Norton - Vote Wanted Please (1 Viewer)

I do IT for my living so can speak from a long history of AV usage.

Norton is probably the best Anti-Virus software in terms of ability to detect new viruses.

But the first thing I do with anything we buy is take off Norton. It is just too restrictive and to be honest, only for idiots who want their hands holding all the way.

We use commercial software (Sophos), but I'll usually additionally stick AVG Free on any PC's/Laptops which are going 'out on the road'.

AVG is good. The fact it is free makes it a must have bit of software.

Hi Anne,

I wouldn't give Norton house-room (so to speak). It messed up my PC something awful and I would NEVER have it again even if it was free. AVG every time for me, though I do have Spybot that I used weekly.

Good luck,

Sue.

I noticed from your first post that you have both AVG and Norton's. That's a big no-no ... can cause serious damage to your computer. "Only One AV" is the rule. For back-up purposes people use an "online AV scanner".

I vote for AVG ... have the paid version which now includes a toolbar with an "active surf-shield" and "search shield" and it checks all the links on search pages making surfing somewhat safer Well worth the few dollars. And with the paid version; if you do encounter a "false positive" and report it to the company they do fix it promptly!

Norton's works great ... when it's working correctly. When it's not; it's one huge monster ... cost me hundreds of dollars and the company never even offered an apology or anything. That was back in the days when there was NO "removal tool". To repair the mess (their program was attacked by Sasser); I needed to do a full uninstall and clean install ... there was no way to do that. Paid a service man to manually clear out Nortons ... then the OS wouldn't work!!! Nortons had integrated with the OS. When I first told people of this problem on a computer board they didn't believe me. But it was so and since then I've noticed Symantec has admitted to the fact that removing their products can result in the OS ceasing to function. I recall in my long letter to them mentioning that we needed to be able to remove their product completely in order to do clean reinstallations and am very happy to see that they now have such a tool. Technically I could have Nortons free via my ISP ... I bought AVG.

In removing Nortons, "be careful" ... hopefully if you ask it to deinstall itself and run their removal tool, all will be well. Disconnect from the internet while doing any such deinstallation and run the installer for whichever AV you plan to use, then reconnect and update it.

Hi Catherine,

Thanks for the advice after reading your experience I hope the Removal Tool works as through another problem I had to have a computer engineer clean the registry (whatever that is) for me. Please don't all write and tell me what it is I can understand basics but I get confused and mix things up too easily and it costs a lot to get things put right again.

Ann :egghead:

Everyone seems to be opting for AVG. I totally disagree.
At work we have AVG istalled on all the PC's and when it is ruuning the PC's are totally unusable.

I can highly recommend Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0. Runs in the background, blocks suspicious actions, pop ups, maleware etc and doesn't conflict with or drain your your system resources.

Regarding commenting 'negatively' on forums, if consumers have experienced bad service or feel a product that they have bought is not good then surely it is their right to comment these opinions or experiences ?

Lindsay

jcrossley said:

Everyone seems to be opting for AVG. I totally disagree.
At work we have AVG istalled on all the PC's and when it is ruuning the PC's are totally unusable.

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Since at work you "must have" the paid for edition ... it would be an idea to consult with their technicians because this isn't typical of AVG or it wouldn't have so many loyal users.

All AV scanners slow down computers when they are running a full scan --- that's why we tend to run those "at night" or at some time when the computers are not being used.

I run AVG as my anti virus program and Sygate as a firewall. Things seem to work fine but I also have the Windows av and firewalls installed. Is there a risk by having those installed and running?

snowyowl said:

I run AVG as my anti virus program and Sygate as a firewall. Things seem to work fine but I also have the Windows av and firewalls installed. Is there a risk by having those installed and running?

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Dan,

There really is not a problem running two AV programs, although I know Norton (and Macafee) will possibly inform you not to. As I said earlier we run two on some of our PC's and have no issues at all.

Main thing is that they run in the background, you do not need to have them running scans all the time (once a week is more than sufficient) because if they detect a virus you can then manually run a scan and clean up.

A good AV will notify you, tell you it has moved the virus to quarantine (or virus vault) and wait for you to take action. It really does not have to be difficult and there is certainly not any major effect on PC performance if set up correctly.

I dislike Norton only because it tries to control your whole PC, but if you can put up with that it is a good AV. AVG IMHO is superb.

Thanks, Derek.

Kaspersky - It usually comes out best in various comparison trials. I have had no trouble with viruses since installing Kasperky on my computer.

I have been removing malware from peoples computers for a number of years. I have to say, that those who use Norton do seem to have more problems than anyone else.

It is a known fact, that Norton is a huge resource hog and I agree with derek, it does try and control your pc. Where I disagree, is in my opinion, it really isn`t a good AV programme at all. McAfee isn`t much better either IMHO.

Not only is Norton a resource hog and not a very good AV programme, but I have seen so many instances where Norton actually makes a system unstable and causes crashes, freezes, bsod`s etc.

How do I know this? Well, it`s because I also read, debug and analyse minidump files. in cases where systems crash and the number of times it turned out to be Norton related never ceases to amaze me.

The bottom line is this.

If you`re sensible about what you do with your pc and where you surf the net etc, there is no reason at all why your pc would get infected in the first place.

Almost every case of infection I have ever seen is down to user error.

Personally, apart from my Zonealarm firewall, I don`t have any security software actually running on my system. I do occasional scans from time to time, but nothing is ever found.

As for running more than one AV programme on a system. It is generally considered a no no, as it seriously slows down the system and can cause some very undesirable conflicts.

However, providing the AV programmes are not running in the background at the same time, then there isn`t a problem with having more than one AV programme.

Regards Howard.

dumped norton 2 years ago for nod32

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to say thank you for all your help and advice, now running ZoneAlarm instead, as soon as I downloaded it remembered I had it on previous PC. I have now added the list to my "Computer Tips" document, like you all the Desktop stares me in the face but ask me what is on and I can't remember, I just accept it is there if that makes sense.

Thanks again.

Ann :egghead::t:

Norton

Hi

Norton came with my laptop purchase ,when my one year
subscription was up got rid of it and went with my internet
provider's security software ,so far so good!

Darrell

I know less than bugger all about the workings of computers but have found "NOD32" to be an excellent replacement for the originally installed Norton.It automatically updates every hour or so it seems,is unobtrusive and when I did an initial scan it found and quarantined or destroyed dozens of potentially harmful applications(if such is the correct term) which Norton had missed over the previous couple of years.Any comments would be appreciated.I also have Zone Alarm which doesn`t appear to cost me anything along with various other items which came when I bought the machine.Touch wood,I have never had a problem of any sort.I have heard that the most likely places to come into contact with a virus is on a hardcore porn site and fortunately therefore I am less likely than some to be infected;assuming this is the case.Do you know otherwise?