Battle Bitdefender Free Edition, Norton, or something else?

Xelleld

New Member
Thread author
Apr 15, 2017
1
I'll just get straight to the point: CenturyLink, my current ISP, provides Norton for all its customers, although the Norton product you get varies depending on what level of their support package you have (all customers have their basic support package, but you can pay extra every month to get a more advanced one). CenturyLink hasn't updated their page showing what product you get for each level of their support package, so it all shows up as the old names (Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, and Norton 360). I'm also a gamer, so another thing that's a must for me is for my security software to have minimal impact on my system's performance. Bitdefender Free Edition has done well with that and has stopped anything that's been thrown at it in its tracks, but I don't like the fact that there's very little user control and it has a very limited set of features. I love it for use on my relatives' PCs (since I have the delightful privilege of being the family computer technician) because it works well and doesn't require any user intervention 99.9% of the time, but since I prefer to be able to fine-tune everything so it works exactly how I want/need it to, I've been trying to find something that's as effective and lightweight (and free, because I'm a broke-ass), but also lets me do more of the aforementioned fine-tuning. Sorry for the incredibly long post, but anyways, please reply with some opinions on this matter and some suggestions if you've got any of either, including any AV software besides the two this post was about. Thanks!
 
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LuciusHaydn

Level 1
Verified
Mar 19, 2017
30
I also suggest going with neither of the two, and go with Avast Free like @inuyasha said. Avast Free is really a fantastic AV if you must go with something beyond Windows Defender. Don't get me wrong, Bitdefender Free is pretty good and I do like it. But if you really want customization AND great detection for free, Avast is wonderful. :)
 
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brod56

Level 15
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Feb 13, 2017
737
I would go with Bitdefender, light and powerful.
However considering you have a premium product like Norton for free, its not a bad idea to test it as see if it fits you.
Anyway I don't rely on traditional AV, zero-day prevention software like Voodoshield is essential for me.
 

Amelith Nargothrond

Level 12
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Mar 22, 2017
587
My vote goes to Bitdefender (from the two). But I use Avira as Bitdefender failed me on some occasions. Avira is slow in updating, repairing an infection but effective (as in it does the job). I cleaned an entire department of PCs having Bitdefender installed at the point of infection, and did it with Avira + Combofix, but it took some time. Anyway, Avira has is weaknesses as well. No AV is perfect.
 

BugCode

Level 10
Verified
Well-known
Jan 9, 2017
468
Your listed AV's are both good choises. Norton, rocks set and forget and have Sonar and heurestic strong and light. BD, great choise also! Set and forget also, as you could not manage yourself it settings but it is good for it's own autopilot. Have 1 laptop setup combo BDPlus + CFW + Zal , and it is bad ass combo! I like. But, what ever you choise is most important is it fit your habits and of course your common sense! Sorry, i was lazy to read your pretty long "description" so this chitchat could look and "sound" pretty weird. Good luck!
 
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bribon77

Level 35
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jul 6, 2017
2,392
Friend without a doubt for my part Norton seria, can not buy a payment program, has more functions than a free, I personally have never been able to have bitdefender has always given me conflicts and has slowed down the system, but hey it seems Now they have improved it
 

monkeylove

Level 10
Verified
Well-known
Mar 9, 2014
489
I decided to use Bitdefender Free because the free versions of the other software either slowed down the system or showed ads. However, for some machines, I had to look for the cleaner to remove traces of older versions of Bitdefender.
 

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