Norton

[jimbo]

They kind of ticked me off this morning. Got a flash pop-up that I had updated available for download, so I figured need to do that. It was a BIG download....took over a half hour on DSL including 2 restarts during install. THEN they tell me "thanks for downloading your 15 day trial of Norton 2008. To continue, send bucks!!!

[Redwood]

Jimbo they ticked me off years ago and believe me it uninstalls a lot faster than it installs.
When I removed it from this computer 5 years ago and installed Grisoft AVG Free my PC was noticably faster.

Norton is a resource hog!
Notice how Norton updates all come out on wednesday and take a long time to download and install?
Ever wonder what happens when a new virus that spreads like wild fire comes out on thursday?

With AVG free I get several updates a week as new threats emerge and havent had any virus problems. Several have been caught and removed or, quarantined...

In 2005 I had the computer in the shop to have a repair (laptop keyboard) and they give it back to me trying to me trying to charge $50 higher than quoted cause they put Norton anti-virus on for me... Needless to say I paid the quoted price and they ate the Norton install. I used it for 1/2 a year seeing as i got such a great deal before I couldn't stand it any more. I uninstalled it and again put on Grisoft Free AVG. Once again my computer got faster.

Never again!
Here is the link to Download.com to get AVG Free.
http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?cdlPid=10861654
Go for it Jimbo! It's got the Redwood seal of approval!

[elgato]

I have had several bad experiences with their products.
1. Missed destructive viruses more than once. System was able to be restored to the restore point.
2. Uninstall is a total nightmare! It can destroy your system. Nearly impossible to remove it all.
3. Rebates not honored.

I have switched to Trend PC Cillin. IMHO far superior to anything Symantec has.
You can usually find it for next to nothing after rebate.

Good Luck

[Redwood]

Yea, With those Wednesday updates you can catch a weeks worth of exposure before the detection is there. On the bright side... If your hard drive makes through the infestation they usually have a removal tool patch available later on their website... Go figure!:mad:

http://www.symantec.com/norton/security_response/removaltools.jsp

[speedbump]

Same here, I tried two different Norton products and they both slowed my machine down immensely. I got rid of them both and don't look back. AVG is free and it's for me.

bob...

[PEW]

Have been using the Enterprise version for years, no problems. Updates download via DSL in well less than a minute. The only thing I have found slow is when it is doing a complete scan, other than that I see no performance issues.

Have over 20 users, and multiple servers both Novell and Windows.

Updates are almost every day if not every other.

[patrick88]

I have no Virus problems With Gnu/Linux :)

Norton is a huge system hog and just about every other brand is way faster and cheaper

[cwhyu2]

Used AVG recently and it worked fine.

[starfieldroad]

If you are willing to pay for protection then I recommend ESET NOD32 Antivirus (http://www.eset.com/) which has a very very small resource footprint and is a high quality product.

They also sell a security suite which I have not tried.

[Master Plumber 101]

Don't use Norton. Norton Bad!!!!!:mad::mad:

[jimbo]

I threw in the towel on Norton. Their last email sent me yet another unistaller, and yet another copy or version of Norton to install. I used the uninstaller, and then went straight to Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. No problems since!

I used kaspersky on my last computer and liked it. I am sorry I ever went to Norton.(( Sort of pushed on me with the new computer))

I hope Norton doesn't ask me how I liked their customer service....they won't like the answer!

[James_B]

hello,
Norton is better then other antivirus.

[Redwood]

hello,
Norton is better then other antivirus.

That is an opinion and subject to debate...

Press ctrl, alt, delete and select task manager.
Click on the processes tab.
Scroll down the list and look for Norton Antivirus components that are running.
They will usually be listed as sym*********, Nav********
Watch the CPU & Mem Usage numbers...
No doubt it's a resource hog.
That' only part of the picture.
When it is running it uses other windows components such as AppSvc32.exe,
explorer.exe, Services.exe, rundll.exe, & taskmgr.exe this makes it difficult to see the full extent of its sucking down the resources of your PC.

Perhaps the easiest way is to look on tha list at system idle process and look at the CPU number. this shows how much the processor is being used. With nothing running the number should be at or very close to 100. This is saying that the system is idle and not doing anything.

