A couple things: Symantech AV Corp v10 has been out for a while now, unless your using Vista I dont think there is much reason to upgrade to it. Symantec makes a "Home" product branded as Norton; its garbage, stay away from it. You are correct that there is free anti virus software, search this forum and you will find the ongoing debate about which is best. To "protect your pc from incoming attacks" you need a firewall, either software or hardware, because all antivirus software does is scan files already on your pc. You're never "safe" per say, you are just "safer"