Security Bundles?

I’ve got a dilemma. I am thinking of getting BitDefender 9 Professional Plus which essentially is antivirus, antispam and firewall in one. Because it’s a bundle, it’s cheap. But my technobuddy told me to pick antivirus, antispam and firewall each separately from different software companies, because no company is the leader in all three. When I stared calculations how much it would cost, it ended up in the vicinity of 100 bucks, which is way to much. Should I get BitDefender or should I bite the bullet?

to the forums!

Your technobuddy is right. No one company is the leader in all areas (or, for some, any areas ). No one program or set of security programs will be completely effective against all threats. I'll be really honest; I trust Norton Antivirus with my computer's antivirus needs, but there are other solutions out there that are cheaper, less of a resource hog, etc.

That said, I've never heard of BitDefender. But that may because I live under a technological rock.

I am sure someone out here can say how good or bad BitDefender is. It's fairly well known

http://antivirus.about.com/cs/beforeyoubuy/tp/aatpavwin.htm
http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/bitdefender-review.html

But these are about the anti-virus component, not the bundle.

I used to use norton exclusively, but lately I haven't because of other problems it has caused.


I have not used BitDefender, so cannot comment on it.


I have recently used several free-ware programs, which all seem to work well (some catch things that others overlook) and I'll list them here:
AVG antivirus
Ewido Security Suite
Trend-Micro Online virus scan (Occasionally)
Ad-aware freeware
Spybot search and destroy


Usually I just run AVG all the time, and ad-aware/spybot once a week or so. The others I run only occasionally or if I think I have something really bad, or trying to 'clean-up' another PC for someone.

Also might checkout this article
http://overclockers.com/articles1260/

Previous poster gives a good link. In my opinion, you really dont have to pay for any of the software to get top of the line protection. There are many great programs that are absolutely free.