Just received a Legion 7i. From looking at various reviews, it looks like Norton 360 provides one of the best anti virus/VPN combos available from 1 company. My question is, would I be best served by going with Norton or is there a better combo for a standalone Antivirus and a Standalone VPN that play well together?
Just use windows defender and don’t visit sketchy websites.
No dude, windows defender is good enough for today you don’t need to spend money on that junk.
Also the “VPN” won’t be private so it’s not even worth it.
3rd party antivirus’s are a thing of the past
The Microsoft Defender built into Windows is much better today than it was a few years ago and now provides good protection.
However, according to some tests (see: https://www.av-comparatives.org/tests/performance-test-april-2021/ ) the improvement in accuracy has gone at the expense of heaviness and Defender would have an impact on PC performance greater than other antiviruses.
But other tests indicate the opposite (see: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-10/june-2021/microsoft-defender-4.18-211316/ ), namely that Defender would have a LOW impact on performance!
Note that AV-Comparatives and AV-Test are both reputed testers, I think the difference probably depends on the different test methodologies adopted.
I would still recommend deactivating Windows Defender and using a good FREE AV instead, such as Avira or Bitdefender or Avast which have always been at the top of the charts for many years (rankings vary from year to year, as well as between different testers, but some AV still remain at the top of the ranking).
But if you feel you’re not experiencing significant performance hit or trust Microsoft more than third-party manufacturers, you can simply use Defender.
The thing NOT to do in the home is PAY for an antivirus: FREE antiviruses have extremely high effectiveness and paid AVs are not worth the money.
A paid AV can make sense in a business setting, where support and integration between products (AV, VPN, backup …) is more important, but to protect a home PC, paying for an antivirus is overkill.
Incidentally, I don’t know why you want to use a VPN but remember that if it’s for privacy it’s only partial privacy, because at least the VPN manager can always know where you are connecting from and what you are connecting to.
The only tool that today allows “decent” privacy is Tor, which however has a strong impact on performance in network communication.
I believe the VPN has been integrated into Norton 360 much of a selling argument rather than a real need.
A good free online AV, plus a periodic scan with different free offline antivirus (eg Sophos Virus Removal Tools, Emsisoft Emergency Kit or Malwarebytes) and above all pay attention to the websites where you go and what you click, are what you really need.
I’ll echo the other folk’s comments for using Windows Defender for antivirus and add Proton VPN as a free option for VPN.
Thank you, good info!