do I . I think leaktests themselves are not made to test even firewall , just certain behaviour , which can be blocked by Host-based Intrusion Prevention System . The actions performed by the leaktests are not malicious. What result would you expect a company to reach in a test when non-malicious samples are used to test the firewall ?

 

I totally agree with the comments about leaktest, for me a firewall is purely for stealth ports and to stop the hackers

pure and simple

 

Norton 360 2.0 is available now and the review at PCMag.com was very good. Both NIS and 360 are good choices if you want to "set it and forget it" - they are almost pop-up free. I tried KAV 7 and can't recommend it - really slowed down my system. Currently I use Comodo Firewall Pro v3, Avira PE Premium, and SAS Pro with no noticeable slowdowns. If you want to try all freeware I'd recommend CFP v3, AVG Free, and Spyware Doctor Free (in the Google Pack). Be prepared to take a little time learning CFP v3.

 

I was all set to embark on this route and it was the somewhat unwieldiness of CFP that put me off. I note they are paying more attention to the GUI so hopefully in the not too distant future it will be more user friendly