If not norton, then what?

[velious]

Some of you say that norton is "trash". What site has a free download of anti-virus software?. I have dl'd lavasoft one time, i'll get it again, but you must pay for the complete program i believe. Also you gotta be careful about free downloads, you never know if its a trojan in disguise. What do you guys use?

[liorean]

Norton is far from trash, but it can bring disorder to your computer like few other programs. LavaSoft AdAware is a spyware/adware remover, not an antivirus program. But I recommend you to use it, nonetheless. As for free antiviri programs, the most well known is AVG. It doesn't update it's viri database as often as others do (Norton is the prime example of a program with frequent updates to the database), but it's still the best of the free ones.

[oracleguy]

I've had no problems with Norton's 2002 version but I have had some bad experiences with their 2004 version, it let several old viruses past. Now I'm running McAfee VirusScan 7.0 now.

[sad69]

I've heard of ClamAV, but I'm not sure if there's a Windows version..

Sadiq.

[Willy Duitt]

I've used AVG and did not like it....
I find Avast to offer more options and better protection...
http://www.avast.com/

But AVG is more user friendly and would be a better choice for a novice....

.....Willy

[firepages]

if there was one program I would pay (and I do not like paying for software) for its NortonAV , I find Mcafee/VET etc all hog too much CPU , ALL current AV software will let something though from time to time , thats why you still have to be on your toes, keep updated etc.

As Liorean says get AdAware or similar (I use SpyBot but same/same)

I did have installation issues with some of the earliest versions of Norton Internet Security 2004 , but later versions have been fine.

I would happily use a free firewall but for AV I pray to Norton ;).
Anyone who says Norton AV is trash either knows not thier arse from thier elbow OR got really unlucky (it happens , e.g. I got unlucky with Partition Magic big time once , and still (probably unfairly) hate it to this day)

[AaronW]

Well Firepages: *points to his elbows*

Norton may not be "trash", but I would definately like to get it in a room and yell at it for being so cheap-looking and -feeling. It works, I guess, but it lags certain processes. Reboot times drop considerably. Various explorer commands are delayed a noticeble amount of time (like 5 seconds, which gets very annoying when you do it frequently...)

In short, I consider it more of a hassle to put up with than to format my disk after it's been infected.

I don't need virus detecting software. I just block 'em from coming in. I use Thunderbird and Firefox, a firewall, don't recieve attatchments, don't get spammed, so I consider myself quite safe. I format pretty much bimonthly anyway, so my computer's always clean. More importantly, it's not bogged down with useless processes.

What I hated most was having to reboot like 4 times doing that stupid LiveUpdate. I installed Norton, had to reboot. It'd download the updates, install it, reboot. It'd find more stuff. Install it. Reboot. Then I'd find that liveupdate was doing it's own thing in the background and found more stuff. Reboot. Annoying, and not worth it.

I'd rather be on my toes and not cripple my computer than bog it down and open all the .jpg.vbs files I want...

[Mr J]

On my desktop I have always had and used Mcafee and found it to be quite good.


When I installed Norton on my laptop all hell was let loose, programs slowed or froze, bootup took forever, everytime I logged onto the net browsing was at a snails pace and the cpu was working at warp7.

Needless to say I uninstalled it, which created more catastrophic problems that led to a total re-install.

So for me its Mcafee every time

[liorean]

I'd rather be on my toes and not cripple my computer than bog it down and open all the .jpg.vbs files I want...And you don't even need the .vbs part these days...

[AaronW]

Ah, that's true. Viruses in the jpegs now. Fortunately, I use Firefox and not Explorer to view my images.

Makes you wonder if when Firefox/Mozilla become #1 (and they will, unless IE gets its act together) if we'll be reading about all sorts of mind-blowingly stupid exploits? Maybe not, since they're open source... But I'd imagine IE's popularity makes it the one people love to hate (and hack at).

But back to AV apps... I tried The McAfee thing once. Can't remember why I didn't like it, but I uninstalled it only minutes after installing it. Heh. Was after McAfee I just gave up on AV altogether.

[sad69]

I think Norton and Symantec and about the same, and we at the office use Symantec Corporate Client 9.0 and have experienced no problems. In fact it's really great!

Live updates happen daily and in the background without any need for reboots. Scans allow for many options and customizations. It even scans incoming and outgoing emails quite nicely.

I'm not sure of the cost for it, but it's a great product that I'd like to recommend. I haven't tried too many other AV packages, but I haven't needed to.

Also, AaronW, formatting your HD every so often sounds great and all, but especially in a business environment, it's not really an option. When you've got all kinds of data that you don't want to lose due to a format, etc.. especially on a server with all the settings, it's a pain in the a** to re-install like that! But virii can be a problem, thus the need for good virus security, and Symantec has done a good job in my opinion.

Just thought I'd throw that in...
Sadiq.

[AaronW]

Am not denying that some situations would require it, but for me I just keep data D: and the OS and anything temporary on C:. I don't like Norton, but not because it doesn't work. Its footprint is just too large, and I think what's needed today is an AV app that doesn't try to anything other than what it ought to: Monitor disk writes for virus strands.

[firepages]

Well Firepages: *points to his elbows*

:D

Looks like you had a `partition-magic moment` with Norton ;) .

I can agree with the boot-up delays (especially with Norton Internet Security), though once its up and running I find Norton to be the least invasive and resource hogging of all the solutions I have tried (except when running a total disk scan).

And once in a while you get an endless 'can not delete virus' loop which is annoying (reboot cures).

BUT , I have been on many a virus-ridden machine that has McAfee/VET/other installed totally oblivious to the problems it has , to date this has not been the case with NAV (for me at least) other than spy/ad-ware.

To be fair I have not tried anything else for a while , & if a machine comes across my path I NAV it regardless.

I also format & reinstall on a regular basis, but I dont back-up as much as I ought to .... :thumbsup:

[Hurstool]

Norton AntiVirus BY ITSELF or McAfee AntiVirus BY ITSELF.
As soon as you start loading up all the other stuff they try to sluff off on you, you will start having PC problems.