“Never get comfortable with Norton AV. Ever.”
In my opinion, Norton IS a virus.
Another expat friend of mine here has Norton, and his computer is a total mess with bugs and virus.
I have been using Avast for the last 5 years, never a problem.
Heard nothing bad about avast, just used to avg...
I was put onto Avast by Kim Komando.com ten years ago. That may be one reason I've kept this MS Millennium running fine for ten years!
Brief and costly diversions to Norton and McAfee cost me many hours of fixing their errors.
One problem, at least with dial-up, is a long—5-10 minute—daily downloading. (Which I tolerate, given the alternatives). Spybot and Ad-Aware, also free, help.
Based on a little Googling, I think Avast is based outside the US.