I hate Norton. Look at Eset’s NOD32. Read the reviews on Virus Bulletin (virusbtn.com) or AV Comparatives (av-comparatives.org).

You don’t necessary even have to run an anti-virus, though, if you do a few things. First, update your operating system regularly to make sure you have all the latest patches in place to block involuntary holes. You can also run a firewall, like the ones found on your hardware routers, or the built in firewall on Windows Vista/XP or MacOS.

Another thing you should adjust is your online behaviour: turn off HTML email, don’t open attachments unless you are expecting them, and don’t download files from unknown places (especially quasi-legal download places) because there’s no guarantee that they’re safe to run.

Renewing your Norton subscription will have the benefit of easiness, but there are definitely less expensive alternatives, like the free AVG Anti-Virus (free.grisoft.com). Moving to something like AVG should also pep up your system a bit — Norton tends to run a lot of things in the background, which can really slow down your performance. Just remember that you should remove your old antivirus program BEFORE you try to install the new one, as antivirus programs tend to conflict with each other if you have more than one installed at the same time…it can even cause serious errors. But if you do this, unplug your machine from the internet so you don’t get infected while your machine is left unprotected.