Need recommendation on internet security suite

[newbie2005]

In your opinion, which is the better internet security suite? McAfee or Norton? They both offer internet security suite. Ok, maybe I should have asked if there's any other similar suite out there that perform the same task without charging users subscription fee.

On my old Dell (Intel Pentium III / 733 Mhz / 512 MB RAM), i had:
-McAfee VirusScan 6.01
-Spybot
-Adware
-CWShredder
-Spyware Blaster
-Hijaack

I hated it. For every update, I had to run all those folks individually . VirusScan was perhaps the biggest headache because I had to search Google for the update virus definition file, since I refused to pay subscription fee. At the same time, I felt like those folks caused my computer to slow down.

Appreciate if you folks make some recommendation.

 

[Buzz1927]

You're really better off getting separate AV, firewall and antispy programs. For paid, go with Kaspersky AV, if you want free AV, AVG and Avast are very good. I don't really think you need to pay for a firewall, Zonealarm and Kerio do free ones for home users, for spyware, Adaware SE, Spybot and MS Antispyware are probably all you need, and they're free.

 

[red onion]

Not too much need to pay for these services. Avast (anti-Virus), Sygate or Zonealarm (firewall) and Adaware/Spybot S&D will do what you want, all for free.
You might want to add startup monitor as well.

 

[Byteman]

In your old setup the only one that would have slowed your machine down was McAfee. All those other have no realtime scanners (free versions).

The MS antispyware is one of the best in antispyware, but it is a realtime scanner as well and will take up some resouces. But I highly recommend it if you can deal with the overhead.

No body has a suite that will take care of it all. Norton Internet security tries, (...TRIES), but fails miserably in the spyware department.