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Norton Anti-Virus (1 Viewer)

L

Lizzybif

Well-known member
At present I have Norton Antivirus 2002 along with Zone Alarm.

The Norton antivirus expires in March and I can't decide whether to upgrade and, if so, which is best and compatible with Zone Alarm?

I'd be grateful for advice as I am a computerphobe!!!!

Liz
 
Forget Norton! They get infected themselves all the time! Download Grisoft AVG free edition from the net: SUPERB! And free! Automatic free updates too!
 
Lizzybif said:
At present I have Norton Antivirus 2002 along with Zone Alarm.

The Norton antivirus expires in March and I can't decide whether to upgrade and, if so, which is best and compatible with Zone Alarm?

I'd be grateful for advice as I am a computerphobe!!!!

Liz
Click to expand...

I'm using the latest version of both with no problems. As for which are best you only really know that if you're the last one with a working computer. ;)
 
Lizzybif said:
At present I have Norton Antivirus 2002 along with Zone Alarm.

The Norton antivirus expires in March and I can't decide whether to upgrade and, if so, which is best and compatible with Zone Alarm?

I'd be grateful for advice as I am a computerphobe!!!!

Liz
Click to expand...
Norton (David is wrong) regularly comes top of tests in detecting viruses. The upgrade to 2005 is cheap if you buy from ebuyer (that is, the OEM version). I have Norton on one machine, Trend on a second and McAfee on my school's laptop. Never has one of the three let me down; I put AVG on my nephew's PC and it failed him inside a week. I have now put on another freeby av and, so far, all is well.

I have to say, if I was buying again, I'd replace my NAV with Trend PCillin (OEM from eBuyer) as it is quicker to update and scan; it also protects against more than just viruses and has its own firewall.
 
When the famous 'I love you' virus did the rounds, Norton and MSN both got stuffed!
Almost all the indepent IT companies I know (Commtech, Viking, Griffiths etc) use AVG. A combination of that, Ad-Aware and Spybot have never let me down, nor anyone I know! But hey! If you want to shell out LOTS of good money when you can have something better for free, go ahead!
 
I ditched Norton (Internet Security Suite including firewall) for AVG a while ago as Norton was deciding for itself what I could and couldn't download, and the recommended 'Block' command was stopping anything legitimate from working on the computer, including the smilies on BF.

Switched to AVG anti-virus and Sygate firewall - both free and recommended by PC Answers and other technical sites. I also now use the same products at work.

As long as AV products are updated with the latest virus definitions, you should be OK.
 
Lizzybif said:
At present I have Norton Antivirus 2002 along with Zone Alarm.

The Norton antivirus expires in March and I can't decide whether to upgrade and, if so, which is best and compatible with Zone Alarm?

I'd be grateful for advice as I am a computerphobe!!!!

Liz
Click to expand...

You could always wander into WH Smith, and take a peek in magazines like PC World. They usually have an "Editor's Choice" section where you will find the recommended anti-virus.

I use Norton 2004 and Norton Firewall with no problems. I update the virus definitions each week for safety.

Rightly or wrongly I would not trust a free package. I wonder how they finance the research and development needed to keep the virus definitions up to date. Surely a kosher purchased AV tool must be better?

Apparently the best way to avoid viruses and diallers is to avoid porn sites. (That's just a general comment, not directed at you, in case you wonder.)

I think it is also best to use an alternative to Internet Explorer which has more holes than a Swiss cheese, but without the nice taste. Firefox seems good. Alternatively throw your PC in a bin, and use a Mac or a Unix box ...

Leif
 
Leif said:
Apparently the best way to avoid viruses and diallers is to avoid porn sites.
Click to expand...

