Beware of "Auto Renewal" on your virus protection.

[chris35]

Don't know if anyone else has noticed, but leaving auto renewal switched on can cost you double when your internet protection is due the following year. I purchased "Norton Internet Security" last April at a so called special 50% discount. The price was £24.99. This week I received an email from Norton to say that my protection would end in April, but don't worry as they would automatically deduct £49.99 so that my protection will carry on. Seeing that this amount was double the previous year I went into my account and turned off "auto renewal". I then went onto the Norton website and lo and behold the protection is still available at £24.99 for 12 months with the 50% discount. I then went onto mcafee's site and found an equivelant cover at a mere £12.99 for the year. No prizes for guessing what my next step is?? £12.99 will do nicely      

[kenkay]

Sack them both and go for Microsoft Security Essentials. Absolutely free and equally as good IMHO   

[Scunner]

I got caught a couple of times with these credit card auto renews - one was an online game where you buy a year's subscription card in places like supermarkets (as a gift). Imagine my joy when 12 months later (when I had no need to buy that person a gift) my card was debited £30. And yes, £30 was way more than the price anyone could get it for online. So much for rewarding customer loyalty.

I'm not entirely convinced by MS security essentials Ken - if free is the price then take a look at Avast! - it found things that MS missed.

[rik]

If you tried twenty different ones, each would find something the others missed. I put Microsoft Security Essentials on all machines. Nothing is completely safe. If someone wants to get into a computer, there's very little you can do. The best defence is you. Most problems are from people inviting mal-ware on to their computers or when installing "free" software, not doing a custom install. This will avoid browser hijacks and being locked out of email accounts etc.
A lot of people here have laptops, some of them quite old. While Norton has been around for eons (way before internet) it is a big beast and really hurts older, slower machines.   Security Essentials has what's called a small footprint, and is quite gentle on older machines. And it's "FREE". If you do install it though, watch out for tick boxes, about joining schemes etc.
Having said all that, there is some very good free software about that give no problems at all.

[desmartinson]

Agree 100% with you Rik, nothing is completely safe, but if you are going to go with free or cheap security then you are more open to attacks, at the end of the day if its free. how do they make money? I have used Norton for the past 5 years, costs me £70.00 a year but in my opinion its the best ive had, had several attacks over the years but it picks them up and gets rid of them before any damage can be done.  

[chris35]

Agree 100% with you Rik, nothing is completely safe, but if you are going to go with free or cheap security then you are more open to attacks, at the end of the day if its free. how do they make money? I have used Norton for the past 5 years, costs me £70.00 a year but in my opinion its the best ive had, had several attacks over the years but it picks them up and gets rid of them before any damage can be done.   

£70 sounds really expensive, how many licences do you have??

[desmartinson]

Covers 3 computers. and worth every penny, works out at £1.30 a week, and you think that's expensive, come on.  

[Scunner]

£1.30 a week to avoid those days when you spend the whole weekend trying to recover from an attack and possible reformat. I'm no fan of Norton but it's certainly money well spent if it prevents those things  

[JohnF]

Sack them both and go for Microsoft Security Essentials. Absolutely free and equally as good IMHO     

I'm not entirely convinced by MS security essentials Ken - if free is the price then take a look at Avast! - it found things that MS missed.

After using MS Security Essentials for 9/10mths now, I've moved all our machines (5 laptops/netbooks & 3 desktops) back to AVG.  Had more infections/malware issues in that period than had in total while using AVG for years.

JF

[chris35]

Covers 3 computers. and worth every penny, works out at £1.30 a week, and you think that's expensive, come on.   

Des, I don't know which Norton product your using but from what I can see it appears it could be the 360 Multi Device one that normally costs £70. Check out this link as you can get it for £30 if you don't auto renew it after each year.

http://buy-static.norton.com/norton/ps/tt/3up_uk_en_navnis360_br_md.html?om_sem_cid=hho_sem_ic%3Agb%3Ams2%3Aen%3Ae%7Ckw0000004480%7C3585855701&country=GB&s_tnt=66149:21:0