Now start a Norton scan...
Watch the CPU number for system idle plummet.
That shows how much of the processor capacity is available for use by other processes. Not much left huh?

Thats only part of the picture. Click on the Task Manager Performance tab and look at the line on the Page File History Graph and watch that shoot up. That is an indicator of how much of your RAM is being used. If that meets the top it is an indicator that it has used up all the available RAM and instead of quickly writing to RAM it reverts to the slowwer process of writing to disc. Thats bad news and a sign that you need more RAM to be able to run it.

This is why your Pentium IV processor turns into a Commodore 64 when Norton is running.

Other anti-virus programs such as GrisoftAVG, & Kaspersky are sleeker more streamlined programs that use nowhere near the system resources that Norton does and offer full protection.

Just my opinion!

[jimbo]

believe me it uninstalls a lot faster than it installs.
!


You got that right!!


I am liking the Kaspersky. Who better than the Russkies understands viruses!!!

It updates on a continuous basis, and works heuristically, which means it can detect almost any NEW threat BEFORE it is actually identified and catalogued in the data base. It sniffs them out. Supposedly Kaspersky and NOD32 are the best ones at this feature.

Haven't heard another peep from Symantec! What do they care? They got my $89 in April!

[djryval]

Another avg free user here, been using it for years. Symantec's Norton Antivirus used to really slow down a lot of my applications so I uninstalled it and went with AVG.

[cdwz]

I have nothing now and planning to move to UBUNTU. I think we don't need any antivirus there.

That is correct.

I don't use/need an anti-virus program either, but for those who do I usually recommend ESET NOD32. Pretty decent product, very good support, reasonable footprint in memory.

Also, some good AV program comparisons can be found here (http://www.av-comparatives.org/).

[Neotonic]

I have tried all the popular and recommended antiviruses and liked none of them
AVG, and AVAST crashed and killed my computer.
in November 2006, I was introduced to ESET NOD32, I did the trial and loved it my computer got faster.
I have been using NOD32 Eversince and it is well worth it :)

[jimbo]

Thanks for all the feedback.

A couple of different radio computer gurus....Jeff Levi and Leo LaPorte, both like the Nod32.

[mrwb]

Have been using the Enterprise version for years, no problems. Updates download via DSL in well less than a minute. The only thing I have found slow is when it is doing a complete scan, other than that I see no performance issues.

Have over 20 users, and multiple servers both Novell and Windows.

Updates are almost every day if not every other.


Enterprise is not bad. But it is not the same product as the "home" version. I wanted to switch our company away from the enterprise but found that it was still getting good reviews and high marks for catching problems. I would never put the regular version on any PC that I owned.

In the non-enterprise market, I saw some reviews where AVG was slipping in the rankings - missing too many viruses. That was a while back and they may have fixed the problems. Any company can slip up and it only takes one bad one to ruin your day. MAKE BACKUPS. Here are more sites to look at for security info, tests and reviews:

My Secure Florida: http://www.secureflorida.org/

Virus Bulletin 100 test (free registration required to see complete test result)
http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/about/index.xml

http://www.firewallguide.com/anti-virus.htm

https://www.icsalabs.com/icsa/icsahome.php

[Neotonic]

I willl always use nod32 untill it fails me or if i find proff there is something better

[Cookie]

Does anyone know why your computer/clock would lose an hour a couple of times a week? My desktop did this, and my laptop has just started doing it. There aren't enough of hours in the day as it is, :)

[dc11]

Norton Av was/is pretty much the standard for anti-virus programs. However, the rest of the world has caught up to them. I still use the corporate version in the office but I quit using it at home last year because a couple others use fewer resources. AVG & Kapersky are nice.

I also ditched their personal firewall several years ago. The interface at the time was the big turn off. I use and believe firmly in Zonealarm.


For added security, here are some more products that are handy:

Unplug n' Pray
http://www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm

StartupMonitor
http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

Ccleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/

[jimbo]

I have tried zone alarm a couple of times, and it did not seem to play well with other programs. The Russkies are doing just fine for me now.