Best Antivirus Bets: Norton and Mc Afee

Norton is now owned by Symantec, a company that itself helped pioneer virus and other computer security software.

Norton was former competitor of Symantec's. The Norton Antivirus, which is typically offered in a major version revision each year – Antivirus 2003, Antivirus 2004, Antivirus 2005 and so on – is one of the best investments you can make for the health and safety of your PC. At around $35 per machine or less, this program will scan your whole system, as well as incoming items like email, internet file downloads, and removable disks, drives and CDs for viruses.

You can set the “Live Update” feature to automatically update the so-called “virus definitions”, and you should. We will talk more about virus definitions below.

Mc Afee is the other 800 pound gorilla in the antivirus software area.
Whereas Norton started with a Macintosh focus and has generally been marketed to the consumer and prosumer as well as small business markets, Mc Afee has had greater cache and success specifically in the business arena, where they have often been the #1 choice. Mc Afee still offers numerous “managed” virus prevention packages for larger companies as well as standalone software geared to the home office and consumer markets. Mc Afee is currently owned by Network Associates, the old official internet registrar and current internet service firm.