To a certain extent, Leif, you're correct. Except that a couple of weeks ago at work I spent some of my lunch time searching for software for garden design. One of the links I clicked on, supposedly taking me to some legitimate site where I would theoretically be able to order said software, threw up a multitude of windows with dubious-looking names, which then disappeared as quickly as they arrived, but left me with a virus warning message every time I switched on the computer. At the time I had Command AV on the computer ( a free cover-disc programme), which had, it turns out, caught and quarantined the virus. I went round in circles trying to get rid of the message, so I just uninstalled Command and installed AVG.

So if you really want to avoid viruses, don't visit sites for garden design software!

I have now switched to good old fashioned graph paper to design my garden!!
 
Leif said:
Rightly or wrongly I would not trust a free package. I wonder how they finance the research and development needed to keep the virus definitions up to date. Surely a kosher purchased AV tool must be better?

Leif
Click to expand...

In the case of AVG there is a professional version which helps subsidise the free one. I've had a trojan attempt to run itself when visiting a quite innocent website (someone had hacked into it). AVG Free spotted it and stopped it running.

I've also recently sampled the free Avast! AV and found it just as trouble-free as AVG, but found the interface a little too complex for my needs.
 
Hi Liz, for what it's worth ....i have Norton Internet Security 2004, so it's got the firewall and the virus scanner as well.

Last week when my son picked up a virus for me (Bropia it was called, if that means anything, didn't mean anything to me when i heard it) the AV done what it's supposed to & got rid of it so i can't complain.
 
I receive about 300 e-mails a day: I reckon AVG intercepts trojans and viruses on about 20 of them! All without visiting a porn site!
My mate Chris, who uses Symantec at work, lost chunks out of his registry to a worm a few weeks back!
 
I had Nortron... and indeed renewed my subsciption. Two months later I upgraded to WinXP and Norton told me I had to buy the software again and my outstanding 10 months subscription would basically go in the bin. I'm sure my thoughts on Norton can be guessed from that.

I now use, and have done for 3 years, EZ Antivirus... it's not free but it's pretty cheap and is an excellent package. For some reason this software never seems to get reviewed in the magazine virus software features but having tried quite a few packags myself, I've been happiest with this one. They also do firewalls etc if you want the full suite (I use it in conjuntion with ZoneAlarm with no problems). Dead easy to use, upgrades every day, excellent database of virus info and cheap. Marvellous.

[size=-1]www.my-etrust.com[/size]
 
boyinthebush said:
I had Nortron... and indeed renewed my subsciption. Two months later I upgraded to WinXP and Norton told me I had to buy the software again and my outstanding 10 months subscription would basically go in the bin. I'm sure my thoughts on Norton can be guessed from that.

I now use, and have done for 3 years, EZ Antivirus... it's not free but it's pretty cheap and is an excellent package. For some reason this software never seems to get reviewed in the magazine virus software features but having tried quite a few packags myself, I've been happiest with this one. They also do firewalls etc if you want the full suite (I use it in conjuntion with ZoneAlarm with no problems). Dead easy to use, upgrades every day, excellent database of virus info and cheap. Marvellous.

[size=-1]www.my-etrust.com[/size]
Click to expand...

The subscription problem 'should' have been sorted for you by Norton, did you not approach them?

EZ antivirus is VET; well respected (and still available in Aus/NZ) it used to be the one recommended by the Open University. The EZ firewall is a re-badged Zonealarm.

Andy.
 
My Norton Internet Security expired just before Christmas, purchased McAfee Internet Security 2005 but cannot get it to install properly. Tried all the usual including (unistall of Norton etc) disabling XP firewall, then resorted to McAfee helplines (not impressed ) Symptoms - on loading disc, window appears to say its searching for installed McAfee (computer only 6 months old and came with trial norton) components and thats it, this window stays for evermore sometimes necessary to switch off computer to get rid of it. McAfee didn't seem particularly interested in solving problem and eventually suggested I start playing about in the registry deleting Norton traces.(something I don't really want to do) Then they sent me a questionaire asking to comment on the professionalism of their helpline service :storm:

A "techie" pal suggested AVG, downloaded and installed at the weekend no problems in fact I very impressed with it.

Stewart
 
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